Download video from iTunes (58MB)

It was the Summer of 2008 when Bandwidth approached The Jane Bradfords about the possibility of collaborating on a music video. Usually the process goes differently: bands approach filmmakers about videos not the other way around.

Not this time. The Jane Bradfords is the self-described bedroom project of one Declan Gallen. The band had already had great critical success with the release of their eponymous first album earlier in the year, and ‘The Evening Angels Gather Here’ had already received a lot of airplay, along with a number one single in Quatar with ‘Hide From The Cold’.

Will from Bandwidth remembers it well: “I was watching The Jane Bradfords support Kowalski in Belfast’s Spring & Airbrake. I’ve been a fan of the band for years, but this, for some reason, was the first time in a long them I had seen them live. I’ll never forget hearing ‘The Evening Angels Gather Here’ played to a live audience for the first time. The song seemed to take on a life of its own, and during the outro when Deci sings ‘Starlight starbright’ into a megaphone, I took a look around the venue and realised there was not a person who’s eyes weren’t transfixed onto the stage. The whole place just shut up.”

“Driving home that night, that refrain ’starlight, starbright’ was just stuck in my head the whole time. I looked at the buildings as I drove past and realised how peaceful and serene the city can look at night. It occurred to me that the Jane Bradfords have a distinctly urban sound as far as N.Ireland bands are concerned, and that Belfast at the dead of night was very much their natural habitat. That’s when and idea started forming, and the next morning I wrote out the whole video pitch as it stands now and sent it to The Jane Bradfords through an email on their myspace page. Fortunately they liked it, loved it in fact, and Deci just let me get to work”.

The video was filmed over one summer’s night in Belfast, in and around the dockland area (now lovingly gentrified) and the suburbs east of the city. Will spent a a few days compiling stock footage (some of which was material left over from old projects), but the majority of the video was fiilmed in one night and one take by Michael Gibson. To say more would give the game away – on first viewing ‘The Evening Angels..’ is a kind of optical illusion. But after a few minutes the method should become apparent (but if it still isn’t look very carefully at around the 3mins46 mark)

The Evening Angels will also soon have the honour of being the very first of Bandwidth’s music videos to be made available on the iTunes Music Store. I believe that’s a first for an unsigned band from Northern Ireland too.

Director: Will McConnell
Camera: Michael Gibson

Bandwidth 2008

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