July 2010 saw TEC facilitate Creative Lancashire’s music industry event Soundbytes at The Continental, with panel events, workshops, drop-ins, a zine swap shop, and live performances from Misty’s Big Adventure and Johnny 5th Wheel and the Cowards, all warming up a capacity crowd for a rare screening of ‘Burning’, the highly acclaimed documentary by Vincent Moon & Nathanael le Scouarnec featuring post-rockers Mogwai.
March and April 2011 saw two screenings of documentaries from Ralfe Band frontman and Mighty Boosh collaborator Oliver Ralfe. ‘The Ballad of A.J Weberman’, screened in March, documented the life and times of the infamous Bob Dylan stalker, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Raindance Awards and was in the Official Selection for the Slamdance Film Festival Awards.
April saw TEC collaborate with UCLan’s LIFE Festival to bring Ralfe’s ‘Journey of the Childmen: The Mighty Boosh on Tour’, an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Noel and Julian on the road observing the comic genius of ‘The Boosh’ as they navigated a nation hooked on its cult. The director gave a Q&A session on the film, for which his band also provide the soundtrack, followed by an exclusive Ralfe Band live performance, the first ever in the North West.
August 2011 brought a collaboration with local music promoter Tuff Life Boogie for an exclusive screening screen ‘Upside Down: The Creation Records Story’, lauded by the Sunday Times as “One of the most rock’n’roll films ever made.” This was followed by a live performance from The Loft – an early Creation Records signing and key figures in the documentary – their first in the North West in over 25 years.
Again working with Tuff Life Boogie, November of the same year brought yet another North West exclusive in the form of a big screen outing for ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’, John Spira’s acclaimed film about the Oxford music community, which has been steadily producing genre-defining bands of the highest quality and integrity for almost 30 years. This was followed by a live music set from Mark Gardener of Ride, a key figure on the Oxford scene, featured heavily in the film.
More recently, in October 2013, we once again collaborated with TLB to bring Paul Kelly’s acclaimed documentary ‘Lawrence of Belgravia’ to The Continental’s screen. This intimate portrait of enigmatic Felt/Denim / Go-Kart Mozart frontman Lawrence had only been screened in the North West once before, and is still yet to receive a DVD release. This was in advance of TLB’s live show with Go Kart Mozart, held at local venue Blitz.
Also in October musicians The Unthanks, performed a new live score to ‘Songs from the Shipyards’ a beautiful and powerful audio visual work that traces the story of the shipyards through a new 60 minute film. Commissioned by and first performed at Tyneside Cinema, Songs from the Shipyards tells the story of the rise and fall of the shipbuilding industry and it’s impact on the lives of so many people in the 20th century; a beautiful and moving illustration of Britain’s industrial journey in microcosm.
Read about TEC’s Film Club of fortnightly screenings and the Cinema Around the Corner project
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