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‘Its time to act’ Book of Shame release ‘Greta Thunberg Mix’ of ‘Hope & Glory’: A DM Premiere

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One of the stand-out tracks on Book of Shame’s debut album was “Hope & Glory” an excoriating assault on the state of the world, both public and private, written by the band’s renegade duo of Peter Boyd-Maclean and Gary Bridgewood. 

“The song, ” Boyd-Maclean tells Dangerous Minds, “was written in response to a number of issues going on personally and on a more global spectrum. In particular, the way democracy has been hijacked by the rich industrial business looking after themselves and fucking the rest of humanity in the process. Whether this is indifference to climate change, Trump, or Brexit.”

Boyd-MacLean thinks it’s now time to do something to stop the greed and political chaos he sees currently destroying the world. Taking a lead from Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN , Boyd-Maclean and Bridgewater remixed “Hope and Glory” to coincide with the recent Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London and across the UK.

“In troubled times,” Boyd-Maclean asks, “is there any hope, is there any glory?  You can be the judge… I think it’s important we all do something to change what is happening in the world. From climate disaster, Trump, the rise of the right, to Brexit. And now as the Extinction Rebellion movement is gathering pace it’s time to act in all forms to change the world for the better for all.”

“Hope and Glory” (Greta Mix) will be released on November 29th, but you can watch the promo exclusively here.
 

 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
An Exclusive introduction to Book of Shame: Acerbic rock for those ‘who’ve been through shit’

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.06.2019
07:51 am
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An Exclusive introduction to Book of Shame: Acerbic rock for those ‘who’ve been through shit’

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What are you gonna do when you’re on the back slice of life wondering where the fuck your dreams have all gone? Are you still going be there waiting in line at fifty or sixty, the rain running down your neck wondering what you could have been if you’d had just a little more faith? Had a little more desire to change and be the very one thing you always wanted to be?

Peter Boyd-Maclean took that chance. He quit his stellar career as a London-based filmmaker and award-winning TV documentary director and formed a band called Book of Shame. Boyd seemed to have it all but he wanted something more, something real, something to call his own. He teamed-up with multi-instrumentalist Gary Bridgewood from Troubadour Rose. Over a two-year period the pair jammed, rehearsed and laid down tracks for their debut album (out this month) with a little help from singers Jo Foster and Claire Nicholson, percussionist Fergus Gerrand, pedal steel BJ Cole, and renowned record producer (Wire, Depeche Mode, Swans, Laibach, and St. Etienne) Rico Conning.

With a handful of singles already released, Book of Shame has earned comparisons to Captain Beefheart, the Velvet Underground, Joy Division, Radiohead, and even Alice Cooper. Boyd-Maclean’s life-so-far and the beginnings of Book of Shame read like a once-upon-a-time in a land not so very far from here tale full secrets, a bad step-parent, fortuitous meetings and a helluva lot of talent.

Boyd-Maclean started out making Super-8 movies as kid ‘cause he thought in pictures and couldn’t express himself in words. He had a difficult childhood, one that was much darker and far more disturbing than he might ever care to admit. As a student at St. Martin’s College, London, he teamed up with Rik Lander and pioneered scratch video under the name the Duvet Brothers producing promos for New Order and M|A|R|R|S track “Pump Up the Volume.”
 

The Duvet Brothers promo for ‘Blue Monday’ by New Order.
 
The Duvet Brother presented a three-hour installation of their scratch video work at the Edinburgh Festival in the late 1980s, where media exec. Janet Street-Porter stood up and said “Why aren’t these people working in TV?” Cause TV back then was clunky and dull and had hardly changed since the 1960s. The installation eventually kicked-off their careers in television but first they were invited to Hollywood to make video installations for the movie Less Than Zero and then back-projections for Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Through Street-Porter, Boyd-Maclean brought his handheld shaky scratch vision to “yoof TV” providing the style-template for the next decade.

Everyone wanted a piece of Boyd-Maclean’s televisual craft and somehow he ended up in the Music & Arts, or Musical Farts, Department at BBC Scotland in the early nineties. That’s when I first met him. It was obvious from the get-go young Boyd-MacLean was a prodigious talent whose natural flair far outstripped the lesser hopeful ambitions of his contemporaries.

But television is a rum beast which like Kronos devours its children or at least their talent for lesser rewards.

Yet, Boyd-Maclean made a highly successful career in TV-land, directing films and documentaries, producing animation series, and winning a shitload of awards. But something was missing. That ability to express his inner thoughts and emotions thru film were constrained by the demands of TV and the adverts who financed it all. With the rise of reality TV, television was little more than the wrapping paper to sell advertiser’s product.

One day, he chanced upon an old broken violin at the family home which he thought might be valuable. He took it to a menders to be fixed where he met Gary Bridgewood. The violin proved not to be that valuable but the meeting with Bridgewood undoubtedly was.

Having not spoken in a long, long time, I contacted Boyd-MacLean to talk about his new and so-far well-received career as a middle-aged indie rock god.
 
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More from Book of Shame, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.07.2019
07:50 am
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‘Lummox’: In search of the Artist as Glam Roque star
02.10.2014
07:26 am
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How best to describe Peter Boyd MacLean’s film Lummox about the artist Millree Hughes?

Well, firstly, it’s not your typical heads-and-clips, or long interview with the artist as saint, no. Rather like the best of Peter Boyd MacLean’s work it critiques and re-invents the form of the documentary as something startling, new. and exciting

It’s a bit like having a conversation with a smart kid, who makes you reassess exactly what you think you know.

For example, one day I was accompanying my friend’s five-year-old daughter home from school, and in the silvery twilight of a spring evening, we were talking about how far we could see. “I can see the houses at the end of the road,” my wee pal said. “I can see the trees in the gardens beyond them,” I replied. “I can see the tower blocks away in the distance,” she said. “I can see the hills away over at the horizon.” “How far is that?” “I dunno, several miles away, I guess.” “I can see further than that,” wee McDoodler said. “I can see thousands of miles further than that.” “Really? You can’t see that far.” “Yes, I can. I can see the stars.”

Boyd MacLean can certainly see the stars.

I’m probably biased as I’ve known Peter for quite a while—since not longer after he made his name as part of the Duvet Brothers, producing award-wining scratch videos for the likes of “Pump Up The Volume.” Since then, he’s been making television series and documentaries, all of which bear his distinctive creative style as a film-maker.

Lummox is a collaborative documentary with New York-based Abstract artist Millree Hughes. It follows Hughes’ disillusionment with his lenticular Abstract work, and his desire to include a figure within his dynamic landscapes. (Sadly, the film only gives a slight idea of how truly beautiful Hughes’ work is.) The film also questions the role of the film-maker, asking how much of a documentary is the story of its subject rather than the film’s creator. Boyd MacLean builds Lummox to an emotionally powerful, yet chaotic, entertaining and bizarre “Glam Roque” finale.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds
‘1-2 FU’: A personal odyssey through British Punk Rock

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.10.2014
07:26 am
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‘1-2 FU’: A personal odyssey through British Punk Rock

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I first met Peter Boyd Maclean about twenty years ago, when he was about 12, or so it seemed, as he was precociously young and at the same time incredibly wise, and most annoyingly Talented with a capital ‘T’. He had arrived from the ether to work at the Beeb as a top director / producer, having made a splash on that TV earthquake known as Network 7. He was funny, witty and always made work fun. I recall at the time Peter had just “Shot the shit” out of some island to placate his over-zealous exec, who repeatedly demanded “Pictures! Coverage! More pictures! More coverage!” every 10 minutes by ‘phone, fax and pigeon post. Since then m’colleague, has gone on to greater achievements and awards and hairstyles of interesting description.

He also made this rather super documentary on Punk, 1-2 FU with Jonathan Ross taking a personal odyssey through the music of his youth. It’s quirky, orignal, and has an impressive line-up of the punk bands who most effected the TV showman, including Steven Severin, Ari Up, The Damned, Adam Ant, etc. Like the best of Peter’s work, F-U 12 takes an original approach to a subject, rather than the usually biblical reverence of “In the beginning was Punk and the Punk was with…” etc. Of particular note here, is Jonathan’s bus tour of London’s punk clubs, and his rendition (as in torture) of “Anarchy in the U.K.”

Now here’s more of the same from the official blurb:

1-2 FU

Jonathan Ross presents the ‘Memoirs of a Middle-Aged Punk’ in this authored documentary charting the rise and demise of the most nihilistic movement in the history of British music.

Jonathan delivers a fast and furious rant confessing his passion for punk and the lasting effect it’s had on everything, from music and fashion to art and television.

As a forty-something whose life has been defined by punk and all the anarchy it stood for, Jonathan sets out to discover if punk really changed the world or was it all overblown hype?

To fully explore the legacy of punk, Jonathan gets a Mohican and grabs Captain Sensible to join him as he transports an open-top bus full of punks on a tour around London’s most notorious punk hotspots.

Finally, it’s Jonathan Ross as you’ve never seen him before when he fulfils his ultimate punk fantasy performing with Vic Reeves as The Fat Punks for one night only.

 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.23.2011
05:10 pm
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