CHRIS SIEVEY/FRANK SIDEBOTTOM DOCUMENTARY

I'm currently helping out with the production of a documentary about the unbelievable life and times of Chris Sievey, the man behind Frank Sidebottom.

The project is headed up by film maker Steve Sullivan. No stranger to Sidebottom, he worked with Chris on the short film MAGICAL TIMPERLEY TOUR.

Steve was granted permission from the Sievey family to produce the project and also given full access to Chris's extensive archive of reel to reel audio master tapes, vhs tapes, cassettes, photographs, artwork, cine films and cereal boxes!

Filming commenced mid December 2012 on location at Timperley community centre. I spent 3 days with Chris's elder brother Martin, sifting through a seemingly endless number of boxes pulling out anything of interest that triggered our memories and then filming it. It was set in perfect surroundings, a melancholy, slightly delapidated attic space in an old Victorian building

It was both sad and great fun. In a very short period of time we started to put together a string of interesting stories and the bigger picture was already starting to unfold. I believe we came away with over 10 hours of footage from these sessions

As we went along, items were categorised and all the various' master' tapes were then sent to the Manchester film archive to be digitized and properly stored so that they don't deteriorate any further.

Filming concluded at the Statue Fundraiser in Manchester where performances were recorded and interviews with fans took place in 'Vinyl Revival' record shop.

The film is being produced by Rondo Media and is looking for further funding...I have 100% conviction, just from the five or so years I worked for Chris/Frank, that there is a truly outstanding story to be told. I sincerely hope Steve Sullivan is given the opportunity to complete this film

This project is not to be confused with the Hollywood film loosly based on Sievey, written by Jon Ronson that is currently in production.

No matter how much these guys embellish or distort the concept with some artistic licence....I don't think it could be anymore incredulous than the true story!

THE MAKING OF 'DIRT QUAKE' TEASER TRAILER

 Great day recently, filming the teaser trailer for Sideburn Magazine's next event DIRT QUAKE.
Weather was amazing, Hayley Saull and Dan Walsh from Patteran Productions did a super job as did my co-star Wilky # 99!
Extra big thanks to Kaitlyn, our glamourous starter girl who patiently hung around all day waiting for her call...and also Jonathon Saull for taking the photos.

Bikes featured in the shoot were my '82 Suzuki GS 850 shaft drive and Wilkys newly imported '38 Harley Flathead. The bikes were required to be street legal for the road sequences and it was a bit of a challenge to achieve that. Wilkys bike wasn't even registered in the UK and mine had been stood in a damp shed for over six years. Favours were called,  queue-jumping MOT's sorted by Gary at NORTHWEST CUSTOMS, emergency carb stripdown, new battery and filters by Paul and Tony respectively at PITSTOP MOTORCYCLES.
Wilky jumped through hoops to re-register his sickle on a UK plate....just in the nick of time.
The choppers rode surprisingly good out on the track....considering the hardtail frame, high bars and forward foot positioning. the Flathead developed a fault half way through the day....but Wilky somehow managed to keep her running and got the job done....a real trooper!

Keep an eye out for a cameo appearance by SKOOTER FARM team manager Joe Crawford!

Watch the trailer

DIRT QUAKE PREVIEW from SIDEBURN on Vimeo.


More event details http://sideburnmag.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/dirt-quake.html

FRANK SIDEBOTTOM FUNDRAISER MANNEQUIN



Better late than never....here's a project I did last summer during the six months or so I wasn't blogging.
The idea was to make a life-size Mannequin of Frank Sidebottom to help raise awareness of the Statue Fund to raise money for a bronze statue in Timperley village (6 feet outside Manchester)

 I took Franks head (there is only one in existence) to CNC ROBOTICS where I do freelance set building for their sister company LIVERPOOL SCENIC WORKSHOPS. They kindly 3D scanned the head and then machined a polystyrene replica for me to use as a base to create the head.
I sealed the polystyrene with pva glue and the painstakingly rendered the entire head with a thin but tough layer of car body filler. facial features the nose, lips, hairline and ears were sculpted and then sanded until they blended in.

At this point I also started to work on the body. A shop window dummy was donated by fellow Frankophile Alan Woods. Unfortunately, the dummy was tall, slender and gazelle-like...NONE of Franks attributes. I decided to modify the standard dummy to resemble Franks vital statistics. This involved shortening the arms, legs and 'cutting and shutting' the torso. That went very well so I decided to now reposition the arms utilising plastic plumbers 'elbow joints'. Again this worked out surprisingly well so I took it further and remodelled the left hand, cutting and repositioning each digit into the 'Thumbs Up' sign. I pinned it all together with short lengths of coat hanger wire.
I sourced an identical suit on ebay for a max bid of £11.37...which I won, spent £4 on the shoes in a charity shop and had a genuine pink tie previously worn by Frank and then passed on to me as a member of Franks backing band THE OH-BLIMEYS.

I'm really bad at painting and the plan was for Martin Sievey (Frank/Chris's older brother) to do the painting..... however this didn't happen for various reasons so I decided to apply the paint myself. I'm more than happy with how that turned out. Working for Frank/Chris for the last 5 years leading up to his death I even knew which particular brand of paints to use and their code numbers.....Chris even imparted a couple of tips on techniques he used to achieve the desired affect.

I'm very proud of my work and whenever the statue is on public show, folks seem to love it.
It is currently on display at Alans shop in Wigan and is scheduled to make an appearance at FRANK-FEST in Manchester on Saturday March 31st. Headlining is THE FALL also THE STAGS are on the bill and will play a couple of Franks best loved songs in the set.



ROLLERBURN

Everything is starting to fall into place for this upcoming event.....it's gonna be a hoot!

Frank movie goes into development

Things have moved forward with a movie script based on Frank Sidebottom

Here is something I lifted from the FILM 4 website:

Film4 to develop Frank with Men Who Stare At Goats writers Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan - with Lenny Abrahamson to direct

Film4 Productions are proud to be developing "FRANK", a new film based on a fictionalised story about a musical genius and his band, with the writers behind offbeat comedy, The Men Who Stare At Goats.
In the strange world of the 1980s musical subculture one man stands out as the strangest of them all. FRANK tells the story of a hidden musical master and the disciple who loves him so much he might just have to destroy him. Frank - a mystery inside an enigma - inside a large plastic head.
Lenny Abrahamson (Garage, Adam & Paul) is now attached to direct the movie, which is being written by broadcaster and author Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare At Goats, Them) and acclaimed screenwriter Peter Straughan (The Men Who Stare At Goats, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People), who will be updating Film4.com readers and Film4 Twitter followers on their work throughout the life of the production.
The film is currently at the script development stage with shooting scheduled for later in the year - look out for the first Film4 Twitter updates from Jon, Lenny and Peter, hashtag #frank, as they work on the script in a remote cottage. The script has been attracting industry attention since it appeared on the 2009 Brit List of recommended unproduced scripts, and Jon and Peter will be sharing the process of refining and developing it with Film4.com readers in a first for Film4 online.
David Barron, a producer on the Harry Potter movies, and Stevie Lee of Runway Fridge Productions are on board as producers. David Barron said "Stevie and I are very excited to be collaborating with such a brilliant creative team as Jon, Peter, Lenny and Film 4." Katherine Butler, Senior Commissioning Executive, Film4, said: "We are passionate about this brilliantly original script and Lenny is the perfect collaborator to take us into the wild and wonderful world of Frank."
Film4's current slate of British feature films either in post production or due to be released includes Chris Morris' Four Lions, Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go based on Ishiguro's novel of the same name, Peter Mullan's Neds, Mike Leigh's Another Day, Richard Ayoade's Submarine, Hideo Nakata's Chatroom and finally Kevin Macdonald's Roman epic, The Eagle Of The Ninth.
You can follow Film4 on Twitter here for general news, views and chat, and look out for Film4 updates with #frank in them for news from Jon, Peter and Lenny as the project progresses.

THE ORIGIN OF "SKOOTER FARM"......

On my recent trip to Finland I saw a lot of bicycle choppers being built. This made me think back to a project that me and Capt. Highside did between us back in the summer of 1995.

The Captain was actually recovering from a broken foot that was the result of his first and only vintage motocross race and to fill his downtime he began playing around with some old cycle parts.

When I saw what he was doing, I got involved and like most things I seem to do, the project "snowballed".

The Captain did all the engineering and I took care of sourcing parts, paint, cosmetics and graphics.

This bike was christened "Subversion" and I came up with the name SKOOTER FARM CYCLE CONCEPTS...little did I know this name would stick and that over a decade later would be the moniker for our fledgling dirt track team.

People ask me a lot what the name means..... so I'll try to explain:

"SKOOTER" is an outlaw biker term for a stripped down, purposeful motorcycle. Originally spelled "scooter" I decided to change the spelling to disassociate the word from Lambrettas and Vespas.

"FARM" is a word that suggests homegrown productivity, dirt, agriculture and hillbillies.

So I guess the jist of it is..... motocycles built in outhouses and then ridden around in fields by inbreds!! ha ha!

Anyway, back to the bike, the frame and forks are a heavily modified, stretched Raleigh Burner.

The front wheel was from a unicycle and the rear is from some old moped. Other trick parts are a Mongoose Supergoose stem, one-off custom seat, faux-springer forks and the bullet head light and tail light.

The little guy sat on the bike is the Captains nephew, Tom, aged 9, up at Sunday biker hangout Rivington Barn when the bike was first finished.

Down on the Skooter Farm.....I'm addicted!

Awesome after-work session with myself, the Captain,Wilky and Richard May. The track really needs some water on it to make it more consistent and predictable......still had a bunch of fun though. Did some drills with our new cones...working on 'Diamonding off' the corners and timed laps through the cones.
Can't wait until the weekend session!!

Bearing the fruit of your labour and toil......

What a gas!! Thanks to Captain Simo for these great shots

Skooter Farm track opening day

Great party Friday night, thanks to all who made the effort and travelled up to Wigan. Saturday afternoon we held the opening SKOOTER FARM track session, which was a real hoot..a few small bikes and 10 or so riders. We even held a few 4 man races with start and finish flags and all!
Photos courtesy of DBA and SIDEBURN

TESTING, TESTING......123!

Super successful testing session today over at the new SKOOTER FARM practice track, at an undisclosed location.

The top surface (6mm down Red Shale) we brought in is gonna be worth every penny......money well spent!

The track surface is ultra smooth and it isn't cutting through to the sub-base, as feared, at all!

It rides like a small version of Kings Lynn on a good day when its just been lightly watered and groomed......great fun!

Riding today was Pete Wilkinson, Captain Highside and myself. Also in attendance was CCM team rider Richard May, who abstained from riding...the big Puff!

Despite the small scale of the track....speeds were suprisingly quick but that might change as the shale dries out and takes on a more 'skiddy' characteristic.

This track is for use with small capacity, heavily silenced bikes only and is for SKOOTER FARM and SIDEBURN teamsters and associates or on a strictly invitation only basis. Sorry but we don't want to blow our cover before we even start..we have put too much time and money into this project!

If you are coming to the SIDEBURN MAGAZINE LAUNCH PARTY  on Friday 26th March and wish to ride or attend the official track opening session/photo-shoot on the Saturday afternoon, then please get in touch with Sideburn first.

SIDEBURN MAGAZINE LAUNCH PARTY INFO

Practice makes perfect.....

Construction of our new, top secret 'SKOOTER FARM TRAINING FACILITY' is now entering the final phase!

It's been a much bigger job than anticipated but it is looking like all the hard work will pay off. The track is now laid and the surface initially packed-in with lots of slow laps in the team van and my dads pick up truck. Today, we fabricated some heavy steel track graders to drag around behind The Captains Jeep. We got the 10 ton road roller, shown above, being delivered first thing Monday morning. We should be testing the surface out by Tuesday or Wednesday, weather permitting.