Music and video used to go hand in hand with each other, especially in the 1980s, where it was expected that a well-made video would give a band or artist a huge lift in sales. For anybody who was getting into music in the early part of the tandem craft, songs such as Ultravox’s Vienna, A-Ha’s Take On Me, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Two Tribes, Marillion’s Kayleigh and Genesis’ Land of Confusion were as well remembered for their iconic videos as they were for the creative lyrics and supreme music.

The video hasn’t really changed in the intervening decades, arguably in some cases the hyper-sexualisation of some videos make the song poorer for their inclusion, but it doesn’t have much as a pull on the music as it once did. There are some notable exceptions over the years, for example Bruce Springsteen’s Street of Philadelphia was hard hitting, pretty much anything by The Wombats played with passion, Elton John’s I Want Love and Metallica’s One almost perfect, but music has become the most important point of a record once again. It takes a certain type of genius to make something memorable now, the certain piece of film that gives the song, no matter how great, that little something extra.

For the Liverpool band The Mono LPs, themselves a really terrific band, the chance to work with Tell Tale Theatre was an opportunity to good to miss and in a rare cross collaboration between the two sets of artists, the band’s new single, The Flame, has a video that really captures the moment and the sense of enjoyment that comes from both theatre and making music for an appreciative audience.

As the band and Tell Tale Theatre were preparing to release the new video, I was able to catch up with Ste Reid from the Mono LPs and Paula Stewart and Lee Burnitt from Tell Tale Theatre.

How does it feel to be a star in a major band’s video?

Lee: “A major band? It’s one of the highlights of my life! (laughs) I don’t think I can rightly put it into words, that’s how it feels! (laughter) It was sort of a blind panic if you put it all together, which is what the video was meant to do, it was meant to come across like that. It wasn’t meant to be perfect, it wasn’t supposed to look good – we didn’t have the budget for it anyway, we couldn’t have anything like that sort of operation, so it was all tongue-in-cheek. It was organised chaos with genuine chaos – which it was! It was an experience, one that I will always treasure and thank the Mono LPs for being able to do it.”

Paula: “I’ve always been nervous about my acting capabilities so when we did the video I kind of wanted to be part of it but at the same time, I really didn’t want to let the band down because I knew how hard the band worked but it was the most fun as Lee said it was organised chaos and everything, I’m really pleased to have been in a music video, you don’t get to say that very often, oh I’ve been in a music video – that’s amazing but at the same time, it was the most fun I’ve ever had. The complete randomness of it and trying to get a room of 20 people to be co-ordinated for four and a half minutes is one of the hardest things in the world but a lot of fun.”

How do you feel about the video?

Ste: “I think we had a few ideas for the video in the past and we always wanted to make a video for this song because it was the double A side to Die A Little Death and we thought it never got enough exposure so that’s why we wanted a video that gave the song a ‘nod and a wink’ which is why the Ninja is in there but there were loads of ideas like ballerinas but when Paula reminded me, well actually we went to see The Chairs. That’s what gave me the idea, when I saw the production of The Chairs I just thought this can work and originally I just had this idea of a play in four minutes so it would be quite fast-paced so it was going to be a cut-down version of The Chairs but there were lots of legal ramifications and so on. I went down there and had a very loose idea of a love story and then all the guys completely transformed it into this fantastic, ridiculous thing. We had to scramble together making props and things like that out of cardboard!”

What was the directing experience like then for you?

Ste: “I’m not a very good director, I didn’t want to be a director, I didn’t want to be one and I’m still not one now! Going in there, I had to explain what the premise was and I was just grateful that I’d trained myself well enough for them to run with the idea make it so much better than what I could. So, it was difficult from my end as I wasn’t in my comfort zone but it was a pleasure because they covered my arse!”(Laughter)

Was Paula very effective covering?

Lee: “She covered many things – yeah!”

Ste: “It’s a hobby of Paula’s – covering people’s arses! Where would we be without her?”

How was the well hidden bedroom scene then, you looked like you were enjoying yourself!

Paula: (laughs) “I have a reputation for innuendo and I do very much enjoy the whole Carry On film style of innuendo and humour. I thought the best thing about this video from start to finish was people’s facial expressions. Lee has got the best facial expression, when he’s pushing the character full on but I think they needed to be over the top, to be caricatures of themselves.”

The facial expressions seemed reminiscent of the female characters in Blur’s song Country House?

Paula:-“Oh yeah! Since I watched that video possibly 365 times, every day of every month of every year since that came out, I’ve probably took inspiration actually from that song as I loved that video by Blur.”

Lee: “One thing as well because the company had just done The Chairs, a gesticulating acting style was pushed, before The Chairs, we’d never done a farce before but as it was like a farcical, absurd kind of theatre, they were in that frame of mind. As it was music video, it had to more of a mime and also as well, because it’s an acting group, a theatre company, it has to have everyone involved, the video took on a bit more a homogenous, animalistic thing because everyone had to play emotions or speech bubbles or sinister instrument carriers, so it  looks kind of like a Greek Tragedy among three people – a love triangle kind of thing but you can sort of ignore them and watch everything else which is why I think it was good to have a company and not just an actor.”

How well do you think the video has turned out?

Lee:- “That’s where drama comes from, how people react to certain things, action and reaction that’s how drama forms. It was great, being off behind the cameras, there were people, there were props everywhere on the floor – it was like an assault course Rambo would do! You had people composing themselves before they came back on and you would just see this blur of movement, people all doing their own thing and not knowing really quite what was going on but going for it with all they’ve got. You just hoped to guess right when someone shouted ‘action’ from behind the cameras. I honestly didn’t know when to come across. There were just people shouting go now, which was great as that’s the sort of direction I really respond to – tell me and I will do it!”

Why do you think the theatre company and the band worked together so well?

Ste: “I think because the original interest came from The Chairs, there was a mutual sort of respect there, from the band when we saw the play and when they heard the songs. It was something that we both wanted to do together and we always got on well. We had one real rehearsal about this, we met a couple of times and we wanted to help each other out, rather than be too professional. We liked the light-hearted stuff and the environment and knowing where we wanted it to go in the end.”

Paula: “It’s easy for me to say because I’m involved, to boast but I honestly think that Tell Tale Theatre is the best  theatre company in Liverpool and that goes for professional ones as well because they are the most innovative and they have some of the finest actors in this city as well. For the Mono LPs, I firmly believe that they are the best band in Liverpool but also the best one in England. I’m not just a fan of theirs; I do listen to other music all the time. I think it’s a great coming together of two of the best art forms by two of the best in the city and the country. It was a privilege to be involved, also because I think the band have a fair notoriety that will help promote the theatre group and visa versa to the different audiences who might not know necessarily know about the other.”

What do you think has made it such an inspired collaboration?

Ste: “I think creative people will find a common ground regardless, I know musicians who are good at acting and I know actors who are better musicians than anyone I know and they are writing as well. What did John Lennon say – ‘I’m an artist, give me a tuba and I’ll give you a tune out of it’ – he couldn’t play one but what I think is that we all covered each other’s weaknesses and we all elevated each other’s strengths. We should mention Ray Killpatrick who filmed it as well, he filmed our last video, he had even less knowledge of what was going on than the theatre company because I’d told him to get to The Bluecoat at 7pm and when he got there, that’s when he found out what it was all about! We put him in at the deep end a lot but he always comes up with the goods and he’s worked with The Wombats and people like that in the past. So it was a mutual meeting of minds like Lee said. That’s it –boss!”

Watch the new video here at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5gsKsldLTc&feature=youtu.be

Ian D. Hall