johnm-skews

John Otway is the most unlikely pop star of all time. Self deprecating and refreshingly honest (he constantly refers to himself as a prat)- this musically inept buffoon leaps around like a cross between Basil Faulty and Bob Dylan on acid.

After deciding at an early age he wanted to be famous, Otway initially teamed up in the mid 1970s with 'Wild' Willy Barrett an accomplished guitarist of some notoriety to form the ill fated duo 'Otway & Barrett'. Following a painful breakthrough performance on 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' (where Otway fell from an amplifier crushing his testicles in front of millions of TV viewers) the pair scored chart success with their debut hit 'Really Free'.

Otway recorded a solo follow up (which flopped) and Barrett (unsurprisingly) left the act (this set a theme - Barrett re-joined Otway and left again numerous times over the next 35 years). After securing a huge signing on fee to his recording contract - Otway buys a Bentley motor car (he can't drive but as he tells us 'it looks great outside the house when I ride home on my bicycle').

The film charts Otway's endeavours to find the elusive second hit, and takes the viewer on a journey through one disaster after another as Otway attempts to catapult himself to super-stardom (only to fail again and again and again). Otway explains how he recorded a single with three 'mystery' copies that had no vocal track (whoever bought one was promised a live performance in their living room). How he wrote a book outlining his 'success from failure' model. We hear how he formed his Big Band (comprising Otway and 4 others).

And finally (to coincide with his fiftieth birthday).... when it seemed the second hit would never come... how he mobilised his loyal fan base to beat the 'stage managed' British chart system that refused to 'allow' him a hit - and saw him finally and triumphantly reach the UK Top 10 with Bunsen Burner. The 'B' side was recorded with 1000 fans heckling Otway through a hilarious version of 'House of the Rising Sun'. Each and every one of them were named on the record credits.(as Otway explains - 'if you're named as a performer on a hit record - you don't just buy a copy for yourself - you buy one for your mum and auntie as well').

Encouraged by this glimpse of the big time - Otway once again snatches failure from the jaws of success by attempting to organise a World Tour (complete with its own jumbo jet to carry 300 of his lunatic fans around the globe with him) playing venues from Sydney to Singapore, and on through Vegas and Tahiti! Unfortunately - only half that number signed up and Otway lost the huge deposit he had put down for the hire of the plane.

The film moves to an amazing climax when (coinciding with Otway's sixtieth birthday) the fans once again show their adoration for 'their hero' in producing and funding the movie. The closing sequences of the film were shot minutes before the film's premiere and edited in whilst the audience watched the main body of the film - and then themselves arriving some 2 hours earlier.

The film is interspersed with a brilliant soundtrack of Otway flops (plus 2 hits) and various celebrities offering comment on the eponymous micro-star. The closing titles lists the hundreds of fans who contributed cash as co-producers.............The DVD seems destined to sell well then!

I was born into a pit village (Wombwell) and i lived / worked through the miners strike. Not as a miner, but believe me when i say that everyone - EVERYONE who lived in the area at the time was effected in one way or another. The film depicts the relationships that existed at and around the time of the strike and the years that followed. It was a time of turmoil and Brassed Off is spot on in it's depiction of how friends and neighbours / colleagues and workmates / staff employed underground and in management or office roles were at loggerheads.

Nothing can ever truly express the feelings and hardship that was the miners strike and the pit closures that followed.

Arthur Scargill (figure of hate / love / comedic derision or political leader dependent on your background) was WRONG.

Not necessarily in his views but certainly in his prophecy of the future. For even he did not predict the final number of pits that the Thatcherite government would evidentially close.

The film is to many a landmark in British movie standards. To pigeon hole this film as a comedy - musical - political dialogue - does not do the film justice.

If ever a film ticked all the boxes, this is the one.

So sit back and watch a true cinematic epic! And the music (from a heavy metal fan at heart) is fantastic beyond all proportions.

If you don't feel overwhelmed by William Tell or if Danny Boy doesn't bring a tear to your eye - then you may as well give up, as the message and the meaning of this film (that the only really important things in life are what you have always taken for granted) are probably why you never understood films such as Kes.