michael dillon

@terrychristian @MOBOAwards The Real Thing from Liverpool you mean Mr Christian! 😉 But agreed and great list.

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS SINGLE IS FORTY “If our love song, Could fly over mountains...” The Langer / Winstanley produced Absolute Beginners single was released forty years ago today on 3rd March 1986. Reaching #2 in the UK chart and the top ten of many other countries, the record was released ahead of the film and the various artists soundtrack album. We’ll talk more about the film and soundtrack at a later date. Julien Temple shot the music video, which echoed the 1950s style of the Absolute Beginners film. The video was a homage to an old British advert for Strand cigarettes. The ill-fated advertising tagline "You're never alone with a Strand" is quoted by Vendice Partners in the film. The video also uses footage from the film. Watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=iCJLOX… The striking cover image was taken by Chalkie Davies. We’ll leave you with a bit from him regarding the contact sheet on slide two... + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + “David Bowie is one of the easiest people to work with, he's so good in front of the camera that you can do a record cover in a single roll of film. When you are on a movie shoot nothing endears you to the Director more than the ability to shoot fast. Everything was pre-lit and tested beforehand, all it needed was for David to step into the frame and pose for three minutes. Contact sheets can tell you a lot about both photographer and sitter, the twelve frames on a roll is now a thing of the past but back then it was the order of the day. When you have to hand over the sheets to the publicist you never know what you will get back from the artist, sometimes with Rock Stars only a single frame from a dozen rolls is marked, but that is not the case here. In the right hand strip you can see a small X, this was the choice of David's management, then he marked it up, excluding only two frames as bad photos, ignoring seven more frames as they were OK but not great. Then he has circled three of the frames including 4C, the one where he is smiling. The Art Director also marked a square around that same photo. I was very happy David chose it, but this surprised everyone who worked for him as he has never, before or since, smiled on a record cover.” + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + #AbsoluteBeginnersSingle #BowieChalkieDavies