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The preview screening at Sensoria was a great success. Thanks to everyone who came and showed their support. As emphasised it was not a premiere but designed to see what the reaction would be to the project. Here is a review from a London critic

Phil Wolstenholme will be exhibiting a retrospective of his groundbreaking artwork including his commissioned piece for The Beat Is The Law at
The Sensoria Festival
19th April - 10th May The Forum Sheffield

>>Buy Phil’s limited edition Beat Is The Law print

Exclusive Preview Screening of The Beat Is The Law - Part 01 (The Eighties)
30th April 2009 Sensoria Festival - UK’s Festival of Film and Music
6.45pm Showroom Sheffield screening
More Details >>

The Beat Is The Law Part 01

“When Martin did the posters for the Leadmill, I would look out for them on the walls of our city. I was as interested in them, as much as the bands they were promoting. Sometimes more so. He made the often boring art of advertising a gig, into an event in itself.”
Richard Hawley.

When I interviewed Martin for the film last year it became apparent how important Martin has been in the development of the city’s music scene especially for his hard work setting up the Leadmill from scratch to his Leadmill posters that now can be seen to represent the changing times in music throughout the 80’s. I was very excited when Martin agreed to revisit that period and style to produce artwork that summed up for him what the 80’s were all about. The result is very powerful and really does sum up an era beautifully.

>> Limited edition signed prints are available from The Beat Is The Law shop <<

Martin recently went on a pilgrimage to America’s West Coast where he met for the first time the people that inspired him and his style of art and where he was also asked to produce commissioned artwork for well-known artists. He has also just published a fantastic book of his Leadmill posters.
www.myspace.com/dogdayart

pickets on the run at The Battle of Orgreave

Martin Shakeshaft has kindly allowed us to use some of his powerful photos of the 84 Miner’s Strike especially of Orgreave. One of them is used in Human’s design image for the film.

“In 1984 I spent 12 months photographing the Miners’ Strike in the UK. The dispute started when the Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Yorkshire. This was to be the first of 20 pit closures with the loss of 20,000 jobs. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) responded by calling for a national strike.

At it’s height 165,000 miners were out on strike. They were supported by people from all over the world. In many communities miners’ wives pushed the struggle forward, joining picket lines and arranging communal food kitchens. The state responded by putting more and more police into the coal fields. After 51 weeks on strike, a special delegate conference of the NUM voted by 98 to 91 votes to return to work.” Martin Shakeshaft.

The Battle of Orgreave is the name given to the confrontation between police and picketing miners at a British Steel coking plant just on the outskirts of Sheffield in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, in 1984, during the UK miners’ strike.  In 1991, South Yorkshire police were forced to pay out half a million pounds to thirty-nine miners who were arrested in the events at the Battle of Orgreave.

It was the most bitterly fought dispute since the general strike of 1926, marking a turning point in the struggle between the government and the trade union movement.

On the 18 June 1984 there occurred at the Orgreave coking plant one of the strike’s most violent confrontations, begun in a field near to the plant and culminating in a cavalry charge through the village of Orgreave.

Sheffield Vision multimedia exibition/screenings:
Celebrating 30 years of Jarvis and Electronic Pop.
December 5th and 6th 2008 - 8.45 and 6.30pm respectively
Showroom Cinema Sheffield
- The Beat Is The Law trailer, the whole of Made In Sheffield, and Nick’s World of Synthesizers short.
- Phil and Martin’s Artwork and Made In Sheffield poster on display to buy (3 week display at Showroom from 29th Nov).
- Sheffield music Photogallery projection  and Sheffield music to tap your feet to.

For one of the film’s pieces of artwork on sale in the shop, we asked Phil Wolstenholme, the mind behind some of the most classic Warp album designs, to come up with a little piece of computer art reflective of his time represented in the film. We never expected him to come up with such an amazingly intricate and personal piece of art!

Originally a Fine Art graduate of Sheffield Hallam University, Phil Wolstenholme has worked at
the coalface of inventive computer art for nearly 20 years, and has inhabited a variety of strange but CGI-rich environments during that time.

Often working in conjunction with Designers Republic, Phil produced some of the most enduring sleeve images of the electronic/techno phenomenon from the early-to-mid 90’s. In his cover images for musical artists such as 808 State, The Orb, and Cabaret Voltaire, and for clients such as Warp Records, Designers Republic, Sony Japan and Strictly Rhythm, his unique style and pioneering use of 3D imagery helped define the look of a whole new musical genre.

Cover images of the time include such classics as:

‘The Extended Pleasures of Dance EP’ by 808 State
‘Yeah You’ by The Step on Warp Records
‘This is Strictly Rhythm’ and ‘Tracks ‘92′ on Strictly Rhythm Records
‘UFOrb’ by The Orb
‘Groovy Laidback and Nasty’ and ‘Colours’ by Cabaret Voltaire
‘Pioneers of the Hypnotic Groove’, compilation series on Warp Records
‘(Artificial Intelligence)’ and ‘(Artificial Intelligence II)’ on Warp Records
‘A Different Drum’ by The Shamen
‘The Professional School of Techno’ on Sony Music (Japan)
‘Pulseman’ on Frogman Records (Japan)

In 1993, together with CG artists David Slade and Jess Scott-Hunter, he produced a still talked-about (and still influential) video release that set Warp’s finest electronic musical artists against ambitious CGI, in a suite of plot-based animation sequences. On a miniscule production budget, ‘Motion’ exceeded all expectations, and launched at the ICA in London, was a huge success.

Alongside this were projects such as a collaboration with the British composer Gavin Bryars, producing 3D animation for projection during live orchestral performances of ‘Sinking of the Titanic’, 1995.

Since these heady days, Phil has continued to produce commercial CG images, is a panoramic landscape photographer, and has also worked extensively within the software industry, designing, developing and demonstrating new 3D software packages and literature. Phil recently exhibited a new body of work at a former monastery in Provence, France.

He has also launched a publishing company, Heavy Everywhere®, producing digital fractal imagery for fabric, interior design and other product lines. The first fashion release is a range of luxury swimwear on a new label in January 2009.

Sheffield Vision have organised an invite only sponsorship event on the 15th October at The Sheffield Carling Academy 2 (6pm start), which will feature the world premiere of the trailer for The Beat Is The Law.

Martyn Ware from Heaven 17 will be making a guest appearance and 2 pieces of art commissioned especially for the film will also be premiered.
The 2 artists that have produced the work are Martin Bedford, well known for his Leadmill posters in the 80’s, and Phil Wolstenholme, famous for his Warp album artwork in the 90’s, notably Artificial Intelligence.  Silkscreen and digital limited edition prints of Martin and Phil’s artwork will be available to buy on the night.

” For years culturally it’s just been pushed aside by other cities like Manchester and Liverpool. I love going to those places. I’ve got nothing against them at all. They are fantastic places and they’ve got a unique culture. But Sheffield I think has been underrated for many years and now I think we’ll see a change”

Richard Hawley