The latest information on cinema, festival, TV and web screenings for 'The Beat is The Law', plus special exhibitions, panels and other happenings. Updates to this page are announced via the Twitter feed so make sure you're following us @beatisthelaw if you're not doing so already.
Festivals and Cinemas - For information on obtaining screenings and accompanying appearances for film, please contact us via eve@thebeatisthelaw.com
January 4th, 2012
We are pleased to announce The Beat Is The Law will be screening its first BluRay version at the North West Film Forum over 3 nights on the 6th, 7th and 8th of January 2012. More details here>>
Seattle’s The Stranger publication reviews the film as “deeper and richer than your average music doc, diving into the political and economic realities underlying the music, and it’s terrific” more here>>
Tags: Iron lady, Margaret Thatcher, North West Film Forum, pulp documentary, seattle stranger, The Beat is The Law
Posted in Events, Film News, Upcoming | Comments Off
November 11th, 2011
We are very excited to announce The Beat Is The Law will screen in the Melkweg, Amsterdam at the Play International Music and Film Festival on 18th November 2011 at 12.30pm and again on the 20th at 01.00am.
More info and how to get tickets here>>
The location for the screenings has special significance not only for Sheffield music, bands and artists but also personally for the filmmakers themselves.
Martin F Bedford, one of the founders of Sheffield’s venue The Leadmill ( which was originally based on the concept of the Melkweg) who created amazing artwork for posters promoting the Leadmill gigs throughout the 80′s, will be exhibiting his brilliant art during the Festival as well as starring in the film. More info here>>
Various Sheffield bands featured in the film played at the Melkweg in the 80′s and 90′s:
On 24th February 1985 Hula, In The Nursery, Chakk, and Artery (well Artery is from Made In Sheffield) performed there as well as Leitmotiv. The gig was called ‘Sheffield Revisited’
Eve (who is Dutch) and Richard Wood (who is from Sheffield), the film’s director and producer, used to live in Amsterdam during the 90′s and remember being totally blown away by the performances The Longpigs and Pulp (Different Class tour) towards the end of 1995 at the Melkweg.
Eve will be attending the Festival and doing a Q and A after the Friday screening (in Dutch and English??)
Tags: Amsterdam, Artery, Hula, Martin F Bedford, Melkweg, Play Internationa Music and Film Festival, pulp, The Beat is The Law, The Longpigs
Posted in Events, Film News, Past | Comments Off
November 7th, 2011
你好
We are pleased to announce The Beat Is The Law’s first screening in Asia at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival on the 9th and the 14th November 2011
賈維斯卡克說：「即使手錶停了，它一天至少還會正確兩次。」而這個世界終於在一九九五年追上他的腳步，因為The Stone Roses 吉他手John Squire 騎單車摔斷鎖骨、搖滾公雞洛史都華又婉拒邀約，成軍將近二十年才以〈Common People〉初嚐成名滋味的Pulp，意外站上英國Glastonbury 音樂節主舞台，由現場八萬人共同見證了Pulp 與雪菲爾同儕們用十餘年寫下的音樂傳奇。
Below is a scan of Taiwan’s biggest broadsheet daily, The China Times 31.10.2011. On the back page of the newspaper is this piece on The Beat Is The Law and Pulp. Spot the English music references amongst the Mandarin text!
Tags: china times, common people, film festival, golden horse film festival, jarvis cocker, pulp, pulp documentary, taipei, The Beat is The Law, warp
Posted in Events, Film News, Past | Comments Off
October 20th, 2011
We are very pleased to announce ‘The Beat Is The Law – Fanfare For The Common People’ will have its Official UK Premiere at the Leeds International Film Festival 2011 on the 4th November @9pm in the spectacular setting of Leeds Town Hall.
The Q and A afterwards will include Pulp’s Candida Doyle and the film’s director, Eve Wood.
More details on how to get tickets HERE>>
Tags: Candida Doyle, common people, Eve Wood, jarvis cocker, Leeds International Film Festival, leeds Town Hall, LIFF 25, pulp, richard hawley, The Beat is The Law, warp
Posted in Events, Film News, Past | Comments Off
October 4th, 2011
We are pleased to announce The Beat is The Law – Fanfare For The Common People will be screening in Minneapolis on the 13th October 2011 as part of the Sound Unseen Film/Music/Art Festival
The film has so far played to packed cinemas in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“The screening went GREAT! People LOVED the movie, attendance was strong, there was a fun Brit Pop tie-in at a nearby bar, all that! One of our employees is a filmmaker who has been at a dead end with her project, and she found the attitude of the Sheffield scene to be super-inspiring. I think that is so awesome” Mike Keegan – Roxie Theatre, San Francisco
If our films inspire others then we have done our job.
Tags: common people, Minneapolis, pulp, Sound Unseen 12, The Beat is The Law, Trylon
Posted in Events, Film News, Past | Comments Off
September 20th, 2011
The North American tour continues at The Roxie Cinema, San Francisco on the 29th September at 7.30pm and 9.30pm.
They created this poster especially for the screening. The screening is preceded by a vide mix of britpop’s highs and lows and bassists on blow!!??
August 5th, 2011
The first North American screening of The Beat Is The Law – Fanfare For The Common People will be on the 11th of August 2011 at 10.30pm at the Silent Movie Theatre, on Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles as part of “Don’t Knock The Rock” music film festival.
July 20th, 2011
We are pleased to announce The Beat is The Law – Fanfare For The common People will screen at the fabulous Green Man Festival at 6.30pm Sunday 21st August 2011. The film’s director Eve Wood will be doing a Q and A session afterwards.
Visit the website >>
July 4th, 2011
‘Flamingos of Steel’ is the first in a series of specially designed The Beat is the Law mixtapes bringing together curated music and contemporary art from the best in Sheffield troublemakers. DJ and stylist Ralph Razor, who’s currently tour managing Pulp’s Russell Senior on the band’s summer tour, takes in fifteen years of lurid glamour and fashion dandyism from Cabaret Voltaire to The Yell via sea shanties, absinthe sessions and a Nick Cave cover version.
We’re presenting ‘Flamingos of Steel’ as a pair of Spotify links –
Flamingos of Steel – Side A
Flamingos of Steel – Side B
And a ready- to-print piece of original cassette inlay art by artist Jim Connolly (click on the image below to view and download).
Jim is best known for his darkly humorous series of sci-fi reimaginings of Sheffield landmarks – including Escape from the Moor and Terror at Tinsley Towers – but his website demonstrates the real breadth of his work. We loved this portrait of Kurt Cobain.
We spoke to Ralph and Jim about the project, William Shatner and that surprise Glastonbury appearance.
tBitL: Why ‘Flamingos of Steel’, Ralph?
Ralph Razor: The juxtaposition of the flamboyant and the industrial. Flamingos stand out wherever they are and look slightly ridiculous and out of place even when in their natural habitat. They are iconic outsiders who refuse to blend and there is nothing quite like them, so it felt like quite an apt metaphor. It also thought it sounds a little bit like it could be the title of a Sheffield music compilation from 1981…
tBitL: Were there any tracks you weren’t able to fit on the tape?
RR: Actually not really. The cuts which made the final selection more or less chose themselves as they were all songs which reminded me of stories based on my experience of living in Sheffield. They’re all tracks I’d describe as ‘very Sheffield’ in the sense that Sheffield isn’t just a place, it’s a state of mind. Something can come from Sheffield and not be very Sheffield at all, whereas something can come from New York, Berlin, Tokyo or anywhere else in the world and embody the Sheffield sensibility.
tBitL: Jim, what are your thoughts on Ralph’s musical selections?
Jim Connolly: ‘First Man in Space’ is a personal fave of mine, and ‘Dear John’ is a fun but tragic tale. I liked Nick Cave’s cover but I’d have to hand the Pulp-cover-version gold medal to William Shatner’s stunning rendition of ‘Common People’.
tBitL: How did you approach the piece?
JC: We thought that the mixtape tBitL theme would lend itself well to a slightly DIY looking comic-book film noir approach. Ralph used to run the club-night Razor Stiletto and have some lightening bolt side burns so I decided a few jagged-ey edges were the way to go. The Sheffield background comes partly from my series of Sheffield pictures. I wasn’t sure how to illustrate a ‘Flamingo of Steel’ but think this sultry fire-walking bird has enough attitude to lay claim to that label.
tbitL: How’s it going with the tour?
RR: The Pulp tour has been an amazing experience so far, and every show has been incredibly well received. As someone who has only been involved in it all for a few months it is incredibly moving to see such a phenomenal response from audience. At times feels more like a political rally than a gig (in a good way!), so I can only begin to imagine what it must be like for members of the band.
Their music seems to have aged well and they have become somewhat of a national treasure. Jarvis has still got the moves and his banter between songs is probably funnier than it was in the Brit Pop days; the band are incredibly tight and better rehearsed than ever and Russell Senior- who I’ve been styling- was described in a recent review as “ever suave”, which made me feel proud.
tBitL: So how did you manage to keep quiet about Glastonbury?
RR: There was plenty of speculation so I just pretended that I didn’t know what was happening. I am generally very good at keeping secrets and deal with everything on a ‘need to know’ basis, to the extent that very few people actually know anything much about me, or even my real name…
Visit Ralph at www.ralph.uk.com and Jim at www.jimcportfolio.co.uk
May 25th, 2011
As a supplement to our post on The Lost Tape, here’s the original interview with director Eve Wood that formed part of our research into this recently unearthed Pulp treasure. Found in Russell Senior’s attic during production of Fanfare for the Common People, an edit of the original footage forms part of Fanfare’s second disc of extras. We discuss its discovery, restoration and reception, the exclusive song ‘The Day that Never Happened’, how archives evolve, Thatcher’s Dead, and using video to visualise memories, amongst other things. This is the second The Beat is the Law podcast. Enjoy.
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