Off-topic Sunday.
Sideburn's entertainments officer, Dave Skooter Farm, has been beavering away, volunteering his time, vast enthusiasm and specialist knowledge to an independent film about his late friend and bandmate, Chris Sievey aka Frank Sidebottom. This documentary is not to be confused with the comedy drama, Frank, released in 2014 and written by Jon Ronson, another former bandmate of Frank Sidebottom. The 2014 film starred Michael Fassbender as the titular character, who was visually based on Frank Sidebottom, but that's where the similarities ended.
Being Frank has always been a labour of love, with modest ambitions, but after years of filming, researching and editing, the film has been picked up by a distributor so it will get a 'theatrical release' of some size. Dave says of the film...
'It’s obviously off topic for a motorcycle site, but the fact is having been around Chris Sievey for over 30 years, I’m deeply influenced by him. My approach to everything creative is directly connected to him. I’d go as far as to say there is an element of Sievey/Sidebottom in what we brought to the Dirt Quakes of old.
'The project has took seven years to come to fruition, working with a DIY ethic at a subsistence level and it has not been easy.
'Initially crowdfunded as a ‘fan’s film’ destined to go ‘straight to DVD’… no one was happier or more surprised than us when the film was picked up by a distributor (Altitude Films) and consequently scheduled for a UK cinema release. It’s a textbook case of a marginalized, underground artist punching through into the edges of the mainstream.
'To accompany the film, We have curated an exhibition called BOBBINS, hosted at the Manchester Central Library. Lots of physical archive (now housed in the library strong-room under temperature controlled conditions) and over 23 hours of digital content to see and hear. The exhibition runs for two months until the end of April.'
Official trailer