{"id":3184,"date":"2014-02-15T22:19:30","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T22:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/?p=3184"},"modified":"2014-02-17T23:07:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T23:07:29","slug":"british-sea-power-from-the-sea-to-the-land-beyond-kings-hall-ilkley-film-fesival-15214","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2014\/02\/15\/british-sea-power-from-the-sea-to-the-land-beyond-kings-hall-ilkley-film-fesival-15214\/","title":{"rendered":"British Sea Power: From the Sea to the Land Beyond – King’s Hall, Ilkley Film Fesival 15\/2\/14"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Met up with a bunch of pals to see British Sea Power play the soundtrack to ‘From the Sea to the Land Beyond’ live as part of the Ilkley Film Festival (Ilkley doesn’t have a cinema yet but I’m sure this will get the locals galvanised). What a great noise they make, full of energy and pathos which beautifully matched the Great British seaside scenes on view. As a BSP newbie I didn’t feel I could do this justice so Mark stepped into the breach………<\/p>\n

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In the interests of full disclosure, I should say now this isn\u2019t an unbiased review of British Sea Power\u2019s<\/a> performance of From The Sea To The Land Beyond<\/a> at the King George\u2019s Hall in Ilkley. \u00a0I\u2019m a fan, I\u2019ve seen them dozens of times, usually in the company of people who\u2019ve seen them hundreds of times (that\u2019s not an exaggeration). \u00a0It\u2019s the whole package that appeals; of course there\u2019s their music, which can vary from flag-waving indie rock anthems to epic excursions into post rock that would have Sigur Ros looking at their crown, to folk-like sea shanties or scrappy garage punk thrash\u2026usually snuggling up against each other on the same LP. \u00a0But on top of that there\u2019s an image and an attitude of cheerful dissent, more in common the mass trespass on Kinder Scout that your usual bleeding heart leftie musicians. \u00a0The gigs are true performances, the band giving their all, often ending up in the crowd or scaling the balconies, foliage, flags and plastic birds decorating the stage and the bears geeing the crowd up \u2013 not that your average British Sea Power audience needs much encouragement. \u00a0And then there\u2019s the merchandise; they\u2019re on their 14th mug design, lord alone knows how many t-shirts they\u2019ve come up with, all of which is pretty standard to most bands \u2013 but their own beer, long before Iron Maiden & Elbow came in on the act? \u00a0Tea? Kendal mint cake! \u00a0Soap!! \u00a0Some very nice xmas cards a couple of years back, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nSo it might be considered normal that a band who formed around the turn of the century and released their first LP (the self-effacingly titled The Decline Of British Sea Power<\/a>) a little over 10 years ago would put out a best of around now. But this is British Sea Power, so normal goes out the window. \u00a0Those not-quite hits, live favourites and a couple of obscurities that anyone else would package up and sling out as an xmas cash-in have instead been lovingly and quite radically rearranged into a largely instrumental soundtrack for the film we gathered here to watch From The Sea To The Land Beyond. \u00a0The title comes from the British Sea Power song, The Land Beyond. \u00a0The film itself\u2026well, one more thing about British Sea Power first. \u00a0This isn\u2019t their usual crowd, though some of the more dedicated have travelled from the wilds of Lincolnshire to be here. \u00a0No, this is definitely more the Ilkley Film Festival\u2019s audience, gathered in what is basically a glorified church hall dedicated to beard hero George V, who\u2019s glowering down at us from above the stage. It\u2019s more used to the Sooty Show and 60s revival bands than art-rock and experimental film\u2026
\nFrom The Sea To The Land Beyond is part of a trend to raid the British Film Institute and similar organisations\u2019 archives for the 100 years or so of historical footage in them and bring it together into a unified piece of cinema, with little or no narration, simply allowing the images and music to speak for themselves. \u00a0Recycling the past? \u00a0Perhaps. Similar efforts include Bill Morrison\u2019s bleak meditation on the rise & fall of the British coal industry, The Miners\u2019 Hymns. \u00a0That\u2019s accompanied by a suitably mournful brass-led soundtrack by Icelandic composer Johann Johannson. \u00a0There\u2019s also Song From The Shipyards (substitute shipbuilding for coal), a less successful film but with music by The Unthanks, so that more than makes up for any disappointment on screen.
\nWhere From The Sea To The Land Beyond differs from these is that it doesn\u2019t try to create a narrative from the archive material. \u00a0Instead, there\u2019s a broadly chronological sweep across the last century or so to create an impression of the British relationship with the sea. Themes of work & play, destruction and creation are the anchors which hold it all together. \u00a0Fishing and shipbuilding feature, as do scenes of cargo being shipped around the world; this contrasts to hordes of people in their Sunday best gathering in Blackpool (and it\u2019s always Blackpool) for fun & frolics, whether it\u2019s 1912, 1952 or 2012. \u00a0But some of those jolly games are between soldiers, shortly to be shipped off to the First World War, giving a sinister edge to the horseplay.
\nIf you\u2019re into film, or history, then you\u2019re very likely going to love this. \u00a0That\u2019s without considering the gorgeous British Sea Power soundtrack, either recorded or as we have it here, performed in front of us, the band with backs to the audience, staring intently at the screen for visual cues. \u00a0As mentioned, these are all previously released songs, but with the vocals mostly stripped away & carefully reworked to compliment the images on screen. \u00a0The only times when a film slips up is when it tries to make a political point. During scenes of Commonwealth troops landing in Britain after World War Two, a plummy Pathe newsreel voiceover reminds the viewers in 1945 & 2014 what a debt we owe them; as if to emphasize this, British Sea Power bring a snatch of the original lyrics back\u2026\u2019and we\u2019re not going home\u2026\u2019 either as a celebration of cultural diversity or a dire warning (I\u2019m going with the former). \u00a0There\u2019s also the counterpoint of the frankly ridiculous uniforms & hairstyles of the City traders who moved into London\u2019s Docklands when the docks were no longer needed, with that of the dockers who once worked there. It\u2019s as if Penny Woolcock, the director, is trying to hammer home which of these groups of workers added any real value\u2026I think we know which it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThese minor points aside, From The Sea To The Land Beyond is a beautiful piece of cinema, continually returning to the central theme of what British Sea Power themselves sang about on their classic single, Carrion; \u2018always, always, always the sea\u2019. \u00a0All the more poignant perhaps, considering the continuing storms ravaging the south coast. There\u2019s a blink & you miss it moment where happy holidaymakers in the 1930s are being shipped to the beaches of the South West on the Cornish Riviera train; it crosses Dawlish Warren, along the section of track that as of a couple of weeks ago, isn\u2019t there any longer.
\nIf you want to see what British Sea Power look like stood up & facing the crowd, their Easter tour brings them to York, Holmfirth and Sheffield. \u00a0I hope to see you there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Pomroy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Met up with a bunch of pals to see British Sea Power play the soundtrack to ‘From the Sea to the Land Beyond’ live as part of the Ilkley Film Festival (Ilkley doesn’t have a cinema yet but I’m sure … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gigs-reviews","category-personal-histories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3184"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3212,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184\/revisions\/3212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}