Prodigy Medley: The video…
It’s been a long and arduous wait for the infamous Prodigy Medley’s music video, but ladies and gentleman… it has arrived. And what a bloody good video it is too. It’s true, good things come to those who wait, but every now and then, AWESOME things come to those who wait even longer.
We began filming for this video mid August with our very own ‘in-house’ and extremely talented film director, Chris Thompson. It was bang in the middle of our gig-a-day (sometimes more than one-gig-a-day) banana-tastic bonanza, and it began with a bit of filming at our favourite gig venue, The Pink Bus. Chris came on board The Pink Bus with the band and he filmed us doing a wee live acoustic performance of the medley (a small part of which appears in the video), before all the inebriated madness took place. As you can maybe see from the video, we were aiming to create a parody of the ‘Firestarter’ video first of all, with the whole headbutting the camera in a tunnel, thing; the ‘Out of Space’ video with the crazy colour effects (technical term, clearly) that’s all like, old school rave and that; the ‘Breathe’ video – band members on either side of the wall, going pure chicken oriental; and finally, the ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ video which involves a hand-held camera, a lot of alcohol, a mild bit of violence and a tactical spew. Please, go check them out if you would like to contrast and compare.
Our first stop was the Innocent Railway Tunnel, which is situated just next to Arthur’s Seat, tucked away into a little housing area. We took with us the essentials – bits and bobs of a drum skit, a TU-BAAA, a flute, a guitar, a melodic, a tambourine, a vibra-slap, a BMX, a set of fairy lights, a video camera, a box of chalk, some suitable attire, and ourselves of course. Oh wait, and alcohol. But that goes without saying. Well, I’ve said it now.
Anyway, so we set up, played the song from start to finish (bearing in mind, the time was about 9 o’clock at night, maybe a little later) while Chris filmed us. Next up, we filmed C-Mac doing a john mental solo on his drum kit when all of a sudden the figure of a brick shithouse descends on us from the end of the tunnel. No, no, there was no light at the end of this tunnel. Instead, there was a man with massive guns of steel that were quite clearly built for destroying. And from the end of tunnel came the words that went a little something like “what the fuck do you think you’re doing? Shut the fuck up with your fucking drums, I’m trying to sleep you bunch of arseholes.” I mean, don’t quote me, but it was something like that. Well, The Banana Sessions might be alcoholics, but we’re certainly not that nails (despite the head-butting at the start…) – so the rest of the video had to be filmed in absolute silence. So, the scene where we are all standing in front of each other playing instruments under each of the tunnel lights? It’s completely mimed. Watch Calum Wood on the guitar and you’ll see. If you’re wondering why we brought the BMX, it was for the head-butting shots and any of the scenes that zoom in to be honest, so many thanks to Mr Chris for cycling about 3 miles while he filmed us in the tunnel. What a legend. A very fit, multi-tasking legend at that.
Next up, we went to the almost-one-half-of-the-Banana-..Sessions’ flat – The Brunswick Palace down in Leith. Here we filmed our parody of the ‘Breathe’ video which speaks for itself really. We decided to create some comedy value by going a bit radge and flicking the light switches on and off in one room, and having a nice cup of tea and a sit down in the other room. Basically, because we’re funny like that. And yes, the ironing board is supposed to be there. Basically, because we’re funny like that. We couldn’t find a crocodile that would agree to star in the video though, much to our dismay. Oh, and the bit where Calum Wood’s big scary face comes right up to the camera was supposed to be a bit like when Keith and Maxim kind of slow motion into the camera lense, but all we had was wooden floorboards and a blanket on the floor for Calum to slide along on. What can I say, we tried.
Last but not least, the ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ parody was filmed after a very, very, very drunken gig at the Edinburgh Book Festival (they were giving out free Highland Park whiskey, for God’s sake) – a bit of which is featured in the ‘Out of Space’ part of the medley. We decided to make our very merry way along to our usual haunt, The Jazz Bar to cause a bit of havoc and debauchery. A big thanks to Federation of the Disco Pimp (the dude with the bass guitar quite near the end) for starring in our music video and letting us try to touch up his bass guitar. And also, thanks to Luke, the previous manager of The Jazz Bar, who taught us how to create a liquid that looked convincingly like sick. Half Pepsi and half milk, apparently. Who knew? I didn’t. (N.B. see vomit at end of video for details.)
It has to be said, this is without a diggity doubt our most favouritest music video so far and a big massive high five to all the total winners who were involved. I’d also like to take a little moment to say how fucking awesome we think The Prodigy are. Awesome tunes, awesome music videos. This entire thing was done with the utmost respect for the dudes. So, if Liam, Keith or Maxim ever happen to read this: legends, we salute you!
Mr Chris, we’d also like to take this opportunity to say: we salute you and all! What a hero. A bottle of Buckfast is in the post for you, sir. With banana love.
Pea suit,
The Banana Sessions
