b'Director Interviews UKtime Malcolms ever worn the schoolboyWhere did you shoot that?business was now an industry. The shes very good. imagery as we could. They were great.I was taken to dinner with the twooutfit. Im the only person who everIt was shot in a club, now its a club,challenges were really that everybody had To Be A Lover is a remake, too,Ann, was and is, brilliant. Shes got morebrothers, Angus and Malcolm, by theirpersuaded him to do it, because Brian hadit used to be a cinema called the Odeondone everything. All the ideas had been which Billy made his own, a song fromsoul in her little fingermy God, thatmanager, who was Stewart Young inmade such a twat of himself in the bath,Brixton. Its been all sorts of clubs in theused, and there were very few ideas left. the 1960s, I believe. Do you rememberwoman can sing. And a great sense ofthose days, unrelated. We started talkingMalcolm thought he could get away withlast 30 years. Its huge. a 2000-plus seater,The big problem then was the need for how the ideas were flowing on that?humor.about this and that, and I started talkingthe schoolboy outfit. maybe more, with a very wide stage. Wesomeone to shoot properly live. At the A lot of flying camera, the crane got aAnd you gave her a big hammer.about comic books, and Angus is a reallyThe shots of the girl are great andconverted that, on the floor we built thosetime, rock and roll performance television real workout.Well, big girl, big hammer. Dont write thatgood artist. Hes a comic book fan andshes on a mechanical bull at the end!cages, those things where the audiencewas crap, as you well know by looking You said its one of your favorites, sodown or shell kill me. (laugh) Ive alreadycollects comic books. In fact, we stillSure, why not? Its just everything thatsall were. at it. They didnt have enough cameras, what is it that you enjoyed about it?been killed by her for saying big girl,swap comic books to this day. And thensexy and funny, because thats what AC/ You refer back to some of yourthis, that, there was no cottage industry Billy. Im an Elvis and Jerry Lee fanatic,which I didnt. Ill just say big hammer.I opened my big mouth, and we wereDC are all about. comic book imagery. There are a lot ofthat shot rock and roll for television. There and thats the closest Ive ever gotten to anYour audience has all their handstalking about people you hate, recordsThat seems to be the only characterthings going on simultaneously.were no cameramen, there were no Elvis or a Jerry Lee. And Steve Stevens asout, all reaching forward. That shot isand artists you hate, and I said the mostoriented piece you did, and youve beenRight. Theyd been off the clock for alighting men, nothing. Everything was a well. Hes the great under appreciated one.Thats Nuremberg. Call it Triumph ofoffensive ghastly and horrible lookingworking with them ever since on livecouple of years, and I hadnt seen them forstruggle. You also directed Mistake No. 3the Will and youre okay, because thatspeople had just done a stupid video ofconcerts.a couple of years. They came back, andYou know, during that time, the L.A. for Culture Club. Whats with thewhat it was. Leni Rafenstahl. some girl in a library taking her glassesWell that was it. Wed done a piss take,we thought, weve got to make the ultimatemetal scene had come up, and it seems audience full of dummies?Wow. And a lot of fire!off, and its called something like Tearsright? It was a huge hit, you cant keeprock and roll performance video beforelike Marty Callner and Wayne Isham are I dont remember any more about itWhy not! And when in doubt, set it on fireFor Fears. There was a terrible silencedoing it, wed done it. someone else does. That was how it sortdoing that on the west coast of the U.S. than that. or throw it into some water. It will alwaysat the table because they were StewartTheyre not Madness.of came about. We thought we needed toWhat did you think of hard rock and Bringing on the Heartbreak for Defwork.Youngs other client, and I had noWell thats exactly right. Theyre notgo crazy with it. heavy metal moving toward pop with Leppard seems to be the only time IveDid you see that as a go-to? Russellidea.That was my big clanger of theMadness. By the time you are shooting thetheir work? ever seen choreographed forklifts.Mulcahy said that if you have eitherweek. From that moment, Angus andFor Thunderstruck, you shotThunderstruck and Money TalksMarty Callner was doing Whitesnake, That was the one where I set him a driftwater or knocking over a table inMalcolm and I got on well. Stewart YoungAnguss famous strut from underneath. videosin 1990, and music videoand they were using our girls, and it was on the boat. We went to a studio to look forslow motion, you can always get fourand I are still great friends to this day,Well it was just a silly thought, andproduction has developed into a full-onthe same, but he was doing it really well, I woods and didnt see anything we liked. Iseconds out of that. have lunch together and all that. In fact,it works. It might equally well not haveindustry. Were things different for you?thought. I thought he did it well. And when believe we built them. Exactly. And if you slow it down a bitthe first AC/DC I did was Who Madeworked. Im glad to say that it did work. Suddenly, what had been a cottageI met him, he said, Thank you so much, I You shot three clips for KissWhomore, you can get six. Who, and it was Price Wormsleys ideareally used all your stuff, which I thought Wants To Be Lonely, Uh All NightYou shot Mick Jagger and Davidto make lots of little Anguses from a mold.was really nice of him. I thought he did it and Tears Are Falling, and the latter,Bowies now-infamous Dancing in theWe took the mold and made hundreds ofreally well, but it was in a different way. It by the way, is beautifully shot. What doStreets. At the time, it was a huge deal,gold Anguses. And we also have awas in an L.A. way. you recall about working with Kiss?and later on, it became a bit ofthousand Anguses with cardboard cutoutWhat would you say is different I remember thinking that they didnta strange pop-culture moment. How didguitars. But that was the beginning of thisabout the L.A. way? need me to add anything to them, becausethe video come to land on yourroad that went between AC/DCs hardEverything looks healthy and bright they were what they were and had beendoorstep to direct?edged rock and roll, not heavy metal butin L.A., and in England, everything looks for years. It was only a matter of making aIt was logical, because I was probablyhard-edged rock and roll, and comedy.sleazy and dark. I mean, the women in my video with Kiss performing or doingthe only one they both knew well, I wouldAnd the next one we did, which is one ofthings were all real sleazebags, werent something. It wasnt a matter of startingguess. David rang me up and said, Immy favorite videos that Ive ever made, isthey. They all look dirty. It looked naughty, again with their image like it was for Davidnot telling you what the track is, wereYou Shook Me All Night Long. you know what I mean? And all the ones Bowie or Billy Idol. I remember thinkingrecording it at six oclock, and well be inThey dont come off as Australianin the ZZ Top stuff and Marty Callner stuff, that what you get is what you get. On thethe docklands by 8 or 9, and you can hearwith the rows of houses and allthey all looked dancers from The Midnight billowing curtains, that was just a look, youit for the first time then. So I went, I heardWell, they all live in England or EuropeSpecial, didnt they? Its a different vibe, see, but you didnt mess with Kiss. Kissit, and I thought, well well come up withnow, not really living around Australia quitea different look. And I watched it with was Kiss was Kiss. End of story. Theressome ideas while I spin the cameraso much. Theres an English comic bookinterest, but it wasnt anything I could ever only one way you can take Kiss, and its aaround them. We laid down track and shotcharacter called Andy Capp. Well, hesdo, because I specialized in sleaze, if you very fine line between comedy andthem, and figured, thatll use a minute,Brian the singer, isnt he?And I wantedknow what I mean.something thats too heavy. If youwhile we think of something else.Wherethem in this little poor neighborhood, do something too comedic with Kiss, youwas this shot? In the deserted docks inyou know, two-up two-down houses, andscrew it up because their look is comedicLondon. And the very last shot of that, itI wanted Andy Capp in his tin bath,anyway, and if you take the piss, it doesntwas summer, and the dawn happened atscratching his back with a loofa. Of course, work. This was my opinion, when theyabout 4 oclock in the morning, and wethen we thought, wouldnt it be funny if we came to me. And on the other side, if youhadnt done the last shot. We took everydid it in time to the music? So theres Brian do something too hardcore, theyre not acar of every crew member, every single carJohnson sitting in this bath. I had a hell of hardcore band. So I found that difficult,that anybody owned, and we set them upa job persuading him to do it in this I found it difficult to get it right. Theres awith their headlights on full, shined themhorrible old tin bath. But then of course, it balance.into the lens so that made the sky lookwent on from there. Its all English You directed What About Love forblack so it would match. Thats why youreferences, like the Fish-n-chip van, which Heart, and you used a lot of that metalsee a bunch of headlights in that shot. is a big English thing, and the canal, which imagery. This was a turning point inThey are two of the greatest performersis a big English thing. And the schoolboy their career because they were viewedever.It stands up because those two,outfits. as a 70s act.nothing to do with me. They were at theirHad they been doing that for a while At this point, they were effectivelybest and competing with each other. Andby the time you shot this? a new band. I didnt say a new band,David even choreographed a bit of it, the bit Somewhere there is a picture of Angus I said effectively, and it would have beenwhen they pop into the camera a bit. and Malcolm in schoolboy outfits, sticking very easy to launch them as a soft band,Then you began workinga lot withtheir tongues out at me in a grottyDavid Mallet (bottom left) because What About Love could beAC/DC, a band that you still shootingManchester street. Somewhere Ive got it,directs Paul Stanley and considered a ballad. Almost. So wevideos and live shows for to this day.and its a very funny picture. Like twoGene Simmons in Kisss decided to do as much heavy metalWhat appealed to you about workingnaughty schoolboys. And thats the onlyTears are Falling videowith them at the beginning?50MVTMISSUE #1 ISSUE #1MVTM51'