@ O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu 19 Feb 2015
This is good: the silver screen of the old Regal brought back to life for one night only. And because the old Regal has transformed into the current 02 ABC nightclub and live music venue, the Glasgow Film Festival – by gathering four bands to play live soundtracks to short films – merges past with present.
On a note completely unrelated to anything on stage or screen, being in the 02 ABC at 6.30pm is a disconcerting experience. It seems unlikely that the man in the toilets with the soap and murray mints will shift one condom or spray of John Paul Gautier all night. The venue looks nothing like its former self in the heyday of the Regal cinema; it is is a nightclub and live music venue and that’s exactly what it feels like for A Night at the Regal – a nightclub that’s only just opened, cold and smelling of bleach.
However, all thoughts of cleaning products and sticky floors are swept aside when Monoganon’s John B McKenna, in an incredible costume, walks and sings his way through the crowd while old home videos play out. This Sweden-based Scot and his band, recorded for tonight, make beautiful music, which adds to the emotional kick of what’s showing onscreen.
Next, eagleowl fill the venue with sound. Their score to 1934 documentary Granton Trawler is itself like the hypnotic sound of an engine, and is similarly impossible to ignore. They lose out a little to the mesmeric Norman McLaren’s Begone Dull Care, a series of scratches and paintings directly on film, but make a perfect match alongside Mark Cousins’ film Between Picture and Word. This builds into a thunderously brilliant mixture of music and film, prompting much of the audience to rock back and forth. It is the kind of combination that stays with the viewer for days afterwards.
Perhaps it is because Between Picture and Word and eagleowl are so good that EDIT, with music from Joe McAlinden, pales in comparison. Even that may be giving the film more credit than is due; it is dull, pretentious and unintelligible. Though beautifully (if predictably) shot, the acting is only adequate and the writing poor.
Last up are the night’s headliners, British Sea Power, who play their score for Penny Woolcock’s From the Sea to the Land Beyond. The film comprises a series of footage taken from BFI reels and tells the story of Britain from the end of the war through to more recent times, highlighting both the continuity and changes undergone. It is beautiful and compelling to watch and share with others this stunning fusion of music, film and location – and the final added frisson comes when it is noted that the characters onscreen, in their time, would have been able to visit this venue during its original incarnation as the old Regal Cinema.