Echo and the Bunnymen • Shine So Hard • Directed by John Smith • 1981 • Nacho Restoration

Echo and the Bunnymen • Shine So Hard • Directed by John Smith • 1981 • Nacho Restoration

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“Shine So Hard” is an abstract and fragmentary short film made in 1981, featuring Echo & the Bunnymen. It was directed by John Smith and produced by Bill Butt.

This newly remastered version of "Shine So Hard", is being made available online for the first time today, on the anniversary of the film’s premier at London’s ICA, 13th of August 1981.

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By mid-December 1980, Echo and the Bunnymen had concluded the tour promoting their debut album “Crocodiles”. There was to be a lull in live shows until April the following year, while the band rehearsed and recorded material for what would become their second album, “Heaven Up Here”.

However, Bill Drummond, the Bunnymen's manager, hatched a plan for a one-off gig on 17th January 1981. It was to be a special event, a mystery show. The "secret" location was stated as “Gomorrah”. But the venue was, in fact, the Victorian concert hall at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, a quiet spa town in Derbyshire’s picturesque Peak District.

The event was to be used as the basis for a short promotional film commissioned by the band’s label, Warner Brothers. “Shine So Hard” documents the event, which was to be the final show of the Bunnymen’s apocalyptically staged “Camo Tour”. Dramatic back-lighting, a stage draped in camouflage netting, clouds of billowing smoke and the band all dressed in army surplus, produced what Ian Pye of the Melody Maker described as ‘A Coppola inspired vision of Armageddon’.

The “Shine So Hard” film was released on the 13th of August 1981. It was screened at London’s ICA for two weeks, and elsewhere in the UK. The British Film Institute September 1981 Monthly Bulletin declared: ‘John Smith’s film matches conventional, excellently shot material of Echo and the Bunnymen live with footage that attempts to locate the band in a context of more abstract imagery. Smith deliberately and jokingly, allows the two sections to collide rather than attempt to blend them… a rather arty, anti-Last Waltz joke.’

In 1982, a limited edition of 500 home videos of “Shine So Hard” was released.

Since then, if one wanted to see “Shine So Hard” in all of it’s glory, the only option was to attend one of it’s very rare cinema screenings. I myself had never seen the film except as frustratingly low-quality home video transfers.

Ask and thou shall receive – I had recently posted a video I made for “Zimbo”, from poor quality “Shine So Hard” sources, and in the accompanying notes, I asked the Bunnyverse for a good-quality copy of the film. Shortly thereafter, an HD digital transfer of “Shine So Hard” came my way.

Having waited for over 35 years, the film did not disappoint. The music and performances are of course brilliant. ”Shine So Hard” is also a very well shot, paced and edited piece of film-making, and the sound design is fantastic. In the poor video transfers, I hadn't noticed many of the small and enjoyable details. For instance, with this new digital version I realised for the first time, the book Pete de Freitas is reading, is Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”.

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The picture quality of the "Shine So Hard" film transfer I received was generally very good. Nevertheless, I set out to improve a few issues. The primary one was to dub in the 2003 remastered versions of the songs from the “Crocodiles” album and the “Shine So Hard” EP. Matching correctly all the abrupt little snippets of “Monkeys” was quite challenging.

Those early Bunnymen records, shows and the “Shine So Hard” film meant a lot to me in my youth. And so I am very pleased and proud to present John Smith and Bill Butt’s perfectly formed little masterpiece, polished and online for the first time, shining so hard.

Hope you dig it!

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An much expanded version of this text, and a wealth of accompanying photos is posted on www.facebook.com/TheNachoVideos

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Director • John Smith
Producer • Bill Butt
Director of Photography • Patrick Duval
Camera Operator • Mike Tomlinson
Editor • Patrick Duval • John Smith
Sound Recording • Peter Woods
2019 Restoration • Nacho

Starring:
Ian McCulloch
Will Sergeant
Pete de Frietas
Les Pattinson

Songs by Echo & the Bunnymen:
1. Monkeys
2. Stars Are Stars
3. Pride
4. Going Up
5. Over The Wall
6. All That Jazz
7. Crocodiles
8. Zimbo

• Tracks 1 – 3 produced by The Chameleons • from the album Crocodiles • Released July 1980
• Tracks 4 – 8 recorded live 17 January 1981, by the Manor Mobile • Produced by Bill Drummond & Hugh Jones, mixed at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales date 16/17th February 1981 • Track 4 unreleased • Tracks 5 – 8 from the Shine So Hard EP, released 10th April 1981

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I don't own the rights, and I never monetise. Just a fan making videos for other fans.

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