The 1990's was a time when music creativity in Glasgow was probably at some sort of zenith – not that it is exactly a shabby wasteland at the moment – far from it. However, they did things their own way and one of those ways was to avoid getting 'Londoned up' as Belle and Sebastian once put it. So some folk founded their own record labels and Chemikal Underground was born. It championed local talent and did things to get the music out there with a lot of exuberance and a few mistakes along the way.
One such thing was to play an up and coming festival in France and some seventeen years on they do a revisit and this documentary is all about that and tells the stories of the past and some of the people involved. It features Mogwai, The Delgados, Arab Strap and many others.
This is the sort of documentary where it really helps if you are aware of that scene and better still if you are a bit of a fan. I am a fan of most of these bands and was easily part of their target audience, however if you are new to this music then this will be hard to connect with but may still be worth a watch. Production wise it has professional standards and some of the archive footage was great as were some of the insightful interviews but it is probably the sort of thing you will only want to see once – so think twice unless you are a bit of a fan.
One such thing was to play an up and coming festival in France and some seventeen years on they do a revisit and this documentary is all about that and tells the stories of the past and some of the people involved. It features Mogwai, The Delgados, Arab Strap and many others.
This is the sort of documentary where it really helps if you are aware of that scene and better still if you are a bit of a fan. I am a fan of most of these bands and was easily part of their target audience, however if you are new to this music then this will be hard to connect with but may still be worth a watch. Production wise it has professional standards and some of the archive footage was great as were some of the insightful interviews but it is probably the sort of thing you will only want to see once – so think twice unless you are a bit of a fan.