Event Check -  ‘Lives of the Artists’ Movie Premier

With a spot on the guestlist and two of my favourite things on this fair planet all rolled into one, only 10 minutes walk from my house, I strolled down to the Union Chapel in Islington, London to see the premier of the Relentless ‘Lives of the Artists’ movie.

With the promise of enough free energy drink to bathe in, a first look at one of the most anticipated art house styled snowboard movies of the year and a live performance from UNKLE, a band I’ve loved since I first heard Psyence Fiction all those years ago I was eagerly waiting outside the discreet doors of the legendary Union Chapel on Islington’s Upper Street at least 30 minutes before anybody else turned up at the ‘Lives of the Artists’ Premier. And the masses certainly arrived, first the uber stylish Shoreditch fixed wheel biker gangs, then the dedicated snowboarding types pushing next seasons down jackets in close to 65 degree F heat, and finally the media and PR set. Everyone packed into the upstairs bar and within a couple of minutes the meagre beer supply had been exhausted and everyone was dabbling in a variety of Relentless and exotic spirit combinations. I’m not sure what the Finns would think of mixing their fabled Finlandia Vodka and Relentless Inferno, but I tell you what I’ve tasted worse, I’ve also managed to sleep a lot easier.

After a couple of hours of mingling the film was started. I won’t spoil the movie for you as you can download it for free (or watch it on the player below). The premise of the movie is a kind of documentary following Artists through their creative process. Big Mountain heroes Xavier de le Rue and Jeremy Jones are followed as they attempt to become the first snowboarders to snowboard in Antarctica, spotting lines, taking their 2 man Zodiac ribs to the shoreline and then hiking, split board-ing and climbing their way to the top of some ridiculously steep faces. The kind of steepness you fall off, not down. To watch the two best freeriders on the planet go about their business in such a driven manner is completely awe inspiring and the realization of the consequences the pair face every time they take a step closer to the peak is terrifying. In most of the scenes, Jeremy and Xavier are laying down carves and ice axe dragging, not hand dragging!

Interlaced with Xavier and Jeremy’s adventure the movie meets James Lavelle; UNKLE founder and front man and owner of legendary 90s dance music record label Mo Wax; at its height the home of huge names like DJ Shadow, Dr Octagon, DJ Krush and Blackalicious. James frankly talks about his path as an artist, from meeting inspiration co-producers like DJ Shadow to the loss of his Record label and the rights of UNKLE’s huge records Psyence Fiction and Never Never Land to MoWax’s parent record company. It’s an intriguing story and all the more interesting to me as I’m a big UNKLE fan. UNKLE also take care of the soundtrack of the movie which fits like a glove with the epic cinematography.

After the movie, UNKLE performed their tracks with the Heritage Orchestra which was incredible, the kind of stuff that makes the hairs on your back stand on end, a truly epic experience, especially in the setting of an old gothic styled church and with the help of a seriously impressive lighting rig.

At the end of the night walking past a gloomy McDonalds shop front on Highbury Corner I bumped into an almost undercover James Lavelle, doing his best to, and, had it not been for my observant eye, managing to sneak off without any fuss. I stopped dead in my tracks made a quick MJ shuffle back and had a quick chat with the man from UNKLE; turns out he’s a top guy!

Being the nice guys we are you can watch the video here -

And if you like the soundtrack, put together by UNKLE, you can get hold of a free totally legit download here along with a printable album cover.

http://relentlessenergy.bandcamp.com/

Big thanks to Arno at Rossignol and Xavier De Le Rue for hooking me up with a guestlist pass, Relentless for putting on top class event and UNKLE and the Heritage Orchestra for putting on one of the best gigs I’ve been to in my 4 years living in London.

 

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Blog & News.

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