Sound for the Future
THE HIPPIES were a bizarre English punk band formed in '79 by the Hulse children, Toby (12), Matt (11) and Polly (8). Their cassette album 'A Sound for the Future' featured songs about disease, assass…
Sound for the Future
THE HIPPIES were a bizarre English punk band formed in '79 by the Hulse children, Toby (12), Matt (11) and Polly (8). Their cassette album 'A Sound for the Future' featured songs about disease, assassination & the Antarctic. "Would you please stop sitting around in your pyjamas, eating toast & singeing your legs by the gas fire. Fuck it - form a band!" (Ruth Pendragon, Mother & Manager) The band performed ticketed live shows for their mother's kindly and chaotic group of friends, part of the ramshackle 'Cambridge fringe element': the homeless, drunks, animal rights activists, junkies, cross-dressers and a pair of gay Franciscan Friars. Their DIY approach & domestic sound still resonates with semi-ironic naive charm, echoing The Shaggs or Daniel Johnston. Their star shone briefly, before breaking up due to musical differences and possibly an argument over crisps. THE HIPPIES then and now. What truly happened back in the past and whose side of the story should be told? Especially as the film's director was the band's 11 year-old drummer? Matt's mum, Ruth, maverick, mystic, manager, plays a pivotal role in the bigger picture, offering an insight into a time of personal and social upheaval, both for her and her family in Thatcher's Britain. Matt reforms and reimagines THE HIPPIES through a series of workshops and experiments with a teenage cast, eventually creating a contemporary rival to his childhood band in GENERATION RIOT. Using music of the period, archive, animation and poetic recreations of key moments, Matt Hulse explores a part-remembered, kaleidoscopically fractured, family history, through an energetic, jarring, ride; part performance, part art, part process, post-punk.
Sound for the Future
Documentary,Music
Film Details
THE HIPPIES were a bizarre English punk band formed in '79 by the Hulse children, Toby (12), Matt (11) and Polly (8). Their cassette album 'A Sound for the Future' featured songs about disease, assassination & the Antarctic. "Would you please stop sitting around in your pyjamas, eating toast & singeing your legs by the gas fire.
Fuck it - form a band!" (Ruth Pendragon, Mother & Manager) The band performed ticketed live shows for their mother's kindly and chaotic group of friends, part of the ramshackle 'Cambridge fringe element': the homeless, drunks, animal rights activists, junkies, cross-dressers and a pair of gay Franciscan Friars. Their DIY approach & domestic sound still resonates with semi-ironic naive charm, echoing The Shaggs or Daniel Johnston. Their star shone briefly, before breaking up due to musical differences and possibly an argument over crisps.
THE HIPPIES then and now. What truly happened back in the past and whose side of the story should be told? Especially as the film's director was the band's 11 year-old drummer? Matt's mum, Ruth, maverick, mystic, manager, plays a pivotal role in the bigger picture, offering an insight into a time of personal and social upheaval, both for her and her family in Thatcher's Britain. Matt reforms and reimagines THE HIPPIES through a series of workshops and experiments with a teenage cast, eventually creating a contemporary rival to his childhood band in GENERATION RIOT.
Using music of the period, archive, animation and poetic recreations of key moments, Matt Hulse explores a part-remembered, kaleidoscopically fractured, family history, through an energetic, jarring, ride; part performance, part art, part process, post-punk..