It Came From Memphis

Well, I'm back from the Cinemart at Rotterdam's very fine Film Festival, where I managed to get by without any accreditation or in fact any official permission to be there. It's a very filmmaker-friendly festival, and I was helped out by loads of festival staff despite the fact that I was probably the only filmmaker there who hadn't shelled out the €150 that it costs to get accredited. I did the whole thing on a shoestring, sleeping in a friend's spare room in Den Haag (about forty minutes from R'dam) and surviving off little cocktail nibbles as much as possible. It was all worth it, as I got to meet the two distributors I wanted to talk to about ICFM. One in particular seems to me to be a very good fit with the project, as they've recently acquired two somewhat similar projects. I had to stalk the guy for two days to get the meeting but when I did it seemed to go very well indeed. I'm now waiting for a follow-up email, and meanwhile we are pursuing some other options, involving very big fish indeed at three target record companies. There's now Plans A, B and C, and possibly even a Plan Z. Whatever happens, we need to be shooting in April, as the Barbican's Ardent show is something that will never be repeated. It's exciting to see it advertised on their website, a bill featuring all of the players from Robert's book, and remember that less than a year ago it was just a crazy notion cooked up by myself and Luther Dickinson as we drank a pint together in an East End boozer...

A friend has emailed me this link to a story in the Memphis Flyer about a sort of Mud Boy reunion with the great Kenny Brown filling in for the much-missed Lee Baker. I don't know whether Kenny's going to be over for the Barbican shows, but having heard his Fat Possum stuff I certainly hope they invite him.

One rumour that needs scotching is the one put about by Uncut magazine's current piece on Big Star - they definitely won't be playing, unfortunately, as they're not available. Chilton still is a possibility though, it seems.

JMM has been in touch to point out that the link I've posted to his site leads to an outdated page, so I've updated it and if you go there now you can see his recent video for Jim Dickinson's ace track, Down In Mississippi, which as far as I know isn't released anywhere else - go watch it for me and tell me what it's like, I ain't got broadband, just the old hand-cranked dialup that Grandma left me in her will. Goldurnit.