Videos are weird. I’m shooting a video for a band who I’ve met for maybe an hour the day before yesterday, and I can’t remember their names. I’ve had to write them down on a piece of paper along with their pictures, stick it to the front of my video cart, and hope no-one notices while I surreptitiously glance at the picture before barking out an order. Back in Britain this would be sacrilegious as Westlife have had 4 Number One hits in a row – must remember to get autographs for the godchildren.
The label wants something very “down to earth” – no fancy sets – so we’re shooting in a carwash in the valley owned by a friendly chap called Homer who takes great pride in his business. Everything is painted bright yellow and black, very graphic. Just the place to shoot the American dream: cute girls, chrome plated cars and young guys in T-shirts.
The crew keeps referring to the band as Englishmen which is very un-cool as two of them come from Dublin and three from Sligo i.e. they’re all Irish. Calling them English is like asking someone from Calgary what it feels like to be Texan. You may not have been reading the papers for the last 200 years but the Irish and the British are 2 very different cultures and nations and rather a lot of bullets and rhetoric have been spent trying to sort this out.
When we reach the last set-up of the day the guys sing in 5 part harmony – a glorious sound. They finish off with the Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way”!