Andy McGregor, writer and director of Battery Park, reveals the real-life band that inspired the play with live music coming to our OneTouch Theatre this October.
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My new show Battery Park is the fictional story of a Britpop band from Greenock that almost made it. It looks at a bruised and bitter mid-forties main character and flashes back to his youth in the nineties when his band almost became the next Oasis… almost.
In one of the drafts, I wrote the line "music is the closest thing we have to a time machine". That got me thinking. I thought back to the days of my own band Blind Pew (why we were called that, I can't recall), some of which makes it into the play. I thought about the excitement and fun with pals but also the boredom, the arguments and the crushing disappointment that comes with the territory.
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We don't have many candid photos from the time as this was before the age of smartphones, but it's incredible how quickly images and people come rushing back into my head when I play our old albums.
Hearing your younger self is an interesting, and complicated, thing. I can't but help attach it to mistakes made, things I wish I had done differently, all the usual stuff... but there's also a part of me that enjoys hearing the pure love that I clearly have for making a racket!
We made one ‘official’ album with a record label supposedly backing us - that I don’t think any of us like - but before that we made a tonne of music. I was always recording, buying more equipment and creating with the rest of the band.
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The feeling I get when listening to this music, jumping back to 2003 (or thereabouts) is what I want to explore with Battery Park. Music is a powerful tool that can remind us of our younger selves, of good (and bad) times. It transports us somewhere else. As close to a time machine that we will ever get.
This blog was written by Andy McGregor (Writer + Director, Battery Park)
Battery Park is a play with live music from the writer and director of the five-star Spuds and Crocodile Rock. It’s about Britpop, glorious defeat and working-class dreams. A funny, earthy play that packs an emotional punch that resonates long after the final note.
Presented by Sleeping Warrior Theatre Company + Beacon Arts Centre. Supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund.