It's been 5 years since Kevin & Perry Go Large and while the party island of Ibiza remains a clubber's paradise the movies on the subject have been few and far between. The fad seems a distant memory and maybe audiences got their fill of it with extreme documentaries like Ibiza Uncovered but what It's All Gone Pete Tong (IAGPT) sets out to do is not only reinvigorate the British club movie but make it epic even for it's 90 minute running time. At its heart the film is a classic rise and fall biopic, think Johnny Depp in Blow or Al Pacino in Scarface , characters who rise to the top of their game only to have it snatched away so they once again have nothing.
IAGPT follows the fictional DJ Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye) who lives the life of a superstar on the Spanish island and thousands flock to dance at his feet. Then he begins to lose his hearing so friends and family soon disappear and he's cast alone into a silent, coke-fuelled world. He must then deal with his disability and this is where the film moves away from comedy spoof to a real story of triumph over adversity.
After a rapturous applause at a Brighton preview, former Dennis Pennis star Paul Kaye and the DJ behind the music in the film Lol Hammond were on hand to talk about the movie.
While there are the odd moment of ridiculousness, see if you can spot which dials go up to 11, Kaye is quick to point out that there's a lot more to the film. "I never call it a comedy," says Kaye "It never felt like we were shooting a comedy. It's been described as Spinal Tap for DJs and I don't think it's that at all, it never was. The tragedy outweighs the comedy."
The movie started as just a title from the producers Vertigo and the story began with the simple idea of a DJ in Ibiza. 30-year-old director Mike Dowse then quickly wrote a script in a matter of months and added the more serious element of disability into a mainstream comedy. "I don't think it's been dealt with in a movie," continues Kaye "It's got a disability angle that's positive because ultimately it saves Frankie's life. Frankie's heading down one way and his disability is his salvation." The filmmakers have already been congratulated on their careful plotting of the anger, fear and acceptance that accompany such a devastating lose. "We premiered in LA last week and there was a big deaf contingent. They really enjoy it, I don't think we crossed a line and they were really supportive."
As well as highlighting their music the film also takes a sympathetic look at the DJs themselves with many famous faces putting in appearances from Carl Cox to Pete Tong himself. Some can suffer from Tinnitus and Hammond points out how they've highlighted the problem, "We did a big screening in Leicester Square and there were loads of DJs in there, must have had 20 phone calls the next day from people who went for hearing tests. It really shook a few people up." While Kaye remembers the screening differently, "The biggest reaction we got was when I was pouring the coke down the bog and there's a hundred DJs going nooooo!"
As drugs slowly take over Wilde's mental state he's visited by the eponymous 'coke badger', a snarling, wasted physical representation of addiction or to put it another way, a bloke in a suite. "I hate CGI and Mike hates CGI," confirms Kaye "We got the coke badger off eBay, we had to wean it off heroin first." Just one of the ways the crew managed to stretch the half a million pound budget during a 5 and a half week shoot in Ibiza where it was one of the hottest summers on record. "It was tough," says Kaye "I couldn't speak for about three weeks after. I was getting a bit bored and waiting to get offered something that would really challenge me. I go for little jobs here and there and it's a frustration that you do things that 30 or 40 other blokes could do just as well."
While Kaye admits he isn't the biggest fan of Dowse's first film FUBAR he agrees they quickly formed a close bond. "He's definitely the best Canadian director I've ever worked with," jokes Kaye "That pillow room where I was there with the beard I was in with him for 12 hours I thought I'd finished it and he came up and said 'Paul, we're going to do it again' and I was so angry that I threw myself against the wall 5 times and that's what he got out of me. We had that kind of a relationship, it was a bit of an arm-wrestle." With Vertigo it was more of a risk with an untested director whose background was editing. "It was great the producers took him on," says Kaye "There wasn't a lot of money, he only had one film under his belt but he had a vision. I think he'll turn into an incredible filmmaker. The leap he's made from his first film to his second is phenomenal."
Kaye confirms that they came back from Ibiza with a whopping 85 hours of footage shot using the point and hope method. "He cast this specifically for actors comfortable with improvising. It's such a crazy environment to film in, you have to be left to your own devices in the clubs and party sequences. He's cut down what could have been a 2 hour full-on party movie so there was certainly enough stuff but he's gone for a more ambitious film." Kaye can admit that his DJ-ing skills leave a lot to be desired so it was a case of when filming in clubs to let the character take over. "It's all real clubs. We had 20 minute slots and I had to go up and DJ in front of nine and a half thousand pill-munching maniacs. There was a guy underneath me doing all the mixing I just took all the credit."
With a surprisingly small amount of action taking place in the hallowed clubs of the island the crew would have to be on their toes ready to film at any location. "Mike explained to me early on that it was going to be a 24-hour job," says Kaye "We almost got lynched in Ibiza Town , falling on people's tables and drinking their drinks. The scene right at the beginning where I spit whiskey into the crowd at DC-10, there were 3 huge tattooed Italians and they went nuts and we nearly got dragged out by two guys on crew and then we found out that the camera wasn't rolling so we had to go back and do it again."
Certain to succeed in the UK when released on the 20th May where clubbing is more part of youth culture the producers have already been to start pitching it across the Atlantic to the all important US who can make or break a low-budget British film. "In America we've been selling it as he's a real character and basically they believe it," grins Kaye "They've got web sites with a picture of Frankie Wild and a picture of me and there's a real debate over there as to whether he's real or not. It's been real fun marketing over there as they haven't got the connection to Ibiza that we have." First they've got to work out the cryptic title. "It's an iffy title," nods Kaye "but I quite like that fact that it's a rubbish title."
IAGPT is a funny yet touching indie movie that takes the best from Ibiza, the music, and mixes it with a deserving story. As Kaye sums up, "It was proper guerrilla filmmaking, there was only one way to do it, we just had to go for it. Everything you see onscreen; the clubs, the parties, the DJ-ing, the puking, the snot, it's all real. The taking of drugs I'll leave up for you to decide.it was a hell of a journey."
Richard Badley
It's All Gone Pete Tong and interview with Paul Kaye and Lol Hammond were at the Duke of York Cinema, Brigthon, brought to you by Lighthouse and Redbus Distribution.
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