When recuperating after a near-fatal brain haemorrhage in February 2005, the only words Edwyn Collins could say were “yes”, “no”, his wife’s name “Grace Maxwell” and “the possibilities are endless”.
The Possibilities Are Endless is the title of a haunting new film by Edward Lovelace and James Hall, who previously directed a 2010 documentary about the DIY music scene in the States entitled Werewolves Across America. Lovelace and Hall present an unflinching and immersive film that is at times disturbing and frightening, as it quite literally seems to get inside Edwyn’s head — but it is ultimately an uplifting, beautiful and very moving piece of work. Paul Linehan of The Frank and Walters has very fond memories of working with Edwyn on their EPs ‘The Happy Busman’ and ‘This is Not a Song’ and their debut album Trains, Boats and Planes.
“Edwyn was full of life and a very, very witty man,” Linehan recalls. “He used to adopt these characters in the studio. One of the characters was called Zop, who was a caricature of a burnt-out 80s producer who was away with the fairies. They were probably based on people he met in the 80s when he was working with Orange Juice.
“My favourite character of his was Archie Kettle, who was an East End villain who used to hang around with the Kray Twins and fought in World War Two. He’d put on an accent and tell you to get your shooter. It was great working with him because he is great fun, very bright and very intelligent. He knows everything about everything. He is a very wise man.”
Prior to working with Collins, Linehan only had a very rudimentary knowledge of his music.
“I only knew Orange Juice through ‘Rip it Up’,” Paul says. “I only got to realise and appreciate how good they were later on. He produced us because he worked with the other bands on our label and he knew our manager. When we worked with him, we realised what a good musician he was and what an amazing sense of melody he has. He helped us enormously. He had thousands of effects pedals and he was big into Northern Soul, so he was great with strings. He helped out on ‘After All’ and came up with the string parts. I just left the room for 10 minutes and I came back and he had the string parts done. We re-recorded the song with Ian Broudie [Lightning Seeds] and we incorporated elements of Edwyn’s version into that. We had two bites of the cherry and it was brilliant to have those opportunities.”
“He is a very talented man, but I also have a lot of time for his wife Grace,” Linehan continues. “She is a lovely woman. She liked our band as well. We had a b-side called ‘The World Carries On’, which she liked a lot. I remember getting on great with her.”
Linehan says he hasn’t seen Edwyn or Grace since around 1998, but is greatly looking forward to catching the moving new film based on the couple. “Looking back is not me,” Collins says in The Possibilities Are Endless. “Looking forward is the way.” 
The Possibilites Are Endless opens at the IFI tomorrow and screens at Crane Lane Theatre, Cork on December 6 as part of the IndieCork film festival.