Hot Press meets David Holmes

The last time myself and David Holmes got to hang was way back in September 1999 when we both ended up at a post-gig do for Joe Strummer in the old Belfast Limelight.

Ash’s Rick McMurray and a bag of super-strength Dutch skunk were also present – Joe never left his Somerset home without some – hence my unscheduled ferry-trip to Stranraer a few hours later with Mr. S and The Mescaleros.
“That was quite a night!” laughs the amiable 44-year-old, who’s back in Belfast after a spell in LA. “Joe was everything you wanted one of your heroes to be. I feel very privileged, like I’m sure you do, to have met him.”
I do indeed. The reason for our belated catch-up is the general release this week of Good Vibrations, the indie film that tells the story of another of our shared punk-era heroes, Terri Hooley.
“I was 10 when I first had the balls to take a bus into town on my own and go to his record shop,” Holmer reminisces. “Punk was my first love. I grew up with Rudi and The Outcasts; they were friends with my brothers and sisters and I really idolised them.”
A large part of punk’s appeal to Holmes and kids like him was that – unlike virtually every other aspect of Northern Irish life back then – it was non-sectarian in nature.
“Every music culture that’s come out of Belfast, whether it’s mods, rockers, skinheads, the acid house movement or punk, it’s all been by people who’ve rejected the Troubles,” he reflects. “It’s beyond religion. There’s a great bit in the film when a van they’re travelling in gets pulled over by the British Army and the soldier says, ‘Are you trying to tell me some of these people are Catholic and some are Protestant?’ And Terry goes, ‘It never occurred to me to ask’.
“Even amidst the Troubles, I loved growing up in Belfast. I don’t remember everyone being down and depressed. It was always happy, which kind of proves that if your parents love you and you’ve got a roof over your head it doesn’t matter.”
It seems only right that the film has been assembled by a group of people for whom Terri and his Good Vibes shop/record label were the touchpaper for their own artistic endeavours. These include directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glen Leyburn, executive producer Gary Lightbody, writers Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson and David, who takes care of soundtrack duties as well as producing.
“It was really important to all of us that the story was told properly. You wouldn’t believe the mountains Lisa and Glen had to climb on a daily basis to get it made. Funding was a huge problem. One minute we had money from the British Council, the next the guy arranging it all was laid-off. I know for a fact we’d have got a lot more money if we’d had a bigger name than Richard Dormer playing Terri, but from day one it was him he wanted. Did you see him as Alex Higgins in Hurricane? I don’t want to categorise him, but Richard’s like an Irish Michael Sheen. He inhabits the part.”
I imagine it was hard to keep Terri off the set. “No, he preferred to stay away,” Holmer reveals. “Terri’s actually incredibly shy. It’s only when he has the brandy in him that he goes into 100mph punk rock mode. When you watch the movie, he’s not always the hero and the great guy – you see every side of Terri, which is what he wanted. None of us, least of all him, would have been happy with a Disneyfied version of the truth.”
Along with the rave reviews Good Vibrations has been receiving – “I’m really happy how it’s being treated across the water; people are getting it” – David is also buzzing as a result of Searching For Sugar Man picking up a ‘Best Documentary’ Oscar last month. Director Malik Bendjelloul’s introduction to Sixto Rodriguez had come in 2002, when he heard ‘Sugar Man’ on Holmes’ Come Get It I Got It remix collection. The updated version of the song that Rodriguez recorded a year later for the follow-up David Holmes Presents The Free Association artist album only piqued his interest further.
“Another of those great Belfast nights was me DJ-ing at the Empire Music Hall show Rodriguez played before Christmas,” he enthuses. “It’s unbelievable, his story has touched so many people. A South African girl started shaking when she met him. It was like introducing her to Jesus! I’m so thrilled for the guy and his family – his daughters are just really sweet and protective of him. He’s the centre of their world, and vice versa. There was a bit of selective storytelling going on because he was also big in Australia, but that doesn’t detract from the immenseness of the film.”
“Immense” is also a word that applies to More Light, the new Primal Scream album, which is easily the best thing they’ve done since 2000’s vowel-misplacing Xtrmntr set.
“Another brilliant experience,” David notes. “There were three sessions in Belfast, then they came to LA four times and we had a ball. It was just really loose and they’re such great musicians. I’ve worked with a lot of talented guitarists in LA but, I tell you, Andrew Innes is up there with the best of them. He’s a phenomenal, raw talent. Bobby was firing on all cylinders too. They were hungry to make a great record. It’s dynamic and weird and really quite tender and then it goes to being like 180BPM high energy avant-rock ‘n’ roll.”
Would his Belfast studio be a bit tidier than the Primals’ infamous Bunker?
“Hmmm, The Bunker’s ahead on the tidy stakes,” he admits shame-facedly. “Mine’s a fucking disgrace. It sort of lay dormant when I was in LA. A lot of gear got lent out, and is now piled up in the corner waiting to be reconnected. I’m sure I’ll discover a few fossilised half-eaten kebabs when I eventually get round to clearing it out. At the moment it’s a complete health hazard.”
Having comprehensively cleaned their act up – Bobby, in particular, is drink and drugs-free these days – the Scream Team couldn’t have been more professional in their approach to making studio album # 10.
“They were in the middle of the Screamdelica tour, so we did a bit here, a bit there and gradually layered it up. The sessions with (The Pop Group’s) Mark Stewart and Robert Plant they did themselves in The Bunker, and brought them over to LA. Obviously Mani wasn’t around, so I got Jason Faulkner in, who’s another incredible musician, to play bass. There’d be overdubs and other little bits being added all the time. If More Light were for some reason to be the last album I made, I’d be happy to have it as an epitaph.”