A few years ago, The Real Tuesday Weld were touring Europe with The Magnetic Fields. Being rather partial to exotic spirits, I asked for a bottle of Absinthe to be put on the rider in Copenhagen. It was duly delivered but unfortunately, it was the cheapest, greenest, most vicious looking version imaginable. It went straight into the fridge on the tour bus and remained there, virtually untasted as we criss-crossed Scandinavia and Germany.A few months later, I received a letter from Toon the driver of the bus who told me that after our tour finished, the next band on was Michael Schenker - a famous heavy metal guitarist from a German band called The Scorpions. After his first show, Michael found himself alone on the bus without anything to drink as Toon drove him through the night. On investigating the bus fridge, he discovered - and downed - our bottle of Absinthe in its entirety.
Mistake. Apparently, he turned completely green himself and had to be hospitalised for alcohol poisoning - thus missing the rest of his tour. So imagine the headline: "Monster of Rock unhorsed by fey English dreamers." Apologies to all the Michael Schenker fans.
Anyway, these circumstances have never put me off the drink itself and I was pleased to work with maverick director Ronni Raygun Thomas on his new spot for Le Tourment Vert absinthe - a very classy film for a classier drink altogether.
Bottoms up.
Lovely!
ReplyDeleteWow, the movie and score are ace and so fabulous.
ReplyDeletePoor Schenker.
Absinthe featured heavily in the Tate Britain Degas, Sickert, Toulouse-Lautrec exhibiton, the best part of which was tag-lined "Sex & Danger in the Music Halls".
a classic case of:
ReplyDelete'absinthe makes the heart grow fonder'
! :-) I gueth so.
ReplyDeleteAlcohol advertising is often beautiful and enticing; that is, except for Zwack Unicum.
Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteYes - I was the Ephemera society fair today - the alcohol ads through the ages are just amazing - even to a recent teetotaler.
ReplyDeleteThe Ephemera society fair? You do end up in some interesting places.
ReplyDeletetwas twice a pleasure and hopefully many more to come mr.coates
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I expected Michael to sound German though!
ReplyDeleteI keep returning just to play this movie over and over!! It's a real work of art and what strikes me, aside from the visual brilliance, is just how carefully put together and descriptive the score is, in bringing the whole piece to life, literally. Stunning. As addictive as absinthe itself.
ReplyDeleteThanks sally - and for the tip on missing comments. Blogger seems to randomly filter.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone posts here and it doesn't appear, that is the only reason why.
Toon! The driver.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool name.
And that, my friend, is a delightful advertisement for Absinthe.