UNDER THE VOLCANO
****
Director: Gracie Otto
Screenplay: Gracie Otto, Cody Greenwood and Ian Shadwell
Story Consultants: Joseph Nizeti and Jennifer Peedom
Principal cast:
Sir George Martin
Mark Knopfler
Jimmy Buffett
Sting
Stewart Copeland
Andy Summers
Country: Australia
Classification: M
Runtime: 96 mins.
Australian release date: 1 September 2021. Also screening at the Sydney Film Festival 2021.
During the dominant period of British pop music in the 1960s, Sir George Martin was one of the foremost record producers of the day, synonymous with The Beatles. He significantly helped make the ‘fab four’ globally famous, so much so that he was later referred to as “the fifth Beatle”. Dissatisfied with his employer, EMI, in 1965 Martin established his own recording company, Associated Independent Recording (AIR) and, later, in 1979, he set up AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat, “The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean”, under the shadow of an apparently dormant volcano. It was an untouched paradise and AIR became one of the most sought-after studios for many of the top musicians of the period. In Under The Volcano, Australian filmmaker Gracie Otto, looks at the 10 year life-span of this famous studio and talks to many of the band members who recorded there.
The studio was sometimes referred to as Fawlty Towers because of the down-home vibe of the place - the small staff of Montserrat locals were real characters and many developed fond relationships with the musicians in residence. An unseen Otto interviews a number of them here and you understand from their reminiscences how the hothouse atmosphere engendered friendships between the staff, the technical crew and the musos; the feeling was collegiate. The albums recorded at AIR Studios tended to pick up on the laid-back ambiance of the island and the bespoke Neve mixing console specially built for the studio had a unique sound that was reflected in the recordings made by it. Martin claimed that the space between the notes was as exciting as the notes actually played and, although he didn’t directly produce all the albums made in the studio, his philosophy seemed to rub off on many who worked there. Interestingly, the final record made at AIR Studios was The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels in 1989, just before Montserrat was smashed by Hurricane Hugo.
Interviews with Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers of The Police are frank and they discuss how Montserrat provided a platform for bands to come together, forget their differences and produce some of their most significant work (and get away from the paparazzi). These observations for Under The Volcano were also made by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Jimmy Buffet, Elton John and George Martin’s son Giles. Paul McCartney recorded Tug of War not long after John Lennon’s murder in New York. He arrived with loads of security but found solace in knowing that Montserrat provided a safe haven because it was a small island that wasn’t easy to reach. As it turned out, it was safe from nutters but not from the elements - most of the inhabitants lost their homes and the studio was severely damaged by Hurricane Hugo and the island was largely destroyed in 1995 and 1997 when Montserrat’s ‘dormant’ volcano erupted, wiping out the capital Plymouth.
It is something of an oddity that Under The Volcano is an Australian production, funded by Screen Australia and ScreenWest, until you know that the producer, Cody Greenwood, lives in Western Australia and spent some of her childhood on Montserrat. Gracie Otto and her team (especially cinematographer Hugh Miller and editor Karen Johnson) have delivered a well-researched account of a fascinating decade in popular music history that contains a wealth of original footage. It will make you feel as if you were there, on location, Under The Volcano.
Screenplay: Gracie Otto, Cody Greenwood and Ian Shadwell
Story Consultants: Joseph Nizeti and Jennifer Peedom
Principal cast:
Sir George Martin
Mark Knopfler
Jimmy Buffett
Sting
Stewart Copeland
Andy Summers
Country: Australia
Classification: M
Runtime: 96 mins.
Australian release date: 1 September 2021. Also screening at the Sydney Film Festival 2021.
During the dominant period of British pop music in the 1960s, Sir George Martin was one of the foremost record producers of the day, synonymous with The Beatles. He significantly helped make the ‘fab four’ globally famous, so much so that he was later referred to as “the fifth Beatle”. Dissatisfied with his employer, EMI, in 1965 Martin established his own recording company, Associated Independent Recording (AIR) and, later, in 1979, he set up AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat, “The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean”, under the shadow of an apparently dormant volcano. It was an untouched paradise and AIR became one of the most sought-after studios for many of the top musicians of the period. In Under The Volcano, Australian filmmaker Gracie Otto, looks at the 10 year life-span of this famous studio and talks to many of the band members who recorded there.
The studio was sometimes referred to as Fawlty Towers because of the down-home vibe of the place - the small staff of Montserrat locals were real characters and many developed fond relationships with the musicians in residence. An unseen Otto interviews a number of them here and you understand from their reminiscences how the hothouse atmosphere engendered friendships between the staff, the technical crew and the musos; the feeling was collegiate. The albums recorded at AIR Studios tended to pick up on the laid-back ambiance of the island and the bespoke Neve mixing console specially built for the studio had a unique sound that was reflected in the recordings made by it. Martin claimed that the space between the notes was as exciting as the notes actually played and, although he didn’t directly produce all the albums made in the studio, his philosophy seemed to rub off on many who worked there. Interestingly, the final record made at AIR Studios was The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels in 1989, just before Montserrat was smashed by Hurricane Hugo.
Interviews with Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers of The Police are frank and they discuss how Montserrat provided a platform for bands to come together, forget their differences and produce some of their most significant work (and get away from the paparazzi). These observations for Under The Volcano were also made by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Jimmy Buffet, Elton John and George Martin’s son Giles. Paul McCartney recorded Tug of War not long after John Lennon’s murder in New York. He arrived with loads of security but found solace in knowing that Montserrat provided a safe haven because it was a small island that wasn’t easy to reach. As it turned out, it was safe from nutters but not from the elements - most of the inhabitants lost their homes and the studio was severely damaged by Hurricane Hugo and the island was largely destroyed in 1995 and 1997 when Montserrat’s ‘dormant’ volcano erupted, wiping out the capital Plymouth.
It is something of an oddity that Under The Volcano is an Australian production, funded by Screen Australia and ScreenWest, until you know that the producer, Cody Greenwood, lives in Western Australia and spent some of her childhood on Montserrat. Gracie Otto and her team (especially cinematographer Hugh Miller and editor Karen Johnson) have delivered a well-researched account of a fascinating decade in popular music history that contains a wealth of original footage. It will make you feel as if you were there, on location, Under The Volcano.