The Sheffield Scenester

In July, whilst casually browsing through facebook I noticed Sean Bruce had posted a status asking if anyone was available to film Playground Mafia’s gig at the O2, they were to supply the camera and basically they needed someone just to ‘point and shoot’. So having always fancied myself as bit of an amateur movie-maker, I figured why not, after all what’s the worse that could happen?

I arranged to meet them down at Yellow Arch Recording Studios so I could pick up the camera, get a quick run down of how it worked and also have a couple of days to play with it before the O2 gig. We’d also arranged to have a quick interview prior to their practice session, and it was then that Sean had the idea of filming it.

Talking about a range of subjects, it was more of a sit down and chat rather than an interview, but that’s the way we like it, you get a much more natural response. The conversation just seemed to flow while they mentioned not only their upcoming gig at the O2, but also the fact that they were due to play a set up at Hinde House School to help raise money for The Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice. Talking about Tramlines, they were obviously proud of the fact that they had been asked by the Under The Stars social enterprise to do a gig for them and finally how the idea of covering the song ‘Touch Me’ by Rui Da Silva, was born.

Having finished that and with about thirty minutes of material ‘in the can’ so to speak, it was time to let them get a bit of practice in for the O2 gig, but not before being one of the first to hear the cover song. When all was said and done, I learnt quite a lot from the experience, namely when filming, lighting is quite relevant (apologies for the dark interiors), and surprisingly editing takes forever! On the bright side, good banter translates a lot better on film than it does on paper and so with a final thank you to Sean for filming, here for your viewing pleasure is the Playground Mafia Interview!