DOES ANYONE TODAY REMEMBER THE BANG BANG? ARRIVING ON THE BRITISH MUSIC SCENE IN THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD BETWEEN GLAM-ROCK AND PUNK, THEY DELIVERED THE STRIKING DEBUT ALBUM ‘TWO-WAY ROMEO’ AND MADE AN IMPACT ON THE LONDON PUB-ROCK CIRCUIT BEFORE IMPLODING WHEN THEY WERE SURELY ON THE VERGE OF SOMETHING BIG.
Ring any bells? Perhaps it would help to mention that the vocalist and lead guitarist were conjoined twins, linked through the chest. Still drawing a blank? Well, that’s probably because all of this was the fictional creation of Brian Aldiss, now turned into a jaw-dropping mockdocumentary by the directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, the duo who captured Terry Gilliam’s dreams disintegrating in Lost In La Mancha. What they’ve achieved here, though, is a remarkable act of celluloid myth-making, shaped around the uncannily believable presence of siblings Harry and Luke Treadaway—who get the rockers’ posturing exactly right, off-stage and on—the utterly convincing songs written for the occasion by veteran producer Clive Langer, and cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle’s mesmerising facility for replicating the visual textures of grainy vintage ’70s film stock. Proving that the methods of This Is Spinal Tap are equally adaptable for seriously dramatic ends, Fulton and Pepe also ensure that a halo of mystery remains around the boys’ ultimate fate as drugs, woman trouble and some deeper psychosis usher them towards oblivion. No VH-1 special this; instead it’s something mysterious, haunting, yet rising to moments of electric intensity when The Bang Bang play live and the tremendous sound mix puts you right in the room with them. -Trevor Johnston.