News

Unkle guest vocalist and Shane Meadows collaborator Gavin Clark has died.

News of the singer's passing was posted last night (February 16) on Clark's Facebook page by his management.

"Gavin Clark tragically passed away last night," the message read.

"Until a full statement is released, we ask the press to respect the family's request for privacy at this time, so that they can grieve in peace."

The frontman of folk three-piece Clayhill, Clark featured on the tracks 'Keys to the Kingdom' and 'Broken' on Unkle's 2007 album War Stories.

He sung on several tracks on follow-ups End Titles... Stories for Film and Where Did the Night Fall.

Clark was the subject of Meadows's 2007 documentary The Living Room. He also provided the music for several of the director's films.

Clayhill's cover of The Smiths' 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' closed Meadows's This Is England, and their track 'Afterlight'...

Shane Meadows has made a career of chronicling the messy complications of regular life. Whether it's in his ongoing "This Is England," or in efforts such as "Somers Town" and "Twenty Four Seven," the filmmaker has taken an observational and personal approach to storytelling. But for this latest effort, he turns the camera to a close friend, the result is "The Living Room," and you can watch the whole thing right now. Running just a shade under forty-minutes, the documentary — which circles back to a few years ago — focuses on Gavin Clark, Meadows' friend, musician, and former member of Clayhill, and his battle to return to the stage. He begins by hosting a series of solo living room concerts, and after his music for Meadows' "Somers Town" gets critical acclaim, he makes his way back on the big stage once again. Check out the low-key film below.

The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival launched yesterday under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and events from both established and upcoming talent over a 12 day celebration of cinema. The Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 111 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes, and other special events. The 56th BFI London Film Festival will run from 10-21 October 2012. This year sees the introduction of several changes to the Festival’s format. Now taking place over 12 days, the Festival expands further from its traditional Leicester Square cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square...

Announced yesterday, the programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival brings a rich and diverse programme of international films and events from both established and upcoming talent over a 12 day celebration of cinema. The Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 111 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes, and other special events.

This year sees the introduction of several changes to the Festival’s format. Now taking place over 12 days, the Festival expands further from its traditional Leicester Square cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and Empire – and the BFI Southbank to include four additional new venues – Hackney Picturehouse, Renoir, Everyman Screen on the Green and Rich Mix, which join existing London venues the Ica,...

One of the clear victors emerging out of Telluride was Ben Affleck‘s The Town follow-up, the political hostage thriller Argo. Featuring a great ensemble including Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman, the film received top-notch reviews for its mix of thrillers and comedy and now we’ve got word it’ll be showing at another prestigious festival.

BFI London Film Festival announced their promising line-up today, which includes Argo, as well as Michael Haneke‘s Amour, Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, Michael Winterbottom’s Everyday, Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa, Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone and much more. Check out the complete line-up below, as well as WB’s first TV spot for Argo.

London, Wednesday 5 September: The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director,...

The line-up to the 56th London Film Festival has just been announced and you can see the list of movies coming to the greatest city in the world below. We already knew that Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and Mike Newell’s Great Expectations would open and close the festival respectively but now we have the rest of the movies coming to London Town.

Let us know your thoughts on the line-up below in our comments section.

The Festival itself runs from October 10th to October 21st and we’ll be doing our best to bring you reviews from as many films as we possibly can!

London, Wednesday 5 September: The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and...

Unkle have finished work collaborative Ep titled "Only The Lonely," featuring Liela Moss (The Duke Spirit), long time Unkle vocalist Gavin Clark, Rachel Fannan (ex Sleepy Sun), and the inimitable Nick Cave. As usual, Cave rules on the bombastic track, almost overcoming the Ep opener "Money and Run."

Money And Run (feat. Nick Cave) by Unkle

[Stereogum]

Fulll track list of the Ep:

Money and Run (feat, Nick Cave)

The Dog Is Black (feat, Liela Moss)

Only The Lonely (dub)

Wash The Love Away (feat. Gavin Clark)

Sunday Song (feat. Rachel Fannan)

The Ep is out April 4th on Surrender All, and will be followed by a full release of an extended version of Unkle's 2010 release "Where Did The Night Fall" - called "Where Did The Night Fall - Another Night Out" on April 11th. The new version includes selections from the last two Ep's and exclusive tracks.

Edinburgh International Film Festival

Seldom can such a fine feature-film have had such an unlikely genesis as the wonderful coming-of-age comedy-drama "Somers Town", initially commissioned as a 20-minute short by train company Eurostar to publicize their high-speed London-to-Paris connection. Hats off to the organization for allowing director Shane Meadows and writer Paul Fraser to organically develop this seed into a proper movie, one which confirms Meadows as among the most accomplished -- and now, after a couple of early-career hiccups, consistent -- British film-makers under 40. While unlikely to repeat the commercial success of Meadows' last effort, skinhead saga "This Is England", "Somers Town" is just the kind of heartfelt, superbly-observed miniature that will attract passionate admirers wherever it's shown.

Crucial to the film's success are the terrific central performances by Thomas Turgoose (youthful star of "This Is England") and newcomer Piotr Jagiello as Tomo and Marek, both around 16, who end up in the same scruffy corner of north London for wildly divergent reasons. Scrappy, diminutive Tomo has fled his native north-Midlands and a deeply problematic home life, which he's reluctant to discuss; lanky photography-nut Marek has arrived with his hard-drinking father, who's found accommodation in Somers Town while he working on the Eurostar rail-link at nearby King's Cross. After initial friction, the pair rapidly become best pals and rivals for the affections of French waitress Maria (Elisa Lasowski.)

Shot on monochrome HD, "Somers Town" doesn't appear much at first glance. The situations depicted are decidedly undramatic, chronicling the kinds of things youngsters get up to in the summer when they have time on their hands and limited cash. But we soon realize that while the script relies on vivid humor, it manages to do so while unobtrusively reminding us of these eminently believable characters' difficult perhaps even tragic circumstances and backstories.

Meadows and cinematographer Natasha Braier present their story with a gritty, unfussy lyricism that finds unexpected glimpses of beauty in overlooked corners of London. Though black-and-white for most of its running time, there's an unexpected, colorful coda which ends proceedings on a truly joyous note by which point you may find this deceptively slight little picture has, on the sly, built quite an emotional wallop.

Production companies: Tomboy Films / Big Arty / Eurostar. Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Piotr Jagiello, Elisa Lasowski, Ireneusz Crop, Perry Benson. Director: Shane Meadows. Screenwriter: Paul Fraser. Executive producers: Greg Nugent, Nick Mercer, Robert Saville. Producer: Barnaby Spurrier. Director of photography: Natasha Braier. Production designer: Lisa Marie Hall. Music: Gavin Clarke. Costume designer: Jo Thompson. Editor: Richard Graham. Sales Agent: The Works International, London

Not Rated, 75 minutes.