THE JETTISOUNDZ STORY

I remember it well, a sunny afternoon in 1982. Karen and I had decided to go for it !!! It wasn't long before we discovered how difficult it was to earn a living managing local bands "One Way System" & "Zanti Misfitz". The "System" got off to a good start by being signed to "Anagram Records" and quickly made their way into the independent chart, whereas the "Misfitz", although signed to Mike Stone's "Clay Records", had many disappointments trying to gain attention. We eventually found a way to make a semi-professional video for the bands new single, which gained them a prime time TV spot on North West show Granada Reports. This didn't turn the act into pop-stars, but it did give us an idea for the future.

With the help of friends Russell Ingham & Steve Loach, we ended up with a very basic one camera film of the "Up Yer Tower" Punk gig in Blackpool. "GBH" headlined the gig with their album at No.10 in the UK National Chart. Whilst I felt certain it was a worthwhile exercise, we were unsure what to do next and reluctant to risk œ30 we didn't have on a "Sounds" mail order advert. People were telling us that Punks didn't have the money to buy video's and we wouldn't sell any !!!!

Then out of the blue a guy from Bolton called, asking if we knew a mail order company in Blackpool. He and his friend had sent money for Sex Pistol's videos that didn't exist. This was incentive enough and we took the advert. By the next Friday we had 5 orders and needed to find a way to make copies. The Jettisoundz Video label was born.

Then we filmed "Nico" in Preston at a Punk club. It just happened, it was Russell's Club ! It was one camera and a bit shaky, but an historic record and eventually released as a collectors issue. Next up was "One Way System" and "GBH" playing at the Ace Brixton, all filmed on borrowed VHS equipment. When the gig finished I checked the recording only to find the sound totally unusable. Nightmare !! So I looked for the Punk I'd seen earlier with a tape recorder. He accepted the bribe and I ended up with a soundtrack. In fact it was so much better than what we'd been getting into a VHS system that I bought a serious Sony Walkman and recorded the next batch of gigs that way.

The video label developed. Barry Gold called to say that if we could make covers for the videos he could wholesale them to the shops. Karen's artwork skills came in very useful as we introduced some packaging and moved on from hand written cassette labels.

It's interesting to note that at this time there were virtually no music video labels, with the majors reported as saying it could not be profitable. Along with Factory's "Ikon" and Paul Smith's "Doublevision" we were proving them wrong and setting the pace

I found a way to buy a VHS camera and recorder and during 1983 recorded a whole burst of gigs. We filmed a lot of Punk bands such as "The Exploited", "The UK-Subs" and "Peter & The Test Tube Babies"; along with material that wouldn't surface until later like "The Go Betweens". Our first multi-camera release "GBH Live at Victoria Hall", licensed from "Clay Records" got things moving sales wise, and entered the Top 5 of the newly formed video chart.

Things moved very fast from here on in. Via an old acquaintance Steve Hill, we discovered how to make two live cameras mix together onto one 3/4" master tape. So out we went. Three of us in a little red van. Karen and I did cameras whilst Steve vision-mixed and looked after the recording. With acts such as Alien Sex Fiend, Meteors, Chelsea, DOA, Black Flag & Hanoi Rocks, along with an amazing weekend filming what was to be the last "Stonehenge Free Festival".

The high spot of the year was undoubtedly the production of the first "Hawkwind" video 'Night of the Hawks'. We stayed up all the previous night making new video cables to run four instead of two cameras, drove to London for the extra cameras and film school crew making it to Ipswich for the gig at 4pm on the Friday. The gig was filmed in the most chaotic way, but it worked. We didn't have to get the cameras back until Monday so I got on the phone Saturday morning and we ended up doing "Ligotage" in Birmingham that day and "Screaming Lord Sutch" in London the day after. Not much sleep was had at all.

The Hawkwind tape was a milestone in that it was the first of our videos to feature conceptual, or made up footage along with the music. The problem was that there were long periods of darkness in the live master tape and something had to be done about it. So I created footage in a variety of ways, including some incredible staggered sequences discovered accidentally whilst rewinding the master tape through a time base corrector. The finished release resulted in our best selling tape to date, a No.1 in the video chart and some rave reviews in the music press.

A friend of mine in St.Annes, Tony Beck, had opened a recording studio called The Boiler House. His old school friend "Roy Harper" moved back to the area and began work on his new album. Tony encouraged Roy to re-new an old acquaintance and within a short time had "Jimmy Page" working alongside him on what was to become the "Jugular" album. This was followed up by a series of live gigs, four of which we filmed. The footage still sits in the archive !!!!!

We'd filmed the Toy Dolls at a gig in Blackpool and didn't have enough good footage for a live release, which was a rare occurrence. So off we went to Sunderland with one camera and went through the bands album, track by track and location by location. The final track was filmed in their rehearsal room and I said "there's probably enough tape for another" and Olga replied "Oh, we'll do Nellie then". We didn't really take it seriously, but ended up with a pretty entertaining clip.

Christmas 1984, "Nellie The Elephant" had been re-recorded and was No.4 in the national chart. We ended up with the clip on the, then new, network of video jukeboxes and it worked out as the no.1 choice for December (just for the laugh we suspect). Anyway the exposure and new contacts did prove to be another step forward.

We'd got to know a guy from London called "Joly" who had moved to Los Angeles and was working for a promoter bringing in UK Punk bands. He was really into communication's saying he'd moved to LA to find out about the Bulletin Board scene. So we got on. One Way System got some shows out there and off we went. Joly introduced us to "Flipside" who were making amazing low budget recordings of the West Coast Hardcore scene. We came home via San Francisco with our first non-music release, a performance by industrial artists "Survival Research Laboratories".

Making it into 1985, the next notable step was Robyn Hitchcocks "Hen" video. Based on filming of a live gig at the old Marquee, it uses much super 8 film along with additional music and footage to create an extremely diverse and interesting piece. By this time we'd got our own professional camera equipment and were taking the general content of our work a lot more seriously. The approach for live filming changed eventually as we moved away from live vision-mix to recording all the camera's individually and doing the edit later. We usually worked with three cameras and rather that a professional team, used friends with little experience who were plumbers, gardeners or the like. The key was for them to have an active interest in music. By taking this tack, we felt we were producing more abrasive and watchable music TV than the broadcasters could get anywhere near.

Although we kept on filming music concerts, we were suddenly making promo video's on Low Band U-Matic and getting paid quite well for it. Karen turned out to have an innovative talent for producing video to make heads turn, examples of which can be found in work for Alien Sex Fiend, Michelle Shocked, The Meteors, Psychic TV, Horse London, 2-Kut, Cud & 808 State".

During 1985 Karen made a fast moving promo for The Cherry Bombz "Hot Girls In Love", which did us more than a few favours at Midem the next January. Within a month we were in New York making promo's for "Relativity Records", with a full diary to follow. We usually got to include clips made on compilation tapes which was a bonus.

"The Zanti Misfitz" had eventually metamorphasised into "The Turnpike Cruisers" having Richard King on vocals and Karen on saxophone. Karen of course made a fair few wild promos for the band which can be seen on "JE147 The Trevor Whiteside Showcase". The Showcase was eventually to lead Jettisoundz in a new direction, that of TV producer. In 1987 we decided to make a wacky TV pilot show.

Our love affair with Psychobilly began during 1986. We'd filmed the "Guana Batz" a while back but here we were now at the "Klub Foot" with one camera. There wasn't the money for crew or more camera's as we'd only managed to get five releases so far in the year for the video label and income was down. We had to move fast and get more releases. The tape sold well and we were soon back up to full crew. Over the next couple of years (along with other things), we filmed just about every Psychobilly and Rockabilly band around. There was a realisation that the strength of what we had so far was in its specialisation. Jettisoundz had a niche and should stick to it. But it wasn't always that easy !!!!!

Summer 1988, the first episode of Turnpike TV was duly broadcast on MTV. We were ecstatic. The station had allowed us to build in advertising for the label as sponsor and although there were questions asked by the Cable Authority we were allowed to continue. It was a serious milestone for Jettisoundz and attracted serious attention to the extent of TV reports on Tony Wilsons "The Other Side Of Midnight" and BBC2's "Reportage", along with a quarter page article in the "Independent" newspaper. However it did turn out to be a bit too off the wall for MTV. The series was finished in the December and that was that. It had been incredibly hard work making one episode per month and carrying on business as usual, so off we went in another direction.

Turnpike TV caused Temple Records to contact us about showing some "Psychic TV" material, which led to my meeting "Genesis P.Orridge" for the first time. We got on well and were soon working with the band on a number of PTV releases. Genesis also gave us "Thee Films" featuring "William Burroughs" and introduced us to an associate in the USA where we acquired the "Kenneth Anger" collection of films. Whilst in Dungerness making a promo featuring Gen's daughter Caresse, we met Derek Jarman and subsequently released some of his experimentals along with feature films Jubilee & Angelic Conversation.

I soon realised that experimental and more cult orientated film work was a natural evolution of the niche situation that was our label and set out on a quest to find more material. I entered the British Film Institute with a three page list of films that I was keen to license. The reaction was positive, but I quickly became involved in the BFI's own desire to set up a video label and eventually landed a deal to manufacture and distribute for them. As time progressed the new label started to look more and more serious. What was originally planned as a conservative start evolved into "Sir Richard Attenborough" giving the launch event speech at Sotherby's and "Connoisseur Video" was born. The new label was run from the BFI side by consultant Ian Gilchrist, who was soon joined by video executive Jim Greenhough.

From our end, we needed a more manageable handle for the company's new role and began to trade as "reVISION". Distribution was shifted to the new look "Rough Trade" where we had set up a dedicated video department to deal with sales. This was the first time anything like this had been seen for indie or special interest labels and for a time worked very well. The first batch of Connoisseur releases were films by directors such as Wim Wenders, Pasolini, Jean Cocteau, Orson Welles, Jaques Tati & Roger Corman. Sales peaked with the award winning Aardman Animation film featuring "Creature Comforts". For our part we released such things as Svankmajer's "Alice" and the "Cyberpunk" documentary.

As time went on it became clearer that reVision/Jettisoundz needed help to survive the huge losses suffered as Rough Trade closed down. On November 23rd 1992, with new partner Iain McNay, "Visionary Communications" was inaugurated and a new era began.

John Bentham August 1994