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director
Michael Geoghegan
producer
Louise Knight
production company
Moonlighting / Why Not Films
studio
Film Lab South Africa / Soho IMA
genre
Outdoor Performance
source
War Babies [Bascombe Mix Single Version] (4:19)
background
The idea was formulated by Andy Earl and Stuart Mackenzie who were pencilled in to shoot both promotional
videos for Neapolis. Unlike the Glitterball video,
the concept was a little more vague, and still being discussed during the Glitterball EPK shoot:
SM: Well, the next one, for War Babies, which Andy and I are doing.
JK: But you and Andy are drinking with Charlie about it tonight.
SM: Exactly. We've got an idea nailed. And it'll probably be even bigger than this. But in a more simple form.
AE: And sunshine.
SM: And sunshine. A bit of climate. In fact, we were thinking of going to Nice because it would be handy for you.
AE: Or Mexico.
SM: Nice or Mexico. Whatever's more convienient for you. [Laughs]
AE: We're planning on doing this in Cape Town - the next one.
JK: Any reason why Andy?
AE: Because of the women really. And the surf. That's the main two reasons.
Stuart MacKenzie and Andy Earl
Glitterball EPK (Unused footage)
The overall concept was kept, and the band and team assembled in Cape Town, South Africa on the 21st March 1998. However,
neither Andy Earl and Stuart Mackenzie were there; instead seasoned video director
Michael Geoghegan was behind the camera.
comments
A walkabout video, where Jim and Charlie explore
the outer reaches of Cape Town, before returning home. It doesn't feature the usual tourist traps, but instead features deserts,
forests, railway tracks and high-tech satellite installations.
Is Jim a ghost, rising from the dead in the opening seconds? Although he doesn't
seem to interact with many of the people in the video, just being a detached observer, he does exchange looks with the young boy
on the railway tracks. But the whole video does have a dreamlike, ghostly quality to it, shot in soft focus with lots of blurring
at the edges.
One of Simple Minds' best videos, thanks to the amazing imagery (particularly the sequence around the satellite dishes or the
children attempting to outrun the plane), but its connection and interpretation of the song remains elusive.
availability
The video was widely available as it was a bonus track on the
War Babies eCD. It was also included on
the Seen The Lights - A Visual History DVD several years later.
collectors' information
Chrysalis distribed videos in custom colour picture sleeves. The videos themselves just had simple
artist and song title stickers:
trivia
The video was shot in late March 1998.
The logos and text displayed on the monitors in the final parts of the video were animations from the band's first website (which
ran from 1998 to 1999).
archive
Twelve reels of the original 16mm film exist in the Universal vault. This is around six hours of the
'walkabout' footage which was used to create the video. It was all shot on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of March 1998.
It was all transferred to ten Digital Betacam tapes on the 24th March.
The final video was created on the 4th April 1998 with a master and two protection copies. One of the protection
copies had new audio dubbed onto it in August 2003 as part of the Seen The Lights
project.
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