DREAM CITY FILM CLUB

by Michael J. Sheehy

Dream City Film Club came together during the spring and summer of early 1995. I had been playing the North London gig circuit as a solo singer/songwriter for about 2 or 3 years when i met Laurence Ash and Alex Vald at the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town towards the end of 1994. They were promoting gigs there and must have seen something in my ragged drunken performances. Around April ‘95 Laurence’s band, Furlined, had split up so he was at a bit of a loose end. we decided to play together informally at first. After a couple of weeks or so we invited Alex to play guitar. Alex was by no means a virtuoso but we were struck by his unique approach.

During this time I had watched the demise of an excellent if inconsistent band named Breed. My brother urged an unemployed bass player to check out one of my solo performances. Enter Andrew Park. Whilst seeing some potential in our work Mr Park was worried by our short comings and was difficult to coax into the band at first. Eventually we set to work arranging songs I had written such as ‘Porno Paradiso’, ‘ When I Sleep’, ‘Vague’, ‘Do Myself Harm’, ‘Night of Nights’ etc. Eventually we started writing together ‘pissboy’, ‘If I Die I Die’, ‘Filth Dealer’. By July 1995 we had enough material to do a gig. I believe it was 31st July. We took the stage at the Bull & Gate for the first time under the moniker of dream city Film Club.

Much has been made of our name and where it came from, but the truth is that very little thought went into choosing it. I had seen a report on local TV about a man who was convicted of an arson attack on an exclusive pornographic cinema (of which the arsonist was a member) in the Smithfields area of London. I found the story of a group of men burning to death in such a seedy establishment tragically comic. Around the time of the case coming to a close we were booked to play but we had no name. The decision to call ourselves Dream City Film Club at first was a temporary one. Then it stuck.

We kept playing the North London circuit improving gradually. Towards the end of 1995 we recorded some demos for Epic Records, needless to say they were unimpressed with the way we had spent their corporate money.

In February ‘96 we played the Monarch in Chalk Farm. We blew the mind of Sean Worrell who runs the mother of all underground fanzines the ORGAN. Sean immediately wanted to put out a record for us. Our first release was a split 7” with Rhatigan (who was on the bill that night at the Monarch along with Hefner). our side was called ‘Crawl’. Later that year we recorded an EP for Organ. I guess it was around that time that Beggars Banquet became interested in us.

I can’t remember when we signed to Beggars exactly but I do know we started working on our first release almost immediately. The british press was pretty unanimous in its opinion of ‘Perfect Piece of Trash’ : “A discordant blob of sonic grease” and “pretty fucking horrible all told” were just two of the many charming things written about it.

We set about recording our debut album around October ‘96. Alex became ill during the session but we didn’t let this disrupt the recording process. the album was perhaps as over ambitious effort but no-one could pigeonhole it, and that suited us down to the ground.

In December ‘96 we recorded our first Peel Session at the Hippodrome in Golders Green, this time I was ill but it didn’t detract from the occasion.

The early part of ‘97 was spent touring England in support of ‘Perfect Piece of Trash’, ‘Pissboy’ and the album. We also played some dates with Placebo in France.

At the end of ‘97 we made an aborted attempt to record album no.2. The pre-production for the proposed sessions was disastrous and resulted in the band parting company with Alex. Undeterred we released ‘The Peel Sessions’ in April ‘98 and toured England and also played some dates in Belgium.

Reconsolidated and confident in our ability as a 3 piece we started recording what was to be ‘In the Cold Light of Morning’. In my opinion it’s a much more focused album than the first but without compromising our ideal that our music should encapsulate the extremes of emotion and expression.

In February ‘99 we recorded our second session for the John Peel show, 3 new songs ‘Licking the Bone’, ‘Gideon Blues’, ‘Dirty Little Cherub’ and covered John Cale’s ‘Close watch’ along with an old gospel song called ‘Nobody’s fault but mine’.

Our plans for the future are to work hard and keep busy - we suggest you do the same.

MARCH ‘99

Michael John Sheehy - Guitar, Vocal

Andrew Park - Bass

Laurence Ash - Drums

IN THE COLD LIGHT OF MORNING

Killer Blow
Nerveshot
Billy Chic
Spitting
Sarah In Dreams
Fuck It Up
Stooge
Country Paranoia
God Will Punish The Pervert Preacher
Steal Away

There is a video for BILLY CHIC in the VIDEO LIBRARY

KKKKK ( ie. 5 stars!)
There's a darkly delicious air of perversity which oozes from the speakers as you spin this, the second effort from the lacivious lotharios of Dream City Film Club.

Since 1997's eponymous debut, the Londoners have stripped themselves down to a three-piece core and discovered more subtle ways of creeping into your psyche, but thankfully they've retained the subterranean rock swagger of their grime-encrusted art.

The brooding atmospherics of 'Killer Blow' find Michael J. Sheehy intoning like an opiate-soaked David Bowie against an aural hangover of slithering violins and chiming guitars, while the psychotic crescendos of 'Nerveshot' are a trash-happy reanimation of The Stooges' sleazy netherworld of dark desires.

Elsewhere, 'Billy Chic', a grinding and grubby narcotic croon, calls to mind classic Killing Joke with its loose riffing and dub-depth bass foundations, before the salaciouly slow 'Spitting and Stumbling' delves deeper into denegration with a swaggering stagger of abject malignancy.

Ultimately, Dream City Film Club have created an insalubrious masterpiece of diverse moods and unlimited spite. Wallow in its exquisite misery.

Ian Fortnam - Kerrang!

"Billy Chic" is the first original release this year for Dream City Film Club. The band are now a stripped back three-piece having risen from the smoking ashes of their first incarnation, more direct, even drier, and shockingly groovy.

"Billy Chic" is a party animal out on a lost weekend taking care of business. Produced by Charlie Francis, recently returned from working with REM, and engineered by Gareth Parton of Slot Jockey.

'Some' features the eccentric pairing of Brian Molko of Placebo on vocals and Ted Milton of Blurt on sax. 'Pissboy is Dead' is the band rocking in classic style but the pisscoat has been laid down to rest for good.

"Dream City Film Club tread a fascinating fine line between Gallon Drunk, The Doors and Bauhaus. Holding it all together all together are the songs, overwrought hothouse flowers that are only really happy on the swap. Sometimes, DCFC seem to be dragging them somewhere they don't really want to go, but when they have left where they belong-up to their grinding glam hips in Everglade tumescence- they are a wonder to behold. "Tonight We Are Devine" may sound like the national anthum of Arcadia, but ~Dream City Film Clublower their sights, keep it below the waist and rockn' roll the Penthouse/Crawl Limbo the way that God intended. Hallelelujah!"

-- Mark Luffman (Melody Maker)

Dream City Film Club's self-titled debut combines theatrical laments akin to a moody Suede with twisted gutter blues, sick romance and Victorian city stench.

**** - Big Issue Scotland

London's DCFC, fronted by the enigmatic Micheal J Sheehy, occupy the same shady region of the gloom-rock necropolis as, say, Tindersticks or Delicatessan. But while the others' sepulchres are festooned with wilted flowers, DCFC's is instead bedecked with a decomposing corpse left in full view. Songs like the clanging 'Shit Tainted Shades' and 'Pissboy' take pervy pleasure in being disgusting, while 'Filth Dealer' and 'Perfect Piece of Trash' descend nightmarishly into vile conflagrations of corrosive squealing. Despite being overwhelmingly downbeat, DCFC can also be sneakily provocative. Beautiful, even. As the tracks sleaze past, they reveal themselves to be both rancorous and raptuous, putrid and pretty. The Roy Orbison-esque (and, er, charachteristically life-affirming) 'If I Die I Die' is poignant and haunting; and 'Til the End of the World' is replete with Nick Cave-y stalctites of drawing melancholy that will leave you feeling utterly hollowed out. The real shock, then, is that you might actually find yourself willingly slipping into DCFC's acrid cesspool, drawn to their despair by the same force which makes the sight of a gory road accident so compelling. Perhaps there's a bit of a sick bastard inn all of us, after all

- April Long, NME

Named after an illegal Soho porn cinema that has since burned down, Dream City Film Club are sleazier than a pimps' convention, and quite magnificent with it. Evoking Iggy at his dirtiest, drug-addled best, the Dream City boys put some Birthday Party (the legendary Aussie outfit) and Doors in the spoon before heating it up. Music to get wasted to.

KKKK - Morat, Kerrang

The first release of 1998 from Dream City Film Club comes to you direct from the elegant music hall surroundings of the BBCs' Hippodrome Theatre in Golders Green.

Thanks to the patronage of John Peel, there lie herein emotional and blistering live versions of "Situation Desperate" and "Perfect Piece Of Trash", as initially performed on last summer's eponymously-titled debut LP.

The previously unreleased "Stick Girl" captures the anaesthetic anorexic of Billy chic in chilling style.

Polished off with the yearning beauty of "One Sweet Moment" - "it's all I ever wanted" - the Peel session EP is a statement of intent for the next year in a life of Dream City Film Club.

Link to the official DCFC site