Legendary music promoter and director Dave McLean joins The Blurb’s Patrick Scott to discuss his new film Schemers. The film tells how he came to promote and manage some of the biggest bands ever, like Nirvana, Iron Maiden and Placebo. He also regales on some extraordinary stories about the music business, as well as future projects.
Pat:
Why did you choose to direct the film yourself?
Dave:
I’ll tell you exactly what made me direct it myself. Because the first director we had was rubbish so we fired him. We had to scrap the first shoot which was five weeks. And I thought, you know, I’ll just do this myself. So, I did it with my editor who edited what we had of the first film. We did a re-shoot six months later. It was funny because we shot the first part in May, it was really sunny, sunshine, 80 degrees, brilliant. Six months later, we shot it at winter. It was minus 10, but the sun was shining, right. We managed to make it look like it was at the same time, but there’s a bit where they’re filming on the pier and their smoking some joints – that was minus 10, right there. We’re in the car with hot water bottles trying to keep warm and we had to come out and make it look like summer, so it was really, really weird.
That’s how I ended up doing it because the first thing was a shambles. That’s why in the movie, you’ve got a lot of talk-over and voice-over because there were so many mistakes in the first bit, that the second bit we had to cut things and you had to voice over bits just to make it work.
Pat: You mentioned the editing and how you used a lot of voice-overs to make it work. When watching the film, that aspect feels very reminiscent of Trainspotting. Was that a deliberate decision to do it like that? Or was that just because of the editing that you had to do it?
Dave: It was kind of just because of the edit. It was funny cause I never thought it was like Trainspotting in the slightest until I watched it and thought ‘everybody’s going to think it’s like Trainspotting with the chase thing at the start’. It was never really intended to be like that because Trainspotting’s all about drugs and everybody’s getting smashed. There was no reference to that except for a little bit smoking, but it was a different style. It was only really because we had to do these freeze frames to link it because we’ve lost so much, you know.
Pat:
What were some of your film influences while making the film?
Dave:
Well, I’ve always been in music, I’ve always done bands and stuff like that, but I’ve watched loads of films and I like lots of films, films from way before your time, Scottish films I really like are Gregory’s Girl, That Sinking Feeling, Local Hero and stuff like that. Kind of a gentle comedy vibe, you know, not take yourself too seriously.
Pat:
Your whole life has been surrounded by music. Were there any musical influences perhaps for the film? Any bands or songs that might’ve guided your thinking?
Dave:
Yeah, most of the bands in the film that I either promoted, managed or made their albums. There was always a kind of connection with every band. The soundtrack was all relevant because I had a bit of a link with everything, so that sort of theme was running through it. I wanted to put in bands people would never had heard of. You know, some really good obscure tracks, like Fischer-Z is one of my favourite bands and that track ‘Pretty Paracetamol’ is just awesome.
A band called The Scarves who mean nothing, but had one great track. The Associates were from Dundee, I really like The View. Although The View is a different period, I like the songs. I thought, yeah, they fit. I was going to keep it all period, but like in Peaky Blinders, it’s set in the 1920s, but they have music by PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, so you can put any music in really. I tried to keep it, you know, late seventies as much as possible.
Pat:
The film is about taking big risks and seeing if it’ll pay off. How important is risk taking in your own life?
Dave:
Well, you do it all the time, don’t you? I mean, in the film, I’m a bit of a gambler on horses and when you promote bands, it’s a bit like backing a horse. When you back a horse, you look at the rider, the jockey, the trainer, the owner, the track, you look at all that. And when you take a band on, you look at the band, the form, how many albums have they sold, right? The jockey is like the manager, the trainer is the record company, you get that sort of comparison. Your kind of betting on someone. You pick a band like Nirvana, you know who the label is, you see what the buzz is, and you take a chance on them.
You’re always risking it. When you’re the promoter, you pay everything. The PA, the lights, the security, the advertising, the venue, you know, every single thing you pay. You risk it every time, and you’re just risking how many people go buy a ticket? That’s the gamble. That’s the throw of the dice. There’s nothing better than the day of the gig, there’s a big queue around the venue, then you go in and the band play. It’s great. But then again, there’s nothing worse when you’re expecting 10,000, and there’s like 3,000 in there and you want to shoot yourself.
Pat:
There are multiple occasions in the film where turn down a band that ends up being massive, like U2, for example. Are there any instances in your life where you’ve had big regrets turning down a band or gig that turned out to be massive?
Dave:
So, this is about 1978 or something, an agent phones me up and goes, ‘Dave, I’ve got this band for you. They’re awesome. They’re in New York, the singer – she’s beautiful.’ In those days, you couldn’t just go on the internet and look at pictures. He said she’s a gorgeous blonde girl, it’s brilliant. I said ‘what are they called?’ He said ‘Blondie’. I said I’ve never heard of them. He said special guest – The Ramones. I said ‘The Ramones? They’re past it.’ He said you’ll regret it, Dave. Of course, a week later, I get a package with pictures, and, wow! She looks great. I ended up booking Siouxsie and the Banshees, which was good, but I kind of regret missing out on Debbie Harry.
Oh! and The Spice Girls, although I don’t regret not doing The Spice Girls. I got offered The Spice Girls, but because of the nature of the bands we promote, it just wasn’t my sort of band. I remember the record company guy saying ‘Dave, got this band. They’re going to be huge!’ They always say this. ‘They’re going to be massive’. I said ‘what are they called?’ He said ‘I’ll just put the track on’, I hear ‘tell me what you want, what you really, really want’. I’m like Jesus. He goes look, I’ve even got names for them – Scary, Sporty, you know, whatever it was. I went Oh, wow, forget about it. I don’t regret things like that though.
Pat:
Given the film is portraying your own life, did you find it difficult having to exclude certain aspects of your life to make the film a bit smoother?
Dave:
No. It was only a quick snapshot, really. It’s only six months, you know, the next movie I’m doing is like a much bigger sort of operation. It was really only about getting the girl. We used to put on these discos at the clubs. We used to pay a D.J. £50, and we’d make a thousand pounds profit every time. Then we changed that business model to pay a thousand pounds for a band and making nothing, but it looked good for the image. It looked good to say, we just did The Cure, we did Simple Minds, but we never made any money like that. It was just about trying to impress people.
Pat:
What did you see in Conor Berry that made you cast him?
Dave:
He’s just a good lad, a nice guy, really good guy, good actor, gave a good audition. We went to the coffee had a good talk. I just really liked him. I wouldn’t say he was anything like me, but he kind of plays the part well. I’m a bit easy-going, and he’s a bit easy-going. I brought him over to the house a few times, we had few drinks. He met my mom, met my brother. I thought, yeah, this guy is spot-on for it. I think he did really well. He got loads of good reviews and he’s going to be in the next film as well, so I’m really looking forward to work with him again.
Pat:
Are you able to tell us a little bit more about the future projects you have coming up?
Dave:
Yeah. The future project is absolutely awesome. It’s basically when Dave goes to London. It’s 1986. I go there thinking I’m going to conquer the music business. But I get a job with the council and I’m doing these novelty acts, like Little and Large, sort of comedians, and doing all these things like bingo and tea dances and it’s terrible, and I’m just like ‘what happened?’ So, it starts there. And because there’s a lot of black people in the community, I start booking lots of Reggae bands, and my boss hates that. I end up getting fired and getting another job.
It ends with me promoting Nirvana and Green Day and then I get Placebo. I shared a house with this guy called Scott Young. Basically, Scott and I, two guys from Dundee in Hammersmith, he’s doing what he does. I do what I do. And we kind of go our separate ways, but he’s always on the periphery trying to protect me. When you’re a promoter, there’s always something going on. And although he was doing his thing, he was always very protective. He sorted stuff out. But it’s kind of scary. It’s dark as well. Of course, the soundtrack will be brilliant, it’s exciting, fast paced.
Pat:
I understand all of the film is true. How much of it though did you have to chop and change to make it work?
Dave:
For example, the Jack Vettriano story painting. If Jack Vettriano had an exhibition in New York, he would have 50 pictures, and take in 100 million dollars a night – he’s massive. What actually happened there was, it had nothing to do with a Priest. That’s just my idea. What actually happened was I was working in Timex, which is a watch factory. This guy, Angelo Vettriano owed me 20 pounds. And he says, ‘look, Dave, I haven’t got £20, but I’ve got a sketch by my cousin Jack’. I said ‘a sketch, what would I want with a sketch?’ ‘No, honestly, Dave, listen, the guy is going to be huge. He’s got a buzz about him. He’s going to be a big, big artist.’ I said let’s see it. He brought a sketch and it was just a sketch, you know. I was like just give me the 20 quid, Angelo. And I never got the picture obviously. There’s a sort of creative license there, but the actual story is true about me turning down the sketch.
Pat:
What would you like people to take away from the film who aren’t really familiar with the story or lifestyle?
Dave:
You could be from any place, Melbourne, Rio Di Janeiro, Boston or whatever. You could be stuck in a big housing estate with loads of losers doing glue and heroin, and you think this isn’t for me, what could I do? Right. Let’s think of an idea. Let’s do a Disco, let’s put a band on, let’s do this. Basically, it doesn’t matter where you are, and it sounds a bit corny, but whatever dream you’ve got, you can easily do it. I mean, if I could do it, anybody could do it, let’s be serious. You don’t need to settle for anything, because you can do anything. That’s it.
Schemers is available on-demand via iTunes, Google Play and Sony PlayStation from 12 May 2021.
Patrick Scott
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- My Name is Gulpilil: Interview with director Molly Reynolds
- The Killing of Two Lovers – Interview with director Robert Machoian
- Timothy Spall (Mrs Lowry and Son) – interview
Patrick Scott is a recent graduate from Monash University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Communications. He is a freelance film reviewer based in Melbourne, and contributor to The Blurb.