Dig

This is a film about the genesis of one modern pop band and the nemesis of another. If you are in the slightest bit interested in, for example, what motivates the shambolic Pete Doherty, why some kids dedicate their lives - sometimes throwing them away - to the siren charms of popular music, then this film provides some rare insights.

Some kids just want to be famous; they are the easy ones to understand - lusting after money, sex, and drugs. But it's the other ones who are more interesting, those who genuinely seek to express themselves musically; the likes of Dylan, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell. But what about the ones who are convinced they have a huge talent, and can even convince a number of others, but somehow cannot translate it all into success. Dig is about this conflict.



It features an underground band, The Brian Jones Massacare, led by Anton Newcombe and another group of young musicians who were attracted to the BJM but ultimately broke away to enjoy conventional success. It's based on 1500 hours of documentary footage shot over seven years from 1997. Some of it is repetitive and tedious, but the figure of Anton is at once charismatic and repulsive. He has an ego the size of Alaska, a furious contempt for most other people and, probably, a severe personality disorder (i.e. he's bonkers).

We see an interview with his parents; his mother had no understanding of this strange creature while his father freely admits he was a useless parent - and commits suicide shortly afterwards. Anton is much seen in the film: manic, stoned, fighting with band members, abusing audiences and behaving like a two year old with the powers of an adult.

The power Anton wields is - so his band-mates and admirers passionately attest - a musical ability akin to genius. This reviewer has always been unsure about the 'g' word - so promiscuously bandied in popular music. He does not seem that good, but a fair dose of wild rock and roll charisma definitely shines through.

Anton was apparently dedicated to forging a revolution in the corporate music world - making music free and maybe other things which I missed. It was all a bit academic in the end as he behaved so badly, and was so ruined by drugs, that his massive outflows of energy achieved virtually nothing.

Meanwhile Courtenay Taylor, who narrates the film, had been attracted to the anarchic lifestyle of the BJM and for a while joined it together with some of his musical confreres to help forge the 'revolution'. Both dazzled and repelled by Anton they eventually evolved from the primeval social soup of the BJM into the Dandy Warhols, also famously 'bohemian', but with a keener sense of what people wanted to hear. Consequently they began to make commercials and record successful records, while Anton hurled insane contumely at them for 'selling out'.

Dig is not always easy to follow, but if you stick with it you begin to understand a little of the mindset of these strange non-achieving, artistic spirits, these tortured morlocks, striving away in the bowels of the music business.

Maybe it was all a matter of how they were brought up: BJM, dysfunctional tearaways who made a lot of noise but never grew up and the Warhols, more bourgeois in background and aspiration, who lived the dream, played to millions, got married, bought cars and lived in houses.

Anton apparently is still touring and maintaining his furious output of new songs. One day he'll probably be 'discovered' and this film hailed as a prescient masterpiece. At the moment it's not, but it's the nearest thing to a genuine version of This is Spinal Tap and worth seeing if only for that.