The life and work unsung Scottish guitarist John McGeoch – who worked with the likes of Siouxsie And The Banshees, Magazine, Public Image Ltd and Visage across a number of years – will be highlighted in a forthcoming docu-film called The Light Pours Out Of Me.
Co-directed by Paul Sng (Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain) and Nicola Black (Mirrorball), the film looks into McGeoch’s guitar-playing which helped define the post-punk sound, as well as the work of the bands that he played with. It’s also "a film about loss, contextualised by a daughter who lost her father," a press release said, with an additional look at "a super talented maverick musician whose work is not – but should be – widely known."
The film is based on the biography John McGeoch: The Light Pours Out Of Me by Rory Sullivan-Burke, which includes original interviews with Siouxsie Sioux, Howard Devoto, Johnny Marr, Billy Idol, John Frusciante, Jonny Greenwood, Peter Hook and others. You can watch a trailer above.
In a statement, Sng said: "This is an analogue film framed from a digital age, employing a wealth of archive material across multiple formats, including Super8 (’70s), VHS (’80s) and MiniDV (’90s). The footage from now obsolete media enables the filmmakers to tell a story about a vanished world and explore what has been lost from decades past, juxtaposed with the loss felt by [daughter] Emily in losing her father and the world in losing a genius guitarist.
"This is John’s story, told by those who loved him most; his close family and the wider family of leading musicians who are all proud to have known and recorded with him."
A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign has been launched to help the filmmakers with the completion of the project, and its ultimate release. You can support the campaign, and help it reach its £40,000 target, here.
