Spike Island

When LWLies vis­it­ed the set of Spike Island back in March, writer Chris Coghill told us that it was his love let­ter to The Stone Ros­es. Whether you’re a fan of their music or not, any­one who’s been fired with a teenaged pas­sion for their favourite band that car­ried through to adult­hood will feel the ener­gy in a lov­ing­ly craft­ed com­ing-of-age tale that fol­lows five Man­ches­ter lads, with rock ​‘n’ roll ambi­tions of their own, over a week­end that will change their lives forever.

Coghill couldn’t get a tick­et for the Ros­es’ leg­endary gig at the site of an old pow­er sta­tion in Widnes back in the sum­mer of 1990. His lament for that missed moment fus­es a sharp and fun­ny script, cap­tur­ing an era when Mad­ch­ester was the cen­tre of the musi­cal universe.

Direc­tor Mat White­cross works won­ders on a small bud­get and, just as he did with the engag­ing­ly sur­re­al Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, deliv­ers a big expe­ri­ence with the inven­tive use of graph­ics and some breath­tak­ing 3D trick­ery to bring the gig to life.

Cru­cial­ly, the film had the sup­port of the band whose music is omnipresent here and helps define the nar­ra­tive as the boys chase the Fools Gold of tick­ets on their way to their Mersey Par­adise. And it’s the chem­istry of the leads that makes a jour­ney, not sim­ply rose-tint­ed, believ­able. Elliott Tit­ten­sor has the nat­ur­al swag­ger of a mag­net­ic indie front man lead­ing his band of mer­ry men on a mis­sion to see their heroes while Game of Thrones star Emil­ia Clarke bal­ances the brava­do as muse Sally.

Deserv­ing a place in the Brit music movie canon along­side the likes of Con­trol and 24 Hour Par­ty Peo­ple (where Coghill played Hap­py Mon­days mas­cot Bez), Spike Island reminds us of the pow­er music has in any rite of pas­sage dur­ing the glo­ry of one great night out with your mates.