Ecosse 206 is top of the Pops

The strangest of phone calls came to Ecosse from Sony records recently. The entertainment giants were asking if we could provide five very visual Peugeots for a video shoot for their new signing called 'Spin City' and their first single 'Landslide'. This request being a bolt from the blue and at only a weeks notice really made us think that someone was having a laugh, but it was very real! Sony's film producer insisted they needed our cars as they best reflected the image of cruising. While the producer was checking out our website our very own 206 was drawn to the director's attention for the car to be used as the 'hero car' as they referred. The 206 had been singled out to become Spin City's own cruise car for the video shoot. This meant that it would be used as the main feature for the whole of the video. The only down side to the 206 being the main car is the sticker had to come off for advertising purposes, as MTV see this as 'product placement' and have strict rules on these matters. The other Ecosse cars used in the video were Diane's V6 mint cab, Matt's T16 green sedan, Rab's 306 yellow turbo, Dave's wide arched burnt orange 306.

To explain to anyone that hasn't been on a video shoot before, it was hard work, sounds a joke but it was. Serious amount of time, special camera angles, lighting, lens and a whole lot of stressed out crew knowing they are up against time to wrap it up. Even after about 12 takes and getting a scene just right someone highlights that the band had'nt been wearing their seatbelts. Scrap the last 45 minutes shooting and start again! The twelve hour shifts each day, hanging about waiting to move the cars into different positions, cleaning, rehearsals and getting the 206 on and off the low loader so the group could be filmed cruising down a suburb in Swindon lipsinking to their contagious new song.

We couldn't help hearing the chorus over and over on the first day in our heads. We won't mention any names to protect the guilty but the foot tapping, moved into knowing the full song within two days. On the first day the sunshine came out as we watched the camera monitors that set the scene on our 206 for the opening shot. A massive camera crane viewed the 206 from the front bumper, then moved over the bonnet, then the roof, and finally taking the rear view of the car driving in to the 'cruise'. Matt did the rehearsals until the group was ready to do some takes.

Gez from Max Power magazine was also there with his project Honda that was one of the moving cars at this 'cruise'. It was interesting to watch how these video's are put together, but because it was repetitive at times it bordered on the boring too. When watching the whole video you have the impression there is four guys singing the song walking down the middle of the cruise in one take. Totally straight forward. Well thats not the case, there is around six or seven takes of that scene only. Then there's a take of each guy walking down the middle of the cruise but the camera fixed only on him. This sometimes happens about three times on the one guy to get the right shot. Of course there is four guys so each have three takes each. This results in that scene which might be for 15-20 seconds of the total video time of 2.58 mins having 19 takes. This certainly makes me sure we won't be attending S-Club Seven's video shoot in the future as it was bad enough with four!

Once the day time scene was over the dust started to fall and massive flood lights were switched on. The burnout scene was aided by a smoke machine and Russ Swift who is famed for his stunts and his car parking abilities with a MG Montego in the 80's. Through I'm pretty sure most of the other cruisers there could have provided the burnout stunt free of charge as the probably perform this stunt more often than Russ! Time was passing and finally the last shot of the day was complete as the 9am to 9pm shift ended.

Next day we were due to start at midday as the shoot was scheduled to finish at midnight. The day was rainy and bleak. All the cars had to be polished and made up to be as shiny as a summers day! It was far from it.

While everyone was preping the cars, Matt and Diane went out with Melissa the producer to overlook the shots of the 206 on the low loader going back and forwards in a street in Swindon. The locals seemed interested in the circus of camera crew, seriously blinding lights make-up and hair artists trailing the 206 and a singing group with lights inside the car to give that sunny day effect. The rain never gave up until, three hours later when we returned back to the air base.

After returning from Swindon some shots had to be done outside for an hour. The drizzle was back again and made short work of our earlier polishing efforts., It was around then that you couldn't help feeling sorry for those extra's, as they were wearing their little summer tops and still had to pretend it was a warm, dry afternoon in the cold, wet day. They were not happy but had to look it. The director always seemed to be shouting at someone but it must be difficult to get everything where you want it.
There are four guys who make up Spin City Chris, Nathan, Ash and Connor who to our surprise were down to earth nice blokes who constantly went out of their way to speak to us about anything and everything. They had just been ordinary blokes with ordinary jobs now with a special chance to make it big. It's too easy to pigeon hole each boy band but we rarely get the chance to know them as real people instead of the manufactured way they are presented to us, the public. It seems odd to us the people that seemed most pretenious was the extras or the 'beautiful people' as they were referred. The majority of the extras seemed to be so self absorbed that they constantly chattered about their latest 'movie' or 'commercial' while pawing the paintwork. This was the down side to this fake cruise, because real cruisers have more respect for special cars.

Good luck to Chris, Nathan, Ash and Connor alais Spin City with their first release 'Landslide'. Watch out for the video starring the 206 on The Box, MTV and VH-1 from the end of June.