Oxford folk combo Stornoway have jumped on board the good ship of The Mitcham Submarine (aka Craig McNeil) for this nautical romp. With a song based on Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and a director with an aquatic alias, it would have been a shame to have gone any other direction…

Pitching Stornoway singer Brian as a weatherman depicting The Mariner’s turbulent voyage and other members of the band as some key characters (including a slightly creepy albatross), they finale on a rather wonderful ship-based set.

And the Mitcham Submarine briefly surfaced to explain the literary allusion: “Singer Brian is The Ancient Mariner in the guise of a modern day TV weatherman as he describes the journey of the doomed ship,” says Craig. “Band members Rob & Jon play the Wedding Guest and Hermit respectively. Bassist Oli reports in ‘live’ from the quayside of the launch of a ship, which in design is similar to another famously doomed vessel. One of the other characters in the video is reading The Mariner’s Mirror; a heavyweight nautical publication from 1911 which is still in circulation today.”

Stornoway
Knock Me On The Head (4AD Records)
Director: The Mitcham Submarine
Producer: The Mitcham Submarine / Suze Olbrich
Production Company: 4AD Records
DoP: Patrick Meller
Focus Puller: Murren Tullett
Gaffer: Philip Hurst
1st AD: Adam Lilley
Set Design: Anna Burns
Set Build : Karl Crick @ Karmer Set Builders
Artwork: Kirini Kopcke
Stylist: Jakob Brondum
Make Up Designer: Brigitta Smart
Make Up Assistant: Denise Kum
Make Up Trainees: Chloe Habachi, Gemma Albone
Projections: Oscar Lisshagen
DIT: James Bridgford
Editor: James Harman @ TC Soho
Colourist: Tom Knowles @ The Joint
Production Assistant: Liam Glyde
Runner: Josh Turner