Sam Lee 'The Ballad Of George Collins' by Andrew Steggall

David Knight - 1st Nov 2012

"The Ballad of George Collins is a gift of a song, full of story and pathos, made yet more vivid in Sam Lee's interpretation mixed by the legendary John Wood (of Nick Drake fame)," says Andrew. "I was given a free hand by Sam, bringing together a choreographer friend of his, Andrew Graham, and my own theatrical, arguably meta-theatrical, tastes to the story.

"Working with a tiny budget I focused the vision on three core elements, plastic, light and earth. The song's themes revolve around sex, death and venereal disease (staples of a certain brand of folk music) and while wanting to resist an overly illustrative approach I was keen to tell a story, set within a kind of waking dream, an unconscious playing-out of a young man's fear of the consequences of knowledge (the apple core beside the armchair, the morning after the night before).

"Drawn through layers of plastic, like veils of the subconscious, he moves from life to death via the whooping water nymph and the maiden of death, each framed by the red lips of temptation. Sam Lee is seen firmly as the impassive observer, the enigmatic story-teller only occasionally touched by the anguish of George Collins. Finally as he closes his eyes there could be a sense that the story is his own, a memory of lost youth and a recognition of the dark complexity of love and sex."

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=1it2M7-ME0Y