CLUB SANDWICH 58

ALL MY TRIALS

            A lot can happen in 19 years. The charming simplicity of the 'Heart Of The Country' clip could scarcely be more sharply contrasted than by the arty, high-quality video for 'All My Trials', Paul's most recent British single, issued last November. Shot entirely in grainy black-and-white, the promo combined band footage with disturbing scenes of modern inner city life.
            So disturbing, in fact, that a minor rumpus was happily stirred up by the socialist Daily Mirror, which claimed in big bold front-page letters that the video was an anti-Tory, anti-Thatcher protest -especially as, by a complete fluke, it coincided with her being toppled as Conservative party leader and Prime Minister. It wasn't, actually - Paul wisely keeps his political leanings close to his chest - but it was, most certainly, a comment on the undeniably appalling state of Britain's social services as they presently stand. As Paul said in response to the Mirror story, things are quite clearly not right - it's not a question of who's at fault, just that there's a great deal of improvement required, and fast.
            The band sequences were shot on Friday 16 November - ten days before the single was released - at the Thames Water pumping station in Kempton Park, a mile or so down river from Hampton Court Palace. But only Paul, Linda, Wix, Hamish and Robbie made the shoot - the band were in between drummers at this point, Blair Cunningham making his debut a month later on December TV appearances.
            And there were no smiling faces evident on camera - the traditional 'All My Trials' lyric is a powerful one, and the video carried this over from beginning to end, so sincerity was the order of the day.
            Director Nigel Dick, a Londoner now running his Propaganda Films company out of Los Angeles, then took his cameras onto the streets of London and also Huddersfield, in the north of England, to shoot the scenes that are sadly typical of urban life today, with the homeless huddled against the cold, going hungry. Dick then shot some equally telling footage inside the under-funded Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool, to which a portion of funds from the Let It Be Liverpool gig last June and, indeed, the 'All My Trials' single, were directed.
            Because of the supposed anti-Thatcher story, which ran for several days in the press and on national radio, the video was widely screened, successfully serving to simultaneously prick consciences and promote a great new single.