CLUB SANDWICH 63

APPALOOSA

Almost ten years after his First Show, Linda's beautiful horse Blankit makes a winning return before the cameras in a new MPL film called Appaloosa.
Mark Lewisohn reports

THE FILM

            Several years ago there was a lovely MPL television programme called Btankit's First Show, a film, produced by Linda, which showed one of her Appaloosa horses taking part in its first competition. It was broadcast a few times by the BBC and featured - for those of you who keep back copies - in a Club Sandwich spread in issue 36.
            Now a sequel has been made, its title simply Appaloosa, which should soon follow the same TV route and may also, perhaps, be issued on video together with its predecessor. Half an hour long, Appaloosa shows Blankit (his full handle is actually Lucky Spot's Blankit, recalling the name of his sire, bought by Linda when Wings were touring the USA in 1976)again showing his handsome, winning ways.
            The director of Appaloosa is Barry Chattington, who also made Blankit's First Show and for 20 years has been making films for Paul which, oddly, remain publicly unseen: The Bruce McMouse Show, a film about the shooting of the cover photo for Band On The Run, a film about the end of the _ 1975/76 Wings world tour, Rockestra, and still further celluloid exploits, recent and distant.
            Since Appaloosa is really a continuation of Blankit's First Show it was only natural that Barry would be invited to - figuratively speaking - pick up the reins. (He also wrote and edited the new film too.) But was there always going to be a sequel? "No, I don't think so," he says, "although it may have been a germ in Linda and Paul's fertile minds. With Blankit they really just wanted a record of what the horse did. You see, it's a bit difficult for them to turn up at the shows because it would take all the attention away from the horses. It's bad enough when Blankit turns up - he gets far more pats on the nose than any other horse, because of who his owners arc! Then last June [1991] Linda rang up and suggested that as Blankit was getting good at doing trials why didn't we make another film?"
            In much the same way as before, Barry got the bit between his teeth and quietly set about the new job, filming Blankit's preparation in the patient and skilful hands of his trainer Peter Larrigan (whose gentle Irish warmth made him something of a star in the first film and is likely to do so again second time around) and his daughter Tanya. To the sound of Peter's pearls of wisdom and Linda's own narration, Appaloosa shows Blankit being led from his stable into a horse-box and carefully driven to the show, the annual British Appaloosa Society event at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire.
            Here, Blankit sets assuredly about his business, in dressage, weaving around obstacles, participating in the English Riding and Western Riding disciplines, and proving victorious in the overall event by dint of a succession of good scores that included two outright category wins. This, thinks Barry Chattington. helped make what might have been just a honie-niovie into a finished production fit for TV and video. "Since we had a winner on our hands we decided to make it into a film and did a couple of days more shooting at Peter Larrigan's stable and a few hours with Linda and Paul riding nearby their house. I suppose if Blankit had come stone last in every discipline there'd have been little point in taking it any further."
            A highly experienced TV film-maker - he's been at the sharp end of the business since 1963 - Barry Chattington considers himself well pleased with the finished result, which, it must be said, has been beautifully shot and is compelling to watch. "When we made the first film Blankit was only two or three years old and very frisky - I think he had a go at biting all the crew - but now he seems to have calmed down a bit. 1 really think that Appaloosa works well, it shows the hones off very well, even though dressage is a difficult bugger to shoot. And we're all very happy with the end result, Linda and Paul included."
            They're all so happy, in fact, that the work continues. "Yes, we've already started shooting something along the lines of Appaloosa //," Barn' confirms, "although where it's going and what it'll eventually be called we know not. There's about five minutes of edited footage prepared so far."
            So watch out, then, for more equine adventures in the years to come...

THE MUSIC

            Of course, one does not expect to find a Paul or Linda McCartney film sans musique. All those years ago, the soundtrack of Blankit's First Show featured a clutch of songs from the then-current album Pipes Of Peace, as well as an unreleased Paul recording from the McCartney II sessions titled 'All You Horseriders'. (It remains unavailable today.)
            Appaloosa contains nothing but unreleased music, all instrumental pieces and all very special. Since it's her film, Linda is mostly to the fore. Dedicated Linda followers will know that long ago, back in the era of 'Seaside Woman', she wrote a song called 'Love's Full Glory'. Extracts from two different recordings of this arc heard in the film: the first one recorded with Wings augmented by steel guitar player Lloyd Green, the second being a later version performed by Linda with Mick Bolton and Ian Maidman.
            Then there's part of an unissued Wings instrumental from 1975, 'I Got Up', composed by Linda and Paul together (heard during the English Riding section of the film), and 'Appaloosa Jam', composed by Linda and recorded by her and Blair Cunningham earlier this year (heard when the horse-box is being driven to Stoneleigh).
            Paul also features on a new-for-92 recording, 'Blankit', which he composed (as one might expect) especially for the new film. This can be heard during the Western Trials section, when Tanya Larrigan dons a cowgirl hat and zips herself into spurred boots to put the Appaloosa through its ancestral paces.
            But, without taking anything away from any of this, there's also a truly splendid classical piece, in three movements, which doubtless will be interpreted by many as something of an Oratorio encore.
            The nub of the four-minute piece is 'Appaloosa', a song written by Linda in the 1970s, not recorded but much-whistled around the McCartney household ever, since. Just after Christmas, Paul reunited with Oratorio partner Carl Davis and arranged Linda's tune for a full-blown symphony orchestra. They worked it into two movements, between which they dovetailed a new classical piece especially composed by Paul, subtitled 'Meditation'.
            The suite was then recorded by a 75-strong London Symphony Orchestra in studio one at Abbey Road on 29 January. Though he didn't play, Paul was as involved as ever, helping Carl to conduct the musicians and assisting John Fraser (another Oratorio veteran) with the production.
            Barry Chattington could not have been more delighted by this most excellent embellishment to his picture. "Paul said in October 1991 that what we really needed on the front and end of the him was a big piece of music, and I remember shrugging my shoulders and replying 'Well it's only a 16mm documentary that'll go out on the telly...' and leaving it at that. Then I got a phone call saying 'We're with the LSO on the 29th of January'! 'Meditation' is an especially beautiful piece of music and works just fantastically for the sequence when Blankit first arrives at Stoneleigh. It's such a nice contrast of music and visual activity. And as Carl Davis said at the session, it could only have been composed by an Englishman."
            Though tangential to the film, this is probably the best place to mention that the 'Appaloosa' suite has recently been premiered on US television. The world famous Boston Pops Orchestra performed the piece's first public airing at the Symphony Hall in Boston on 12 May during a Tribute To Paul McCartney concert conducted by the ubiquitous Carl Davis. The event was filmed by PBS TV for broadcast in August. Other public performances are likelv to follow too.