Introducing the Music Video Preservation Society
Special event at Tyneside Cinema
The woman who masterminds and directs music videos for Sam Fender is the special guest at a Tyneside Cinema event dedicated to an art form that is easily overlooked or taken for granted.
Well, that must be the case. Otherwise, why would there be a need for a Music Video Preservation Society?
This august body – actually comprising one man and formed in 2024, so not exactly in the mists of time – will be presiding over the event at the Tyneside on Thursday (May 14).
It will be the first time the Music Video Preservation Society (MVPS for short) has set up stall outside London and part of the reason we’re the lucky ones is that its embodiment, David Knight, has a good friend in Newcastle and his son went to university in the city.
He studied film and media and his graduation film was screened at the Tyneside, which for David enhanced its appeal.
But actually, says David, the initial approach came from someone on the ball at the Newcastle cinema who contacted him on Instagram and asked if he might consider putting on one of his events.
Having said yes to that, he realised it must have a North East flavour.
Who better to provide it than Semera Khan, creative director at Polydor Records, a “VIP of British music videos” and the woman responsible for the way Mr Fender’s Mercury Prize-winning music is complemented on screen?
“I’ve known Semera for years,” says David down the line from his home in Stoke Newington.
He knows most of the leading players in this field, as you would expect of the founder (19 years ago), editor and publisher of Promonews, the UK website dedicated to music video production.
David is, of course, a music video fan and expert, as was known to a committee member at his local Mildmay Club on Newington Green (a London social club boasting members’ bar, nine-table snooker room, pool/TV room and two large upstairs halls for events).
“He said, ‘You know about videos. Why don’t you do a night here?’” recalls David.
“They’ve got an amazing hall which is actually used in a lot of film shoots. I did my first event there in July 2024 and now it happens every three months.
“Soon afterwards I started doing the same sort of thing at the Prince Charles Cinema in Soho. It’s the biggest independent cinema in the West End, showing classical and art house films.”
The format of a MVPS event can change according to circumstance but David says he always gets a guest along to chat to and will show a selection of music videos to introduce and discuss.
Most people, he says, “tend to regard music videos as not particularly significant.
“Fair enough. I’ve been writing about them for a long time. Video was a hot word back in the late 1970s. Remember The Kenny Everett Video Show (it ran from 1978-81)? That was significant in music videos because the guy who directed it became a major video director.
“There’s quite a lot of history connected to it now because it’s been the route for a lot of filmmakers who went on to other things
“Some music videos are art in their own right, amazing pieces of creativity, but they also have social and cultural importance. A music video can give you a snapshot of what was happening in 1981, say, and it’s interesting to investigate everything around that.
“One of the good things about doing the show is that although I know a lot about the people who make music videos, you can still find things and go ‘Wow! That’s great’.
“There’s a lot of material to work with.”
Back when video was, as he says, a hot word, David worked on another TV programme which some will remember. The Max Headroom Show (1985-7) was also part of the music video landscape and although David says he was little more than a runner, it too fired his interest.
Things really started to happen for him, he recalls, in the 1990s when he returned after a spell in America and was looking for work.
A friend who worked for a small publishing company, knowing of David’s special interest, asked if he fancied taking on a newsletter aimed at people in the music video business.
“Basically that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”
David says the UK has always had quite a vibrant music video production industry.
“But things are changing. People talk much more about ‘content’ nowadays, things to go on Tik-Tok or Instagram. Video has always been regarded as short form but now it’s described as long form.”
He came up with Music Video Preservation Society after giving the matter considerable thought.
“I was looking for a title that reflected where the music video industry is and I suppose I was thinking of the Village Green Preservation Society (as championed by The Kinks on one of their albums).
“I guess it came from thinking of two things that shouldn’t really work together. A preservation society is generally related to more old fashioned things and music video has always been regarded as fresh and modern.”
But things, as he says, move on and the lengthening history of the music video phenomenon mean it’s now a source of nostalgia for many.
David doesn’t overplay the significance of these short films, saying: “The most important thing about a video is the music because that’s what you’re selling. If a video is really good, it’s improving the music.
“Some of the greatest videos can open up the music to you in a way you hadn’t previously realised.”
He mentions Chris Cunningham’s video for the late 1990s track Come To Daddy, by Aphex Twin.
“Watching it, you don’t really see a separation between the music and the video and if you listen to the track on its own you’ll never enjoy it as much as when you listen to it with the video,” he says.
Few, though, would probably disagree that the Cunningham video is a horror tour-de-force. Truly terrifying. If he plays it on Thursday… well, you have been warned!
David promises Sam Fender videos because he believes they’re really good.
There will also be something by Lana Del Rey, who has also benefited from the Semera Khan magic (as have The Rolling Stones, The 1975 and more), and something Talking Heads-related because it’ll be David Byrne’s birthday.
He also promises something relating to another North East legend although he’s keeping that secret until the night.
You will just have to be there.
Tickets for the Music Video Presentation Society event on Thursday, May 14 (7.30pm) can be bought from the Tyneside Cinema website.