NEWS
Press Release
Press Release
LONG AWAITED DOCUMENTARY OPENS IN SYDNEY and MELBOURNE CINEMAS MAY 5th
Love in Bright Landscapes is the inspiring, tragic and intimate life story of David McComb, Australian singer/songwriter, of The Triffids. The much anticipated film will open in Sydney and Melbourne cinemas on May 5, after screenings at Festivals in Australia and overseas.
A labour of love made over a 13-year period, Love In Bright Landscapes is the first film by Melbourne writer/director Jonathan Alley. Just as McComb used his familiar Western Australian landscape as the canvas for his towering psychodramas and heart-broken epics, the tragedy and triumph of McComb’s short, driven, passionate life is brought to the screen using a vast array of David’s music, poetry, letters, and unseen family-archives; and lays claim to the legacy of a remarkable talent gone too soon.
‘The Friends of David McComb’ live performances in Sydney and Melbourne to celebrate the premiere of the film and David’s life and music
To mark the films release, and to celebrate Dave’s vast songbook, very special one-off screenings combined with live performance will take place in Sydney and Melbourne. These unique live shows feature "The Friends of David McComb" band, made up of David’s former Triffids and Blackeyed Susans bandmates 'Evil' Graham Lee, Rob McComb, Phil Kakulas, Rob Snarski and JP Shilo; who will be joined by a range of special guests vocalists across the 2 shows ( Fri May 6th in Sydney; Sunday May 15th in Melbourne)
David McComb believed in the song: from his earliest art/punk pranks to the darkly atmospheric brilliance of his last works, he gave up his secrets in the shape of his exceptional, evocative songs. In The Triffids’ 1986 masterpiece Born Sandy Devotional he found a new Australian voice: a poetically inspired vocabulary cast against desolation and broken hearts in the bright expanse. But McComb’s health faltered and after a heart transplant in 1996, he died in 1999, days short of his 37th birthday - leaving a slew of unanswered questions and unrecorded songs.
Love in Bright Landscapes reveals the man behind the songs – via beautifully restored 35mm slides, delightfully evocative home movies and heart-rending interviewees with colleagues, family, and friends. McComb’s poetry and newly discovered letters are read by Australian-born Man Booker Prize winning novelist DBC Pierre, interwoven with excerpts from 75 of McComb’s songs.
LOVE IN BRIGHT LANDSCAPES opens at multiple cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne on May 5; and in Canberra on May 12.
DETAILS Of LIVE SHOW / EVENTS
"LOVE IN BRIGHT LANDSCAPES - A Tribute to David McComb"
One off event: live show and screening
SYDNEY
FRI MAY 6th - with Director Jonathan Alley and "The Friends of David McComb" band
Randwick RITZ (7.20pm - 11pm)
Tickets available via the RITZ Website :
https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/events/love-in-bright-landscapes-tribute-to-david-mccomb
MELBOURNE
SUNDAY MAY 15th - with Director Jonathan Alley and "The Friends of David McComb" band
The Astor Theatre , 3.30pm-7.30pm
Tickets available now via Try Booking : https://www.trybooking.com/BYQLO
LOVE IN BRIGHT LANDSCAPES is released in Australia and New Zealand by Label
MAN BOOKER WINNER READS McCOMB POETRY IN NEW DOCO
DBC Pierre, the Australian ex-pat novelist who won the Man Booker Prize in 2003 for his blackly comic novel Vernon God Little plays a key role in Love in Bright Landscapes. the upcoming documentary on late Triffids songwriter David McComb. Approached by the filmmakers for an interview after his essay contribution to the book Vagabond Holes in 2009, he subsequently signed on to read McComb’s own poetry in the film and previously unheard snatches of the songwriter’s letters dating from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Pierre was travelling from his home in Ireland to India, and met us for a single afternoon in England en route. His interview was articulate, funny, and strongly grounded in a cultural standpoint that paints the Triffids as increasingly relevant – as comfortable ground slips beneath our feet. As he says, we’re now long departed from the ‘wharf of innocence’ and the intuitively off-kilter nature of The Triffids’ music , with its sense of longing, is more relevant now than ever. In the course of the interview we decided, then and there, that was perfect to read David’s letters and poems. We pitched him the idea then and there, and he graciously accepted! In Australia, one year later, he spent a day recording with us. His tone, while absolutely distinct from Dave’s, is remarkably empathetic to his words in terms of their emotion and humour.
DBC Pierre’s readings are set against remarkably vivid 35 mm slide photography captured in the Australian landscape in the ’60s and ’70s by David’s family, and intimate 8mm home movies that have been cleaned up, re-scanned, and upgraded specially for Love in Bright Landscapes.
