DESCRIPTION:
'My Best Friend, My Ego' -- the video.

During May, at the NABD's national motorbike rally in Chelford, Cheshire, I gathered a team of creative geniuses (geniiiii?) and we spent 7 or so hours filming this video. It says a lot about bikers that most of them, although interested in what was happening, didn't really bat an eyelid that we were walking around site with puppets made to look like me.

Steve Wright (of The Wright Stuff Puppet Co.) lent me one of his silicon-based puppet heads, which Lisa Thomas took away and made it look uncannily like me. Steve makes the puppets for Billy Elliot the musical, and has won awards for his own videos where he uses various puppets to educate and inform. He's got hundreds of them hanging around his house, and some of them are too real for their own good. Suffice to say, once the filming was over, I had to return the puppet version of 'me' to Steve for safekeeping; I had 2 nights of nightmares while she was propped up downstairs, in case something went a bit Supernatural. I have a vivid imagination, so horror movies are not for me.

The smaller puppet, which represents my 'ego' was also lent to us by Steve, and then fashioned into 'me' by Lisa Thomas. She even whittled an exact mini replica of my Seagull acoustic guitar, complete with the autograph on the top of the body and 6 wire strings. It's a work of art in itself, and we've kept this one to use on future projects.

The film was made by Becca Williams, of Blank Slate Media (who also made my previous video for 'River City') and she's outdone herself on storyline, filming and editing. She dealt with an exhausted artist and managed to find hilarious ways of getting the puppets to interact with each other, and the other people around the rally. We even have a guest spot by Jonathan Mayor, one of the best comics on the stand-up scene today, when he finds the 'ego' being highly inappropriate with his leg. Steve Wright's eye for a visual gag also didn't go amiss, and he lent us his talents as a puppeteer for the day too.

Special thanks go out to Mr Creature, for letting us use his stage and lighting at the NABD rally; Grav for sorting us out with the stage and being ace; Rick Hulse for letting us invade his comedy show and getting around 2,000 bikers whooping and cheering for the puppets, and the ladies on the burger van who allowed me to serve my doppelgangers something greasy. Lisa Thomas for making the puppets look so great, and bringing my 'ego' to life on the day too. The guys on the real ale bar for letting us get in the way and everyone who makes that rally so easy, and so much fun. We salute you!

This video is to accompany Tracey Browne's single release, 'My Best Friend, My Ego', May 2013.

From the album 'Everyone Is Ordinary, released 2012, produced by Nigel Stonier.

www.traceybrowne.bandcamp.com
www.traceybrowne.co.uk