Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

Dir: Steve Sullivan

2019

*****

I’m not sure how I’d explain Frank Sidebottom to someone who was unaware of his existence and his phenomenon. I guess now, thanks to Steve Sullivan’s loving documentary I don’t have to, but I don’t think I could ever fully describe the excitement and anticipation felt when going to see Frank at one of his live performances. I was lucky to have seen him twice, once at a music festival and once performing upstairs in a pub. Both performances were totally different from one another but both had the same magic. I grew up with Frank on television, he was in all the kids shows on Saturday mornings and then on the adult shows in the evening. I think most people would refer to him as being a ‘cult icon’ but actually, in the late 80s and early 90s Frank was mainstream. I did attempt to explain Frank to an America acquaintance of mine once but it didn’t go very well, especially as they had seen Jon Ronson’s 2014 film starring Michael Fassbender. Ronson, who once played keyboard in Frank’s band, wrote a book about Frank just after he passed. I’m not sure whether the book or film had been released at the time he was interviewed for Steve Sullivan’s documentary but he basically explained in his book that he had spoken to Frank (Chris Sievey) before he died about various things and the subject of biography came up. Sievey stated that if anyone were to make a film about Frank then it should be entirely fictional, and after he died that is exactly what Ronson set out to make. It’s a wonderful film, nothing really to do with the real Frank Sidebottom at all but it’s the sort of weird nonsense that Sievey would have enjoyed. The truth about Frank is a little more weird than the film in many ways and unfortunately with a level of sadness. Steve Sullivan’s Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story was funded by a grassroots Kickstarter campaign that launched way back in May 2013. I backed the campaign on the day it was launched and have been both astonished and elated at the level of devotion and commitment from Steve Sullivan throughout the project. His campaign updates were little fireworks in my inbox, full of fascinating stories about things he had found in Sievey’s archive, things fans had sent him and stories he’d been told by friends and family who he had interviewed. Many included audio recordings, short videos and photos as well as funny anecdotes. I would see that I had an update in my inbox and I would save reading it until my tea break so I could get comfy and enjoy it. It is probably the longest campaign I have backed but it has been well worth the wait. Steve Sullivan went through hundreds of boxes full of recordings, drawings, photos and things written down by Sievey spanning several decades. Sievey threw nothing away. In order to produce the most authentic document of his life, Steve knew he had to go through every single audio and video tape, every photo and scrap of paper in order to tell Sievey/Frank’s story properly, and that is exactly what he did. Most film makers, no matter how passionate, would have given up before now and would have used archive footage that would have been at hand and easy to get to but Steve kept digging for gold – gold he would end up finding plenty of. Expectation was high, it had been almost six years, I’d moved twice and become a father in that time but I hadn’t forgotten about Frank. Sitting down to watch the film was like having the door to Fort Knox opened to me for a private viewing. I expected more than what I was expecting – if that makes any sense – and it still ended up being more than I ever expected. The documentary is full of great interviews, loads of footage I’d never seen before and was a fascinating insight to Sievey’s life. It’s funny, but seeing Sievey take off the mask had such an effect on my I can only compare it with when I was seven years old and open-mouthed as I watched Darth Vader tell Luke Skywalker that he was his father. I didn’t realise I’d get so emotional watching it. I knew of Sievey’s band The Freshies, indeed, part of the Kickstarter campaign pledge package was to receive various goodies from Sievey’s archive. I got a beautiful original Freshies flyer for a gig they did in the late 70s. What I didn’t know was that Frank was a character developed by Sievey to promote the band. Frank was their ‘super fan’ and would act as a support act. It was a silly idea that came out of a fancy dress party Sievey attended with his wife that grew into something more. Sievey wanted his band to be huge – they should have been huge – but for whatever reason it just didn’t happen and Frank took off instead. It’s hard to say when the resentment started, maybe it was always there but Sievey and Frank continued when the band didn’t and the pair gained a huge following of adoring fans. There was nothing like Frank Sidebottom before and they’ll be nothing like him again. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was an alcoholic and a drug user, as he kept the same level of energy throughout his career, whether it was live on stage to an audience of thousands or taking small groups of fans on tours of Timperley town centre. It wasn’t just the drink and drug that pushed him though, in fact it was those things at all, it was the fire inside him that made him go above and beyond and throw his all into every little thing that he did. The drink and drugs was to cope with the duel identity and the huge success that came in a relatively short space of time. I have to say, I thought I’d be laughing a lot more than I did (which was still a lot) but I hadn’t expected to be on the brink of tears quite so much. Maybe I didn’t want to know as much as I thought – of course I did – but in the end no one really knows what the relationship between Frank and Chris was, it’s one of those little mysteries that should remain as such. I was glad that the documentary was so honest, Sievey – like most geniuses – had his flaws. His enigma is impossible to describe really and at this point there seems little point trying, one should simply enjoy the huge body of work he has left us where you can find it – this film being first and the permanent exhibition of his archive at Manchester’s Central Library second. When I think of Frank I think of other truly great national treasures such as John Otway, Graham Fellows, John Cooper Clark and Vic & Bob but as wonderful as they are, Frank was and is something truly unique. Fitting such a life into just 100 minutes took passion and dedication (years of) but making sure the full story was told with such  balance, integrity, respect and love is something else. This is something special, a loving tribute without any of the usual documentary clichés, that is made by a fan for the fans (primarily) that everyone will enjoy. Definitely not bobbins.