It's Nice Up North Goes North

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Anyone who follows with more than the perspicacity of a goldfish the fortunes of Sheffield singer/organist John Shuttleworth will be aware of his latest project, the feature documentary ‘It’s Nice Up North’, inspired by a concert date played in the Shetland Isles - the most northerly part of the British Isles - and by a thread which runs through John’s work. Taking the sentiment of ‘Shopkeepers in The North Are Nice’ to its illogical conclusion, the film sets out to ask the question ‘is it (really) nice up north?’ and record the answer. Or answers. Or not.

Along with stills photographer Martin Parr – internationally renowned, yet a novice to the camcorder - sound man Tim Humphries and gofer Stuart Thom, islanders Keith Morrison and Elma Johnson, a professional tour guide - Shuttleworth, aka Graham Fellows - has produced his answer to the question in the form of a low budget spoof documentary. Its soundtrack contains both Shuttleworth songs and local fiddle music, and was filmed entirely on location on the Shetland Islands in little more than a week.

Although the film has had several preview screenings over the course of this year, the intention was always for the World Premiere to be held in Lerwick , the capital of Shetland, in front of an invited audience of cast, crew and locals. So on October 27th 2005, an invited party left Humberside Airport on a small Eastern Airways charter Gulfstream, and landed two hours later at Shetland’s main (only?) airport – Sumburgh. The motley mob of ten included a journalist. It would have been more than one, but none could be tempted from their soft southern boltholes despite the offer of all the sandwiches they could eat, dips they could dip and whisky miniatures they could smuggle back home. The lone journalist was from John’s local rag, the Sheffield Star. John would have approved!

darkness falls early at the Lerwick Hotel, but much is still to be done

Braced by the buffeting Shetland wind, the stout party were ferried to the Lerwick Hotel in a minibus. The driver turned out to be the wife of the first interviewee in the film, who – throughout our brief stay - continued to offer Parr and Fellows extra footage for the film from her own private stock. (Knowing Fellows, it may well end up in the final cut!)

A pre-screening banquet in the hotel was served by a charming young man from Latvia who confessed that he was shortly to move on. He had come over to improve his English but found he could not understand a word that the islanders spoke. Indeed, the accent is a remarkable hybrid of Scottish and Scandinavian, mainly reserved for conversation between islanders, and all but incomprehensible to the English ear. He was not the only sojourner on the island from around the Baltic – it’s worth bearing in mind that Lerwick is only a fraction south of Helsinki. Seeing so many familiar faces from the film at the screening, was a remarkable and somewhat surreal experience. Many of those interviewed on camera had come to see the finished product, and after tucking into the fine spread laid on - bravely financed by ‘Visit Shetland’, as the Shetland Tourist Board is now known - they settled down to watch ‘It’s Nice Up North’. One young vox popee had not even remembered that she was in it, and even then after having been told why she’d been invited still looked blank. Mark Laurenson and a member of Fiddler’s Bid supplied music both before and after the screening. Fiddlers’ Bid music provides the core of the soundtrack, and indeed Mark’s own compositions pop up very fittingly throughout the film – fiddle music is very popular on Shetland.

And it went down very well. It’s not easy to judge how much to backfill a character like John when he is introduced to an audience who are largely unaware of his history, and it can’t be easy to judge how a group of people proud of the way of life they have will react to a non-serious view of it. Interestingly, John did not seem to need explaining, and the biggest laugh of the evening came from him complaining that he couldn’t understand the accent (plus a few choice examples).

back: Stuart, Graham, Martin. front: Elma, Keith, urchin, Tim. sitting: Fiddler's Bid.

After the showing, some hurried off to catch the last ferry to Unst – Shetland’s most northerly isle, while others stayed for more sandwiches and dips, and after much photographing and talking the party packed up and retired to the hotel bar. A home was found for some of the many leftover sandwiches removed from the venue uneaten in black bin liners with a table of visiting actors - who need feeding up as much as anyone - and for many whisky miniatures courtesy of the night porter. Quite a few of these went to one of the lads featured in the film who seems to have become slightly more disaffected than he was when the film was shot.

After a hearty breakfast, Graham set off to be interviewed by Radio Shetland, whilst another group of us went off to audio tape some more views from the burghers of Lerwick - hopefully this will become one of the galaxy of extras planned for the forthcoming DVD release next year - who were mostly unaware of the heady events of the previous night and its profound relevance to them. Our first few targets came close to upending the theory espoused in the film, that it was nice up north, by giving us rather short shrift.

We were ejected from a newsagents - ‘we’re very busy. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’ Next, thrown off a stationary bus - lots of hand flapping, I guess we were interrupting a fag break But some did take time out of their day to speak to us. A proportion of these were from down south, and they felt that it was indeed nice up north, and we came across two locals who’d had been at the screening.

After loading up with fudge, soap and beer - seemingly the most popular tourist exports, and rightly so - we headed back out to the airport and onto our charter back – though some of us have not completely left the islands in spirit as yet.

All that remains now is to finish the film..ready for the projected UK tour in April/May ’06. Will the North be so nice when it has to pay full price? And will it appeal to the nasty South? In my view, yes it will!

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