#raadiohead

Anyone Can Play Guitar

It’s funny how certain music scenes have become legendary – Merseybeat in the 60′s, London’s summer of punk in the 70′s, Sheffield’s Electro 80′s and Manchester’s ‘Baggy’ 90′s. When you break them down, they’re just a small handful of bands making very similar music during a very short but high-profile period.

When people talk about regional music scenes, they never talk about Oxford. Yet Oxford’s tight music community has been steadily producing genre-defining bands of the highest quality and integrity for pushing 30 years.

RIDE – who created (and indirectly named) the Shoegaze genre, TALULAH GOSH – the enfant terribles of Riot Girl, Britpop legends SUPERGRASS, Creation’s Alt-Rock heroes SWERVEDRIVER, current Post-Punk/Math-Rock phenomenon FOALS and – oh yeah – RADIOHEAD all came directly from this one scene. They built and took inspiration from it, they got support and encouragement from it, they cut their teeth in its venues and ultimately were launched into worldwide success from it.

But nobody’s ever heard of it.

So now, all of those bands, along with their less-succesful friends and contemporaries and the promoters, managers, journalists, record label owners and gig-goers who built the scene tell their story.

Anyone Can Play Guitar is not like most music docs. Using the unheard stories of some of the greatest bands and the greatest stories of some of the unheard bands as the backdrop to a truly unique and epic saga of success, failure, good intentions and bad outcomes. It refuses to mythologise and explores what can be achieved with community and the harsh realities of the music industry.

From the DIY spirit of the early 80′s right through to  the  controversial corporatisation of Oxford’s best-loved venue, ACPG tracks three decades of highs and lows in a punchy, really engaging style.

The film is narrated by cult comedian Stewart Lee