When Guy Garvey called and asked me to consider recreating the Cry video for Elbow’s new song Gentle Storm, I was a bit puzzled. Why would they want something that was already out there? Then I realised… ‘out there’  actually meant out there since 1985 and a whole generation or three wouldn’t have seen the original, or have a clue who Godley & Creme were so why the fuck not? 

It was a different song with a different tempo and feel, that’s why not. Where Cry loped, Gentle Storm clattered, where Cry relied on simple pop lyrics, Gentle Storm was full of poetic truths. So yes, everything was different yet somehow the same, and I could see how the kind of film we conjured up all those years back might work again here. One major bonus was discovering that Benedict Cumberbatch, Guy’s wife Rachael Stirling and his brother Marcus, both accomplished actors too were up for appearing in it…needless to say we didn’t ask for videos to check their miming. 

Craig, Mark and Pete, the other Elbows, arrived later with that classic, no bullshit northern sense of humour that set the tone for the rest of the day. 

I didn’t really have to direct anyone too much - they all became suitably themselves as soon as the camera rolled. Everything felt real, nothing felt forced and there were no fuck ups, no tantrums and no one who didn’t get the song right all the way through. In fact the only difference between this shoot and Cry was the major technological advance of steadying people’s heads with a sink-plunger instead of a saucepan. 

Producer....................................................LUCY NOLAN (Smash Management)

Director of Photography..........................................................BRUCE  JACKSON

Offline Editor..........................................................................EOIN MCDONAGH

Online Editor........................................................................EUGENE MCCRYSTAL