One Hull Of A Story: Quick Histories Of Hull
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Digging around the Weird Wide Web, as I do, in search of interesting and off-the-wall stories about Hull, when I came across Quick Histories of Hull on YouTube. They were a series of short animations, each focused on one of Hull's famous heroes, Amy Johnson, Clive Sullivan, Mick Ronson and Dorothy Mackaill. Each a quirky comedic and at times surreal take on the life story of each character. I was fascinated by them, and wanted to know who had created them and why. I'd like to regale a story of weeks of investigative journalism, hunting down the artist behind the animations, but in reality... I just Googled it, and found his facebook page, which I messaged. It wasn't more than a day later that Andy messaged me back, and with a couple of days I had an interview with him.
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Andy Hampel and his writing partner Sean Wilson were commissioned to Quick Histories of Hull for Eskimo Soup - The company behind the Hull Comedy Festival. The brief was to give the people of Hull something different to see on a Saturday in the city centre. They had
previously created fast paced prop and multimedia shows for the comedy festival, and so
did the same with a puppet show based on famous Hull personalities - Arthur Lucan, Clive Sullivan, Mick Ronson and Amy
Johnson. A year later
they expanded the piece for events at the Hull History Centre and Ferens Art Gallery
by having animated video back drops, adding the Dorothy Mackail animation piece as a closing song. These video backdrops, were the Quick Histories of Hull animations that I had come across on YouTube.
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Each video has a distinct style of it's own. Amy Johnson, pioneering aviator, adventurer and strong female role-model, was shown in the style of an action/adventure movie trailer. With the influences being the action/adventure gaming and movie character Lara Croft, and the adventures of 1970s French comic book character Adèle Blanc-Sec. Thus, Amy is shown as an all-action movie heroine, with a comedic nod to how Amy could possibly be represented if Hollywood ever got their hands on her story.
Each video was designed to briefly touch on the life of these inspirational heroes of Hull, from their humble beginnings, through to the great things they achieved. |
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When it came to Mick Ronson, his short was drawn in the psychedelic style of the 70s Hanna Barbera animation. With additional inspiration coming from the pin ball machine graphic from Sesame Street, and a cheeky nod to War of the Worlds (for the "Spiders from Mars"). By 2012 the guys were performing a comedy music show based around a Hippy Rock Band called New Magnet, and they were asked by surviving members of the 60s Hull band The Rats if they could play the Mick Ronson video at a reunion gig. This lead to them being commissioned by the management company who looked after the estate of Mick to create a full mini musical to be played at The Mick Ronson Tribute concert. (This extended 13 minute musical version, can be seen on YouTube.)
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An EP of songs from the Mick Ronson Musical is available with money going towards the Teenage Cancer Trust.
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When it came to Clive Sullivan, the adopted son of Hull, the animation starts with a distinctly Welsh flavour. (Including hysterically funny fake Welsh accent.) Told in a ripping "boys own story" aesthetic, telling the tale of Clive "Sully" Sullivan's rise from the depths of Wales to play for both Hull teams, be the first black captain of a national sporting team, and getting a section of the A63 named after him.
Andy and Sean wrote and created the animations in-house, with Sean providing some of the voices for them. When it came to the animation for Dorothy Mackaill, they collaborated with illustrator Claire Grinham. |
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The Mackaill animation told the story of the Hull born silent era Hollywood actress, who attended Thoresby Primary School, in song. Mackaill started her acting career leaving Hull for the bright lights of London and Paris,eventually finding herself in the United States. In New York she joined the line-up of the Ziegfield Follies, before making the transition into silent films in the 1920s and early talkies of the 1930s. The accompanying song, tells this story and her love of dancing, in Dance Dotty Dance. The song was released to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Mackaill's birthday, and became a charity single for the National Civilian's World War II Memorial Trust. The Trust's aim is to develop the former National Picture Theatre on Beverley Road in Hull.
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Even though only the 4 original animations and the extended Mick Ronson musical exist of YouTube, Andy says that the project never actually ended. That the project just lead to other things. He was commissioned to produce an animation in the same style for Conisbrough Castle last year after they saw the films, and he's currently working on a legacy project for Hull Comedy Festival and The City of Culture to create a Hull Comedy museum. He also continues his ongoing work with The National Picture Theatre World War II Memorial Trust on Beverley Road.
As part of the Quick Histories of Hull a book was published, which is available to buy. It was originally given out as a limited free edition at The Humber Mouth Festival.
As part of the Quick Histories of Hull a book was published, which is available to buy. It was originally given out as a limited free edition at The Humber Mouth Festival.
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Join the One Hull Of A City facebook group, and spread the word!
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