When I first moved to Wales my house mate brought the Jimmy Jewel video Total Control, in this throw back to the 1980’s when VHS had made it possible to film on a budget. Alan Hughes early forays into this media had hints of utter brilliance with characters to like Johnny Dawes in Stone Monkey, Gogarth and of course Total Control. I hadn’t seen this short film for several years, but went round a friends for dinner tonight, and watched the original film in the original format (VHS format), as an aperitif.
I made me think how long it will be until the younger generations forget the VHS/Video media, and it gets left to the annuals of history along with Betamax, tea strainers and C90 compilation tapes. Trying to make some of the younger groups I work with believe that there was a pre-internet, pre-mobile phone, pre-computer age is hard enough. Anyway in the distant times before we had electricity and desktop editing, Total Control was THE climbing video of it’s generation. Staring the late great Jimmy Jewel, who made a name for himself soloing many routes that still cause a degree on difficulty by today’s standards.
In the original edit, rather than the more modern ‘director’s cut’ which is apparently ruined by a Jim Perrin voice over, rather than the original John Cousin commentary. Jimmy Solo’s a selection of north wales classic route that are very aspirational, the fact I have managed to climb all the routes often several times, and still can’t see how Jimmy stays so cool throughout each ascent, says a lot about the man mountain. Sadly jimmy life was taken when a slip whilst down climbing an easy route, but that is the wager you put down every time you solo.
Anyway the film is a classic, a must see, I believe that Alan Hughes has put a compilation DVD with Total Control on it. Now before all the young climbers complain about the sound track, bear in mind that it was recorded in one take, at the local ‘silent cinema’, where the organ player saw the film once and then played whilst they watched, like back in the good olde days. If you’d like to buy the directors cut on 80’s Birth of Extreme at V12 outdoors