Black Grape - Kelly's Heroes (The Bank Job Version)

JUL 01 1995 · 12:00

Black Grape - Kelly's Heroes (The Bank Job Version) (1995) Director: David Mould Era: Britpop / Post-Madchester Crossover (1995–1996) - Mid-90s UK alternative scene fusing indie rock, hip-hop, and rave culture in the wake of Happy Mondays' dissolution and the peak of Britpop High curatorial value as one of only three music videos released for Black Grape's debut album, all of which were unavailable publicly for over two decades before being posted to YouTube in 2017. The Bank Job Version offers a unique visual document of the band at their commercial and creative peak, directed by David Mould whose broader catalogue provides comparative context across the mid-90s to mid-2000s British music video canon. Its dark, warm, kinetically-edited aesthetic is a precise photographic record of the period's production vernacular. Context: Released in 1995 as the third single from Black Grape's debut album It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah, an album that debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, 'Kelly's Heroes' arrived at the precise apex of Britpop's cultural dominance. The band, formed from the wreckage of Happy Mondays by Shaun Ryder and Bez, represented the post-Madchester pivot: retaining the irreverent, chemically-informed chaos of the rave era while absorbing Britpop's guitar energy and hip-hop's rhythmic architecture. The song title borrows from the 1970 WWII caper film, and the Bank Job framing extends the heist-and-antiheroes metaphor. Lyrically, the track satirises celebrity worship, a pointed cultural comment from a frontman who had himself been consumed and spat out by fame's machinery. Director notes: Directed for Black Grape in 1995 (Apple Music / IMDB date) with IMVDb listing a 1996 release date, consistent with the single's March 1996 radio release in the US coinciding with the band's US tour. Produced by Cathy Hood. The video exists in two distinct versions: 'The Bank Job Version' and 'The Funeral Version', both posted to YouTube in 2017 alongside the other Black Grape music video catalogue. The 'Bank Job' title references the 1970 film Kelly's Heroes, in which WWII soldiers go AWOL to rob a bank, a title and thematic conceit carried into the video's visual treatment.