Here's a brief history of how the soundtrack to a film that was never made came about:

BACK IN EARLY 1983, THE DIRECT HITS BEGAN WORK ON A MOVIE SHORT THAT WAS TO BE USED AS A PROMOTIONAL EXERCISE, WITH A WORKING TITLE OF ‘SUNNY HONEY GIRL’. THE ORIGINAL PLAN WAS TO EMULATE THE FAMOUS ‘GROOVY MOVIE’ WHICH FEATURED RIVERBOAT APPEARANCES BY MOOD SIX, AND AN OVERALL VIEW OF THE PYSCHEDELIC REVIVAL.

THE FILM / DOCUMENTARY FEATURED MOOD SIX, THE MARBLE STAIRCASE, THE HIGH TIDE AND THE DOCTOR (FRONT MAN OF DR. & THE MEDICS) THIS WAS THE SUMMER OF LOVE REVISITED, AND TWIST N’ SHOUT RECORD STORE SUPREMO STEVE WEEKES HAD APPROACHED COLIN SWAN AND GENO BUCKMASTER TO COMPOSE SONGS FOR A TWENTY MINUTE VIDEO SHORT, WITH THE WORKING TITLE OF ‘SUNNY HONEY GIRL’.

SET IN THE LATE SUMMER OF 1966, IT FEATURED THE DIRECT HITS AS UNDERCOVER SECRET AGENTS (NO LESS!) WITH PHIL WARD FROM MOOD SIX SUPPOSEDLY MAKING CAMEO APPEARANCES, AND A MOD GIRL-FRIEND OF MINE AT THE TIME, JULIENNE CLARK APPEARING AS SUNNY (HONEY) RAWLINSON-JAMES, DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE!

THE STORY WAS A FICTIONAL SCRIPT THAT SUGGESTED THE TROPHY WAS STOLEN AFTER THE 1966 WORLD CUP INSTEAD OF BEFORE, (WHICH WAS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED) THE FILM  DEPICTED SOMETHING LIKE THIRTY-SIX HOURS OF A MANIC CHASE AROUND LONDON IN THE BAND’S  TRANSIT  VAN, DRIVEN AT HIGH SPEEDS BY ROBBO THE BAND’S FAITHFUL ROADIE, TRYING DESPERATLY TO RECOVER THE JULES RIMET TROPHY, (THE WORLD CUP) WHICH HAD BEEN STOLEN FROM THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OFFICES FOLLOWING THE ENGLAND FOOTBALL TEAM’S HISTORIC WIN OVER WEST GERMANY EARLIER THAT YEAR.  IF THIS WASN’T ALL BIZARRE ENOUGH, GEOFF HURST HAD REPORTEDLY BEEN APPROACHED TO MAKE A BRIEF APPEARANCE, PLAYING HIMSELF!)

COLIN SWAN EMBRACED THE IDEA WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM, AND SET ABOUT WRITING AND DEMOING MATERIAL FOR THE SOUNDTRACK AND IT’S CAST, PUTTING FORWARD THE CONCEPT, WRITING PARTS OF THE STORY, AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE SCRIPT.

EVERYONE AGREED THE FILM SHOULD BE A FIFTY-FIFTY SPLIT BETWEEN MUSIC AND STORY LINE. GENO BUCKMASTER HAD BEEN UNCONVINCED FROM THE OUTSET THAT THE DIRECT HITS WOULD BENEFIT FROM BEING INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT, AND CONTRIBUTED VERY LITTLE TO THE NEWER MATERIAL. IT WAS DECIDED SOME OF THE DIRECT HITS SONGS ‘IN THE CAN’ AT THE TIME, NAMELY ‘ENGLISH GIRLS’ AND THE TITLE TRACK, ‘SUNNY HONEY GIRL’ (FLIP SIDE OF THE ‘MODESTY BLAISE’ SINGLE) COULD ALSO BE ADDED TO THE SOUNDTRACK.

IN FACT FOOTAGE OF THESE TWO SONGS, ALONG WITH THE DIRECT HITS MIMING TO ‘MODESTY BLAISE’ AND ‘WHAT KILLED ALEISTER CROWLEY’ WAS SHOT BY COLIN ROBINSON ON THE THAMES RIVER BANK BY BATTERSEA BRIDGE. SADLY THE FILM WAS ACCIDENTLY RECORDED OVER IN 1995, LOST FOREVER IN THE ANNALS OF TIME.

FOUR MONTHS INTO THE PROJECT, A COMBINATION OF THE AILING PYSCHEDELIC REVIVAL, THE DIRECT HITS EVOLUTION INTO A BONAFIDE MOD BAND, AND GENO BUCKMASTER’S REFUSAL TO HAVE ANYTHING MORE TO DO WITH THAT “FUCKING CRAP FILM IDEA” PUT PAID TO THE PROJECT EVER BEING COMPLETED, UNTIL NOVEMBER 2003. FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS, MUCH OF THE MATERIAL HAD BEEN GATHERING DUST IN A DRAWER MARKED ‘FILM PROJECT - UNUSED’.