Starring Richard Dormer, Jodie Whittaker, Adrian Dunbar and Dylan Moran
Written by Colin Carberry and Glen Patterson
Directed by Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Leyburn
Production Year 2013
Running time 102 minutes
‘When it comes to Punk Rock New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers but Belfast has the reason’ said Terri Hooley - the so-called Godfather of Punk in Northern Ireland
In the early 70s Hooley founded a record shop on the most bombed half mile in Europe and called it 'Good Vibrations'. He went on to form a label under the same name and discovered bands like The Outcasts and The Undertones - whose debut single 'Teenage Kicks' is one of the most iconic songs of that decade and the late John Peel’s favourite track.
Hooley was a visionary who transformed the music scene in war-torn Belfast but his lousy business sense and good-natured idealism meant that he never achieved the fame and fortune of his English counterpart Malcolm McLaren.
This high-tempo biography captures the radical mood of the times and Hooley’s single-minded determination to create a new alternative Ulster in the midst of the ‘Troubles’. The performances by Richard Dormer and the others in the cast are excellent and the film has an infectious energy channelled through a great soundtrack featuring music by Stiff Little Fingers, David Bowie, The Small Faces and The Shangri-Las.
