Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – ‘Madder Than A Full Moon Dog’
Written by Gaz E
Sunday, 13 October 2013 04:00
‘Madder Than A Full Moon Dog’ (Wienerworld)
What better time for Wienerworld, the UK’s leading indie music publisher and distributor, to release this rockumentary on retail DVD than the month that both Asomvel’s new album, ‘Knuckle Duster’, gets a welcome CD release and the third annual Full Moon Dog festival takes place in Leeds? There is, as it happens, no better time.
Jay-Jay Winter of heavy metallers Asomvel sadly passed away so, in tribute, friends and family started the Full Moon Dog festival, named after a song and previous release from the band, who launched their hard rocking campaign in the early nineties.
‘Madder Than A Full Moon Dog’, the film, was directed and co-produced by Winter’s sister, Deborah Robinson, and, with it also featuring various other family members and their bands, is a proper family affair. But we’re not simply talking blood, we’re talking the metal family.
Jay-Jay Winter could shout out the name of his favourite kebab shop from the window of a moving vehicle and said establishment would have his favourite order ready when he arrived, we learn from this film. We also learn that he would feel like killing teenagers who informed him that they liked listening to the Manic Street Preachers. We also learn, and this is key, that his dedication to the world of heavy metal in the northern town that he called home was 
unprecedented, his attitude lauded over, his band well-respected, his passing fiercely mourned.
‘Madder Than A Full Moon Dog’ documents the second annual event that takes its name from the rocking song, filmed last October at The Cockpit venue in Leeds. Hosted, kind of, by a man big and brave enough to step into Winter’s shoes in Asomvel, fittingly named ‘Conan’, the film is wholly reminiscent of those rare network television documentaries on the rise of heavy metal amongst the youth; well filmed and produced, the subject matter poked and prodded for every potentially controversial or hilarious moment to appear.
The less-forgiving would tag this as some kind of modern take on Heavy Metal Parking Lot, surely pointing out that few things had changed in over a quarter of a century, but, for me at least, there is an old school charm about it all. Punters interviewed about their patch-strewn denim cut-offs, bands playing songs that look like they belong on an unaired episode of ECT, band members in oft-awkward backstage interviews – there is plenty to tickle the ribs of the casual rock doc viewer here…for one reason or another.
Of the bands, Orange Goblin stand head and shoulders above all others, both onstage and in the interview footage. If you’ve ever seen or heard the band then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, the Goblin standing defiantly at the peak of the UK metal mountain. Triaxis win the best of the rest contest, ahead of the likes of Stuka Squadron, Eliminator, Mercenary, Screaming Eagles, Stiletto Farm, and Dark Forest, but it is the performance of Asomvel around which this entire film is centred.
The best thing about this, in all honesty, is the sight of a venue packed out to the rafters in 2012, rabid metal fans hungry for a good time and hellbent on making sure that one of their fallen brothers is never forgotten. It is inspiring, heart-warming, and horn-throwing.
Girlschool’s Jackie Chambers pops up for a quick talking head appearance which, with the appearance of the hugely-respected Orange Goblin, gives this whole thing a little more credence, but it is the attitude of the paying punters, troopers one and all, that shines through on this hard rock curio.
When Jay-Jay Winter formed a metal band a couple of decades ago he could never have known that his legacy would contain retail DVD releases and an ever-growing rock festival. As proud as those associations would have made him, the real pride documented here is of a group of music outsiders gathered together to pay tribute to one of their own in the best way that they know how……by hell-raising.
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To pick up your copy of ‘Madder than a Full Moon Dog’ on DVD – CLICK HERE
