''The Big Melt'' is a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about the

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

industry which combines archive footage with a live

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

. It was produced by

Heather Croall Heather Ann Croall (born 1967) is an international arts CEO, artistic director and documentary producer, best known for leading Sheffield Doc/Fest which she grew to be one of the best documentary festivals in the world and Adelaide Fringe where ...

and Mark Atkin and Martin Rosenbaum and directed by

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

and Martin Wallace for the 20th annual

Sheffield Doc/Fest Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest; abbr.Sheffield International Documentary Festival or SIDF) is an international documentary Film festival, festival and industry marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England. The festiv ...

in 2013, to celebrate the centenary of the steel industry. The film was made using footage from the

BFI National Archive The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became th ...

. The film was commissioned by BBC Storyville and

BBC North BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the BBC. It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean: *The large ''BBC North'' region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based u ...

in association with the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, d ...

, using public funding from the

National Lottery National Lottery may refer to: *National Lottery (Ireland), the state lottery of Ireland *National Lottery (United Kingdom), the lottery franchise in the United Kingdom *South African National Lottery, established in 2000 *A number of countries con ...

through

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

The film

''The Big Melt'' followed '' From the Sea to the Land Beyond'', a similar commission by Doc/Fest in 2012. Cocker was initially reluctant to be involved because he felt that Sheffield's Steel City image was a cliché. He agreed to take part after seeing footage of a boy putting two fingers up to the camera in the early 1900s, which reminded him of '' Kes'', the film by

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...

. ''The Big Melt'' was billed as 'a brand new kind of heavy metal music', and as 'a music and film journey into the soul of a nation, bringing to life the ghosts of our past, taking us into the belly of the furnaces and showing how our souls have been stamped from the mighty presses of our

industrial heritage Industrial heritage refers to the physical and intangible legacy of industrialisation, including buildings, machinery, workshops, sites, and landscapes of historical and technological significance. Stefan Berger and Steven High define industrial h ...

'. The restoration and screening of the archive footage was done as part of the BFI's This Working Life: Steel project. The film shows the manufacturing processes and the social history of the people behind it, going as far back as 1900. There is no narration. It includes both colour and black-and-white film. Footage includes a girl making shells in a munitions factory during the First World War, men working on the Tyne Bridge, and a propagandist cartoon imagining a world without steel. The ''Guardian'' described the effect of the film as like "a really trippy educational video" and Wallace said he intended the film to be "fantastical, playful and challenging". ''The Observer'' called it "one of the best films ever to appear in the ''Storyville'' documentary strand".

The soundtrack

The soundtrack was performed live by Cocker accompanied by over 50 musicians, including many Sheffield artists. Some tracks were re-recorded for the official release of the documentary, while some were recorded live. Musicians included: * Cocker's

Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

bandmates

Candida Doyle Candida Mary Doyle (born 25 August 1963) is an Irish musician who is keyboard player and occasional backing vocalist with the band Pulp, which she joined in 1984. She joined her brother, drummer Magnus Doyle, in the line-up to replace the prev ...

Steve Mackey Stephen Patrick Mackey (10 November 1966 – 2 March 2023) was an English musician and record producer best known as the bass guitarist for the Britpop band Pulp, which he joined in 1989. As a record producer, he produced songs and albums by ...

and

Nick Banks Nicholas David Banks (born 28 July 1965) is an English drummer, a member of the British band Pulp. He lives in Sheffield with his wife Sarah and two children. He is the nephew of Gordon Banks, goalkeeper of the 1966 FIFA World Cup-winning Eng ...

. *

Richard Hawley Richard Willis Hawley (born 17 January 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story (formed while he was still at school) broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Long ...

* Members of

The Verve The Verve were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones (musician), Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Sim ...

. * Members of

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic music, electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their t ...

. * Unite the Union (City of Sheffield) Band, who played the acid house track ‘

Voodoo Ray "Voodoo Ray" is the debut single by British electronic musician Gerald Simpson, recording under the name A Guy Called Gerald. The single was released in the UK in 1988 on the 7" and 12" vinyl formats, on the Rham! label. The original single was ...

’. * Sheffield Youth Choir * The Forgemasters, a Sheffield DJ duo. *

Serafina Steer Serafina Steer (born 30 April 1982) is an English harpist, and songwriter based in London. She is best known as a regular collaborator with Jarvis Cocker. In addition to harp, she plays keyboards, bass guitar and has composed for theatre and TV ...

The music played includes versions of: * The Human League's '

Being Boiled "Being Boiled" is a song by the British synth-pop band the Human League. Composed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh with lyrics by Philip Oakey, it is regarded as a seminal work in early synth-pop. "Being Boiled" was one of the first mainstre ...

' arranged for strings. *

A Guy Called Gerald Gerald Rydel Simpson (born 1967), better known as A Guy Called Gerald, is a British record producer and musician. He was an early member of the electronic group 808 State, contributing to their debut LP '' Newbuild'' (1988) and hit single " ...

’s 'Voodoo Ray' arranged for brass. * The opening titles from ''Kes''. * Several Pulp songs including '

This Is Hardcore ''This Is Hardcore'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 30 March 1998. Following the success of '' Different Class'' (1995), friction grew in the band, culminating in the departure of the guitarist and violinist ...

and 'Sheffield: Sex City'. * Compositions by

Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...

, The Forgemasters, Richard Hawley,

All Seeing I The All Seeing I are a British electronic music group from Sheffield, England, comprising Dean Honer, Jason Buckle and DJ Parrot (real name Richard Barratt). Biography The band released their first single "I Walk" in 1997, but it was not until ...

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce Incidental music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...

, Serafina Steer and

Max de Wardener Max de Wardener is a British composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist known for his scores for film and television and his work in jazz, classical, world and electronic music. Career Since graduating from York University and the Guildhall Scho ...

Screenings

The world

premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

was on 12 June 2013 at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre, or simply The Crucible, is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1971. Its name refers to crucible steel, which was developed in Sheffield in 1740 and drove the industrialisation of the city. ...

to an audience of nearly 1000 people. The film with accompanying soundtrack was screened at the

Curzon Curzon may refer to: People Americans * Aria Curzon (born 1987), American actress * Walter de Curzon Poultney (1845–1929), one of Baltimore, Maryland's most colorful and flamboyant high-society members Britons * Christopher Curzon (born 1958), ...

Chelsea on 8 January 2014, and broadcast on the BBC's '' Storyville'' on 26 January 2014 under the title ''The Big Melt – How Steel Made Us Hard''.

References

External links

''Storyville'' official page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Melt BBC television documentaries British television documentaries British documentary films 2013 documentary films 2013 films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language documentary films