Originally Posted by
Norton Canes
OK, let me tell you the story.
Back in about 1995 I was working in the library (storeroom, yeah?) of a video production facilities house in Camden, London. We handled a lot of pop and rock music stuff - promos, live concerts, that sort of thing. We had all the footage from Glastonbury turn up when Channel 4 UK had the rights to show it, for instance. Anyway, one day a whole stack of films tins arrived. There were scores of them - close to a hundred, I guess - and they were all marked 'Nine Inch Nails'. Well, my curiosity was piqued, 'cause I was a fan; so when, a few days later, the director turned up in an edit suite to put all this stuff together, I went down to ask him what he'd got.
He told me it was footage from a recent NIN concert, and the reason there was so much of it was that it had been shot by far more cameras than usual, to get as many different angles as possible. There was backstage stuff too, shot on handicams. In short, it all sounded pretty awesome. I paid regular visits to the edit suite as the guy worked on, watching over his shoulder whenever I could.
Eventually, after a few weeks, he'd got the thing finished. The film cans all came back to the library, and he jetted off to LA, for a meeting with Trent, who would give the movie his approval. Except... he didn't. The director came back a couple of weeks later totally crestfallen, telling us that Trent had changed his mind - rather than wanting an epic production shot from all angles, he now wanted the record of the concert to be more intimate. So the completed movie was shelved, and we never saw the director again.
Except the story doesn't end there. A few weeks on again, and who should suddenly turn up in our library but the imposing figure of Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson, founding member of Throbbing Gristle and Coil, and experimental music promo director. He had been recruited by Trent to rescue the movie, by re-cutting much of the footage. So that's what he did. And shortly afterwards I left the company, so I guess most of you have a better idea of what happened to Sleazy's version of the concert than I do. I presume it found favour and was released in its truncated form, but I haven't checked the NIN filmography.
But... wait. If you've been following me, I know what you're thinking. Doesn't that mean that the extended version of this concert footage is still hanging around? The one that the original director took to Trent Reznor? The one with all the angles? Someone must have the master tape, yeah? Well, I couldn't say exactly where the master tape is now - last time I saw it, it was sitting on the 'N' shelf of the video facilities house library. But I know where a VHS copy of master tape is. It's on my desk, right here. I had one of the tape engineers make it for me, when I found out it wasn't going to be released. Let me look at the track listing...
Mr Self Destruct
Sin
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
Reptile
Gave Up
Happiness In Slavery
Eraser
Hurt
The Downward Spiral
Wish
How Does It Feel
The Only Time
Down In It
Head Like A Hole
Closer
Lost Souls
I Do Not Want This
Something I Can Never Have
I wish I could remember the name of that first director. Ginger hair, is all I can recall. The name totally escapes me. It was a long time ago! I thought it was such a shame he got the rebuke from Trent, after all that hard work.
CAVEAT: All the above is true. But for all I know, a hundred other copies, and copies of copies, were made of that master tape, and there are a million versions of it sitting on people's hard drives. Hell, I haven't even checked YouTube. But for a while, mine was unique.
Likes: 
Faceplams: 
Reply With Quote
![[parasite]'s Avatar](/community/vessel/squares/avatar2902_8.gif){kind=avatar}
