Spike Island is a new coming of age comedy movie set against the backdrop of The Stone Roses' legendary 1990 Spike Island gig, and director Mat Whitecross explains how Coldplay helped the film get made.
Coldplay agreed to part-finance the movie after their friend and director told them he was struggling to get the cash together to pay for it. Mat spoke to BBC in a recent interview: "As usual in any low budget film, especially in Britain, you end up struggling to get that last bit of finance - and we were sruggling and struggling. I was talking to Chris [Martin] one day and I was pulling my hair out. Chris was like, 'What are you talking about? We'll give you the money.' It's been amazing, we're very blessed to know Coldplay. Very generous guys."
Elliott Tittensor, who was Carl Gallagher in Shameless, plays the Stone Roses' lead singer in Spike Island. He says Coldplay were silent partners but their help made the film happen. "It's nice to see them crossing the line and coming over into helping people out in our line of work," the 23-year-old said. "It's nice that they're supporting other artistic forms of making things."
All four Coldplay members have executive producer credits and also helped pay for Mat Whitecross' 2010 film, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Elliott Tittensor also appeared in the group's video for Charlie Brown in 2011, but said they only met them once during filming at a party.
Coldplaying reported back in October 2011 that Coldplay had a vested interest in the Stone Roses' reunion after ploughing cash into the movie about the cult British band. The Stone Roses smashed UK concert sales records in 2011 when all 240,000 tickets for their reunion gigs sold out in less than an hour.
Chris Martin explained back in 2011, "We actually invested in a film by our friend Mat Whitecross about four lads who tried to blag tickets for the famous Stone Roses Spike Island gig. Speaking as film investors, we hope the reunion is a huge success as it will be reflected in the box office figures."
Spike Island had its premiere at The Cornerhouse in Manchester on Tuesday and opened on Friday (20th June). Watch both the trailer and Guardian's video review below:
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