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Bespectacled cardigan-wearer Stevie (guitar, vocals) endures a job he despises and can’t get a girlfriend, but at least he has music. With his mate Neil (drums), he’s been kicking about in bands for a while, but it is not until the pair team up with Billy Dixon (guitar), a more experienced hand with drive and ambition, and Billy’s cute pal Emily (bass) that the possibility they might be on to something good suggests itself. With a demo to tout, Stevie beats a well-trodden path to record company doors, but finds he has to manage the tensions developing within the band while keeping his own aspirations in check.
　　There have been plenty of films about bands in the past, yet Giles Borg’s knowing, warm and witty film feels original and honest, the product of time spent in dives watching bands before anyone else has heard of them. A spirited, independent film about the spirit of independence, 1 2 3 4 revels in referencing The Yummy Fur, Prolapse and Comet Gain, as much as more obvious touchstones The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and the Pixies (the soundtrack is a killer, natch). Watch it here, so that in six months time when everyone’s raving about it, you can claim, “I saw it first”.
　　Michael Hayden