Joyland Books

Time to chill.

This MTV video of Black's sublime "Wonderful Life" methinks was shot in Southport circa '87..

I'll stand corrected though.

Great song. Great times. Great resort.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iyfu_mU-dmo

Gary

The two rides featured in this video, Looping Star and Bounty, were at Margate's Dreamland in the 80s. Doesnt mean to say similar rides were not elsewhere at this time. Like you said though, great song!

The plot thickens!

A Looping Star was at Southport circa '87..as was a Galleon (From BPB)

..It was the shots of that tractor on the beach (I think it collects the brown shrimps from the water) and what looked like marram grass on Ainsdale dunes.

I suppose they could be anywhere though.

I must admit the seaside shelters didn't look too familiar either..unless they were the pier shelters??

..and that big ship steaming on by...???..

I'm confused..Can you tell?

it was a strange one because the cableway from blackpool was featured on the cover,i think the shelters were along beside the giant slide park and the kiddie park on the other side(the road ran from the prom up to the town) the proms pretty destinctive and it looks like the tidal wave which perhaps was still at blackpool at the time of the video also im sure there was another picture on the album cover that was from blackpool but i cant remember what it was

Googling the info I got this courtesy of Wikipedia:

Southport Pleasureland featured in the video for the pop single Wonderful Life, by Liverpool band Black, which was also shot at other parts of the Sefton and North West coastline.

I loved the Looping Star.

Pleasureland - according to the rumourville at the time - had plans to move the ride from its car park to the main hub of the park..but allegedly there wasn't the room.

So that was that and it was sold

Looping Star can just about be seen on the right of the image below - in the car park.

What looks like The Galleon is there too (more central) but I can't remember Kevin the exact year it moved from Blackpool.

Any ideas?



Gary

gosh it even shows the old outdoor pool,that must be about right for the tidal wave possibly could have been its first year sad to see the area in its current state.Ps im going to m&ds in the next couple of weeks so ill take pictures of blackpools tidal wave now and post them here

Yes, the pic shows a 'classic seaside resort' doesn't it... oh no silly me, there's a woodie and an outdoor pool and not a Matalan in sight. Can't be!

The sequence at the beginning shows an Art Deco shelter which looks like New Brighton to me, as does the lighthouse. There was a looping star at the front entrance area of Pleasureland Southport at the time as well. The beach looks like Southport as well.

The New Brighton shelter as it looks today

well done for working that one out jim,it looks to be the same one to me

And all these years I thought it was filmed at Dreamland Margate coz of the Looping Star & Marie Rose (Galleon). Even quoted it to peeps: "You know that Black video, it was filmed in Margate don't-cha-know..."

From Wikipedia - The music video was shot in black and white around the English seaside resort of New Brighton, near Black's hometown Liverpool, and features New Brighton Lighthouse and Promenade. It was directed by Gerard De Thame, husband of Rachel De Thame, and won an award at the NY Film Festival in 1988.

The record was released in 1986 and in this year Dreamland at Margate did have that model of Looping Star and also a Pirate Ship (Bounty). So what my research has told me is that the Margate Looping Star was there from 1981 to 1995 and there was an identical model at Southport from 1985 to 1987 which would tie in with the release of this track. The Southport model did visit 7 other locations according to the rollercoaster database. www.rcdb.com is a great site for researching coasters past and present !