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Eve Wood has been living in Sheffield since 1997 and has quickly grasped the history of the local music scene.

The film Made In Sheffield concentrates on the post-Punk era in the city and in a magazine poll was voted in their top 50 all time films and documentaries about music.

Nick on stage with Pink Grease

The World of Pink Grease

One of Eve Wood's latest films to draw the attention of music fans looks at the synth player of Sheffield glam band Pink Grease.

Eve followed the band on and off over a four year period and has released a 'World of Pink Grease' DVD featuring four separate films about the band.

It was one of those, 'Nick's World of Synthesisers' which caught everyone's attention.

Eve spoke about Nick's World of Synthesizers back in 2007 when it was appearing at Doc Fest:

"I made this film just because I wanted to. I went out of my way to go and see Nick when I was filming Pink Grease, and filmed him separately.

Nick demonstrates one of his synths

"What he was doing was quite amazing, takes a year to build a synthesiser. It takes a lot of patience and persistence and a certain type of brain to do that.

"I got him to talk about it and he showed me how it works, what sort of sounds it makes, and how long it took.

"He even took me to Pete Hartley... he made a drum kit for Def Leppard when he [drummer Rick Allen] lost his arm, so he's a bit of a legend. He's worked with Cabaret Voltaire, Human League and is the back-up engineer of the Sheffield music scene.

"It's a bit obscure in a way, it's a bit different and the feedback was brilliant. I gave the whole documentary to the festival, all four films and they chose Nick's World of Synthesisers to be part of the festival."

Made In Sheffield

Around six years ago Eve, her and her partner's Sheffield Vision company, and Sheffield's Slackjaw Films produced a film looking at the bands that highlighted Sheffield as a happening place in the post Punk era.

The cover photo of Made In Sheffield

Most of that music had an electronic core, bands like Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17 and ABC, and featured interviews with people like Jarvis Cocker and the late great John Peel.

Just weeks ago the documentary was voted in to London Time Out magazine's Top 50 all time films and documentaries about music, coming in at number 44.

"They used the cover photo of the guitar as the opening photograph of the whole feature, so we were really pleased," said Eve.

"It's still being appreciated, it's still being picked up by festivals. Currently it's with some broadcasters, hopefully to be shown worldwide. Six years later it's still having a life.

"It's not just about the famous bands, it's about bands like Artery, the Extras, 2.3 the punk outfit so it gave you a very good idea of what was going on back then.

The late John Peel pictured in the early '80s

John Peel

Legendry Radio 1 DJ John Peel agreed to be interviewed by Eve for the Made In Sheffield documentary, and had the pleasure of travelling down to Peel Acres in Suffolk, Peel's home, hub and sometimes broadcasting studio.

"He forgot, we went down to near where he lives on the Saturday and were meant to interview him... and we just couldn't get in touch.

"We just spent the whole afternoon in a car park waiting for him to call back. His agent called back 'oh he's forgot he feels really bad about it, what about tomorrow morning?'.

"We went down on Sunday morning. It was really nice of him to still invite us over. He had a really big kitchen, called his wife flower. But at the same time there was some weird electronic music, house music going off on a Sunday morning. He was playing it to listen to.

"A very nice guy, very honest and very sharp, very welcoming. The interview is basically about the Punk years."

Follow up to Made In Sheffield

"We've been working on that for quite a few years now. That will focus on the Sheffield music scene from '82 'till about '96, focusing mainly on what happened in the '80s... people, they might be surprised."

Artery

Sheffield band Artery formed in 1978 and had developed a large following in Sheffield but the band called it a day in 1985. However the band decided to make a comeback after a famous fan asked them to play a festival he was curating.

Mark Gouldthorpe back with Artery

"In June I was phoned up by Mark from Artery. They were asked by Jarvis [Cocker] to reform for his Meltdown Festival, and they said yes.

"They're featured very vividly in Made In Sheffield, and they were Jarvis' favourite band. So they practiced really hard and played a gig at The Boardwalk and then the Meltdown Festival in London the next day, and later on in the week did Mark Riley [Radio 2 / 6 Music].

"So I decided to go and film all this and see what happens and I've got some really nice footage so we're thinking of putting a little DVD for Artery fans together.

"I think they're very excited, and the pressure is not on so much as it was back then, because back then it was going to be their career, their future, but now they've got all that so they're enjoying it much more.

"They're doing some gigs here and there, and we're thinking of releasing a DVD and a live CD that was recorded at Meltdown Festival."

What makes a good documentary?

"For me it's when the subjects can speak for themselves... I think everybody's got a story to tell. Sometimes when your subject matter is interesting, let's just see what happens, that's usually when the best film comes out.

"An example is Dig [documenting rivalries and friendships between The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols]. She [Ondi Timoner] followed those people for seven years.

"She didn't have the commercial back up initially, didn't have to write a proposal or anything like that, and that's when good films come out. The TV documentaries that come out now are so well thought out beforehand, the spontaneity goes."

Dream doc

"I would like to spend a weekend with George Bush, just at his house to find out what makes him tick, or what doesn't make him tick. What the hell is going on in his head? I'm curious... it would be really interesting [laughs].

"There must be something real going on inside his head... but obviously that's not going to happen."