It’s Bill Hick’s 30th anniversary today - he died in 1994. He was my hero. I got to make a feature doc film about him in 2010 with @Paul Thomas that was fortunate to go London Film Festival, SXSW, Dallas, Biografilm Bologna, HotDocs & more - and we did a theatrical release here in 30 cities, the US the same. Bill had a lot of fans, still does, so we found people who wanted to help the film get out there to give him his due as the best stand up of the 90s who changed what comedy could be and what it aspired to.
When his Relentless special aired on C4 back in 92 (where there were only 4 channels - imagine) it blew the heads off of a whole generation of Brits and invented comedy as rock n roll. When you’re growing up, you look for people who can help you understand the world, and he was one of the people who did it for me, and many others. So it’s his 30th anniversary today and so I thought I’d post this - its how the film got started and we met Bill’s family - through 10 years worth of tribute nights that we put on to Bill. In 2004 on the 10th anniversary, I wanted to go to a Bill tribute night, but couldn’t find one in Time Out (!), so decided I’d do it myself - VHS clips from ebay, a few comics and a band. They were immediately popular and grew, so we did another one 4 weeks later, and then next year another, then the 14th and 15th and 20th and by then we had name comics wanting to come down & perform for free (they were all in aid of Bill’s wildlife charity) and people like Shaun Keaveny had us on his 6Music show 3 times to big them up.
And so after the first couple of them, we sent Bill’s family a cheque for the charity and cut together a short 40 min doc of the nights to show them that he was still remembered in the UK - which is where he was most popular (this is before YouTube - they were on VHS!) And that relationship with Bill’s family how we got the film off the ground.
So on the 30th anniversary, I thought post a montage of the tribute nights in case anyone fancied a look see - getting the chance to tell Bill’s life story meant the world to me and Paul - and to the thousands of Bill fans around the world. The fan nights were such an amazing time & memory for all of us - and the fact that Bill’s family (mum Mary, brother Steve, sister Lynn) came over for two of them (15th & 20th) was incredibly meaningful to those packed into the sweaty Lock 17 in Camden for those joyous, sold out, heartfelt memories of someone whose life we wanted to give thanks for. Bill was well known for his views on religion, but that sounds a lot like a religious experience to me. On days like today, I often wonder how he would’ve felt about them.
Bill Hicks 20th Anniversary Event, Camden 2014
