susan earlam ~ horror author

Our girl about town- Charlotte gives us an insight into Hulme Hippodrome…

It’s not exactly what you expect to find in a building covered in old fly posters and semi boarded up. You’ll have driven or walked past it countless times, not realising what it holds.

Hulme Hippodrome is a hidden beauty; her outside now mostly brick, peeling paint and damp, hiding a derelict glory, a beauty marred by plaster, damp floors and previous attempts to modernise (mostly evident in the cork tile ceiling and plywood finishes). Now it is hoped that work by Tony Wright and the Youth Village will help repair her.

Why was I here I hear you ask. One of those random twitter occurrences. The gorgeous songstress Charlie Cooper and her band were a little short of extras for a music video and as I had the day off for marathon recovery, I was happy to help. With a vintage theme to the video and a glorious soul sound to the track, I knew it was going to be fun. Add in the faded grandeur of Hulme Hippodrome and it became fascinating and heartbreaking. Exquisite plasterwork, flock wall paper, faded signs on glass and water dripping from the ceiling. It made me sad, unbelievably so. How can such a grand lady get into this state?

Back to the task in hand and as ever with these things, there’s a lot of waiting around, lots of people wandering in and out with cameras, tripods and instruments and make-up being applied and hair being done. The venue heavily influenced the shoot, meaning that there was a vintage theme to the video for Beautiful Clown, which saw us having beautifully applied make-up with a twist. In my case, tear drops, but other ladies had a stronger white-face clown features.

Once made up, dressed up and hair done, we sat in an upper tier of the theatre for filming, there’s still a faded glamour to be appreciated, even amongst the damp carpet and dusty seating.

Our few minutes of shooting over and all that remained was for Charlie again to post in various rooms of the building and for us to remove our makeup and go home.

Having spoken to those behind the shoot, the hope is that the video draws as much attention to the venue as it does to Charlie’s music. In my opinion, the Hippodrome deserves as much love and care as Charlie deserves success. I truly hope both get what they deserve.