Latest News
CLIFF TWEMLOW SCREENING
Monday 17 November 2008
CLIFF
TWEMLOW
16/10/1933 - 5/5/1993
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Latest News CLIFF TWEMLOW SCREENING Monday 17 November 2008 |
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CLIFF
TWEMLOW |
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| www.itsahotun.com - celebrating MANCUNIAN LEGENDS | |||||||
Cliff Twemlow is a Mancunian Legend - musician, author, actor ... bouncer!
Here's a good friend of Cliff's, Steve Powell talking to Graham Rae (14 June 2004)
These six photos appear in Clliff's book THE TUXEDO WARRIOR |
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On the Vinyl Vulture site (20 Jan 2004) 'Lord Thames' wrote -
"Barry Stoller did indeed do the 'MOTD' theme, and I've heard from several sources that he is actually also guitarist Rhett Stoller, though I haven't actually had this confirmed yet.
" Stoller and Peter Reno collaborated occasionally, but they're not the same person. Reno is in fact the alias of one Cliff Twemlow, who (until his death in the early 90s) managed to pack in composing, writing novels, acting, bodybuilding and being a nightclub bouncer in Manchester. I have a copy of his straight-to-video movie 'GBH - Grievous Bodily Harm' which he wrote, directed and starred in - it has to be seen to be believed!"
The following imdb entry by Helli's Puppies provides biographical details:
Twemlow was a one time night club bouncer and avid movie fan
who entered the film world via working as a stuntman. Based in the Manchester
area, Twemlow came
into his own by starring in a series of extremely low-budget action films mostly
shot on videotape. The first, 1983's G.B.H., was a true labour of love for Twemlow
in which he not only played the lead role but also produced, co-ordinated the
stunts and wrote the music for all under a variety of pseudonyms. It features
Twemlow as an embittered former night club bouncer called Steve Donovan a.k.a.
'The Mancunian', drawn back into the violent world of Manchester club land. This
was a world Twemlow knew only too well, his autobiography published around the
time of the film's video release was called 'Tuxedo Warrior: Tales of a Mancunian
Bouncer'. Although boasting fine performances from such curiosities as 3-2-1
voiceover man Anthony Schaeffer and stand up comedian Jerry Harris, most of the
cast were merely Twemlow's mates from the local gym and fellow stuntmen. Movie
buff Cliff filled the film with references to the likes of Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid and did the music under the name 'John Agar'. GBH very much
set the tone for Cliff Twemlow's unique blend of cinema, with impressive stunt
ridden set pieces, heavy emphasis on Manchester settings and Mancunian characters
plus lots of very Northern humour. The average scene in GBH involves a character
referring to Donovan as 'the big hard type' to which he responds to by looking
down at his trousers and remarking `I didn't realise it was showing'. For all
his crude one liners Twemlow emerges as highly likeable and, in his fifties at
the time, admirably refuses to exclude himself from being the butt of jokes by
having characters refer to him as 'poppa' and 'a bit too old'.
A modest success GBH begat around 13 Twemlow vehicles filmed throughout the 80s
and 90s. Mostly directed by David Kent-Watson they include the horror themed
The Eye of Satan (1988) and a GBH sequel called Lethal Impact (1991) which was
shot in Malta, Liverpool and naturally Manchester. Twemlow was also a horror
novelist penning the paperbacks 'The Beast of Kane' and 'The Pike', the latter
of which was meant to be made into a film starring Joan Collins which never happened.
Sadly Twemlow passed away in 1993, but his two fisted legacy of action films
and horror paperbacks is well worth celebrating.
Trivia - again
from imdb -
Appeared as an extra in Coronation Street in the sixties.
Composed a song called `Live and Let Die' which was recorded by the singer Salena
Jones. Though it was made shortly before the Paul McCartney/Bond theme of the
same name, legal proceedings taken by McCartney eventually resulted in the Twemlow/Jones
version being withdrawn.
His then unpublished novel 'The Dogs of Kane' was submitted to Hammer Films in
the late 1970s with the prospect of them making a film out of it. The film was
never made, although the book was published a few years later as `The Beasts
of Kane'.
Wrote over two thousand music compositions (mostly incidental music or TV themes)
under the pen name "Peter Reno".
If you would like a spare backup dvd copy of Tuxedo Warrior or GBH please use Paypal to pay £3.99 per title plus £1.00 first class post UK ONLY. If you buy 2 then the postage is £1.50 - sorry, UK ONLY. Please don't forget to state which film you require! Long Live the Man-Man-Man-Mancunian Man! |
TUXEDO WARRIOR (1982) Thank you to imdb contributor J Stone from Winnipeg, Minnesota for this motivational review - obviously we too urge everyone to seek out this movie! We did and opposite is the UK vhs video cover ... we are looking forward to receiving an Australian copy and it might have a different cover (that's how sad we are!). User Comments: If anybody knows anything more about Cliff and his movies - please email CP Lee LATEST NEWS OFFICIAL MOVIE RELEASES- www.cameo-classics.com - Brilliant! Merenda wrote to us and it looks like the site is run by DK Watson himself! And you can buy the following Cliff films - official, fantastic! But please note - A word of warning the site isn’t the most professional and there is no contact information for an address and such like so please don’t hold us responsible!. However we're buying ... what the hell! GBH2-Special Edition
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Thanks to Gav Crimson for letting us know that the German version of Cliff's Firestar is available at Amazon.de - great stuff! Gav's reviews are unmissable - Click for review of GBH and check out his reviews of similar Brit movies too! |
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PS - Sheila Gott sings in the film GBH and these days she is one of Manchester's premier vocal coaches.
For more on Cliff Twemlow visit Wikepedia ...
This page updated:
27 October, 2008
www.itsahotun.com
- celebrating MANCUNIAN LEGENDS!
