If you happened to be cruising near the Avalon Skate Park a couple of weekends ago, you may have been lucky enough to witness a most unusual scene, local band Claude Rains were filming their first music video for their upcoming, self-titled first album.

Heather Weir, Murray Hewitt and Andrew Bains aka Claude Rains

Director Gwen Isaac pulled in some favours and there was a bunch of stars from the Hobbit on set.

James Nesbitt and singer Heather Weir
A beautiful bevvy of dwarves and rock stars and children and director of photography

I was there with my caravan to provide cups of tea and moral support. It was terrifically fun, I even had a title, Craftsomethingorother, which seemed pretty apt. Here is a picture of us watching the playback of the various versions of the video (my caravan is the real star, fyi).

The crew and band and offspring watch the playback.

In addition to Hobbit folk there was also a take with roller derby girls and a local cycling club, it was both hilarious and quite lovely to see. Watch this space for the release of the finished video, the album is beautiful and the whole experience was a truckload of fun. I quite fancy a new career sitting around drinking tea and chatting. What?