HOPE'S X-RATED VIDEO, "PARADISE CIRCUS"! (post updated Oct. 21, 2024)
(no, it's not quite what you may be thinking).
It's the official video of the song Paradise Circus by Massive Attack with Hope guest-singing on it.
The uncensored video is viewable at Vimeo, here:
https://vimeo.com/10405177Mention of this video is findable already in the HS&TWI Interviews thread, but I thought
it deserves a more detailed, prominent post. It's a video the band Massive Attack released
in Dec., 2009, an official video of their and Hope's song "Paradise Circus," released as a single around
the same time, a song collaboration with Hope as she wrote the lyrics & melody, and sang it. The song was also included on Massive Attack's Feb. 2010 album release, "Heligoland."
Five or six years ago, fans visiting go-to fan site of the time, Mazzy Star Boulevard (now defunct), knew about the video as it was discussed there. And music sites publicized it. But since many people may have missed it, it deserves a new post.
It's no doubt one of the more unusual aspects of Hope's career. It's an official video
of her/Massive Attack's song, an interesting, though XXX-rated, documentary which
means it's banned from you tube, Facebook, and other sites that forbid nudity or porn.
It's not a conventional music video. Instead, it's
a short documentary film that uses the song "Paradise Circus" as its soundtrack/theme song.
It's a documentary of an interview with retired porn star Georgina Spelvin, now a senior,
and includes hard core clips from her 1973 "porn classic" "The Devil in Miss Jones."
The opening credits say it's presented by "Heligoland Pictures," which links
it directly to the band Massive Attack. Director Toby Dye was enlisted to create the video as a promotional video for Massive Attack's Heligoland album.
The XXX-rated video of "Paradise Circus" used to be viewable at Massive Attack's official
site, but last I checked is no longer up there. But I did notice today, the band's FB page
has a couple of posts with links to a Vimeo upload of the video, viewable here:
https://vimeo.com/71961703There is an interview with Hope (2010, JUNE 21, THE BRAG mag) findable in the 2009-2010 interviews thread at this fan site where she comments about the Paradise Circus video. In it, she endorses the video, says she likes it, and says she needed to formally approve it to be released. Here's the relevant excerpt , QUOTE:
"Has Sandoval seen it? 'I have,'she answers, 'I had to approve it before they put it out.' What were her thoughts? 'I'm just hoping that my father doesn't see it,' she laughs nervously, 'or any of my brothers and sisters! One of my brothers has seen it- he did say it's racy, but it's really good. That's why I approved it; it's pretty wild, but I thought it was really good.'" (-HOPE)
Discogs site shows Hope received a co-writing credit on the released recording (along with 4 other people),but the song already existed in complete form with the same lyrics & same vocal melody before Hope ever got involved.So, the band must have given Hope the credit as a reward for her recording her vocals on it though she didn't actually co-write it.
The song's original, unreleased complete-song demo existed before Hope was involved. It had the working title "Harpsichord" with Yolanda Quartey on vocals.Yolanda also sang the song live with Massive Attack on their 2008 tour when the band showcased a number of then unreleased songs.
It's apparently not uncommon in the music business for people not involved in the actual writing of a song to be given co-writing credit on it as a reward (with royalties) for their involvement in some other aspect of the project, in Hope's case contributing vocals.
EXCELLENT IN-DEPTH INFO on the history of the song PARADISE CIRCUS from a Massive Attack fan site:
https://massiveattack.ie/info/paradise-circus