STRANGE DAYS

Bush video: all crows, pig-me, mutant insects and saucy birds....

'EVERYTHING ZEN' - The plot: Band disturb crows, bizarre pig-men and balletic couples playing post-grunge mega hit in smoky, ill-lit basement. Gavin Rossdale: "I hadn't even seen that many videos before making this because I never had MTV. I just remember that it felt weird miming with all those people standing around, but you soon get over that. Obviously, this video was hugely important in breaking us in America.

'LITTLE THINGS' - The plot: Basically 'Everything Zen' filmed outdoors with saucy birds standing around looking arty and bored. Gavin Rossdale: "We did this around the biggest house in Long Island, New York. All my shots were done against a wall in a corridor in the basement. My biggest memory of this is that we had a salsa party afterwards with some Cuban dancers -- and it all just went off."

'COMEDOWN' - The plot: Fisheye camera lens shoved through hotel keyhole finds band freaking out with weird umbilical cord-type tubes attached to their instruments. Gavin Rossdale: "We didn't like the original idea for this, so I got my friend Jake Scott -- a video director I've know for years -- to come up with something different. We knocked this out really quickly. I think it's pretty cool and different.

'GLYCERINE' - The plot: Gavin croons moodily, band sit around doing bugger all, and fit topless bird contemplates the futility of existence. Gavin Rossdale: "We had to do this while we were on tour in Atlanta with (director) Kevin Kerslake. It was the first time that we realized we were really busy with a successful album on our hands, so it was a total clinched rush-in-and-do-it big band thing. It was easy to do because I just stood there while the cameras whirled around me, which was nice."

'MACHINEHEAD' - The plot: Band plays sweaty club gig while girl motorbike courier zips around West London. Gavin Rossdale: "My friend Shawn Mortensen did this and it was based on a true story. We won an award for that one, which was really cool because it was a funky, stylish London video. And I love it."

'SWALLOWED' - The plot: Band perform in suburban living room while trendy young things in various states of undress frog and snog wildly and mad bloke caresses crucifixes. Gavin Rossdale: "This is a sort of London party video. It was made by another friend, Jamie Morgan. It reminds me of having your first place in London on your own."

'GREEDY FLY' - The plot: Hugely ambitious mini-movie, with shadowy government officials interrogating Rossdale in dank cellar while police helicopters and patrolmen seek out murderous mutant insect-man creature. Gavin Rossdale: "This was our ridiculous movie, shot in the same building where they filmed 'Seven.' It was just crazy. We spent almost half a million quid on it, which is a stupid, immoral amount of money that I can't really justify. It was fun to have done an epic like that once."

'COLD CONTAGIOUS' - The plot: Shots of band lying around hotel bedrooms inter- cut with US tour footage. Gavin Rossdale: "This was a pretty good attempt at capturing the loneliness and boredom of touring compared with exhilaration of playing live."

'PERSONAL HOLLOWAY' - The plot: Gavin's dog, Winston, pants, the band play in a rehearsal room and businessmen tear around a bleak city centre. Gavin ends up covered in oil for reasons best unknown to himself. Gavin Rossdale: "That was our low-key antidote to the 'Greedy Fly' video. It's cool because Winston's in it."

'BONEDRIVEN' - The plot: Black and white shots of Gavin onstage juxtaposed with fast-edit montages of lots of Yanks looking unhappy. Gavin Rossdale: "Hmmm, it's quite a moody one, I suppose...."



From a Kerrang! article on Bush April/98