The Piccadilly Rats: Live In Moderation Q&A at HOME
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
If you know Manchester, you know The Piccadilly Rats. A gaggle of buskers led by litter-picker Gaz Stanley, featuring homeless musician Buddy Awful, old Tommy ‘Trouble’ Piggot, Chinese drummer Martin ‘Busterabcat’ Cheang, and the late, great street dancer Ray Boddington, this gang of misfits were regulars about town, entertaining locals, tourists, shoppers and drinkers with their particular brand of scratchy rock’n’roll.
Now, thanks to first time director Nathan Cunningham, they’re coming to the big screen. The Piccadilly Rats: Live in Moderation follows The Rats from the streets to the big stage, where they somehow find themselves on the same bill as Manc superstar Noel Gallagher.
Shot between 2016 and 2020, Cunningham explains of his film, “I chose to make this film because I saw the importance of its social documentation. It was Manchester during the reign of The Rats. The last of a dying breed in a changing city. A city in development where skyscrapers were beginning to silhouette grey clouds.”
“This documentary is a wonderful story of love, friendship, loyalty and of course Rock n Roll….It was very important for me to show beauty within the raw. The characters are at their best in these true and honest moments”.
Promising highs and lows, hilarity and heartbreak in the Manchester drizzle, the film will screen at HOME followed by a Q&A with Director Nathan Cunningham, Producer Greg Bass, and band members Gaz and Tommy.
