Hi Film Folk,

Most of you know that I’m a UK based filmmaker, but more specifically I’m a “Geordie”. This is the term given to people who were born in and around Newcastle upon Tyne (there’s various understandings of exactly where). I’m very proud of the region, it’s why my creative work is produced under the “Once upon a Tyne” banner. I’ve never been tempted to move South to the media hub that is London: I love the North East too much.

Newcastle is famous for many things, Get Carter, Newcastle Brown Ale, Sting… Nothing comes close to “Newcastle United Football Club” though. I’m a diehard fan, and it’s not the most cheerful of football clubs to support (soccer for my US readers). Newcastle United haven’t won a major trophy in my entire lifetime, neither have England (my international team). So, I’m a football fan who runs entirely on hope and optimism, not on glory and memories.

I’ve been privileged enough to film at St James’ Park several times, most notably when making a funding film for the club charity “The Newcastle Untied Foundation”. I almost shot the making of documentary for the feature film “GOAL!” as an amateur/learning filmmaker, but found the red-tape too challenging to get through. I did get to know Stevie Hargitay though, one of the film’s producers, who has put a testimonial on my book. He’s a really great guy, who has always supported my filmmaking endeavours.

Stevie kindly has this to say, about my impending book:
“With Andy’s book, you’ll be armed with the knowledge to make your indie masterpiece and show
the ‘big boys’ how it’s done”.

While anything but a model normally in life, I’m even one of the two actors on the cover of “The Season Ticket”, which is a famous Tyneside book about the club! It later became a film called “Purely Belter”.

Newcastle United have suffered in recent years, we’ve been mis-managed from the top and were relegated last year. It’s an utter disgrace, because we have one of the biggest (and the loudest) fanbase in the UK. In fact, we have one of the top ten average attendances in European football.

We’ve a new manager though, Rafa Benitez, who we hope will inspire the club to greatness (a year ago he was managing the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid).

There’s actually a feature-doc being made about the club this year, by two very talented filmmakers: James DeMarco and Zee Zomorrodian. The doc is innovative in that it will follow the club throughout the season, featuring interviews with those inside the club and the fans. I’d recommend that anyone interested checks out their kickstarter at:

It’s a very real project, with excellent rewards and perks for very fair prices. It’s a project that I believe in and would welcome my followers check out.

Let’s hope that both the film, and NUFC’s season, are enormous successes.

Thanks for reading,

P.S.
The title of this week’s blog, “HOWAY THE LADS!”, roughly translates as an emphatic cry of “Come on team!!”…