African Skies
DRINKING & SINGING UNDER AFRICAN SKIES
Interviews with Steve Powell - 4 parts
Part 1 - by Graham Rae (2004-06-14)
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing at times, an irresistible gravitational pull back to different places and faces and times. I bet I’m not the only one to ever sit on the net late at night and think “you know, I haven’t heard of (insert song or film title or whatever here) in years, I’ll have to look it up.” Sometimes this can be a bad move, as that classic film or song you thought was so great way back when turns out to be something best left to the golden fading haze of younger memory. But occasionally you come up with something extremely interesting, something you could never have expected when you began your innocent nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Which is the case here......See more from part 1....click here
Part 2 - by Graham Rae (2004-06-14)
Steve, how did you and Cliff meet?
I was teaching martial arts at the YMCA on Peter Street in Manchester and also used to work out on the weights at The Apollo Health Center on Deansgate. The Health Center was run by an old dear friend of mine named John Cuppello. Cliff used to work out there too. I’d seen him a few times and he really stood out from the rest because of his fantastic physique. He had written a book called Tuxedo Warrior and it was shortly to be filmed in Africa. Cliff was hired as an actor, stuntman and fight arranger for the film, which was directed by Andrew Sinclair, who directed “Under Milk Wood” with Richard Burton.
John Cuppello mentioned my name to Cliff, commenting on the martial arts I did, thinking it would be a good idea to get together with me to work out some scenarios for the action scenes
See more frompart 2....click here
Part 3 - by Graham Rae (2004-06-14)
You say Cliff was in 12 of his produced films. Which ones were these?
- Tuxedo Warrior (1982)
- GBH (1983)Target Eve Island (1983)
- Mason’s War (1985)
- The Ibiza Connection (1984)
- The Blind Side of God (1987)
- Moon Stalker (1988)
- The Eye of Satan (1988)
- Firestar: First Contact (1988)
- Tokyo Sunrise (1989)
- GBH2: Lethal Impact (1991)
- Bad Weekend (1991
There were other projects and scripts though: “The Pike”, “The Judas Touch”, “The Devil’s Cocktail”, “Striker”, “Thunderflash”, “Rider”, “Hogan’s Champion”, and some others I forget at the moment. By the end of the second film and working with David Kent-Watson, a team of sorts formed and many of the same actors were used on the rest of the films: Maxton G Beesley, John Saint Ryan, Brett Sinclair, Jerry Harris, Ginette Frey, David Rankin, Brian Sterling, myself, and later a great martial artist called Stuart Hurst whom Cliff affectionately called his son.
So that would make “Target Eve Island” the next film?
Yes. We left for Barbados and Grenada (pronounced ‘Granada’) on June 19th, 1983.
See more from part 3...click here
Part 4 - by Graham Rae (2004-06-14)
What came next?
Later on in 1991 I had a bit part with Cliff in “Lethal Impact”, wherein Cliff takes off my head. One of Cliff’s best films, this was originally going to be called “GBH 2” but because a TV program with the title “GBH” was being aired at the same time the title was changed. It was filmed in the Manchester City area and some other scenes were filmed in Malta. This film was Cliff doing what he does best: getting even for the death of his niece Catherine, who was raped and murdered by a pedophile ring. He goes on the trail of every member Charles Bronson style, and in true “Death Wish” fashion blows them all to kingdom come.
See more from part 4....click here