Sledgehammer

From Videoville

Artist: Peter Gabriel
Director: Stephen R. Johnson
Producer: Adam Whitaker
Animators: The Brothers Quay, Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Nick Park, Richard Goleszowski
Lighting Camera: David Sproxton
Special Effects: Graham Dean
Editors: Stephen R. Johnson and Colin Green
Production Company: Aardman Animations
Label: Geffen
Year: 1986
antville post

Widely recognized as one of the best music videos ever made, Sledgehammer also holds the record for most MTV Video Music Awards.

"It felt pretty exciting at the time, I must admit," said Gabriel of the video, which also featured the singer's head being circled by a train and bashed with hammers. "I think Stephen and myself were determined to get something that was a bit groundbreaking, and we were extremely lucky to be able to pull in the Brothers Quay. There was a team thing about that which was really fun and exciting, so it was easy to explore lots of different ideas." MTV, 2002 [1]

"It was extremely uncomfortable sometimes," he says, sighing, of the eight painstaking days it took to shoot Sledgehammer. "Lying down under a plate of glass, with a sort of metal rod supporting the back of my head, and fish and fruit being moved around." He grimaces. "The fruit smelt all right after a few hours under the ligts, but the fish stank." Rolling Stone, 1987 [2]

The video was shot in Bristol in April 1986, and took a total of 100 hours to shoot.

awards

1987 MTV Video Music Awards

• Best Video of the Year
• Best Male Video
• Best Concept Video
• Best Overall Performance
• Best Direction
• Best Special Effects
• Best Art Direction
• Best Editing
• Best Experimental Video

accolades

• no. 1 in Rolling Stone's "The 100 Top Music Videos" (October 14, 1993)
• no. 4 in MTV's Top 100 Music Videos of All Time (1993)
• no. 7 in the Observer's poll of "pop stars, video directors, agents and journalists." (January 30, 2005)

nominations

1987 MTV Video Music Awards

• Best Cinematography