January 29, 2004 8:00

TAYLOR MADE!

'Dig' chronicles the changing relationship between the band and their old pals The Brian Jonestown Massacre...

A film charting the seven-year career odyssey of Dandy Warhols
and their friends THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE has won the special JURY PRIZE at the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL.

‘Dig’, a labour of love by first-time director Ondi Timoner, picked up the documentary gong at the prestigious festival over the weekend. The film has now been picked up for major distribution in the US by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures.

The movie focuses on BJM mainman Anton Newcombe and his maniacal self-destruction, contrasting that with Dandy Warhols, and especially their frontman Courtney Taylor, and their rise to stardom.

Often using a spy-cam planted in her hat, Timoner chronicled the changing friendship between Newcombe and Taylor as their paths crossed then separated.

"I went up to meet the band at a gig they were playing [in LA seven years ago]," Timoner told Rolling Stone. "The first footage you see in the film is them outside, and they'd showed up late for the gig and they weren't allowed to play. They just were bitching and standing outside wanting to play . . . and immediately the energy of the band hit me - they were either going to play the game on their own terms or not play it at all. And that was really refreshing. After being in LA and documenting a bunch of bands who were like, 'Ooh, what can we be to make the industry like us?' the BJM didn't give a shit."

Despite their ups and downs and band members constant fights with frontman Newcombe, The Brian Jonestown Massacre are still together. Their new single, ‘If Love Is The Drug Then I Want To O.D’, is released on April 12. They arrive in the UK in February for a brief tour, kicking off on February 20 in Glasgow.

The full list of shows are:

Glasgow King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (February 20)
Manchester Night & Day (22)
Leicester The Charlotte (24)
Nottingham Rescue Rooms (25)
London Garage (26)
Liverpool Carling Academy (27)
Birmingham Bar Academy (29)
Cardiff Barfly (March 1)

For ticket availability, click here or call the NME Ticketline on 0870 1 663 663.