When we arrived at Huron street we were a bit confused, a guy dressed in full knight’s armour shouting at the east river was being shot by a small camera crew right where we were planning to shoot Nicole Atkins. At first we thought he was part of Nicole’s entourage, but then realised that Nicole wasn’t there yet. We were hoping that he could stay, but he had some other castle to defend.

“So many cameras I feel like we’re in a firing squad”.

When Nicole arrived with her co-guitarist Irina Yalkowsky, they set up a Fender Vintage Deluxe Reverb Amp on a long lead to a little generator hooked to a car battery parked around the corner. It looked like a desperate attempt to keep someone on life support as the trucks of Brooklyn rolled past threatening to ruin all sense of sound on this shoot… then they started playing.

The subtlety of this song was not lost on the industrial location and sat perfectly with the setting sun over manhattan in the background, Nicole and co squeezed out a sometimes subtle, sometimes smashing rendition of The Tower from her album Mondo Amore.

We were glad that Sideshow Alley is a one take project as our fading light over the east river became an issue toward the end of this epic 6 minute song. Finishing in near darkness the lovely Nicole remarked…

“I feel like we should be making a drug deal right here, or exchanging a body out of a trunk”.