We’re in a music video!

 We had the opportunity to sponsor the music video for Groundwork, the latest song by Big Narstie, Ed Sheeran, and Papoose – so we took it! Steve, our Sales and Marketing Director, was on holiday so I took it upon myself to head down to London with my boot full of Dutch Barn Vodka and specially-made gift boxes for the artists and music video director, Kevin Hudson.

Gift boxes by Drinks Boxx.

I genuinely did not know what to expect, and for a little while I wondered whether it was ever going to happen. I didn’t have any details other than “London” until late in the evening the day before the shoot. When you have stars like Big Narstie, Ed Sheeran, and Papoose being filmed on location around London, the details have to be kept under wraps for as long as possible in order to avoid mobs of adoring fans. I was relieved when the details were finally sent across and then doubly relieved when the locations were revealed to be in North London. I was not looking forward to the prospect of navigating Central London in a car!

I had two missions on the day – the first was to make sure Dutch Barn Vodka was present in the agreed scenes and that the bottles were looking their best. The second was to deliver the gift boxes to their recipients. Less of a mission, but still a requirement of the day, was to be a good ambassador for Dutch Barn Vodka and Ellers Farm Distillery. I kept having this vision of the scene from Wayne’s World where Noah of Noah’s Arcade comes onto the public access cable show and is deeply uncool while trying to push his arcade-based sponsorship agenda. I did not want to be that guy.

My nightmare vision of how I did not want to come across to the production team.

To my relief (and delight) the crew, management teams, and artists were incredibly kind and welcoming. They really made me feel like one of the team for the day. 

Our first filming location was Innovation Box, a barbershop on a high street in Edmonton, North London. All the action and filming was taking place in the front of the shop so they set up “video village” in the back room. I watched the live footage on a TV screen along with makeup artists, the shop owner, and some other members of the production team. The first thing I was struck by was how cinematic the production team could make a nice, but otherwise normal barbershop look! The magic of television was coming to life right before my own eyes. The second thing I was struck by was just how sweet the relationship between Ed and Narstie is – they’re friends outside of their music collaborations and were clearly having a great time together.

Video village in the back of Innovation Boxx.

We then went across the street to Taste Di Spice Caribbean Restaurant to film scenes inside and outside the shop. There wasn’t a lot of room  inside the shop, so I was outside along with a large cohort of security guards, production crew and TikTok stars appearing in the video as extras. By this time people on the high street had started to notice something exciting was going down and they started to gather around, with lots of them getting photos and videos of the action. The throng of excited fans ballooned when Papoose, Narstie and Ed started performing to the sound of their new single just outside of the shop. Ed had to be on his way at 3, so I needed to get my first gift box delivery underway. I spoke to his team and they let me put the gift box in the boot of his car. Ed kindly thanked me and made my way back into Taste Di Spice to retrieve the bottles of Dutch Barn ready for the next location. I had yet to eat lunch in all the excitement and realised how hungry I was when I saw the half-eaten plates of delicious-looking (and smelling!) Jamaican food. I grabbed a quick bite to eat before making my way to the final location of the day.

Our last stop was Harry’s Off-Licence in Tottenham. Harry’s is a corner-shop treasure trove piled high with soft drinks, wine, spirits, groceries, and eclectic snacks (my personal favourite being The Notorious B.I.G. Honey Jalapeno Rap Snacks). Scenes were first filmed inside the shop, which I can only imagine was a tight squeeze once the lighting and camera crew were all set up. The final scene of the day was filmed just outside the off licence as the sun was setting. The energy was buzzing with everyone singing along and dancing to the chorus. I made my final deliveries to Narstie, Papoose and Kevin, before handing out some thank-you bottles to the production team and Dice Records management. Once I’d handed out the rest of the Dutch Barn Vodka, I headed back to the car to start the long drive back up north.

As I reflected on the events of the day, I felt a real sense of accomplishment. I had no idea what to expect before I turned up and had genuinely feared that I would be in the way all day. Furthermore, I didn’t know whether I’d be allowed within 10 feet of the artists, let alone able to give them their gift boxes. I can only hope that we’ve made some lifelong fans of Dutch Barn Vodka and that everyone loves the music video!

The final scene of the day, filmed outside of Harry’s Off Licence.