There are easier ways to get to the park. Hold My Hand was shot for real without any CGI or skateboard-type devices to help with the dragging. The girl literally dragged the guy along the street, all night long – the guy protected by knee pads, a cricket box and a metal tea tray strapped to his chest area. At the beginning of filming an irate local threw a coin from a high floor of the Hackney flats, hitting Mark right on the head. Good shot! There’s differing opinions about the denomination of the coin, some say it was a 10p but Mark swears it ‘definitely felt like a 50′. Either way it cut his head open, creating a Tex Avery-style lump which ‘clear stuff’ oozed out of. It also gave Mark mild concussion, so if you don’t like the video blame that. Mark seemed about the least likely person to do an UNKLE video but the band liked his idea of ‘a weird exercise in body disposal turning out to be a rescue’ and Mark enjoyed this foray into ‘dark and moody’. The shoot lasted from late lunch til dawn with a few pick ups shot a few days later. Mostly cos the crew had to abort dragging the guy through woods on finding drug needles. Mark himself thought he felt a spike through his boot shortly after and had a few hours of panic, scared to take his sock off and look until he got home. Luckily it was all imagined through tiredness and the concussion. Unless drug needles don’t leave a mark? And maybe they don’t? Oh shit. There’s a little doco here – more about the recording of the track than the video – but it includes Mark stroking his chin and looking like he does dark and moody videos all the time at about 3:50.

‘bleak but beautiful’ Creative Review