A TYNESIDE filmmaker has made a documentary of how a seminal American punk band plotted their comeback with a month in the North East.

Northumbria University graduate Ash Robertson, 23, spent last September filming a feature with the New York Dolls in Newcastle.

The American collective were in the city to record their new album Dancing Backward In High Heels and play three exclusive sell-out shows at the Cluny, in Ouseburn. The documentary will be in record shops across the globe when it is released in the album’s box set.

Mr Robertson, a Dolls’ superfan, was overjoyed when he was approached by the band’s record company, Global Music, to make the film. He said it was a dream come true to interview the “glam punk” band’s founder members, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, at a plush mansion in Gateshead.

He has his fingers crossed that the band’s Tyneside devotees will enjoy New York Dolls In Newcastle when it gets a special screening at the Cluny next month.

He said: “Hopefully it will impress people. I have shot, edited and produced the entire documentary by myself. I did the interviews and I organised all the filming days.

“I’m a big fan of rock and metal music and I was aware of how influential the New York Dolls were.

“They influenced bands like Kyuss and Blondie and to work with a band that had such influence I was very, very excited.”

The 23-year-old from Heaton Park Road, in Heaton, is working at a Metrocentre music store but has set up his own company – Rocket Media – to forward his filmmaking career.

He believes the documentary could be the first step and hopes the album’s reach will bring in more work.

“It’s great,” he said. “I’m really, really thrilled to see something I have made released in the shops.

“That the record company asked me to do it was great and it was a real test of my skills and just so exciting for me as well.

“I can’t afford to do this full time but I would like to and this is a good way to advertise myself. I really hope the documentary captures the magic of the gigs and shows what the band are like now and what they are like as people.

“The band had a great sense of humour and I spent a lot of time talking to them about Newcastle.

“They loved it here and said it reminded them of what New York was like when they were first starting out.”

The documentary will be shown at The Cluny at 8pm on May 14. Information about Mr Robertson’s company can be found at www.rocketmedia.org.uk.