Anyone Who Had A Harp

They're smoking at the Harp Bar like it's 1978. Terri Hooley is inhaling plenty and also weeping a few tears. This, after all, is the first shoot for 'Good Vibrations: The Film', which will tell the story of Ulster punk rock though the delirious prism of Terri's life.

And so, in a great moment of homage, the makers of the film have recreated Belfast's most infamous punk den , downstairs in the Menagerie on University Street. The walls are that familiar shade of dead blue. The stage is as brutal as I remember, and there's even a band called Rudi on stage. I'm shaking with the powerful sense of recall.

Rudi ruled the Harp Bar. And when Terri first saw the band live, he had a defining vision that resulted in a home-grown record label and the ascension of so many amazing bands. In an inspired piece of casting, Brian Young from the Rudi is being played by Danny Todd from Cashier No 9. He's lashing out the anthem 'Big Time' and throwing shapes that are pure Brian.

Next moment a young Terri Hooley (Richard Dormer) walks onto the set, with the big coat, the crew net sweater and that belligerent strut. I'm sitting beside the actual Terri and it's all getting perfectly intense. The punk kids start jumping to the music and I notice that one of the Harp kids is Cara Cowan, whose dad and uncle played with those roaring bad boys, The Outcasts.

The barman throws me a conspiratorial wink. He looks like Tony, the scowling attendant from the Harp, but he's really Joe Lindsay, my BBC colleague, with a luxurious wig and a real moustache. Nearby, the film's directors Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa are also enjoying the feedback of fun, art and social history.

"Does nobody understand that I'm a fake and a fraud?" Terri splutters. But we're not taking him at his word. This is no time to be literal, or even critical. It's our version of '24 Hour Party People' and it has to be an exceptionally tall tale.

You can't put your arms around a memory, but sometimes, you just have to try.