Collusion, murder, and the search for justice. An essential watch.
While titles like The Innocent Man and The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann have been the main focus for Netflix viewers, their ReMastered series has been an extremely welcome addition because every feature has been adept at balancing music and history.
For example, the recent entry The Two Killings of Sam Cooke is one of the best features released in recent memory because it highlighted the singer’s role in the broader civil rights movement that was sweeping through America.
On this note, the theme of music playing a pivotal part in the political landscape will be examined in the new ReMastered documentary and the focus is much closer to home.
On 31 July 1975 ,five people were killed, including three members of a beloved Irish cabaret band, The Miami Showband, on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down.
The attack was perpetrated by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group.
The band was travelling home to Dublin late at night after a performance in Banbridge when their minibus was stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint.
Gunmen in British Army uniforms ordered them to line up by the roadside. At least four of the gunmen were soldiers from the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), and all were members of the UVF.
Two of the gunmen, both soldiers, died when the time bomb they were hiding on the minibus exploded.
The murders were later described as “the day the music died” because the band members were from both sides of the religious divide. To compound the grief and pain, The Miami Showband were completely apolitical and were extremely popular with fans from both communities.
Here’s what the official synopsis states: “Ambushed by Ulster loyalists, three members of the Miami Showband were killed in Northern Ireland in 1975. Was the crime linked to the government?”
The documentary will examine the search for justice while examining allegations of collusion between the British Army and the killers.
ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre is available to watch on Netflix from 22 March.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnS1lQr8RPw
Clip via Trailers Netflix
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