FRED Burns’ debut feature-length documentary tells the story of a UK proto-punk band led by a live-wire frontman who had to be kidnapped for recording sessions to make sure his mother-in-law didn’t find out.

What makes Burns’ tale even more amazing is that the story was under his nose all the time, as his father Ray – better known as Captain Sensible – was the band’s original guitarist.

“About five years ago I had no idea who Johnny Moped was,” says Brighton born and raised Burns. “I had met him as a kid but I couldn’t remember it. I’d never heard his stuff.

“I went to a football match with my dad in 2009 and after the game there was a reunion for his old mates. Johnny Moped turned up and I started to hear all these stories.”

Johnny Moped was formed in Croydon in 1974 around Paul Halford – who earned his nickname from his desire to be a biker, which even extended to him getting an ill-advised Hell’s Angels Croydon tattoo.

Like most of the bands who formed the first wave of punk, Johnny Moped was a short-lived affair, with only one album (plus a 1991 reunion LP) and three singles to their name.

The band played the legendary Roxy, underwent many line-up changes, including the swift arrival and departure of future Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, and earned themselves a super-fan in the form of Pogues frontman Shane McGowan.

“They have been written out of history,” says Burns. “The hope is that with this film they are rediscovered by a new generation, and remembered by the generation that grew up with them.

“Johnny is such an eccentric frontman – his is a story that needs to be told.”

It was Johnny’s home life that was to impact on the band and eventually led to its implosion.

The trouble began for Johnny when he fell for Brenda, who was 20 years his senior. His mother-in-law decided he should knock the rock and roll lifestyle on the head.

“Johnny was very open about what happened to him back in the day,” says Burns. “He was willing to talk about the hard time he had at home – not being able to play gigs.”

The most famous Johnny Moped story came when the band were recording their 1978 album Cycledelic.

“The band needed Johnny to play on the record but he wasn’t turning up, because if he did he was given a hard time by his mother-in-law,” says Burns.

“They’d recorded most of the record themselves but hadn’t got Johnny’s vocals. They had booked studio time, which cost a lot of money. The band had to devise a plan.”

They turned up at Johnny’s work, told his supervisor that their frontman’s mother had been run over by a car and essentially kidnapped him to spend the afternoon recording.

“What comes across in the film is he’s not trying to be cool,” says Burns. “They are having fun.”

The film combines shots of Johnny and the former band members today with a wealth of archive material.

“What was amazing was how rich the archive was,” says Burns.

“It’s what turned the movie from being a short film to a feature. There were bits and pieces of film I heard about, but the people who took them had either lost or destroyed them. We got fantastic footage from The Roxy, the home of punk, from the beginning of 1977, and even found film of Chrissie Hynde on stage.”

Despite having an awkward relationship with the band, which was one of many to boot her out during the summer of punk, Hynde had been happy to talk about Johnny Moped, and even shared some of her mementoes from the period.

Similarly Shane McGowan was a revelation.

“He remembered the most obscure Johnny Moped things, such as little incidents from bootleg tapes Johnny had made,” says Burns.

The biggest coup for Burns was speaking to Johnny and his ageing wife in their home, which happened pretty much by accident.

“One of the things Johnny had said from the start was it wasn’t going to be possible to film Brenda or his house,” says Burns. “There was a division between the band and his home life which didn’t cross over.”

One day Burns arranged to film Johnny in the street, not far from where he lived in Caterham.

When Johnny didn’t turn up, Burns asked the singer’s former band mate Slimy Toad for advice.

“He said, ‘What’s the worst that can happen if you go around to the house and knock on the door?’” remembers Burns.

“Johnny answered after a couple of knocks. I went in and hung around and had a cup of tea, and Brenda came down being looked after by her carer. She knew who my dad was from back in the day and was very friendly.”

Once his initial filming was over that day, Burns took the plunge and asked if he could interview the pair together.

“It became a really important sequence in the film,” he says. “It ends on a really touching note.”

Johnny Moped the band have reunited every year since 2008, playing a one-off annual gig, which is always billed as their last.

To mark the film premiere, the band reunited to play London’s Koko. And the movie features a recent gig at Brighton’s The Hydrant in London Road, with Captain Sensible joining the line-up for a couple of numbers.

Sensible will be the special guest at the CineCity screening, as Burns has filming commitments.

“I’ve always wanted to make documentaries,” says Burns, who usually works within the world of music-related film and video.

“To stumble across this story has been an amazing experience – and the fact it’s a personal story is an accidental but really lucky thing.”

Basically, Johnny Moped will be screened at The Basement, Kensington Street, Brighton, Saturday, November 23.

Starts 9pm, tickets £5, visit cine-city.co.uk