Made in Huddersfield

January 18th, 2008 · 4 comments or link to (permalink)

Before the Sex Pistols came the US in 1977, marking the end of Punk in many people’s eyes, they played a gig in the North of England where Punk was still thriving in Huddersfield in 1981, when this film was made. This prompts the newscaster introducing the piece to remark:
“What now seems a peculiarly old fashioned cult, Punk Rock”.

Gawd bless whoever saved this 10 minute gem about Punk Rockers in Huddersfield, from obscurity. My favorite bit is the Punk girl serving tea in a retirement home. Which proves the point that theatrical manner doesn’t dictate reality - Frank Sinatra was always closer to real violence than most safety-pinned, gobbing Punks.

Someone should slap this in a titanium can marked ‘of anthropological interest’ and bury it under 6 feet of concrete for 1000 years. It sums up a time and place. That place being Geriatric’s Tea Serving Punk Land, not just Huddersfield.
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Factory - From Joy Division To Happy Mondays.

November 18th, 2007 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

A friend who was familiar with the post apocalyptic urban areas of the US, such as downtown Detroit, could not believe how bad Manchester looked, when he visited (for a NASA conference, of all things). He also could not believe it when I told him that some of the richest areas in Britain surrounded it, that it had some of the best examples of uniquely British architecture and that it did not have the kind of reputation for decay, these days, that Detroit does. Manchester is a complicated and important place.

What he did buy, was the fact that Manchester, like Detroit, is one of the world’s most important cities, musically and therefore artistically. A documentary about Factory Records, in memory of the late, great Tony Wilson is therefore a must see.

BBC Television
1 hr 29 min 27 sec Oct 13, 2007

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Luis Buñuel

November 6th, 2007 · comment or link to (permalink)

What’s most interesting about this documentary is not just the subject, but how representative it is of a particular 60s French style. In other words a very 60s French documentary about a Spaniard who worked in France and made timeless movies. The interviewees include Max Ernst.
Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise 37 min 25 sec Dec 30, 2006

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Crumpet - A Very British Sex Symbol

September 27th, 2007 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

58 min 10 sec Sep 22, 2007

popperslist.blogspot.com

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Tony Livesey is a former UK tabloid editor. Here he takes a look at sexy women in retro British popular culture, suggesting the slang term for cute, ‘crumpet’ embraces something fun and Vaudeville that we no longer have (I’d beg to differ - we still have it in spades).

In case you think this is too specific or too sexist, he also did a show called beefcake, about guys. And if you want to tap into the particular tabloid style that many successful weblogs are adopting, this UK tabloid, tits and arse meets fox news style is a better precedent than anything in the US. I have never had a problem with the booby and ass bit, its fun, but the tabloid political stance is repulsive. This show is about the former and is smashing telly.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: nostalgia society

Pulp - No Sleep Till Sheffield

September 6th, 2007 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

BBC
35 min 25 sec - Sep 1, 2007

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Something odd happened in the early nineties in Britain. Jarvis Cocker summed it up as: ’suddenly it was cool to be poor’. Goodbye to wannabe Sloanes (or Preppies as their US counterparts were called) with their stand up collars, brogues, cords and jobs at stuffy banks; hello football, guitar bands and looking forward instead of back. At the time I was living in an abandoned warehouse, in London’s, now gentrified, Shoreditch, and it was a splendid time to be alive. Nobody summed up the mood of the mini renaissance better than Pulp.Hearing ‘Common People’ almost brings me to tears.

2 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: music nostalgia