Eurovision Song Contest 1973

In order to persuade anyone that any kind of institutionalized event is a bad idea, all one needs to do is say “imagine x run by the DMV”. The Eurovision song contest is what it would be like if the music industry were run by the DMV.

To commemorate Eurovision’s biggest winners, the Irish, who have just blown the European Union treaty and the last time oil buggered up the global economy, here is the 1973 Eurovision song contest, held in Luxembourg – which is a bit like a country run by the DMV.

Following the terrorist attack against Israel at the Munich Olympics, and Israel’s debut in the competition, the floor manager strongly advised people in the audience to remain seated while clapping, to avoid being shot by security forces.

Belgium’s entry at 8:15 is pretty special, and if you have a history of hallucinogenic flashbacks, I’ve no idea what’s going on at 1:05, but you might not want to watch it. Beyond satire.

9 comments comedy, music, nostalgia, world

The Story of Abba – in Swedish

The fact that this is in Swedish (a language which I cannot understand) makes this absolutely perfect. Its like having the Muppet chef narrate it, I can make up all sorts of inappropriate things that I can imagine him saying. For the world’s most impossibly white band they were unbelievably good.

1 comment music, nostalgia

Documentary on the series Brideshead Revisited

The celebrated film critic, Leslie Halliwell awarded the TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited 5 stars. Supposedly, it was the only TV program he ever gave 5 stars to. Here is a passable documentary about it.
This is the first of five parts.

1 comment nostalgia

Composer of the Classic Electronic Track, Popcorn, Playing it 40 years later, on a Grand Piano

Popcorn was the classic electronic piece from the 60’s used countless times as backing music to represent modernity. Here, its composer, Gershon Kingsley, plays it today, on a concert grand. I love this. Below is the original for comparison.

I have also made a Wist of various versions of Popcorn, here »

2 comments music, nostalgia

Day to Day Communications at CERN in 1974

Day to Day communications at CERN in 1974, what a wonderfully prescient title for a short film about a place that would permanently change global, day to day communications, a decade and a half later, when the Web was invented there.

I love this film. it perfectly represents a time and place. The opening sequence with Cat Stevens and time bleached, aerial footage of Geneva makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

3 comments nostalgia, science, society

Made in Huddersfield

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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4 comments nostalgia, society

Factory – From Joy Division To Happy Mondays.

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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5 comments history, music, nostalgia

Luis Buñuel

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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Comments Off on Luis Buñuel biography, interviews, nostalgia

Crumpet – A Very British Sex Symbol

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 nostalgia, society

Pulp – No Sleep Till Sheffield

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.

4 comments music, nostalgia