Battle of the English rock movies!!!

[Number Two]

The Who-Tommy or Pink Floyd-The Wall

Which one was the better of the two and why?

The reason I am poseing this question is I saw both in the same time last week and they almost had the same plot to them. I saw Tommy when it was in the theater when I was a kid. I snuck off from the boring western movie my parents were watching. I remember Tina Turner as the "Acid Queen" and the reaction graemlins/scared.gif my mother had when I told her about the movie afterwards. That movie had some cheazy fx. I also saw Pink Floyd with some friends when it came out in '82 and being in school at the time,it had an impact on me. It had a lot of cheeze in it as well but was better produced and had some great animation in it. Which of these similer movies did you like or even see? Peace.

[alex zen]

tommy because it rocks much more the the wall. however, quadrophenia is THE best rock movie followed by thr rolling stones' rock and roll circus (which has the who, jethro tull, and john lennon with eric clapton and keth richards in it.

[alex zen]

http://www.poster.net/quadrophenia/quadrophenia-one-sheet-4900016.jpg

Quadrophenia is Pete Townshend and the Who's follow-up to Tommy, this time set in the early 1960's English working class scene from which they came. The storyline revolves around the rivalry between the Mods and the Rockers in a struggle to define "cool" in a decaying post-industrial Britain.


http://www.frayed.org/images/68circus.jpg
The Stones came into 1968 in transition. They had just released Their Satanic Majesties Request, their most psychadelic album, yet they had already begun to move away from that sound. 1968 saw then go back to their roots, yet jump forward into a style of rock which was all their own. Jumping Jack Flash and Child of the Moon began a new era for the Stones. Beggar's Banquet, released on December 6th, at the end of the year, cemented them as the bad boys of Rock, as songs like Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man showed the world that the Stones could write some of the most powerful lyrics rock had even seen.

This would be the first time that the Stones wouldn't tour of of their new album. Satanic Majesties had been a commercial success but a critical failure. The Stones were seen as trying to copy the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's, so instead of going on the road to support an album which, by all account, most of the band didn't even like that much, they went back to the studio. The Stones were in and out of the studio for the entire year. Their triumphant comeback was begun with Jumping Jack Flash, an astoundingly different sound from Satanic Majesties. Immediately after the release of Beggar's Banquet, the band had planned a Rock and Roll circus. A three day event which combined various rock acts, such as the Who, Taj Majal, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Mitch Mitchel, Eric Clapton, Marianne Faithful, and of course, the Stones, with actual circus acts. The entire event would take place under a big top and it would be internationally televised around Christmas, a sort of Christmas present from the Stones to their fans, who hadn't seen them perform in at least a year.

Rock and Roll Circus was not released on Television. In fact, it was not released at all until the 1990s when Abkco started opening thier vaults. Accoring to the band, the Stones performance was lacking a bit, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all if you watch the video, the Stones are fnatastic. More likely, the Stones were afraid that they might have been upstaged by the Who, who happened to play at the Circus one of the best performances ever recorded.

[Ron la Rock]

QUADROPHENIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
graemlins/OLA.gif
every time

[Number Two]

Acctually you are right. Quad is the best one. Sting played a part in it. I forgot all about that one. I haven't seen it in a minute. I'll have to rent that one tonight. Peace.

[ October 26, 2003, 03:48 PM: Message edited by: Walter Jones ]

[DOTSmusic]

this AMERICAN r&r movie tops them all.

http://www.findcoolmovies.com/coversus/doors.jpg

i like The Wall better than Tommy though.

[suenomartino]

This is Spinal Tap.

[Mah'chew]

The Wall versus Tommy, both are tat and self-indulgent rubbish, rock opera's always sucked

The Great Rock & Roll Swindle's where it's at graemlins/puke.gif

[alex zen]

Originally posted by Mah'chew:

The Great Rock & Roll Swindle's where it's at graemlins/puke.gif check out suburbia (if you haven't). http://www.theweathermen.com/acatalog/subvhs.jpg west coast punk classic.

[alex zen]

Originally posted by aLie:
this AMERICAN r&r movie tops them all.

http://www.findcoolmovies.com/coversus/doors.jpg

ummmmmmmm, rock and roll highschool beat the doors and jim with a bat. oh yeah...oh yeah...oh yeah-ah. biggrinangel.gif

[alex zen]

http://www.maximum-ink.com/dvd-report/rock-nroll-hs-c.jpg

[David Le C]

Originally posted by suenomartino:
This is Spinal Tap. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[Number Two]

Originally posted by alex zen:
http://www.maximum-ink.com/dvd-report/rock-nroll-hs-c.jpg That was the stupidest movie I ever saw. I love the Ramones and all,but the whole cheeze ball teen idol thing went too far. I guess I like the psyhedelic movies as far as musical movies for the colours alone. Check out The Monkees-Head. (http://www.terryxart.com/Headpg1.htm)

[der geile hund]

"Gimme Shelter" for the Stones in their heyday and for capturing a truly bad vibe on film.

[Number Two]

Originally posted by alex zen:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Mah'chew:

The Great Rock & Roll Swindle's where it's at graemlins/puke.gif check out suburbia (if you haven't). http://www.theweathermen.com/acatalog/subvhs.jpg west coast punk classic. </font>[/QUOTE]"Richard hung himself,Richard hung himself.
He did it just the other day.
Jesus gone and pushed him off the shelf."

How about Penelope's movie "Rise and Fall of The Western Civilisation"? I can't believe she produced "The Beverly Hillbillies" movie.

[sammyrock]

Very hard to choose,both are extrodinary..Ill go to the left and pic "The Dark Side of the Moon"(Pink Floyed) smile.gif

[nev m]

Originally posted by suenomartino:
This is Spinal Tap. Class Film ! "But mine goes upto eleven!"

Out of Tommy, and The Wall it has to be The Wall hands down being a Pink Floyd head, and knowing where in real life the film draws from.

So much footage from this fim was removed because it was far too raw. There was one scene which was a fight in a bar where there was a fight between some coloured kids, and some extreme right wing Police. They had actually used a band of extreme right wing skinheads to play the Police in the scene, and the resulting fight ended up for real.

The animation was the best ever from Gerald Scarfe IMO.

[alex zen]

Originally posted by Walter Jones:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by alex zen:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Mah'chew:

The Great Rock & Roll Swindle's where it's at graemlins/puke.gif check out suburbia (if you haven't). http://www.theweathermen.com/acatalog/subvhs.jpg west coast punk classic. </font>[/QUOTE]"Richard hung himself,Richard hung himself.
He did it just the other day.
Jesus gone and pushed him off the shelf."

How about Penelope's movie "Rise and Fall of The Western Civilisation"? I can't believe she produced "The Beverly Hillbillies" movie. </font>[/QUOTE]i didn't know she did the beverely hillbillies. oh well, i guess you got to pay the bills.

[D J 1 3 8]

Originally posted by alex zen:
i didn't know she did the beverely hillbillies. oh well, i guess you got to pay the bills. She also directed Wayne's World, among others.

The Decline of Western Civilization was the like the bible for us punk rockers when it came out.

[D J 1 3 8]

As for Tommy Vs The Wall, I would say that, indeed, Quadrophenia beats them both.

That said, i am a much bogger Stones fan than a Who or Flyd fan, and I would say that either "Gimme Shelter" or the Godard movie "1+1" beats them all.

[Martin Red]

Originally posted by suenomartino:
This is Spinal Tap. graemlins/thumbsup.gif
A shame that when exported a few nations didn't get the comedy.

[D J 1 3 8]

Originally posted by Martin Red:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by suenomartino:
This is Spinal Tap. graemlins/thumbsup.gif
A shame that when exported a few nations didn't get the comedy. </font>[/QUOTE]you do realize that this was an American movie...

"But this one goes to eleven "

Interesting bit-o-trivia: almost the entire film was AD-LIBBED - which, considering how fvcking hilarious it is, is just amazing. The cast and director spent about three months getting together making up the history of the band, then they just started shooting and ad-libbing the script as they went along. The best thing about thte film is, everytime you watch it, you catch another subtle joke you missed before.

[Martin Red]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Martin Red:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by suenomartino:
This is Spinal Tap. graemlins/thumbsup.gif
A shame that when exported a few nations didn't get the comedy. </font>[/QUOTE]you do realize that this was an American movie...

"But this one goes to eleven "

Interesting bit-o-trivia: almost the entire film was AD-LIBBED - which, considering how fvcking hilarious it is, is just amazing. The cast and director spent about three months getting together making up the history of the band, then they just started shooting and ad-libbing the script as they went along. The best thing about thte film is, everytime you watch it, you catch another subtle joke you missed before. </font>[/QUOTE]smile.gif

Hilarious.
I was informed that alot of the U.S didn't get the joke though, this was one of the first dubbed "mocumentary" in the US.

In 1983, guys from "Young Ones" where doing Bad News Tour as part of the Comic Strip series

------------------------------------------
Transmission Details
Number of episodes: 37 Length: various durations
1. Five Go Mad In Dorset 2 Nov 1982, C4 Tue 10.15pm (30 mins
2. War 3 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
3. The Beat Generation 17 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
4. Bad News Tour 24 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
5. Summer School 31 Jan 1983, C4 Mon 9pm (30 mins)
6. Five Go Mad On Mescalin 2 Nov 1983, C4 Wed 10pm (40 mins)
7. Dirty Movie 7 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.25pm (40 mins)
8. Susie 14 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (40 mins)
9. Fistful Of Travellers Cheques 21 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (45 mins)
10. Gino - Full Story And Pics 28 Jan 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (40 mins)
11. Eddie Monsoon - A Life? 4 Feb 1984, C4 Sat 10.30pm (35 mins)
12. Slags 11 Feb 1984, C4 Sat 10.35pm (40 mins)
13. Consuela 1 Jan 1986, C4 Wed 11pm (45 mins)
14. Private Enterprise 2 Jan 1986, C4 Thu 11pm (40 mins)
15. The Strike 20 Feb 1988, C4 Sat 10.50pm (75 mins)
16. More Bad News 27 Feb 1988, C4 Sat 10.50pm (60 mins)
17. Mr Jolly Lives Next Door 5 Mar 1988, C4 Sat 10.50pm (60 mins)
18. The Yob 12 Mar 1988, C4 Sat 10.50pm (65 mins)
19. Didn't You Kill My Brother? 19 Mar 1988, C4 Sat 10.50pm (65 mins)
20. Funseekers 26 Mar 1988, C4 Sat 10.50pm (60 mins)
21. South Atlantic Raiders - Part 1 1 Feb 1990, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
22. South Atlantic Raiders - Part 2 8 Feb 1990, BBC2 Thu 9pm (35 mins)
23. GLC 15 Feb 1990, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
24. Oxford 22 Feb 1990, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
25. Spaghetti Hoops 1 Mar 1990, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
26. Les Dogs 8 Mar 1990, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
27. Red Nose Of Courage 9 Apr 1992, BBC2 Thu 10.30pm (50 mins)
28. The Crying Game 5 May 1992, BBC2 Tue 10pm (30 mins)
29. Wild Turkey 24 Dec 1992, BBC2 Thu 10pm (30 mins)
30. Detectives On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown 22 Apr 1993, BBC2 Thu 9pm (35 mins)
31. Space Virgins From Planet Sex 29 Apr 1993, BBC2 Thu 9pm (35 mins)
32. Queen Of The Wild Frontier 6 May 1993, BBC2 Thu 9pm (35 mins)
33. Gregory - Diary Of A Nut Case 13 May 1993, BBC2 Thu 9pm (40 mins)
34. Demonella 20 May 1993, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
35. Jealousy 27 May 1993, BBC2 Thu 9pm (30 mins)
36. Four Men In A Car 12 Apr 1998, C4 Sun 9.30pm (40 mins)
37. Four Men In A Plane 4 Jan 2000, C4 Tue 9pm (45 mins)
-------------------------------------------------
The Comic Strip Presents...
UK, C4 then BBC, Comedy films, colour (except The Beat Generation), 1982
Starring: Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Peter Richardson
'I think we're halfway between a Carry On film and a Joe Orton play,' Robbie Coltrane told Radio Times in 1990. While many thousands of words have been written about the Comic Strip Presents TV films - mostly in praise but some vitriolic in their scorn - it is likely that no better description exists of these unique contributions to British TV.

All 37 films are distinct productions, self-contained from the others, their dialogue stuffed with dangerous lines, their action containing hefty quantities of seemingly gratuitous physical violence. By the same token, all the programmes contain some wonderfully funny dialogue, creative ideas and perhaps the most astute film pastiches ever attempted on TV. Whether the results were good or bad, to have missed a Comic Strip production meant that you missed something of note.

Financed by theatrical impresario Michael White - who presented the 1963 revue Cambridge Circus in the West End, which led, eventually, to Monty Python and The Goodies by way of radio gem I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again - the Comic Strip club had opened in October 1980 at the Boulevard Theatre in London. Like the Comedy Store before it, this was located within a Soho strip joint, but, unlike that other and more famous venue, what was staged at the Comic Strip was more like a show, with the same personnel repeating nightly - and honing, all the while - the same act. The eight-strong core team at the venue comprised Alexei Sayle, Arnold Brown and three double-acts: Mayall and Edmondson, Planer and Richardson and French and Saunders. Peter Richardson was keen to get the team on to TV, and was especially interested in using film as the medium. After some ideas had been thrashed around, Richardson took a list to Jeremy Isaacs, head of Britain's fourth TV channel, due to open in November 1982, whereupon six films were commissioned. With the exceptions of Arnold Brown (whom Comic Strip TV viewers never saw) and Alexei Sayle (who showed up in only six of the 37 films), the six other protagonists appeared in most of the productions. Added to round off the eight were Pete Richens (who co-scripted a good many of them and had tiny roles in two latter productions) and Robbie Coltrane, who had not played the Comic Strip club but was brought in as a friend by Rik Mayall. These eight formed their own production company, Comic Strip Productions, with Peter Richardson the linchpin and driving force of the collective.

The first film, the fabulous Enid Blyton parody Five Go Mad In Dorset, went out on the opening night of C4, and four of the other films were screened soon after. This opening batch contained all the hallmarks of the Comic Strip Presents productions that would remain true to the end: shot on film, they were high on production values, pacy and stylish. The humour, too, more often than not, was spot on - despite the dreaded sobriquet, one aspect in which this new comedy was truly 'alternative' was in its choice of targets. Although capable of comedic savagery, these young comedians steered clear of the traditional areas of racism, sexism and religion to concentrate on more general, social and political themes, albeit with an anarchic edge. Their TV success did much to rid the small-screen of the outmoded and often downright offensive comedy that had followed the liberalisation of the medium in the 1960s, although this in turn coincided with (or possibly instigated) a wave of 'political correctness' that swept through British society. (The sixth original film for C4, An Evening With Eddie Monsoon, was pulled by the network and never screened. It was written as a co-operative by Edmondson, French, Planer, Richardson, Richens and Saunders, directed by Bob Spiers, and the script appears in the 1983 C4/Methuen book The Comic Strip Presents. The Eddie Monsoon character did surface in Eddie Monsoon - A Life?, however, the eleventh CS production, screened on 4 February 1984, and also, eight years on, inspired the name of Jennifer Saunders' character in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous Edina 'Eddie' Monsoon.)

The films kept coming, at reasonably regular intervals, and switched in 1990 to BBC2. All the while, the various players were enjoying glorious success with other TV productions (The Young Ones and French And Saunders to name but two) and the 'alternative' comedians rapidly became primary stars of the medium. After a five year break, the team returned to the screen (and to C4) in 1998.

Notes. While produced in association with C4, two Comic Strip films were made expressly for the cinema and so do not appear as part of this entry.
http://www.fountain76.freeserve.co.uk/rikade/assets/images/db_images/db_supergrass1.jpg
The Supergrass, released in November 1985, and Eat The Rich!, October 1987, were written by Peter Richardson/Pete Richens and directed by Richardson. Five of the six 1988 TV productions (all but Funseekers) were also afforded a limited theatrical release in autumn 1987 but these were unquestionably made for television. The 1991 feature film The Pope Must Die, starring Robbie Coltrane, written by Peter Richardson/Pete Richens and directed by Richardson, was not made by Comic Strip Productions, however.

The history of The Comic Strip Presents was reviewed in two editions of First On Four (18 & 25 March 1998), a C4 series looking at comedy stars who first made their mark on the channel in the 1980s. These programmes were repeated as part of The Return Of The Comic Strip, a themed-evening dedicated to the team on 4 January 2000 which incorporated what (to date) has been the last of the productions.

What follows is a brief guide to the 37 Comic Strip Presents TV productions. Readers familiar with the films will know that they do not lend themselves to easy précis, however.


1. Five Go Mad In Dorset: A send-up of Enid Blyton's Famous Five children's adventure yarns.
2. War: A couple on the run in foreign-army-occupied England.
3. The Beat Generation: A pastiche of the Beat Poets era, set in England in the summer of 1960.

4. Bad News Tour: A Spinal Tap-style send-up of a heavy-metal rock band, Bad News.

5. Summer School: A group of students re-create life in the Iron Age for a project.[/

6. Five Go Mad On Mescalin: Another Famous Five pastiche.
7. Dirty Movie: A cinema manager is continually thwarted in his attempts to enjoy a private screening of an erotic film.
8. Susie: A horny Norfolk schoolteacher ditches her husband and runs off to live decadently with a pop star.
9. Fistful Of Travellers Cheques: A pastiche of spaghetti westerns.
10. Gino - Full Story And Pics: A gangster on the run sells his story to the media.
11. Eddie Monsoon: - A Life? An alcoholic and violent South African TV personality has his programme banned by a British TV network.
12. Slags: A space-age gang, Slags, discuss evil tortures they can inflict on their enemy, the flower-proffering nice gang, Hawaiians.
13. Consuela: A married man quickly loses interest in his wife and finds fascination with his dogs and Spanish housemaid. Virtually a parody of Rebecca.
14. Private Enterprise: A toilet-paper delivery man on prison parole pretends that he has made a rock demo tape which he has stolen.
15. The Strike: An innocent writes a screenplay about the 1984 coal miners strike, but Goldie, a Hollywood mogul, wants to cast Al Pacino (Peter Richardson) and Meryl Streep (Jennifer Saunders) as Mr and Mrs Scargill. (This film won the Golden Rose award at the Montreux Festival in 1988.)
16. More Bad News: Bad News reunite and make a new record and video. (Edmondson, Mayall, Richardson and Planer had latterly, in late 1987, been out on the road as Bad News; a later TV presentation of the band occurred in Comic Relief, screened by BBC1 on 15 March 1991.)
17. Mr Jolly Lives Next Door: A hit-man (Peter Cook) becomes involved with two alcoholic proprietors of a squalid escort agency; his task: to kill Nicholas Parsons.
18. The Yob: A parody of the recent horror-movie remake The Fly.
19. Didn't You Kill My Brother?: Wrongly imprisoned for crimes committed by his violent twin brother, Carl Moss is taken under the wing of his probation officer, who wants to marry him. Very Brechtian in style.
20. Funseekers: A bunch of 18-30s on holiday in Ibiza.
21/22. South Atlantic Raiders - Parts 1 and 2: A Falkland Islands invasion - with a difference.
23. GLC: Hollywood stars play British political figures (echoing the theme of #15) - Robbie Coltrane as Charles Bronson as Ken Livingstone, Jennifer Saunders as Brigitte Neilson as the evil ice-maiden (Margaret Thatcher), Peter Richardson as Lee Van Cleef as Tony Benn.
24. Oxford: Soap opera-style sexy characters get turned on by education and do anything for a degree.
25. Spaghetti Hoops: An Italian businessman/freemason steals $200m and is shopped to the police. Hit men and kidnappings abound.
26. Les Dogs: A Felliniesque film about a self-obsessed man who has a car crash, wanders into a wedding reception and falls in love with the bride.
27. Red Nose Of Courage: The Labour leader, Miss Glenys Kinnock, falls in love with Coco the Clown, the night-time persona of John Major. (Screened on the eve of the 1992 General Election.)
28. The Crying Game: A football star is too busy endorsing products to play the game, and the tabloid newspapers are prying into his private life.
29. Wild Turkey: A couple buy an unplucked turkey and find that it's not dead. The bird takes them hostage, demanding the release of all turkeys everywhere.
30. Detectives On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown: A spoof of 1970s TV detective shows. (See also The Bullshitters.)
31. Space Virgins From Planet Sex: A group of aliens travel to Earth to mate with its most brilliant inhabitants and so save their species.
32. Queen Of The Wild Frontier: Two escaped convicts seek refuge with a farmer and get more than they bargained for.
33. Gregory - Diary Of A Nut Case: A serial killer makes his own video nasty.
34. Demonella: A failing music producer accepts the demands of a mysterious beautiful woman in exchange for riches.
35. Jealousy: A man goes to extreme lengths to see if his wife is being unfaithful.
http://www.fountain76.freeserve.co.uk/rikade/assets/images/db_images/db_4meninacar1.jpg
36. Four Men In A Car: Four salesman share a hellish journey to a sales conference where only one of them will achieve promotion.
37. Four Men In A Plane: The four salesman from the previous film have to fend for themselves after their plane crashes in the desert.

http://www.fountain76.freeserve.co.uk/rikade/assets/images/db_images/db_badnews1.jpg
Bad news (1983)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38604000/jpg/_38604737_spinal_tap300ap.jpg
Spinal Tap (1984)

Spoof rock documentary This Is Spinal Tap is to be preserved by the US National Film Registry, its officials have announced.
The 1984 send-up of rock star pretensions joins 24 other films in being selected for preservation by the country's Library of Congress.

Congressional Librarian James H Billington said films were chosen for preservation because half of those produced before 1950, and 80% of those made before 1920, have been lost due to chemical deterioration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2586487.stm

http://i3.ebayimg.com/03/i/00/cc/ca/d4_1.JPG

I believe Bad News released an LP and it was also on vid, check amazon or Ebay graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[ October 27, 2003, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: Martin Red ]

[Number Two]

Originally posted by Martin Red:
[QUOTE]
Hilarious.
I was informed that alot of the U.S didn't get the joke though, this was one of the first dubbed "mocumentary" in the US.

Wasen't the first English mocumentary "The Rutles"?

[Martin Red]

Originally posted by Walter Jones:
Wasen't the first English mocumentary "The Rutles"? The Rutles graemlins/grinyes.gif classic graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Rutland Weekend Television
Eric Idle, one of the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in 1975 created a programme for BBC2 in the United Kingdom, a show that ostensibly was a product of tiny regional Rutland Weekend Television. The inspiration for RWTV is described by Eric Idle (in the person of Ray Jenkinson, Managing Director of RWTV):

For many years Rutland was the smallest county in England, being only 152 square miles. In April 1974, owing to an appalling planning blunder on the part of the British government, it literally ceased to exist. shortly afterwards Sir Nat Kosher realized the enormous tax benefits of broadcasting from somewhere which didn't legally exist and formed Rutland Weekend Television, Britain's smallest TV station. From its very first broadcast RWTV was greeted with praise from Accountants and Taxation Experts in every walk of life.
--The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book, Eyre Methuen Ltd., 1976
Neil Innes, ex-member of the Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band and frequent tuneful contributor to Monty Python, provided much of the musical material used in Rutland Weekend Television.

There were two series of seven episodes of Rutland Weekend Television, plus a Christmas Special. The first series ran from May 12 to June 16, 1975, and the second series ran from November 12 to December 24, 1976. The Christmas Special aired on December 26, 1975. For complete information, please see Garrett Gilchrist's highly informative Episode guide to Rutland Weekend Television. George Harrison was a musical guest on the Christmas show, providing the first Rutland/Beatles connection. He is seen here performing "The Pirate Song" (a George Harrison/Eric Idle composition) as the end credits for the Christmas show begin to roll

http://www.rutlemania.org/snl_graphics/snltitle.jpg

America Discovers The Rutles



In October of 1975, NBC premiered its late-night comedy show NBC's Saturday Night. The show became a surprise smash hit, particularly among the same college students that were huge fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which had only started showing on American public broadcasting stations a year or so earlier.
http://www.rutlemania.org/snl_graphics/snleandj.jpg


It was a natural fit, then, to have a member of the Monty Python troupe host an episode of Saturday Night. Eric Idle blazed the trail on October 2, 1976, hosting the third show of the second season. Here, Jane Curtain is doing her best to convince Idle not to perform his stunning version of "Here Comes the Sun."

http://www.rutlemania.org/rutles3.html


http://www.neilinnes.org/rutlealb.jpg
1978

Ouch!
Ouch!
You're breakin' my heart
Ouch!
I'm fallin' apart
Ouch!
Ow, ow
Ouch!


(When)
When we first met (when we first met)
I must admit I fell for you right from the start
(I must admit I fell for you right from the start)
(Now)
Now when we meet
(Now when we meet)
All kinds of things it seems upset the apple cart
(All kinds of things it seems upset the apple cart)

Ouch!
Don't desert me
Ouch!
Please don't hurt me
Ouch!
Ow, ow
Ouch!

(What)
What is this thing called love
(What is this thing)
Why do they say it makes the world go 'round?
(Called love why do they say it makes the world go 'round?)
(I)
I can't explain
(I can't explain)
The way I feel for you, my feet don't touch the ground
(The way I feel for you my feet don't touch the ground)

Ouch!
Don't desert me
Ouch!
Please don't hurt me
Ouch!
Ow, ow
Ouch!

(When)
When we first met (when we first met)
I must admit I fell for you right from the start
(I must admit I fell for you right from the start)
(Now)
Now when we meet
(Now when we meet)
All kinds of things it seems upset the apple cart
(All kinds of things it seems upset the apple cart)

Ouch!
Don't desert me
Ouch!
Please don't hurt me
Ouch!
Ow, ow
Ouch!

Ouch!
Don't desert me
Ouch!
Please don't hurt me
Ouch!
Ow, ow
Ouch!
oooooo

http://www.neilinnes.org/ouch02.gif

http://www.neilinnes.org/rutles.htm#rutles

[Martin Red]

http://www.rutlemania.org/rwt_graphics/rsnixon.jpg

http://www.rutlemania.org/rutles2.html

[DOTSmusic]

some cool movies, documentaries and concerts. ;)
http://dvdmg.com/sidandnancy.gif http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/coverv/34/166234.jpg http://www.metallica.cz/video/img/cliffema.gif

[ October 27, 2003, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: aLie ]

[DOTSmusic]

http://kr.asiamusic.net/imgdata/news/weiv/20011015094905-0320filmdeclinewestern.jpg

[ October 27, 2003, 05:37 PM: Message edited by: aLie ]

[Jolyon]

I think most of those mentioned are rubbish, apart from Spinal Tap with is genius (and also American).

The best British rock movies are 'Hard Days Night' and 'Performance'.

[DOTSmusic]

Originally posted by Jolyon:
I think most of those mentioned are rubbish, apart from Spinal Tap with is genius (and also American).

The best British rock movies are 'Hard Days Night' and 'Performance'. the Beatles Anthology is the shEEEit

[Mah'chew]

2 Tone Records presents 'Dance Craze'

http://2-tone.info/lgsa/dancecraze_uk_vhs.jpg

Too much Two-Tone Skank to be a Rock Opera. :D

A rude boy moves in silence and don't need no violence! :D

Also, two good movies re Punk:

Derek Jarman's - Jubilee (1978).

The Clash's - Rude Boy (1980).

[alex zen]

i always thought jerry dammers was a cool name.

[nev m]

Originally posted by alex zen:
i always thought jerry dammers was a cool name. Myself I preferred Neville Staples smile.gif

[Number Two]

Some of the best live perfomances were in the movie "Urgh! A Music War". Great soundtrack as well. That movie (along with the T.V. show "New Wave Theater") opened my eyes to the "New Wave Sound" in the early 80's.

As well as the silicon dream of this little gem. (http://www.breakingglass.net/) . I saw this one on cable in 1982 and my life changed. I wanted a cool laser light like that one. Peace.

[Martin Red]

Originally posted by Jolyon:

The best British rock movies are 'Hard Days Night' and 'Performance'. Hard Days night was alright when I was a kid, but a bit too much screamy popness for myself today.


Prefered this: -

http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/dub/babylon/graphics/logo.jpg

http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/dub/babylon/graphics/nme1.jpg

(White Lady), "Look at you all, good for nothing, noisy, stinking filth, lazy, you're everywhere, junglebunnies. This was a lovely area before you came here, lovely... **** off back to your own country, Junglebunnies."




(Beefy), "This is my ****ing country lady and it's never been ****ing lovely, it's always been a tip for as long as I can remember, so don't ****ing tell me, right, 'cause I never done it, it wasn't me right..."

http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/dub/babylon/graphics/post1.jpg


In 1980, directed by Franco Rosso, Babylon, a film about black youth growing up in South London was released. At the time it stood out on its own, not only because it was a film about Black kids who follow a reggae soundsystem, but also in the way it reflected the depressing realities of Britain at the end of the 1970s.

I was too young to remember when Babylon was first released. In 1980, I had just turned the ripe old age of 8 and at that time only ever went to the cinema with my Mum and Dad. Being fairly typical white middle-aged parents from Ilford, my Mum and Dad were, surprisingly enough, not big followers of the mighty Jah Shaka, Abashanti-I or Fatman reggae soundsystems that rocked the dancehalls of London. Neither did they have much interest in black youth culture (or youth culture generally for that matter), so I never got to see it first time around.

Like many people's experience of culture generally, be it film or otherwise, my experience of Babylon came second hand, some five or six years after its release. Its discovery didn't surround some trendy retro scene or fashionable revival, the way much of contemporary culture is packaged and processed by glossy magazines and yoof TV, it simply drifted around on video cassette between various friend's houses and my own, its dialogue becoming memorised and quoted at every opportunity, (for me anyway, the sign of truly great movies), and its characters becoming local heroes.

It's one of the best British films ever made, not just one of the best 'Black' or 'Youth' films, but one of the best British films period. Not because of its enormous budget (it was made for around £350,000), or for its star studded line-up (all the actors were relatively unknown to a wider audience) but because it was one of only a handful of British films that recognises that socially, racially and cinematically, there is more to living in this country than yet another period drama.

If you have never seen it before, I won't spoil it by giving the whole game away, but essentially the story surrounds 'Blue' (played by Brinsly Ford) and the soundsystem Ital Lion, he toasts for, its members including the charismatic dread, loverboy, Errol, Ronnie (Blue's white friend) and the legendary Beefy. As the up and coming soundclash with the mighty Jah Shaka sound looms ("Shaka gonna beat you, Beefy, Shaka rule!"), the pressures in Blue's life increase. Police brutality, racist abuse and attacks, as well as girlfriend trouble and questions of faith (Rastafarianism) eventually erupt into violence and confrontation.

Riding on the wave of a decade that was punctuated with extreme and violent outbursts of racism (the 1970s was not a good decade for race relations), Babylon was an important and brave venture. It presented a section of the black community in London not all as muggers, out and out thieves, rapists or any of the other bullshit perpetuated by the tabloid press and media, but as people with lives just as complex (even more so?) as the rest of the white majority.

With the 1990s showing an alarming increase in racist activity, the BNP gaining electoral successes in London as well as a string of highly publicised racist attacks, many of the questions raised in the film Babylon as a film still seem very relevant today.

15 years on and Babylon as a film, still (sadly) stands on its own, but how have things changed socially and racially since its release? The film's director and writer, Franco Rosso, born of Italian parentage, came to London at the age of nine and experienced much of the hostility and distrust West Indian immigrants would experience a decade later. After fighting his way through school ("literally") he entered the Camberwell School of Art where his interest in film developed, carrying with him his experience of race growing up in culturally mixed south London. I spoke to him about these experiences as well as his thoughts on Babylon then and now, and how Britain of the 1990s shapes up to the Britain of previous decades.

http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/graphics/brinsley5.jpg

"To the East, Africa, to the West, Jamaica, first Babylon. To the North, England, second Babylon. Babylonian triangle of captivity" (Head Rasta)



How did Babylon come about?

It came about through a number of circumstances. One, I had made a film with Linton Kwesi Johnson and he was very keen on it. I went to a lot of sounds systems with him, and I was brought up in Streatham, Brixton, all those areas and I kind of knew all these people and places.

It was also really to do with, even when I was at school, there was very much an outsider clique and an insider clique. The outsider clique were the ones who weren't British, particularly the Greek/Cypriot, Italians, anyone who was different tended to be given a pretty hard time, so you tended to stick together. There were similar things in Babylon, which I think if you had asked anyone who had been brought up around then, went on. You tend anyway to make films you choose to make, about things you know and sympathise with.

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Was the basis of the trouble you experienced all racial?

Absolutely. In a way, the Blacks who came over after the war were a kind of saviour for us. After a certain point you learn to become a chameleon. It was easier if you were European not to be spotted, but of course the black kids couldn't hide, so in a sense, when the first generation arrived, they really took the flack and took over from where we were. Most probably, the Indian kids have inherited the same thing.


Did all these experiences influence the way Babylon developed?

Yes, to a point. There was basically a lot of racism at the time.

How did you think the film would make people feel?

Nobody had ever tried to do that kind of thing before and it shook up a lot of people really, because it was, of course, what everyone was aware of, but nobody had actually put onto film. At the time both Martin Stellmen (the film's co-writer with Rosso) and I worked at Albany Empire where they had a youth theatre for kids who were seen as really hopeless, but were in fact terrific. The hall was being hired by black kids who had their own soundsystem and they had to have a staff member because everyone was terrified to leave them on their own, and they asked us "would you sit in with us?". So we volunteered and Babylon really grew out of that because virtually the story of the kids was there, the fights and everything - it was very educational.

There was also a church at the bottom of the garden that had a soundsystem every Friday night. It was all coming together, the soundsystems, the kids, it was all really multi-racial. It was more by accident that people were mixing, than by design, but it was the atmosphere of the time and we were really just observing it and being there. As we were writing the story for Babylon, two guys from the soundsystem would come in and we would say "OK, this is it", and they would say "Oh I like that", or "No, that wouldn't happen", and then they would actually speak it to us, so the whole script was written in patois - it was very much done with them.

What type of reaction did Babylon get at the time of its release?

At the time, many people saw it as part documentary, which gave them the perfect opportunity to pooh pooh that. It was in fact a drama, a piece of fiction that was written and acted; it just wasn't in the tradition of English cinema, no way. Because it did well, those people were forced to concede that maybe there was another element within British cinema, that didn't have its roots in public school [NB - in the UK 'public school' actually means the expensive schools for the children of the upper classes. - JE], Oxford and Cambridge - because that's what it was, and still is, the dominant factor in British drama.

In a sense, they were forced to, for a very short time, to accept and open the doors temporarily. It didn't continue because there wasn't anyone to follow it - I didn't want to make "Black Dramas"; I chose Babylon because I actually had a sympathy for it, and I knew the people, and it was an enjoyable thing to do. I felt that in a sense it was the time for them, (black film makers), to make their own films. People were beginning to come through, but of course they were immediately stopped.

In the 1990s, people seem to be much more racially aware again - why do you think this has come about?

I think we are deeply deeply racist as a nation. I'm guilty of it. It's almost kind of ingrained. It's even worse when you've experienced it because you then take it up with a vengeance. I'm not saying I'm going to go around slagging people off, or being deliberately racist, but sometimes I do catch myself doing all the things I can imagine that a lot of other people do, but don't admit to. It is endemic really. It's part of the education system, part of the way we are brought up. I think it's because we are basically dishonest as a nation. We are not really multi-racial. We're multi-cultural. That's why you do get people saying "Oh why do the Indians and Bangladeshis all stick together?". They stick together because they are terrified. It's not that people don't want to integrate, people don't want them to integrate and its the same for the black population. The black position has changed because they are now the new working class - they are the working class - they have taken on all the attributes of that class.

Why do you think that the 1990's in particular has seen an upturn in racist incidents?

It's recession. These things come out of recession, poverty, ignorance and it's what extremists of any form will grasp and push and find sympathy for, because people are desperate.

Is it the same reasons now as it was in the time of Babylon?

Yes, I think it's education, employment, it's all the things that come from recession and they are very easy things to target. When people are bitter and resentful, these are easy tools for extremists, certainly the fascist element to use, when really it's divide and rule. People are basically bashing their heads at people who are on their level, who are their class, who have got the same problems, who have got the same preoccupations; they want better for their children, better education, but they divide and rule. It's just one way of keeping the whole class system down, it's a way of stopping people.

Do you think since Babylon, that the position of black people in British society has changed at all?

I don't think it's got any better. I think it will change because the media in a way holds the key to a lot of it and we're getting a kind of infiltration of people who are not predominantly white, middle class, into television especially, and very very slowly, their influence will begin to surface and we will begin to get different kinds of programmes, which I think will help to change all that, with their own focus and perspective.

http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/dub/babylon/graphics/still5.jpg


SOURCE: = http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/dub/babylon/rosso.html

Comments on BABYLON

Steve Mosko: You appeared in a scene in the film "Babylon" which portrayed a sound clash which was getting quite fierce and almost led to a fight.

Jah Shaka: Well that's the impression that the people who made the film had about sound systems, which they'd heard about from the competitions. They gave me a script at first and when I read it I refused to do what they wanted. I ended up directing the scene I appeared in myself, because all the build up leading up to it, with people from my sound confronting another sound, well that just doesn't go on. We've got a very disciplined set of people, and I was totally against the way they portrayed the build up to the dance in that film.

http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk/dub/babylon/com.html