Displaying items by tag: London
Sunday, 15 January 2012 14:50
Ian Dury - Sex and Drugs–and Rock and Roll
I remember thinking how good his band were but what a strange character he was, dragging himself across the stage in a leg calliper dressed in his trademark Crombie and silk scarf and using the mike stand as a crutch, and thinking ‘this bloke can’t really sing but he’s got some serious attitude’.
A lot has been made of the 70’s pub rock scene, but it’s no wonder Punk Rock wiped it out, because there were so few bands with any real balls or passion. Only Dr Feelgood would fall into that category and I guess Ian Dury and a few others.
After Malcolm McLaren had dreamed up and launched The Sex Pistols and his mate Bernie Rhodes did the same with The Clash- featuring of course Joe Strummer from the pub rockers The 101’rs- a lot of the clever muso bands or simply older good players (successful or otherwise) ran for cover. Whilst others donned the motorbike jackets and plastic trousers, dyed their hair peroxide blonde giving us the excellent Stranglers, The Only Ones and The Vibrators, followed by the likes of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Ian Dury & The Blockheads on Stiff Records. So I was delighted to see him crack it with the album ‘New Boots and Panties’, in fact I recall being in a Brighton hotel overlooking the seafront, drinking into the small hours with The Jam, and drummer Rick Buckler wouldn’t stop playing the album until the sun came up, so I got to know it rather well. Dury was truly London’s original Punkfather.
The film is a bit of a sad affair to be honest, and a real warts ‘n’ all, but highly stylised and brilliantly directed by Mat Whitecross .Having read extracts of the new biography and interviews with his son I could see how cleverly this had been scripted and with great casting and performances all round. A lot centres around Ian’s miserable institutionalised childhood stricken with Polio and how it coloured his life, the early chaotic days of the band, the fights, the sackings, his strained relationship with his first wife and how life on the road and his music made him an errant and rather selfish father to his son. We see some creative moments of genius between Ian and his long suffering right hand man and co-writer, Chas Jankel, and some live performance moments faithfully recreated-but not nearly enough for me. His clever blend of simple word play and rhyming, cheeky chappy cockney slang and hilarious observations on working class life spoken in a rap style, put to a soft funk backing, was unique then-although Chas ‘n’ Dave had made their name doing much the same but in a music hall ‘knees up mother brown’ kind of way-and you hear his influence in so many acts these days; think Blur and the ‘posh mockney set’ Lily Allen and Kate Nash.
But as he continually yo-yos between wife and lover, and drags his son through the mire, Ian appears to let success get to his head, hits the self destruct button and let’s his lynchpin and musical partner Chas walk off in frustration. Of course the music slips as he tries to go it alone and by the time Chas comes back the moment, sadly, has gone.
There is a priceless segment on his involvement with the International Year of The Disabled and how splendidly he pisses everyone off with the song ‘Spasticus Austisticus’ a cathartic trip back to the institution that robbed him of his childhood, which the politically correct were appalled by and it was subsequently banned by the BBC . What did they expect- a soppy ballad?
The film then seems to end rather abruptly and doesn’t attempt to cover his decline into ill health and his untimely death from cancer at the age of 57. Nor does it touch on his extensive charity work for UNICEF, which was a bit puzzling and a little unfair I thought, but I’m sure there were reasons for that.
This stylish biopic comes across as a very honest portrayal and doesn’t pull any punches (borne out by comments from his son Baxter) but a little too hard on the man, as I’m sure anyone who suffered the way he did could be forgiven for being more than a little bitter at the cards he’d been dealt in life.
I wondered off down the Holloway Road humming Ian Dury’s ‘What A Waste’ -a sad omission from the soundtrack.
How apt.
© Words - Dave Cairns/ ZANI Ltd
Published in
Film Archive
Sunday, 15 January 2012 13:51
What A Performance ZANI on the Great Cult Film
© Words – Paolo Sedazzari
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Film Archive
Sunday, 15 January 2012 13:29
Cover Girl Killer - The Original Slasher Film
Set in the seedy, tawdry backstreet world of strip clubs, tacky photo-shoots, and faded glamour which characterised parts of late 1950s London, Cover Girl Killer would have made (and indeed probably did make) an ideal bottom-of-the-bill companion to such contemporary productions as Peeping Tom. Written and directed by Terry Bishop, one of the unsung kings of the British b-movie, it stars a pre-Steptoe Harry H. Corbett,
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Film Archive
Sunday, 15 January 2012 13:27
The Long Good Friday - Classic British Gangster Film
Filmed as the Thatcher-led Conservatives took power in this country, and at a time when gritty Euston Films productions filled our TV with images of violent and corrupt London, The Long Good Friday is the rawest, most energetic gangster picture since the heyday of Cagney and Bogart. Indeed, while Barrie Keeffe’s screenplay could certainly be described as neo-Shakespearian, the ‘downfall of a mob boss’ concept would be equally familiar to fans of Tommy-gun operas from the rain-soaked Warner Bros. circa 1931. A matter compounded by the perfect casting of Hoskins in the lead role of Harold Shand -
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Film Archive
Sunday, 15 January 2012 12:43
Barney Platts Mills– From Whitechapel to Casablanca
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Film Archive
Saturday, 03 December 2011 11:38
Babylon Revisited
Released nearly thirty years ago, Babylon stands up today as a well crafted, convincingly acted, hard hitting piece of realistic drama.
It’s powerful, resonant ending is up there with the classic Jimmy Cagney‘s “Made It Make top of the world” finale in White Heat. But Babylon is not available in any British Video store. It has been not been shown on British TV, neither terrestrial or satellite, for many years. What is the meaning of this outrage?
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Film Archive
Sunday, 08 March 2015 17:52
GF Newman’s Law & Order
Screenwriter and novelist GF Newman (22nd May 1946) best known for the creation of TV character Judge John Deed (2001-2007) starring the talented and versatile Martin Shaw, a maverick judge who forgoes the usual pomp and circumstance associated with our legal system, in particular the court room, and New Street Law (2006-2007), a drama about two rival law firms of barristers based in Manchester,
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Film
Tuesday, 02 December 2014 16:16
Honor Blackman, A Stylish and Magnificent Woman - Part one of two
Very few actresses have ever been given a role that redefines the public's vision of women on television. That in itself would be a significant achievement; but as Cathy Gale in The Avengers, Honor Blackman not only altered that public perception and re-characterized the role, she also single-handedly kick-started the whole 1960s 'second wave' feminist movement.
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Film
Monday, 02 February 2015 14:49
A Short Biog of Rod Stewart
Roderick David Stewart was born on 10th January 1945 in Highgate, London. The youngest of the family, Rod has two older brothers and sisters. Apart from Mum who was a Cockney, father and Rod’s siblings were all born in Scotland. Rod was spoilt as the youngest but showed interest in singing and was very much influenced by Al Jolson.
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Music
Friday, 09 January 2015 15:40
Jook – The Missing Link Between The Who and The Jam?
In between Glam Rock and Punk, was a band called Jook, who visually distinguished themselves by donning the popular at the time ‘terrace culture’ look. This was an adaptation of the skinhead look of the late 60’s, but the trousers were slightly more flared, wore at times half-mast, and length had returned to the hair,
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Music
