Billion dollar brain is a tough watch , the only saving grace was Francoise Dorleac , spelling ? But I might watch Alfie or get Carter, love the suits that Caine wore Never spotted before that nigel green was in ipcress and Zulu
Glad to report that a couple of paracetamol ,tea and fresh air made me feel a lot better, my brother had the AZ jab as well and had a headache and aching limbs but those passed after a couple of days Stay well Deedup
What did you think about the Poly styrene documentary? I loved it, what a loss she is , at a time of aggressive Male dominance in punk Poly stood out, I remember seeing Xrayspecs at Dunstable Civic where a bunch of the Luton knuckle draggers tried to shout her off because of her colour and sex , they soon left and the band gave one of the highest energy gigs I have seen
Thats a great photo, there's some real talent there. Thinking about that and your earlier post about Poly and X-Ray Spex, I am obviously a big fan of late 70s Punk/New wave music and back in the day I don't recall ever considering gender or colour being of any importance when it came to whether I liked the music or not. I listened to X-Ray Spex, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Blondie, The Slits and Patti Smith and later The Pretenders and Kirsty MacColl and many other women because they made great music. I guess that I am lucky I am a middle class white straight male, I have never faced any form of discrimination against myself and I like to think that I never shown any to anyone else. I hope that the world has moved on from the world that Poly faced in the late 70s, but I know that it has not moved as far as it should have.
Punk and New Wave found a place for everyone - Gay Tom Robinson, 'Raspberry' Ian Dury; transgender Jayne/Wayne County; mixed race Poly Styrene; I forget their name but there was a band with a lead singing drummer who was a victim of thalidomoide. Colour, sexuality, gender, disability simply weren't issues as they had been just a few years before. Nobody was rejected and if you had something to say, you got a fair hearing. As we slide back into the divisive hatred of 'us' and 'them', it's good to remember that we are capable of better.
It’s ironic that punk is seen as shouty, intolerant, divisive etc in the court of public opinion when it was all about inclusivity and freedom of expression. At the time though, it did capture the hearts and minds of enough people to make an impact. Mass social media encourages conformity these days like never before; there is pressure to be like everybody else. A band like The Jam wouldn’t make the top 100 these days, never mind number 1. Tuneless, talentless warblers and wailers dominate music now. We need another punk or rock n roll movement to shake the status quo again.
I am a dinosaur too Luke - so do the charts mean anything these days now that downloads and streamings count? I know that Weller can still shift units in the first week of release he topped the album chart for a week again last year he was always good at 'mobilising the troops' and selling large amounts in a short time I recall Malice was the 8th biggest selling single in 1982 and only stayed on the chart for 8 weeks 3 of which at were number 1. But when Ed Sheeran can have a whole album of single track downloads in the top 10 does it really have any relevance today?
“I think people ought to know that we’re anti-fascist, we’re anti-violence, we're anti-racist and we’re pro-creative. We’re against ignorance.” Joe Strummer
Punk never called to the Jamaican contingent (in my parish it was looked upon with amusement and bewilderment) . In utter contrast to 2-Tone, which was inspired by a musical culture that had at that time nigh on up to two decades of unparalleled social commentary.
I have been taken back to the 5th year common room now - The year is 1979 and there are 5 singles that I recall being played frequently (clear vinyl) (Blue Vinyl) (The cost of loving EP) (green vinyl)
No punk...no 2-Tone...or Gary Newman or Echo and the Bunnymen or The Smiths or Frankie Goes To Hollywood or KLF or a vast amount of what followed in the next decade. It opened up possibilities in music, fashion, TV, film-making, journalism for kids who never thought that they could do it. It remains a force in the creative arts nearly 45 years on.
No "Revival pressure" , no 2-Tone. No Mini-Moog in a recording studio that was meant to have been taken back by its owner, no Gary Numan. OTOH, "year zero" declarations of musical history : all Punk.
Errr.....no. None of those bands get a gig or on a label, pre-punk. Independent music labels, fanzines and proliferating smaller venues are all the sons and daughters of punk and the ethos of taking back control of music. Pretty much all music in this country in the 80's owes its existence to punk....even Stock Aitken and Waterman.