Sniper Heretic at the Hope And Anchor in front of Phil Daniels
Bob Short at the Music Machine with the immortal words that actually made the cut, “Bollocks. Piss off. Bollocks.”
Si Heretic auditioning
Sniper Heretic at the Hope And Anchor in front of Phil Daniels
Bob Short at the Music Machine with the immortal words that actually made the cut, “Bollocks. Piss off. Bollocks.”
Si Heretic auditioning
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Wildebeest
February 16, 2008 at 1:56 amBut on the subject of the Stranglers does anyone remember Hugh Cornwell’s ex Hazel O’Connor’s classic film ‘Breaking Glass’ featuring a certain friend of ours shouting derogatory remarks about her performance? Trivia question for three points.
Penguin
February 16, 2008 at 1:59 amWas Daniel and Martin Wright (AKA Lux) at the beginning of that film. Mates with Vince Stephenson. Also they were the infamous ‘Security’ at Conway Hall the night of the Crass gig when there was that BM punch up!
Tony Puppy
February 16, 2008 at 2:01 amIn Breaking Glass there is a great shot of Bob Blood & Roses from the balcony on the Music Machine.
Bob refuses to believe he did this and has no memory of how this could have happened.
Val, Brett and myself were also in the film. But cut from the released version. I was cut twice.
Tony Puppy
February 16, 2008 at 2:06 amMaybe Breaking Glass should be moved to a separate thing?
Really interesting film and surrounding memories.
I’m meant to be in bed so I can’t do it.
alistairliv
February 16, 2008 at 9:38 amIn Breaking Glass there is an ‘alone in the crowd’ shot of Pinki in her Jordan (not the plastic one) look-alike days. Pinki said she claimed to be a member of Equity and so got paid union rates.
Wildebeest
February 16, 2008 at 9:57 amwell Tony you answered my trivia question and as for Bob not remembering it, I clearly remember asking him about it after a punk all nighter at the Scala and he said something along the lines of “Yeah I was standing there shouting obscenities at her and the director said ‘can you do that again on camera?’ so I said yeah if you pay me more” and then did that patented Bob laugh that punctuated almost every conversation.
Penguin
February 16, 2008 at 3:02 pmHave not seen this film since it came out…remember it being ok at the time…
Chris
February 16, 2008 at 4:18 pmhaha…i remember seeing this when it came out and got it on dvd a few years ago. Actually, i think it stands up probably better than any other of ‘new wave’ films produced around then, and does reflect the era reasonably well. Plus it has some unintentionally hysterical moments; “yea yea…it’s got a really threatening robotic feel” long became a classic line while watching crap electro acts. “i’ll have you know i’m a black belt in Wing Chung…”…”fascists…bullyboys…” haha! splendid stuff 🙂
You know it was the only film Dodi Al Fayed produced?
NB: Micky, Mart doesn’t appear in it, it’s Danny ‘Lux’ you see at the beginning of the film, walking across the screen in a ‘Vive le Rock’ shirt. He talks about the film in his ‘Camden Parasites’ book.
Sure someone else I know , either Andy Martin or Ian ‘Slaughter’ knew a load of folk who appeared in the Westway scene…
NB: What ever happened to that ‘Shrink’ guy? I remember buying a single of his just cos he looked ‘mental’ on the cover, but it was piss. Always wanted to know the track that there is a brief clip of when he bangs his tape recorded on the bannister in the guitarist ‘audition’ scene.
Could go on about this great film but have to fire out now. Maybe later.
Tony Puppy
February 16, 2008 at 9:48 pmShrink was on the cover of the last Ripped & Torn I produced. I saw him at the Rock Garden in January 1979.
I was so impressed with his live performance I collared the chap, and found out the mighty Charlie Gillet had signed him to his label. This was an exciting moment all round, and an interview date was proposed.
Things got spicier still, as at the end of the night I was invited to a party in a squat over the road. This was my invitation to the James St./Long Acre squatted block.
Within a week I’d moved in. Produced the Shrink cover R&T from there. The very seeds sown for a new beginning…
Unfortunately Shrink never made it for the ride. Something happened ‘tween Charlie and Shrink – the second single never came out, let alone the album they were enthusing about.
I was shocked to see him in Breaking Glass when I watched it at the cinema. Shocked but gladdened. But sad I’d missed meeting up with him again.
After the scenes with Brett and Val for Breaking Glass I was asked to come back the next day for more filming.
Our scene was cut.
The next day I turned up in Westbourne Grove, W11…and sat in a car for large parts of the day with a chap who was in Mick Farren’s band The Deviants.
Eventually the two of us were filmed carrying musical equipment along a street and up the stairs to the door of a building. We were meant to be arriving at the audition – joining the interior shots involving Shrink.
This was also cut.
The scene where Hazel plays a small gig and is invaded by fascist skinheads – that was filmed outside R&T HQ in Frestonia, in Bramley Road W11.
R&T HQ was in the squatted pub – The Bramley Arms.
Tony Puppy
February 17, 2008 at 11:05 amBlimey
Just found Shrink’s Myspace page!
http://www.myspace.com/shrinkgold
john
February 17, 2008 at 11:26 pmdid breaking glass get released around the same time as the pistols ‘rock n roll swindle’?
anyone get to be an extra in the swindle as well?
Chris
February 18, 2008 at 12:19 amincidentally, all this talk of punk films prompted me to do a search for the UK Subs film that was supposedly the support film to the cinema release of ‘Scum’ and it’s up on google video – http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-2837085912409555031&q=punk+can+take+it&total=645&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
Steve
February 18, 2008 at 12:41 amDirected by Julien Temple no less (!)
gerard • Post Author •
February 18, 2008 at 1:04 ami’ve got a vague memory of an early billy idol video featuring people i knew, so maybe another one for the px-files?
either white wedding or rebel yell? or my brain frying of course….
john
February 18, 2008 at 1:06 amwinner chris,i tried to get into my local cinema to see scum but being only 14/15 they wouldnt let me in.i’d tried to get in cos i knew the subs film was on as well,i was once a member of the uk subs fan club who had mailed us all news of this film,sindy,on front cover of tommorows girls,ran the subs fanzines,mail outs for the fan club.
Chris
February 18, 2008 at 3:13 amwoah! I just remembered one time in Tokyo i was in a video rental shop looking through the ‘punk’ section and came across a film called ‘the punk and the princess’ which was based on that book written by a 14 year old, ‘the punk’. As it was set in London in the 80s i got it out. Absolutely ATROCIOUS film, but again, it has numerous scenes filmed in london ‘punk’ bars and clubs which im sure some folk might know extras in.
just found listing – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107898/
if it did indeed come out in 1993 I suspect, from the fashions etc, it was made well before. perhaps it just failed to find a distributor till then on account of being unmitigated shite.
Nic
February 18, 2008 at 4:01 pmAh, this is a great thread for me, as I’m probably even more of a Film nerd than a Music nerd!
(partly a legacy of over 10 years of being ‘unemployed’ with access to video recorders, access to bootleg video trading lists, and a friend who worked and had satellite TV as soon as it was first introduced)…
I went to the cinema to see ‘Breaking Glass’ when it came out, but I last saw it about 20 plus years ago…
I remember enjoying it (and having the hots for Miss O’Connor), but also thinking (even back then when I was a nipper) that it was a little cliched and ‘yoof-by-numbers’…
I do remember enjoying the ‘Audition’ segments in ‘Breaking Glass’ – most of the people the band rejected seemed to be playing the kind of music I wanted to play (ie inept, tuneless, aggressive noise)! Rat Scabies’ brief appearance (which seemed to sum up the whole of his drumming career in about 5 seconds) was GREAT! Thrash those drums!
I think I’ll rent it so I can see all the ‘ace faces’ who appeared as extras…
Cut TWICE, Tony? A tough call…
Derek Jarman was cut from the ‘nightclub’ segment with The Yardbirds in Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’, so you’re in good company…
😉
They showed ‘Slade in Flame’ on BBC 4 about a month ago: a great slice of ‘evil music business corrupt innocent musicians’ flim-flam which acts as a pre-cursor to ‘Breaking Glass’ and is in a long tradition of British films focused on evil svengalis and the machinations of the music business (starting with ‘Expresso Bongo’ starring Cliff Richard where the evil svengali was supposedly modeled on the English music biz impresario Larry Parnes – who was cited as an inspiration by Malcolm McClaren) …
‘Punk Can Take It’ is great! I remember really wanting to see this but being too young (I was a member of the UK Subs fanclub in 1978 as well, John!)…
It almost acts as a template for Temple’s work on ‘The Great Rock n Roll Swindle’ with the blending of documentary footage which the ‘staged’ elements – and also features Tenpole Tudor (as do a number of Temple’s films)…
Apparently – until the recent DVD release – it had never been released in any form since its theatrical release in 1979 with ‘Scum’…
I love these quintessentially British parodies of Public Information Films…
There is something about them which cuts to the heart of a perception of British culture which was once omnipresent and now seems to have almost vanished…
Temple’s work utilised John Snagge as narrator who had been the ‘voice’ of BBC announcing for many years covering amongst other things the coronation of Elisabeth, and also parodied himself in many episodes of ‘The Goons’ as well as appearing as the voice on the B-Side of the Sex Pistols ‘C’Mon Everybody’…
The same kind of ironic approach to the omniscient narrator who represents the ‘establishment’ occurs in the early short films of Peter Greenaway (particularly his work for the GPO Film Unit) and the ‘imagined travelogue’ films of Patrick Keiller…
‘The Punk’ was directed by Mike Sarne who directed a couple of fun ‘cult’ films (the ill-met
As far as I know, Chris, ‘The Punk’ was indeed made in 1993 (rather than earlier and waiting in limbo until it got a distributor) – and it is as crap as most of director Mike Sarne’s work (apart from the cult schlocker ‘Myra Breckenridge’ and the post-mod potboiler ‘Joanna’ )….
He did – however – make the classic ‘Come Outside’ single (featuring a very young Wendy Richard) in the early 1960’s…
The book ‘The Punk’ was published in 1977 (and then re-published by Corgi) and as such can be classed as the first ‘punk novel’ (before Richard Allen’s novel ‘Punk Rock’). It was written by a 14 year old (Gideon Sams) who was involved in punk culture: it was written as part of a 3rd year school homework project! Someone who was at school with him said he was the first punk they had had at their school…
Useful Puppy-esque facts: Sams was the son of the family who run the Ceres healthfood empire. His father had sold macrobiotic food at the UFO Club in the late 60’s, and also set up the Ceres macrobiotic store on Portobello Road. The family had a couple of restaurants in Ladbroke Grove before the shop – one where sweaty twitcher Graham Bond would play in the basement, one where Bolan met Mickey Finn – and had a bakery on Freston Road which was a allocation for gigs by Here and Now (advocators of the ‘Free Tours’ played on by The Mob, Zoundz, Astronauts, et al). The family sold food at the first Glastonbury festival at the behest of Winston Churchill’s granddaughter, and supplied food to the Diggers (led by Sid Rawles). The family went on to found the ‘Whole Earth’, ‘VegeBurger’ and ‘Green and Black’s’ brands. The original publisher of ‘The Punk’ had been a salesman for the Sams family. Sams died quite young (26 years old) – apparently of Pleurisy in Greenwich Village so it may be possible to surmise what the cause may have been)…
Chris
February 18, 2008 at 5:34 pmGreat post Nic. I also remember thinking Breaking Glass was pretty cruddy when I saw it at the cinema on release, but I strongly advise you to check out a copy now and I think you will actually think it really doesn’t paint too unaccurate a picture of ‘the biz’ and is in fact a pretty good portrayal of most facets of that era of music. happy to burn you a copy if you can’t find it elsewhere.
that is surprising about ‘the punk’ being made in 93 as, to me, the fashions all looked very 1980s (or at least very 1980s issues of ID magazine) so maybe there was a stylist at work rather than the extras simply being recruited through ads or at clubs/gigs etc and dressing as they did. I truly cringe when I recall just how bad the film is!
Just out of interest, when Scum played at my local cinema, the Subs film WASN’T the support film and instead there was some short about someone getting stuck in a phone box – which I’m sure I also saw as support fro some OTHER film, so maybe the Subs film was pulled and replaced with this? I remember that as I remember asking a few folk – mates’ older brothers who were punks – about it and them all telling me the same story, even though the ads for Scum in the music press back then most certainly advertised ‘Punk can Take It’ as support.
PS: Nic, just got an email out the blue from none other than Si, The Heretics’ bassist! check your email.
Nic
February 18, 2008 at 6:56 pmYes, I think I’ll watch it again…
I’d probably enjoy it more now, particularly in terms of the interesting cast and the focus on addressing social issues…
Ah, the film about the phonebox: is it the classic ‘La Cabina’ from Spain that was shown occasionally late-night on BBC 2 through the late 1970’s?
http://www.horror-wood.com/lacabina.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkN1n9q2_Gc
It’s great…
I will check my mail right now, my friend!
john
February 18, 2008 at 7:13 pmchris,was the film about about the guy getting stuck in the phone box italian?
seem to remember something similar.
out of interest what other punk films were made late seventies early eighties,i can only think of Derek Jarmans ‘jubilee’ with the great Ants plastic surgery onstage in some old theater.
i still havent watched breaking glass after all these years though.
gerard
February 18, 2008 at 7:20 pmi loved that film about the guy getting stuck in the phone box! it was certainly european (as opposed to american or english). great ending too…..
Nic
February 18, 2008 at 7:30 pmMy comment about the film is ‘Awaiting Moderation’: the comment has a link to the film so you can watch it (on youtube), and a link to an article about it…
🙂
The film is called ‘La Cabina’ and was made in Spain in 1972…
I first got a copy of it back in about 1985 (hazy VHS)…I was really chuffed at the time as I remembered it vividly from being a kid…
A couple of years ago, I hunted down a DVD version for a guy who wanted to show it as aprt of one of the Film Nights which he organises up here in Brum…
Nic
February 18, 2008 at 8:22 pmOff the top of my head, here are some Punk-related films from Britain:
‘Punk in London’ (1977 – d/Wolfgang Buld): some great music and some absolutely hilarious peacock posturing by JJ Burnel and Gene October…
‘The Punk Rock Movie’ (1978 – d/Don Letts): great footage from the heavy hitters and some of the other great bands like Eater, Subway Sect, Slaughter and the Dogs and ATV…
‘DOA’ (1978) – featuring the all-time heroes Terry and the Idiots, and some great quotes: “And I knew that he knew that I meant him physical harm”…
The BBC TV programme Arena made a film about Sham 69 (1978)…
‘Punk Can Take It’ (1979 – d/Julien Temple): UK Subs promo film…
‘Slits Pictures’ (1979 – d/Don Letts): promo film for The Slits…
‘The Great Rock n Roll Swindle’ (1979 – d/Julien Temple): not sure what this one is about?…
‘Shellshock Rock’ (1979): documentary on the Northern Irish punk scene in the late 1970’s featuring all the main bands including SLF, Undertones and The Outcasts…
‘Radio On’ (1979 – d/Chris Petit): more of a ‘New Wave’ film as it features Sting…but probably the best British Road Movie ever made because the director modelle3 it on Wim Wenders’ classic ‘Kings of the Road’…
‘Bloody Kids’ (1979 – d/Stephen Frears): not exactly ‘Punk’ as such but it does feature Gary Holton pretending to be the leader of a gang of punks…
Toyah appearing in ‘Shoestring’ (1979) doing songs from the ‘Sheep Farming in Barnet’ ep in an episode which also features an ‘Operation Julie’ style LSD factory, Gary Holton and Christopher Biggins…
‘Rude Boy’ (1980): documentary on a band I don’t like…
😉
‘Self Conscious Over You’ (1980): promo film for The Outcasts from Ireland mainly focused on a live concert…
‘Open Door: Guttersnipe’ (1980): a documentary in the ‘free access’ strand which was presented as if it was a ‘TV issue’ of the fanzine Guttersnipe from Telford (great fanzine actually!)…
‘Urgh! A Music War’ (1981): live concert film featuring great footage of bands like The Cramps, Devo, Dead Kennedys, Spizz, Au Pairs, Chelsea and many more…
‘Rough Cut and Ready Dubbed’ (1982): footage of Patrick Fitzgerald, SLF, Cockney Rejects, Selector, A Certain Ratio and others…
‘Made in Britain’ (1983 – d/Alan Clarke) – well, not really ‘Punk’ as such but it does have The Exploited on the credits!
‘UK/DK: A Film about Punks and Skinheads’ (1983): concert documentary featuring a lot of UK82 acts and some great thrash from Disorder and Chaos Uk, along with funny interviews with Amebix/Disorder drinking scrumpy and looking ill…
Honey Bane appears in Mai Zetterling’s film ‘Scrubbers’ (1983)…
I haven’t included any American (particularly New York) or Canadian films in this list – or any European ones for that matter…
Nic
February 18, 2008 at 9:33 pmA couple more that I just remembered…
‘Sex Pistols Number 1’ (1977 – d/Julien Temple): promo film for the Sex Pistols compiling the TV appearances from 1976 and 1977 and including live footage…
‘Made in Huddersfield’ (1985): documentary in the ITV First Tuesday Special strand on punks in Huddersfield (featuring Criminal Justice)…
‘? (I can’t remember the title)’ (1982): TV documentary about punks near Windscale featuring the bands Psycho Faction and The Dead…
Chris
February 18, 2008 at 10:06 pmJesus Nic! were you being injected with ‘memory juice’ in some D-Listed military intelligence experiment in all those years we weren’t in touch!!
OK, a few more to add are the Arena documentary about X-Ray Spex which I distinctly remember seeing a week or two before the one on Sham 69 but have NEVER some across anyone else who saw it, let alone has a copy. Would love to track it down. Great band.
Glaring Omission: the glorious Janet Street Porter ‘LWT Weekend’ “Year of The Punk” documentary.
Also there was a ‘Punk Special’ on Out On Tuesday which a mate of mine produced.
And another called “the punk years” produced by the Open University for folk doing sociology courses.
Though i think the ‘holy grail’ must be aquiring a copy of that documentary on the Dutch ‘rote wig’ scene (Rondos, Tanderstickershocks etc)
I remember appearances by Crass, Total Chaos (doing a song with only drums and vocals) and numerous other no doubt I can’t recall on – i think – a programme called ‘Riverside’ in the early-mid ’80s?
when I was at Live TV i did a show about the punks picnics in edinburgh and got deek of oi polloi and some other smellies in for interviews.
i also had talks with Mark Perry about doing a film on him but i couldn’t get a backer for it and shortly after Mark told me Danny Baker’s production company were going to do one on him. Dunno what became of that.
Would love to get hold of a copy of ‘shellshock Rock’ again as my mate knew a load of those bands from belfast and he’s never seen it.
Chris
February 18, 2008 at 10:08 pmgerard. see here – http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1009304612427492860&q=la+cabina&total=1869&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
(or in better quality in 4 segments on youtube)
wish i could remember what film i saw it supporting…’jaws’ perhaps? definately something i saw at school when i’d have been well young.
Nic
February 18, 2008 at 10:51 pm‘Year of the Punk’ was fantastic – very glaring omission…
There was indeed an X Ray Spex docu on Arena, Chris: I saw a very, very hazy bootleg of it years ago (we’re talking 1980’s), but haven’t seen it crop up since then …
Ah, ‘Out on Tuesday’ featured Isaac Julien’s ‘Looking for Langston’: excellent…
He’s just made a documentary on Derek Jarman which will be showing soon…
The 3 series of ‘Riverside’ happened in 1982/1983…
I think the Total Chaos song would have been ‘Revolution Part 10’ from their ‘There are No Russians in Afghanistan’ ep (1982) which also featured on the 2nd compilation EP from the Italian label Attack Punk (who are mentioned in a comment here on KYPP by Dan Macintyre because they organised a tour for Look Mummy Clowns in Italy)…
I used to have a few copies of their fanzine ‘No Comment’ (there was also an issue of it going on ebay recently)…
You worked for LiveTV, Chris? haha…classic!
john
February 19, 2008 at 10:50 amthanks for all that,going to try and track some of this lot down.
there was also a documentarey called ‘human jigsaw’ with a man called ray gosling.he interviewed some people i used to hang out with around oldham.
they filmed a mates band called ‘hysteretix’practising in the attic of the house we all shared.,everyone manged to get quite a few free beers out of the tv crew.
…live t.v. didnt that used to show topless darts?(not that i ever watched it of course!)
late for work…………….
Nic
February 19, 2008 at 1:32 pmAh, that sounds an interesting documentary John…
I’d love to see it…
A quick Google revelaed some interesting facts:
‘The Human Jigsaw’ was made in 1984 by Granada…
Gosling was a committed campaigner for Gay Rights, and was instrumental in the protest behind the repeal of Clause 28…
Gosling was declared bankrupt in 2000, and now lives on the dole in Nottingham (I wonder if he knows Les Sox? 🙂 )…
Quite a few of the films I mentioned are out now on ‘official’ releases…
The rest can generally be found by ‘bootleg’ means…(try trawling some of the online messageboards and forums dedicated to the ‘golden age’ of television)…
If you get a decent copy of ‘Slits Pictures’ or the ‘Open Door: Guttersnipe’ programme, let me know!
(I had to go down to ‘that London’ to sit in the BFI screening booths so that I could watch the ‘Open Door:Guttersnipe’ programme again 🙂 )…
Chris: last time I saw ‘Shellshock Rock’ was at a film festival…however, there are ‘bootleg’s floating around in the video-trading world…
Chris
February 19, 2008 at 3:52 pmShellshock Rock was on TV around 1986, so i’d imagine it’s not too hard to track down. I videod it, but as luck would have it a dosy old flatmate recorded some crap over it not soon after.
Live TV : Topless darts, News-bunny and , errr, punks’ picnics!
Tony Puppy
February 19, 2008 at 4:06 pm“Nic Says:
February 18th, 2008 at 7:30 pm edit
My comment about the film is ‘Awaiting Moderation’: the comment has a link to the film so you can watch it (on youtube), and a link to an article about it…”
Nic has this comment been displayed yet?
I can’t find anything awaiting moderation.
Nic
February 19, 2008 at 4:37 pmSorry Tony – it was moderated and published – there must have been an overlap…as I saw Gerard’s comment and wanted to let him know about ‘La Cabina’…
Just ignore me (it’s the best way! 😉 )…
john
February 19, 2008 at 6:09 pm‘Live TV : Topless darts, News-bunny and , errr, punks’ picnics!’
any surviving bits on video anywhere on the net?-punx picnics that is not the topless darts!
any idea where the picnics were?
yeah,heard mr gosling had fallen on hard times and he likes a wee drink or two these days so he may well be sharing a bottle of buckfast with les sox!