Displaying items by tag: 60s

Like any other young mod in the early 80’s, I became mesmerised by The Action the moment I’d heard their version of The Marvellettes’ I’ll Keep Holding On at the first gigs and clubs I attended, and listened to older mods speaking in hushed tones about this seemingly mythical group from Kentish Town.  Getting the album The Ultimate Action seemed a necessity and from the moment it hit my turntable it very rarely left.  Having a recommendation from Paul Weller on the back no doubt helped shift a few copies but the music within those grooves would have left no-one in doubt as to how good they were.  I wanted to hear more and searched desperately for any snippet, picture or record by them.

© Words Matteo Sedazzari
Loosely based on the works of writer Edgar Wallace (1st April 1875 – 10th February 1932) who covered many genres from crime to historical fiction, and began his career writing songs and poems at the close of the 19th  century before establishing himself as a fiction writer.  He even worked on the screen play for King Kong in 1932 before his unexpected death.  If he had lived it looked like he would have broken into the US. 

© Words Matteo Sedazzari

Based on the 1960 novel of the same title by Wakefield born and bred David Storey, a writer and former Rugby League player, drawing on his past experiences, to produce a masterpiece fit for the cinema. In addition, This Sporting Life was the directorial debut of Lindsey Anderson in 1963, who would only go on to direct a further seven feature films, including the cult British classic films If,  O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital, all starring Malcolm McDowell in different incarnations of the rebellious Mick Travis. 

© Words Matteo Sedazzari

Like many of my generation, the BBC situation comedy Dad’s Army was prime time viewing during the mid-seventies.  A show about the British Home Guard, a collection of volunteers doing their best  at a British coastal town to prevent a Nazi invasion during wartime Britain. The volunteers were usually too old to join the army, hence the common nickname Dad’s Army.

© Words Matteo Sedazzari
The Perfect Friday (1971 Directed by Peter Hall, co-produced by Stanley Baker)

Friday is a nice day, the week draws to a close, and many of us plan a pursuit of happiness and excitement, away from the mundane routine of work. And that is certainly the case for Mr Graham (Stanley Baker), a deputy bank manager, in a pin striped suit and bowler hat, with a sergeant major type moustache working at a plush branch in London’s Hyde Park, single and on the surface dull and happy to oblige his employers and clients.  

© Words Matteo Sedazzari

It may be a romantic notion to say that Stanley Baker was a working class hero, however it is a label that certainly rings true of one of Britain’s finest actors, who died young at the age of 48, leaving behind a legacy in film, TV and the theatre.  Born to a mining family on 28th February 1928 in the Rhonda Valley where the main career choice was mining, and the only escape would either be boxing or football.  Rock & roll hadn’t hit the youth of Britain yet,

© Words - CP Lee

In 1993 a man called Cliff Twemlow passed away. When he died at the age of 55 a whole mini-film industry died with him. But Cliff didn’t only just make films, he wrote the plots, scored the music for them and starred in them too. Oh, and he wrote paperback pulp novels as well. And before he made his own movies he wrote a couple of thousand tunes that were recorded and put out by DeWolfe Music. And he was a night club bouncer.

© Words Matteo Sedazzari

Some People, made in 1962 and released in April 1963 directed by Clive Donner (What's New Pussycat, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, The Caretaker) is an early British film on Rock ‘n’ Roll.  Originally made as a film to get young adults to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Award, as all profits went to the scheme, it is far from a propaganda film as it can act as a visual case study of the early days of British pop culture.

In 1961 Italy was rebuilding her economy after the Second World War, like a lot of Western Europe, and with Milan seen as a beacon of hope due to their upturn in manufacturing, opportunities were being created and companies were crying out for young blood.  

With this new philosophy of buoyancy and what has been labelled the Italian economic miracle (Il Miracolo Economico), it is only right that this progress should be captured on film, and this is the case with Il Posto.  

The Outsiders (1983) is a film based on the best selling novel, The Outsiders, written by S. E. Hinton who was a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma and a pupil at an Art Deco school, Will Rogers High School, in the early sixties. It was here that Hinton observed and possibly participated in the gang counter culture The Greasers.