Northern Soul - The Film - Latest news - March 2012

Very insightful and honest post Len.

Thanks for not saying I needed the lessons! lol

Len

hats off to you again len, a well documented post,...conjugated to tax the brain slightly less, unlike yours truely who insists on eulogizing in a 605-page-hardback-novel-stylee !!....one can quite easily see the effort that has been infused over a short period of time, and as you expressed, attention to detail is elaine's persona. I REALLY DONT SEE THE MEDIA ATTEMPTING TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF US A SECOND TIME, BECAUSE THEY HAVE LEARNED THAT WE ARE A BREED OF HUMAN WHO DID NOT "CREATE" THIS MUSIC,...unlike every other genre that has come and gone since....WE TOOK A FORM OF MUSIC THAT WAS ALREADY THERE FOR SEVERAL GENERATIONS, AND ELEVATED IT TO A LEVEL WHERE IT WAS IN THE SPOTLIGHT AND WE WERE ABLE TO SAY..HERE'S A STYLE OF MUSIC THAT WE THINK IS GREAT,..that has attitude, that is never -say -die, that you can dress, act & dance sensible to and we believe, will be around as long as god's dog...and as time has drifted on the intelligencia frequenting the newsrooms, have little by little, gained appreciation of our mantra...to such an extent that the vast catalogue we have all helped to compile has gained favour with advertising and the likes. posts on here amongst our own breatheren pay testament to that fact...because shrewd intellectuals who, previously had kept their closet under wraps, have gained leeway and expressed their idealogical nous using northern soul music to promote their products in a more orthodox and acceptable manner. i cant honestly say that i have noticed anything inept in press articles in any of the broadsheets or tabloids for at least.....an epoch!...and thats a long long time.

I don't know what you mean!

Len.

P.s - 'Conjugated' - Nice word!

I don't know what you mean!

Len.

P.s - 'Conjugated' - Nice word!

yes thats me......i could do with the syrup!! :D

its all about the detail..

And so should Quadrophenia have been.. if not more so.

The fact that it can be pulled apart on those details doesn't stop it from being a good film, and didn't stop it from creating a resurgence of interest in the mod scene, no matter how inaccurately it was portrayed. As i said, those who lived through the original mod era were probably satthere shaking their heads at some of the detail in the film.

Hopefully this will be a well scripted, well acted and well directed film. If not, then that is the time to take it apart, not when your lack of faith in someone who lived that era - and who would presumably have equally valid memories and impressions of those days as yourself - takes over and decides it's going to be crap before the cameras have even been turned on.

I think all the obsession about the 'detail' or lack of it in Quadrophenia misses the point massively.

It was a film I'd always avoided seeing until the opportunity arose to watch it at the NFT with a talk by the director Franc Roddam beforehand. He thought it was interesting that a whole generation of mod revivalists had tried to use the film as a template on How To Be A Mod when the entire point of the original subject matter by The Who was a vicious satire on conformity itself and the damaging effects on a borderline personality of being made to follow a set of rules imposed by society on one hand and the peer group on the other.

A lot of the period detail in Quadrophenia is indeed wide of the mark: the scooters are wrong, Sting's haircut is wrong, blah, blah. Yet to me that is immaterial really because not one jot of of that detracts from the film's emotional power and resonance.

Sitting in a cinema and muttering that you 'wouldn't have worn those socks in 1973' would be to kind of miss the point.

Ok, maybe 'detail' isn't 'quite' the correct word - 'Effort' is more suited I think, the point being that Elaine won't just throw this together. As explained above, she will spend time and 'effort' on the project whilst getting as much 'detail' right as possible.

Obviously if all the details are 'bob on' but the story's rubbish and the actors arn't up to much then it won't work. So let's hope - The detail is pretty near, the story line is interesting and the acting is good enough to portray the attitudes of the day - Then we will have a great film!

Len.

Agreed Win

I dont think theres anything more to say .............unless you havent got anything better to do on a Tuesday night

We do have better things to do on Tuesday nights don't we Shazz,

Don't tell everybody though.

I tell you what Jocko, that p*sses me off as well - Yes of course going back to the 'underground' thing, it's not 'cool' to go for lessons as dance is an expression and in our scene it really doesn't matter what you look like as long as you are feeling and enjoying the music.

But - I don't mind admitting that I went to dance lessons for the 'Moloko Familiar Feeling' Video as Elaine specifically asked me to do so, simply to learn how to dance the way they did back in the 70's (Stomping) Obviously it felt a bit odd, there I was standing in line at a dance studio in London with Keb Darge at the front giving us all instructions (Like a Sargent Major!) - It was very surreal I assure you! But this wasn't to learn to dance so I could go out and do it, it was to dance the way Elaine wanted us to for the video - I would call that attention to detail.

When it came to filming we were dancing our *rses off for a solid 12 hours (c/w make up on!) So just for a 3 minute video we had two days training and a really long days filming so Chr*st only knows how much time and effort will have to go into this film.

As I said, it was a very surreal experience - On the first day at the dance studio I sat round with all these young 'actor / model' type people and we had a 'getting to know you' chat before we started. We all had to say what we did so it went round the room - "What do you do?" - "Model" (next one) "Model" (next one) "Model" (Next one) "Model" (Next one) "Welder!" - Doh!

I thanked Elaine after for giving me an insight into what was involved in her work and I can tell you, the film industry is absolutely exhausting and a few shouts of support from our camp wouldn't go amiss

Len.

P.s - I did offer to return the honour and invited Elaine to my workshop to experience some welding but she declined!

P.p.s - Mike Gibbs is the best shuffler you will ever see albeit a very rare sight!

Fiver is in the post Len. Those days are a long long time ago unfortunately.

Spot on about the attention to detail in the Moloko video. I think for those who dont know Elaine. Maybe you should take solace in the knowledge that those of us who do, are fully supprtive of her ability to do a good job.

We do have better things to do on Tuesday nights don't we Shazz,

Don't tell everybody though. :lol:

We most certainly do Tony ......the secrets safe with me

We do have better things to do on Tuesday nights don't we Shazz,

Don't tell everybody though. :lol:

We most certainly do Tony ......the secrets safe with me

talking of secrets - did you get the 'sock photo' Shazz?

talking of secrets - did you get the 'sock photo' Shazz?

Paul yes unfortunately I did , I am now scarred for life thanks to Moldie ......I should have known better than to open the email that said , I suppose it will give everyone a right laugh when I post it ....

Better go ....gone slightly off topic here ..

find it hard to believe you never saw a girl acrobatics..i was there like you from 72-- onwards..Sue nfrom Notts did splits, backdrops and handstand/flips..once from off the stage...

Missed this one - God the dr*gs really were better back then!

Len.

Your English is shit hot youth

Not bad considering he is French

I think his acting chops stretch a bit further than that to be fair, he has done a fair bit of tv and film acting, surprisingly more than I ever thought. And as one half of the Baby Cow production team I would have thought his experience in film world generally was pretty good.

He's a great actor in the right roles for sure as his role as Tony Wilson proved in "24 Hour Party People" demonstrated - one of the better UK films of the last decade for sure. Funnily enough I bump into him all the time as Baby Cow are on the same floor as Demon so we share the same Cappacino machine LOL.....

You must pop in and meet the luvvies next time you're in the smoke Jocko.....

Ian D

Maybe they could get Mario Balotelli to play Clarkey from the Preston crew and re-enact them rollin' divs 'n small time dealers in the downstairs Gent's to the left of the stage at the Casino?

rather than use 2 or 3 threads for current discussion ask please use this thread for further ..

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/articles/articles/soul-news/northern-soul-the-film-latest-news-june-2012-r2502