Radiophonic Of The Day

Phil Young: The Artist Speaks

F*** Me, It's Freddie

FMIF as the Gamekeeper in the terrifying 'Mr. Horatio Knibbles'. If you hadn't already realised, he's basically in everything. Happy Easter, Freddie.

Happy Easter

Forevermore

Marc Bolan may not have been pushing any musical boundaries in 1977, but he hadn't entirely lost it as evidenced by this frenetic and entertaining cover of the 1958 Jody Reynolds hit 'Endless Sleep', a death disc where no actual death occurs. Good stuff, and ten times better than the Verne Brothers.

Hammer House of Mystery & Suspense: Black Carrion

'Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense' was a TV series from 1984 which unleashed thirteen circa 70 minute films onto a largely unwilling public in both the UK and the US. Unfavourably received, it was to be the last original production Hammer made for 25 years until bursting back into life in 2009.

'Black Carrion' is the tale of a famous pop duo, the Verne Brothers, who seemingly disappeared at the very height of their fame. A music journalist (Leigh Lawson) tracks them down to an eerie and abandoned village in the heart of the country, and proceeds to uncover a horrible secret. Totally ridiculous in every respect, the tale introduces the various component parts of a decent story and then squanders them all one by one until all the viewer is left with is amusement and the feeling of being gently conned. That said, I’m extremely fond of it.

Derren Nesbitt, Actor

Derren Nesbitt gets nasty in 'Disappearing Act', a 1974 episode of 'The Protectors'.

The Kinetic Genius of Jeff Keen

Jeff Keen’s films remind you of why Edison called his early film projection device the Kinetoscope – they are full of motion and energy, crazed, febrile things that burst onto the screen in a barrage of crashing planes, mushroom clouds, plastic soldiers, fires, floods, sexy girls, super heroes and super villains, starring his friends and family and set to intriguing and ear popping soundtracks. The young Keen had fought in World War Two (he called it ‘the best time of my life’) and the violence and anarchy of that experience was a major and indelible influence on him.

Keen’s work is undeniably experimental, but to me it seems like the product of a parallel universe film industry where horror, sci fi and soft porn are the only influences: Hollywood with the boring and talky bits taken out, a gleeful disordering of narrative that goes wherever it likes, however it likes, at 250 miles an hour: comic books, high art, popular cliché and the avant garde, all delivered in one super fast short burst of energy, like a shot of adrenaline to the heart.

Oh, this film contains flashing imagery and nudity so please don't watch if you are troubled by either. 

F*** Me, It's Freddie

FMIF as Major Rupert Yappe in 'Lola', one of the 'Six Dates With (Ronnie) Barker'.

The Many Moods Of Jason King

08/30

Elisabeth Sladen

Sarah Jane Smith was probably my first crush. Sad news.

I Confess

Awful cash in single from Robin Askwith, as promoted on the 'Marc' show broadcast on 14th September, 1977. Marc died two days later.

There was always something brutish about Robin Askwith and this song and performance gives us an indication of what it might be like if a chimpanzee released a record but is nowhere near as funny. Nice of Marc to briefly mention Robin's latest X rated film to the thousands of children watching, particularly as he has positioned a trophy between his legs to represent an erect penis.

Scream, That's Your Dream

"It's so real, it remoulds you". Canal boat in tunnel omitted.

Dandy In The Afterlife

Marc Bolan died on September 16th 1977, two weeks before his thirtieth birthday. This is going to sound awful but, at the time, I was glad. Why? Well, because for several weeks before his fatal Mini crash I had been greatly troubled by a recurring nightmare where Marc was pursuing me around a canal boat as it made its way slowly through a tunnel. After he died, the bad dream went away. In hindsight, it's easy to see the root of the unease as a conflation of my incipient claustrophobia and my regular and nervous viewing of Bolan's ITV music show 'Marc'.

'Marc' may have been a kids TV show, but it was the most exposure Bolan had enjoyed for some time and he went all out to make the most of it. That said, it's pretty poor, and Marc is terrifying in it. Tiny, skinny, pale, whispery, narcissistic and in a selection of revealing trousers, I now realise, of course, that he's just camping it up but I still think he's an incredibly androgynous and ambiguous figure to be in charge of entertaining children, especially as he seems lost in a private reverie most of the time, a mocking and lacivious look on his elfin face. Perhaps most disturbing to a young mind was that the last two episodes were broadcast posthumously, one a mere four days after his death.

The music is fairly average, too. I'm not a massive T Rex fan by any means, but I do listen to them and understand the pop appeal of their best stuff. Here, Marc mixes new and banal material with pre-re-recorded sludgy pub rock versions of his greatest hits to underwhelming effect and his guests, carefully picked never to outshine the underperforming star, are, for the most part, either forgettable, regrettable or unforgivable.

I have several clips I intend to share with you but, first off, do you remember one of Marc's very early hits, 'Oh Deborah, you look like a zebra'? Yeah, that one, the whimsical, quirky acoustic number with hippy dippy charm and an interesting time signature. Well, watch it die.

Here's an example of one of the guest bands on the show, most of which sank without trace. Sub Bay City Rollers band Rosetta Stone's main claim to fame was that they featured Ian Mitchell, a baby faced guitarist from Northern Ireland who had been in the actual Bay City Rollers for seven troubled months. Ian Mitchell's main claim to fame is that his brother Tony wallpapered my front room.

More soon, same Marc time, same Marc channel.

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

Peter Vaughan as Clarence Dorrington, the crooked Detective.

'The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes' was based on stories collected by Hugh Greene, and featured characters from Victorian and Edwardian literature who were contemporaries to the man from Baker Street. Running to two series (in 1971 and 1973) 'TROSH' is quality television from start to finish, and I love it very much. Of special interest is the casting, which allows virtually every leading British character actor of the age a starring role. This series will highlight a few of them.

Two Beautiful Girls

'And Soon The Darkness' is a decent thriller about two teenage British girls on a cycling holiday in rural France who have the misfortune to attract the attention of a sex killer.

Smoothly directed by genre bright spark Robert Fuest, it was produced by Clemens & Fennell (see 'Captain Kronos') and stars the eminently likeable Pamela Franklin and Ooh Betty out of 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'. Low key but effective, and the ending is extremely well done.

And Soon The Darkness

His Father Calls Him Silly

I've never quite been able to work out who borrowed from who but here's the perennially under-rated Hollies with a great song from 1971 called 'Hey Willy'.

According to the label it was written by lead singer Allan Clarke and hit making duo Greenaway and Cook, although the main riff would reappear a couple of years later on prolific composer John Cameron's 'Psychomania' soundtrack (see below).

I don't suppose it matters, but it would be interesting to know the story. In the meantime, enjoy the song, the hair, the trousers and the blank faced audience.

Psychocinema

I first became aware of 'Psychomania' in the early eighties, when my friend Gary came into art class and started telling me about this bizarre hells angel zombie film he'd seen on the telly last night. I'd missed it, of course, so, in those far flung pre-internet, satellite and DVD days, rued my bad luck and settled down to wait for it to come around again and kept an eye out for it at the garage where we occasionally rented videos.

When I did see it, about five years (!) later, I was absolutely blown away. It's a unique film, and you can take that any way you want to. True, it's too British and cheap to be really scary, but it's brilliantly put together, has a great cast, a superb soundtrack and it's very funny, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. What more could you ask for? Nothing, that's what, nothing more.

Here's a clip where the motorcycle gang, The Living Dead, terrorise a parade of shops in Walton-On-Thames. Chock full of period detail (hot panted Mums, men in their thirties wearing cardigans and ties) look out for the man who decides to climb a ladder during a hell's angel attack: what did he think was going to happen?

Nice close ups at the end between the gang leader, Tom (played by Nicky Henson, who always reminds me of a more fully evolved Robin Askwith) and his prim, posh totty Abby. Look at the glances that pass between them: she really likes it when he's bad. Luckily for her, he's going to get a lot worse...

Psychomania

Spectromorphology

Denis Smalley is a New Zealand born composer of electro-acoustic music. From 1976 to 1994 he lectured at my alma mater the University Of East Anglia (although he wisely left as I arrived) and he is now Professor of Music at University College London. Smalley describes his compositional approach as ‘spectromorphological’, a term which he coined and has defined in great detail but, for the sake of brevity, is ‘the perceived sonic footprint of a sound spectrum as it manifests in time’. Now you know as much as I do.

‘Pulses in Time’ was released on the UEA’s own record label in 1981, and collects music Smalley composed between 1974 and 1979. It’s a fairly easy record to listen to, although very abstract, and the way that the compositions expand and become more complex as they progress is extremely interesting and very, um, spectomorphological indeed.   

Here’s short extracts from, respectively, ‘The Pulses of Time’ and ‘Chanson De Geste’. They are both long tracks, and the clips probably don’t do them justice, but I hope they at least give a feel of what Smalley is about.

F*** Me, It's Freddie

FMIF as Mr. Sparklipegs in 'Charity Bounce', an episode of 'The Goodies' from 1972.

Freddie Jones is probably my favourite actor, but he rarely stars in anything, so you never really know when he might crop up. When he does, and he often will, the only sane response is: 'Fuck me, it's Freddie!'.

High Priestess Of Evil

‘Curse Of The Crimson Altar’ makes very little sense, but the occasionally amateurish production is punctuated by interesting scenes of pagan ritual and partial nudity imbued with a sickly green hue and the blurred, disjointed feel of a particularly vivid nightmare.

The cast, which includes Boris Karloff, Barbara Steele, Michael Gough, Christopher Lee and Alan Bradley from ‘Coronation Street’ is pretty impressive on paper, but they seem under-rehearsed and disengaged. Karloff is obviously in poor health (he was 80, with a year to live) and Lee is, as usual, awful.

I do like this film, of course (I like everything I feature on the blog, god help me), but it’s a little too contrived and arch to be loveable. The ingredients are there, but the finished dish is strangely unsatisfying. Anyway, here’s an interesting scene of pagan ritual and partial nudity imbued with a sickly green hue and the blurred, disjointed feel of a particularly vivid nightmare

Curse of the Crimson Altar