L'ascension d'un homme de main
L’histoire vraie de Carlton Leach, jeune hooligan Anglais qui intègre un des gangs les plus connus du pays à la fin des années 80. Il grimpe alors les échelons au point de devenir le criminel les plus respecté du Royaume-Uni. Dans cette montée en puissance vers le grand banditisme, Carlton Leach ne se fixera aucunes limites. La violence extrême de ses actes fera de lui un des personnages les plus craint du pays. Pendant trois décennies, il fera tout pour éviter la prison et rester en vie.
White Collar Hooligan
Synopsis :
Casual football hooligan Mike Jacobs is going nowhere in life when he meets old friend Eddie Hill at a football match that turns nasty off the pitch. Under Eddie's tutelage he soon finds himself inducted into the world of credit card fraud, where organized gangs withdraw hundreds of thousands of pounds from cash machines every night. As Mike becomes seduced by the money and women that come with his new lifestyle, the dangers increase and he soon finds events spiraling beyond his control.
Gary Oldman , souvenirs d'un suedehead.
Dans une interview donnée au Telegraph, le comédien Gary Oldman parle chiffons et se remémore son look suedehead dans les années 70 :
Back then, though, it was the Seventies and I suppose I was a sort of suedehead - I wasn't really a skinhead, but it was still a bit of a uniform. You had the Crombie coat with the pocket handkerchief with the stud. I owned a couple of those, I walked into school assembly once and I had a white 'Benny' on - a Ben Sherman shirt, button-down with a pleat in the back and a little hanger loop above it. I didn't have a jacket on and the headmaster, before I even landed, said, 'Oldman, wait outside my office.'
The accessories were important - loafers and brogues, and the socks: they were white and red. I remember saving up for things. I used to get up really early and do the round with the milkman; and I had a paper round. I remember gazing into shop windows at a pair of brogues or Dr Martens on the other side of the glass, like that ring in Lord of the Rings! And I'd think, 'Three more weeks…'
Source :
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9188999/Gary-Oldman-Dressing-the-part.html
Bye Bye Blondie
Virginie Despentes à troqué le stylo pour la caméra en adaptant son roman Bye Bye Blondie pour le cinéma, mais pour autant cette adaptation n’est pas tout à fait fidèle au texte. Les personnages du roman, Eric ex skinhead devenu vedette de TV et Gloria sa passion de jeunesse, punkette toujours aussi destroy en adulte qu’en ado, sont devenues à l’écran un couple de lesbiennes. Béatrice Dalle joue Gloria la punkette quadra toujours barrée et Emmanuelle Béart incarne Frances l’ancienne bird télégénique. Lors des flashbacks nostalgiques Soko joue la punkette et Clara Ponsot la skinhead girl lesbos en Fred Perry, doc, bretelles et …non, on s’arrêtera là, mais aux cheveux longs, une hérésie capillaire totale !
Mais bon pas de quoi s’enflammer avec cette variation lesbienne, Despentes n’a pas donné dans le style Marc Dorcel meets Suicide Girls, mais a voulu faire « une comédie romantique lesbienne ». Résultat des courses, un film proche de zéro sur l’érectiomètre, et globalement plus proche d’un téléfilm cucul la praline que d’un brulôt punk.
Reste deux trois choses sympa, dont une petite bagarre punk vs skinheads pas hyper convaincante, la séance de thérapie qui consiste à peindre des croix gammées sur des œufs de Pâques, une bande son avec les Bérus ( hélas) , OTH et des versions a cappela de classiques de La Souris Déglinguée, un peu de roulage de pelle entre filles et puis voilà.
Bref au prix d’une place de ciné, j’aurais plutôt tendance à recommander l’acquisition du bouquin en format de poche, et d'attendre que la version filmée passe à la télé.
What's wrong with the 70's ?
Clip from an ITV programme "What's wrong with the Seventies?" Featuring Glen Matlock and some Sex Pistols footage then finishing with Rat Scabies and The Damned. Also in the audience is Noddy Holder (Slade), Jimmy Pursey (Sham 69), Les McEwen (Bay City Rollers), Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex), Bob Harris (The Old Grey Whistle Test)... And the disgraced arsehole that is Jonathan King.
East End Babylon - Synopsis
Richard England, Director explains why he did not include the Oi movement into East End Babylon, the story of the Cockney Rejects, despite the band being an influence to Oi bands.
"East End Babylon" is the story of the Cockney Rejects and the area that spawned them beginning at the turn of the century with the industrial revolution in full swing, the heaving poverty surrounding the largest docks the world had ever seen, and the unconquerable spirit of it's people - proud, unbowed, and, as world war two was later to prove, unbeaten.
"From the bombs that flew through world war two, from the Albert docks to Bow, we could never show our fear, the world could never know" sang the Rejects many years later, and they knew what they were talking about. Sons of dockers whose parents had survived such horrific times, they were born into the upheaval and austerity of the post war East-End, where, amongst the debris and dock strikes and social upheaval they found solace and meaning in three things - football, boxing and rock'n'roll !
Football to generations of East Enders could mean only one thing… West Ham United. Probably the most financially fragile of all the big London clubs, it has always had the most fanatical grassroots support, born of a total sense of community that only poverty and a sense of belonging could instill.
'East End Babylon' takes us through these times, as Eighteen year-old seamstress Jean Geggus and her docker husband Fred bring up seven children in a bomb damaged council house, two of which, Mick and Jeff Geggus, take to the mean streets, eventually embracing the other sporting fixation of the East end - Boxing, at which they both excel.
But amid the dock strikes and social upheaval of the mid seventies, this new generation found themselves drawn to a third medium - Rock'n'roll. Fascinated by the antics of Sweet and Slade on Thursday nights' Top Of The Pops, the boys fostered dreams of forming a band. After hearing the guttural rasp of Johnny Rotten in 1977, they decided to do so.
Despite having no songs or equipment but armed with buckets of cheek and blag, the boys "conned" their way into journalist Garry Bushell and punk icon Jimmy Pursey, resulting in a record deal with EMI records.
Having recruited fellow West Ham nut Vinny Riordan on bass, the boys then proceeded to play regularly at their local venue, Canning Town's infamous 'Bridge House', where they developed the blueprint that would be imitated, but never equaled by a thousand bands.
Whereas the first wave of punk bands had been mainly middle class art students faking working class credentials, the Rejects were as tough and cynical as the streets that gave them birth. The socio-political ramblings of their punk forefathers were not for them, instead they sung about the things that they lived with, every day - street fights, police harassment - and football. Never before had a band welded the terrace singalong to driving rock rhythms, and the result was devastating : the perfect blend of rock'n'roll and football.
It was also at the Bridge House that they cultivated the Rejects "firm"- their loyal band of followers, many of whom would later go on to form the hardcore of the ICF, West Ham's notorious hooligan gang. Despite having signed a disastrous management deal that would later leave them penniless, the band started having success, as the singles, then the albums, began to chart. Never able to suffer fools, they also burned bridges within the music industry, with several journalists and industry movers and shakers being told in no uncertain terms where to get off. It was also at this time, at the height of gig violence sweeping Britain, that they enforced their "no security" rule - if people were getting hurt by bully boys in the crowd, or if the band themselves were threatened, they would jump offstage mid-show and batter the troublemakers out of the venue.
By that time, they were pretty much despised by many in the music industry (strangely enough the same music industry that would later wet themselves over gangsta rappers) but being who they were, they stayed true to their upbringing and told it like it was.
Around that time, gigs in London were being targeted by the ultra right-wing British Movement, who had wrecked several bands careers including that of 'Sham 69'. Having always despised bullies, the Rejects met them head on, culminating in a bloody battle at Barking station in which the "master race" were handed a severe beating after which they never showed their faces at a single Rejects' gig.
Soon, they realised their childhood dreams and appeared on "Top Of The Pops", but on their second appearance, promoting their version of West Ham's anthem "Bubbles" (West Ham had reached the F.A cup final in 1980) their high spirits got them banned from the show forever.
That was only the start of their problems - by aligning themselves so vehemently with West Ham, they had alienated themselves from other testosterone fueled football supporters up and down the country, which culminated in the "battle of Birmingham", in which the Rejects and their crew defeated 250 Midlands football hooligans in a vicious hand to hand combat, which has since been described as the worst gig violence in history.
With court cases hanging over the band like ominous dark clouds, they were dropped by EMI and were virtually finished as a touring band. They briefly turned their considerable musical skills to their first love, hard rock, and despite making a great record ("Wild Ones" produced by Pete Way), their fans never let them forget their past. Their management having drained them of every penny they made, they reluctantly called it a day, ironically around the same time as their symbolic twins, the London docks, closed forever.
As the years passed, and the band went their separate ways, in the USA and Europe, something was stirring. A new generation of fans were discovering the Rejects, and bands such as 'Rancid' and 'Green Day' were describing them as major influences on their music. In Europe, they were being embraced by thousands of football supporters who had taken them and their ethic to heart, openly pledging their allegiance to West Ham United and the Rejects. The same was happening in Japan, Australia and South America - all across the world, in fact.
Mick Geggus only got an inkling of this one night in 1999 as he watched a Levi's ad on TV, which featured the Rejects song "I'm Not A Fool". Suddenly, the phone calls started. Having never played outside of the UK, they were stunned to find that they were in demand across the globe. With bass player Vinny long gone, Mick and Jeff recruited old friend Tony Van Frater on bass and Andy Laing on drums, and went out on tour again. In the UK, they found that the old animosities had disappeared, and that fans accepted the Rejects link with West Ham and were prepared to party with the band. But, the biggest surprise was when they toured outside the UK for the first time - thousands of kids from all over the globe flocked to see them, a sea of West Ham shirts from all nationalities knowing the words from every song. In Croatia, they were gobsmacked as sworn enemies Serbs and Croats danced and sang together at the top of their voices. Politicians can't do that, observed Mick, we can !'. On the home front, stars like Morrissey, Stone Roses' Ian Brown, and Primal Scream all went on record as saying they loved the Cockney Rejects. And on it goes.
Redemption is a hard thing to come by. But as the band once sang, "the kids they come from everywhere, the East End's all around", that lyric would turn out to be prophetic, because it is. And the Cockney Rejects are still going, playing white hot live sets to kids across the globe.
From the humblest of beginnings they came, from the streets and terraces and smoky boxing clubs and piss stained boozers, most of which are now long gone. But they have been and still are an inspiration to a generation and this is their story.
This is East End Babylon.
Richard England, Director tells of East End Babylon and if he thought the film is what he had envisioned when he started upon the journey.
Bronco Bullfrog
Les NEDS débarquent dans le salon
A.C.A.B.
This is Christmas, This Is England style.
La diffusion de This is England 88 est programmée sur Channel 4 en trois jours à partir du 13 décembre 2011 pour trois épisodes d'une heure. En attendant de pouvoir suivre l’évolution des personnages de Shaun, Lol, Woody, Milky et les autres, les premières images de la nouvelle mini série sont désormais disponibles ( source : Les séries de Roxy) ainsi que la bande annonce pour nous mettre en appétit.
Au vu des déclarations de Shane Meadows , il ne faut pas s'attendre à un gentil petit conte de Noël :
Meadows has described the festive three-parter as 'kind of like a very brutal Nativity play… I just remember Christmas being shit… I wanted to make a sort of broken Nativity play, but there’s a real positive outcome, I hope.'
