BBC, The Who, Quadrophenia - how times have changed.

[Bev]

"The Who" night on BBC 4.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k83bl

In his home studio and revisiting old haunts in Shepherds Bush and Battersea, Pete Townshend opens his heart and his personal archive (my edit: but not his hard drive, I bet) to revisit 'the last great album the Who ever made', one that took the Who full circle back to their earliest days via the adventures of a pill-popping mod on an epic journey of self-discovery.

But in 1973 Quadrophenia was an album that almost never was. Beset by money problems, a studio in construction, heroin-taking managers, a lunatic drummer and a culture of heavy drinking, Townshend took on an album that nearly broke him and one that within a year the band had turned their back on and would ignore for nearly three decades.

With unseen archive and in-depth interviews from Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, John Entwistle and those in the studio and behind the lens who made the album and thirty page photo booklet.

Contributors include: Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Ethan Russell, Ron Nevison, Richard Barnes, Irish Jack Lyons, Bill Curbishley, John Woolf, Howie Edelson, Mark Kermode and Georgiana Steele Waller.

Yet not so long ago:

5. “My Generation” (1965) – The Who

Reason: Unfair to the disabled
This anthem of youth rebellion might have worried a few people, but the line that won the most attention was… a mistake. When it was recorded, Roger Daltrey sang “Why don’t you all f… f… fade away” because he was having trouble reading Pete Townshend’s lyrics. They decided to keep the stutter, and add it to some other lines (“don’t try to dig what we all s… s… say”), partly because it sounded like a young mod on drugs (i.e. like many of their fans). A few listeners, however, were shocked because “f… f…” sounded like he was trying to say something else. Later, the BBC banned the song from radio because it was insulting to people who stammer. As long as it wasn’t about drugs…

Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/arc...#ixzz1zDVBNO11


(I actually never knew that - I always assumed he wanted to sing "Why don't you all fu*k off)

Every time "Quadrophenia" has been shown on TV, they have cut out the chemist scene and sometimes the alley scene - and now there's a whole evening celebrating it. Just goes to show.

I've not seen any mention of That Book yet.

[andy]

As with all things pop related cynical and base motivated


".........

However, as John Atkins rightly speculates in The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963-1998, it's difficult to believe Russell or (more likely) Townshend had not seen the obscure 1970 British cult film Bronco Bullfrog. For that movie's tale of down-and-out East London teens has a black-and-white bleakness quite similar in tone to the photos in the Quadrophenia booklet. This could be dismissed as coincidence, but a couple of scenes from the movie so strongly foreshadow specific Russell shots that wonders. Particularly striking are similarities between Bronco Bullfrog's shot of its hero's smashed bike and the image of a smashed scooter on page 22 of the booklet. Another Bronco Bullfrog sequence shows its hero walking on his own through London's ghostly Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which runs underneath the length of the River Thames; on page six of the booklet, Kennett/Jimmy strolls alone through the exact same tunnel. Indeed, some elements of Bronco Bullfrog are echoed, though not as strongly, in the story of Quadrophenia itself. Both feature misunderstanding parents, a gang of directionless working-class youths, and a waterside anti-climax where the protagonist seems to have run out of options. But such is the dead-end mood of Bronco Bullfrog (set at the end of the 60s rather than the mid 60s) – no pills, beachside riots, or rock'n'roll are even on hand to alleviate the boredom – that it makes Jimmy's predicament seem a bit glamorous in comparison, not least because Jimmy's scooter is way more flash than the anemic one put-puttering in the film........."

[Bev]

Originally Posted by andy

As with all things pop related cynical and base motivated


".........

However, as John Atkins rightly speculates in The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963-1998, it's difficult to believe Russell or (more likely) Townshend had not seen the obscure 1970 British cult film Bronco Bullfrog. For that movie's tale of down-and-out East London teens has a black-and-white bleakness quite similar in tone to the photos in the Quadrophenia booklet. This could be dismissed as coincidence, but a couple of scenes from the movie so strongly foreshadow specific Russell shots that wonders. Particularly striking are similarities between Bronco Bullfrog's shot of its hero's smashed bike and the image of a smashed scooter on page 22 of the booklet. Another Bronco Bullfrog sequence shows its hero walking on his own through London's ghostly Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which runs underneath the length of the River Thames; on page six of the booklet, Kennett/Jimmy strolls alone through the exact same tunnel. Indeed, some elements of Bronco Bullfrog are echoed, though not as strongly, in the story of Quadrophenia itself. Both feature misunderstanding parents, a gang of directionless working-class youths, and a waterside anti-climax where the protagonist seems to have run out of options. But such is the dead-end mood of Bronco Bullfrog (set at the end of the 60s rather than the mid 60s) – no pills, beachside riots, or rock'n'roll are even on hand to alleviate the boredom – that it makes Jimmy's predicament seem a bit glamorous in comparison, not least because Jimmy's scooter is way more flash than the anemic one put-puttering in the film........."

Interesting read - thanks. Never heard of the Bronco film, I'll have to look it up.

Pete never mentioned that book and now they're showing Quadrophenia. It appears to be the full version - they just showed the bathhouse scene in full. On the BBC.


I think Daltrey and Townshend are attempting a comeback. They went to Dublin not long ago with Tommy (I think) and it went down quite well. Mind boggles.

[andy]

I used to drink in the same pub on sundays as Terry Kennett the mod in the album cover.He was nothing like the jewish actor phil daniels who played the part in the film.I saw a bit of the preceding programme and Daltrey claimed that locals were welcome at the studio.As a former local I can confirm locals were not welcome and that unusually for that day and age security guards (Group4) were posted around the building.
So when can we expect the gary glitter reappraisal ? Or a jonathon king redux ?

[andy]

Eagle eyed confused movement rubes will notice that the greenwich foot tunnel is used in Made in England.Must be something frighteninf about foot tunnels to bourgeois leftist pop culture writers

[Bev]

Originally Posted by andy

I used to drink in the same pub on sundays as Terry Kennett the mod in the album cover.He was nothing like the jewish actor phil daniels who played the part in the film.I saw a bit of the preceding programme and Daltrey claimed that locals were welcome at the studio.As a former local I can confirm locals were not welcome and that unusually for that day and age security guards (Group4) were posted around the building.
So when can we expect the gary glitter reappraisal ? Or a jonathon king redux ?

They also claimed in a previous programme of this type that they wanted fans to take part in the Brighton crowd scenes - as far as I can ascertain from older cousins who would have paid to do it, this was also bullshit

I never knew he was jewish. Are you sure? I did enjoy the blast he gave when he left Eastenders.

It’s a good programme in many ways, EastEnders, but its biggest fault is that it believes it’s a kind of window on the world through which the British public can see things like how a family copes with cystic fibrosis,” he declares.

“It thinks it’s doing everybody a favour, but it’s not really, because what they don’t ever do is follow through with anything.

“They’ll have a story like the one where Billy and his wife Honey were trying to bring up a Down’s syndrome baby, but it’ll only go so far; and then they’ll be thinking, ‘What’s gonna happen? Is the baby gonna grow up?’

“No, they can’t do that, because people might get bored of watching it, so poor old Honey has to leave the Square. Because they brought the problem to everyone’s attention, they think they’ve ticked the box, so they pat themselves on the back and move on to the next storyline, but they’ve not really dealt with anything properly.”

Phil points out that viewers can see the pattern repeated endlessly amid blazes of publicity.

He reveals too that it is writers, not the stars of EastEnders, who hold the real power. The actors, fearful of their contracts, rarely protest as the storylines are manipulated to ensure EastEnders goes on winning awards.

“I’m not in principle against writers having power,” he adds, but then complains: “The men and women behind East*Enders aren’t the sort of people you’d imagine. It’s not so much cutting-edge individuals living in Bethnal Green and writing about what they know – it’s more of an Agatha Christie scenario, where an old dear knocks the whole thing up to a formula from her shed in Brixham.”.

[Bev]

Originally Posted by andy

Eagle eyed confused movement rubes will notice that the greenwich foot tunnel is used in Made in England.Must be something frighteninf about foot tunnels to bourgeois leftist pop culture writers

It's symbolic, isn't it? Meant to represent narrow mindedness, I think. They also used a tunnel in that other one set in London featuring a little skinhead kid who hung around with non-racist skinheads. I think his dad was a racist skinhead. This Is England? I know it was a Shane Meadows production.

[EDLIE Stampton]

Quote.They also claimed in a previous programme of this type that they wanted fans to take part in the Brighton crowd scenes - as far as I can ascertain from older cousins who would have paid to do it, this was also bullshit........Most of the mods you see in the film are the genuine article and who fanatics.I know loads of them came from around my way and South East London.In 97 they had a reunion for the cast in Brighton.Some mods turned up at the venue and some of the stars came out to say hello and get pictures taken on the scooters.They were all pissed up and acting like normal geezers.After a while they smuggled some of the mods in to the venue so they could party with the stars.Wolfy from mad mods and English men scooter club was one of the lucky fuckers.

Quadrophenia relaunch 1997. - YouTube

Quadrophenia relaunch 1997. - YouTube