Rock Follies at the BFI London

Yesterday (Sunday 27 October) I joined a small group of people to see the whole of the first series of 'Rock Follies' at the British Film Institute in the NFT3 cinema. It was a newly digitised version of the series and the quality was very good indeed, so well done BFI restorers. There were six episodes with short breaks and a lunchtime plus a Q&A with the stars and writers. The whole binge took seven and a half hours and it was worth every minute.

'Rock Follies' was broadcast in 1976 when we still only had three TV channels and the only pop music show was Top of the Pops on Thursdays so 'Rock Follies' brought some much needed music to our screens. Even back then it was a bit dated in some respects, particularly the use of the hippyish language by some of the characters and fat old men being spaced out ma a an, but none of that really mattered. It's a tale of the rock business versus the power of rock and the business wins out every time. A cynical - and probably very accurate - view of the rock business in the 70s and, probably, in every decade since.

However, what we wanted was to follow the trials and tribulations, the highs and the lows, the loves and the spectacle of The Little Ladies - Dee, Anna and Q otherwise known as Julie Covington, Charlotte Cornwall and Rula Lenska. *Presses play*

I loved it back in the day and still do. I was 16 and punk hadn't exploded yet so what else was there to do but watch a telly show about a group being pulled together and working to get rid of their rough edges, getting close to making it but not quite. I watched the series and bought the album when it came out. I bought the CD when that was finally issued and the DVD. I hope there's a new DVD now that the show has been properly digitised - I'll buy it again. On the back of the show Julie Covington had a hit single with Alice Cooper's 'Only Women Bleed' and the first version of 'Don't Cry for me Argentina' from 'Evita' and found stage stardom with 'Guys and Dolls'.

It is, of course, of it's time, with all the casual sexism of the '70s, the superiority of men as the natural order and that's portrayed very graphically in the show given that it's about three women. They're perpetually being told what to do by men, being threatened, potential violence, demeaned and all that but they fight back - it's quite feminist in a way despite being written by a man.

One thing that was really quite noticeable was the continued supremacy of men in the Q&A that was held between episodes five and six. One of the big knobs at the BFI asked questions of Howard Schuman (who wrote the show), Andy Mackay (of Roxy Music who wrote all the music), Rula Lenska who played Q and Charlotte Cornwall who played Anna. Given that we'd just seen five episodes of the show showing men trying to be in charge and then here we had the interviewer pointing the majority of questions towards Howard and leaving the women on the panel out of the discussion. It was very noticeable. And Howard in turn chipping in on virtually every question whether it was relevant or not. I quite understand that fans of old TV shows wanting to probe the background and motivations behind the series and all that but listen to yourselves... Rula and Charlotte were very patient.

The digitised 'print' and sound were excellent and are now preserved forever in the BFI archive. More people should see this show - it's obviously aged but is still relevant in many ways, particularly given #metoo. It's the best Sunday afternoon I've had in a long time! Now, we just need a similar screening of 'Rock Follies of '77' and have Julie Covington join the panel discussion. Thanks BFI!

'Here To Be Heard: The Story of The Slits' at the British Film Institute

On Saturday night I went to see 'Here To Be Heard', a new documentary about The Slits, as part of the London Film Festival at the BFI on the Southbank. It's not only new, it was the world premiere.

I go way back with The Slits, to the first John Peel session when he played these weird and challenging songs with this odd lead singer. I taped it. Hearing 'New Town' or 'Shoplifting' whiz me back to my teenage years even now. Sadly I never saw them play live and didn't even see the Clash tour when they were one of the support bands (how did that happen?).

But I bought 'Cut' and, when the new version of The Slits got together in the '00s I bought 'Trapped Animal'. When I heard that Viv Albertine was back I supported her crowd-funder and contributed to her promo gig at the 12 Bar Club in January 2013 (sending a cheque to her home at the time). Then we had Viv's first album and book, with another book on the way. I even supported the original crowd-funder for this film on Kickstarter back in 2015. People need to know about The Slits.

The documentary takes as it's core a scrapbook kept by Tessa Pollitt as she leafs through the pages and provides a narrative, showing film clips from the time, photos and, of course, the music. There are some great clips from their early gigs - the sound isn't too good but that doesn't matter, it's astonishing that there's actually any film material at all. It's lovely to hear Tessa telling The Slits story, along with interviews with Viv and Paloma (Palmolive) thinking back to those younger days and their experiences. And Ari, of course, is never far from their memories.

Fast forward to the mid-00s and Ari and Tessa got a new version of The Slits together to tour and then release a new album. Ari wanted their last tour of America filmed so there's footage from this and then, of course, there's the news of Ari's illness and her death and the end of The Slits.

It was great to see some of the interviews with people like Paul Cook, Don Letts, Dennis Bovell and even with Budgie harking back to those wild days. It's a shame we didn't hear anything from Nora Lydon, Ari's mum, but you can't have everything.

After the screening there was an impromptu Q&A with the director and producer who then invited Tessa and Paloma onto the stage to great applause. Cue the usual 'it's all about me' questions and comments from the audience. It was livened up a bit by Dennis Bovell who was also in the audience (and, later, behind me in the queue for the toilet) - Dennis, of course, produced 'Cut' and I saw him play with Linton Kwesi Johnson a few years back at the Barbican. Sadly, Spizz was also there (sitting behind me for the screening) who did his usual 'it's all about me' thing and told everyone that Paloma was the drummer in his first band - I wanted to tell him to shut up and stop trying to steal their big moment.

I'm really pleased I got to see this film - and I'm pleased that it was finally made and released. There are many stories and angles to punk and music in the '70s and the story of The Slits needs to be included. It was also lovely to see Tessa and Paloma on the stage. The film should get a theatrical release in early 2018 and DVDs will be available in 2018. If you'd like to pre-order the DVD then go here: https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/the-slits-here-to-be-heard. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

'Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger' at the BFI

I went to see Sam Feder's film, 'Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger' at the British Film Institute the other evening. Kate transitioned to female in the '80s but, as she says, she's not a woman and not a man so what is she? That's what the film explores.

I didn't know anything about Kate before the film but she's one of those rare breed of people who find their own path and follow it. Going through university in the late '60s, becoming a scientologist in the '70s, marrying and having a daughter before leaving her behind and changing her body in the '80s but, seemingly, being the same person inside. She's written plays, been a performance artist, a gender theorist and writer and goes on book tours and continues to give public readings. She's been around.

The film was made over the last three years, with clips of Kate talking to camera, recordings of some of her talks, old film clips from the '80s, chatting about the past with friends, handing out her 'get out of hell free' cards to street performers and going back to where she grew up. She also tells us about being accused of being transphobic for using the term 'tranny', which is how she describes herself. She's undergone treatment for lung cancer and was clear for a while but it's come back - and we see her receiving the call from her doctor - and she's back in treatment. That meant she couldn't attend the screening to do a Q&A.

The title of the film comes from the memoir she published a few years ago, 'A Queer and Pleasant Danger', in which she tells her story as man, woman and gender outlaw. We're given a portrait of a very smiley person - I can't recall if there are any images in the film in which she's not smiling - who accepts people for who and what they are or want to be and perpetually drags on an electronic cigarette. It's a fascinating glimpse in to the world of someone who created their own world through sheer force of personality, taking on the world on her own terms and, if not winning, certainly keeping on an even keel.

I think it's important that films like this are made and screened, firstly as a record that people like Kate live and work to make the world a better place, but also to allow the rest of us a glimpse into a world we would probably, otherwise, not know exists. Or, if we do, would probably only see a skewed version of it. I saw a similar kind of documentary a few years ago about Candy Darling called 'Beautiful Darling' but I've heard nothing about it since then. Hopefully the portrait of Kate will be seen again.

As Kate says at the end of the film, standing on the beach with the Atlantic behind her,  'Do whatever it takes to make your life more worth living, just don't be mean'.

'Censored Scenes From King Kong' at the British Film Institute

Never heard of it? No, neither had I until Chris mentioned it was a BBC telly play from 1973 by Howard Schuman with Julie Covington in the cast and then it was firmly on the radar. Is that enough of a clue as to why I might be interested? No? Well Howard Schuman wrote 'Rock Follies' in 1976 and 'Rock Follies of 77' in 1977 and Julie Covington starred in both series along with Rula Lenska and Charlotte Cornwall. I'm sure all three ladies are probably fed up with people keep harking back to 'Rock Follies' but it was a classic. Oh, and Andy McKay of Roxy Music wrote the music. Added cred points there.

The BFI has a series on at the moment about cinema/television techniques and this play was being shown as part of the series. This was (supposedly) an early example of the technique of having your actor in front of a green or blue screen and projecting whatever you wanted on the background. The BFI people explained it but it went over my head since I don't really care, I just wanted to hear from Howard (who was in the audience) and see it. Sadly, all I heard of Howard was him shouting out that the BBC exec in charge of the play series thought it was camp like 'Rocky Horror' and didn't want to show it. No introduction or anything.

It was part of a series of plays shown at 11:00pm on the BBC that was cancelled during power cuts or something. So it wasn't banned by the BBC, just a case of bad karma (man). It's only been screened two or three times before so only a hundred or two people have ever seen it. Including me.

'Censored Scenes' is a bit of fluff really. It opens with a bloke being all Buddhist in Japan and then he turns up in London after a few years of having vanished from his hospital bed. His friends somehow find him and they've become a singing group. In the meantime he searches for the missing film cut from 'King Kong' that show the ape making love to Faye Wray. He thinks he finds the film but it turns out to be a heroin stash (as you'd expect in his topsy-turvy world). None of it makes any sense and harks back to the late '60s rather than the early '70s but that doesn't matter (man). The main thing is that this was the playground that led to 'Rock Follies'!

Yes Julie Covington was in it but I got excited when I saw she was on the rehearsal stage with Beth Porter! Beth played Kitty Schrieber in 'Rock Follies'. And who was their manager? None other than Michael Angelis who was the manager of the Little Ladies in 'Rock Follies'! Three 'Rock Follies' stalwarts three years before that show was even written and I was thrilled. Every now and then were little tricks and phrases that reminded me of 'Rock Follies' and this was surely part of the inspiration for the later series (sugar mountain anyone?).

Derek Fowlds played three parts in it and it was lovely to see him from back then. He played Basil Brush's sidekick and then starred in 'Yes, Minister' and 'Heartbeat' but it was fun to see him do some 'arty' acting early in his career.

The wow factor of the afternoon was increased to stellar proportions by having Fenella Fielding sitting behind us - yes, *that* Fenella Fielding! The lovely Fenella is now 86 but still getting out to frequent cinema and television events. I didn't say anything, obviously, but I was secretly delighted.

There are exactly two bad photos of Howard Schuman on the internet (how can he be so invisible?) and none of 'Censored Scenes' so here's a photo of Fenella instead!

Vivien Leigh in 'The Deep Blue Sea'

On Saturday afternoon I was taken to see a 'lost' Vivien Leigh film, 'The Deep Blue Sea'' at the British Film Institute on the Southbank. According to the curator of the Vivien Leigh series no organisation claims ownership of the film, it's not available on DVD and can't be re-mastered until the rights are clarified, so we saw an early print of the film, flaws and all. It was a bit jerky in places and, in others, the colour went odd, but it was perfectly viewable.

It's from a script for a play by Terrence Ratigan about a middle aged woman who falls for a younger man and leaves her safe husband (a judge) for the more hand-to-mouth life with the younger ex-RAF pilot. Vivien is the woman and Kenneth More (in his first film) is the young lover. It's, ultimately, a destructive relationship but it serves to free Hester (played by Vivien) from her husband. From trying suicide and weeping buckets she emerges as the strength in the relationship as she frees the young More from a relationship he's not equipped to handle.

I can see why it wasn't a big hit back in the day, it shows life in London after the war as a bit run-down and a bit dreary but it also shows a spark of life. There are very few smiles or real laughs in the film and it rather wears you down with the honesty of it all and, oddly, with Hester's integrity. She's left her husband to shack up with a younger bloke but when it all falls through she doesn't go crying back to her husband, she has the integrity to recognise that it all happened for a reason. That reason was that she wasn't happy with her former life so she would be foolish to go back to it. I can respect that and Vivien's portrayal of it.

I saw another Vivien Leigh film earlier last week, 'A Yank At Oxford', which was an altogether different kind of film. She played the young wife to an older book seller in Oxford and Robert Taylor played the yank in the title. That was a much younger Vivien in the '30s before she played Scarlet O'Hara with none of the subtlety of her 'Deep Blue Sea' performance. This was a dour Vivien with all the feeling she'd acquired over the previous decade or so.

I'm pleased I saw it.

Rita Moreno at the British Film Institute

Last Sunday I was privileged to see the wonderful Rita Moreno in conversation before a screening of 'Summer and Smoke'.

Rita was interviewed by Matthew Sweet and, right up front, she pointed out that she gave long answers, and so she did. She's looking good at 81 and gave very thoughtful and, sometimes, brutally honest, responses that were more like monologues than interview answers. She laughingly told us that all the studios had a 'Rita Moreno kit' that comprised open toed sandals, hooped ear-rings and make-up type Egyptian Number 1. She spoke about being in the Hollywood studio system when the PR department sent their young starlets out to get publicity and, on occasion, put them at risk. She spoke about the casual racism of the time, casting her again and again as the dusky maiden or Latino of easy virtue and about how even after winning an Oscar for 'West Side Story' she didn't do another film for seven years.

We were shown film clips during the talk and my favourite was the rooftop scene from 'West Side Story' with Rita leading the 'America' sequence. After winning the Oscar (and other awards) for the film she said she was offered three other 'gang' films but that was it.  Not quite what you expect really.

There was time for some audience Q&A after the main interview and there were some good questions (including one from David McAlmont who was in the audience). Rita was a delight to listen to, name checking everyone from Gene Kelly to Marlon Brando (I didn't know they had an eight year affair), raising laughter and silence with her reminiscences. 

After a short break it was time for 'Summer And Smoke' a film from 1961 in which Rita had a part. She said a few words at the start - and it obviously isn't one of her favourites - before taking her seat in the row in front of us. It was a poor print of the film  and, unfortunately, a poor film based on a Tennessee Williams play. It seemed to go on and on, trying to build the stunted suffocating atmosphere that features in so much of his work but failing. The age difference between the two leads was unfortunate and so were the relative acting abilities. Still, Rita looked good.

PS: I also learned how to pronounce her name properly. She's Moreno (ren) not Moreeno (reen).