Following on from the brilliant Psychedelic Celluloid, author Simon Matthews takes us on a journey through the films influenced by and featuring the seventies and early eighties’ rock stars.
The seventies were a turbulent time socially. Strikes, power cuts, predatory DJs with primetime TV shows – everything seemed bleak. Fortunately, a growing youth movement made listening to music and watching films became more than a beige pastime. Mathews’ book takes us through the various fashions and subjects that formed the backbone of the way cinema reacted and capitalised on what was happening in the music world.
As the book takes us through the years, the UK’s cultural history is put into perspective; musical genres like punk that are posthumously revered are not seen with the rose-tinted glasses some pundits view the era. Everything is presented with interesting facts and geek-like attention to detail (chart positions for the hits, for example). Matthews takes us through the way both pop culture and counterculture defined the output of film and TV. Among the numerous points is how a former Beatle almost singlehandedly saved the British film industry – for a while, at least.
Being led through the decade of the mid-‘70s to ‘80s is dazzling. From the viewpoint of someone who was there, it’s remarkable how many of the titles (of both films and music) are instantly memorable. The mere mention of them in the text brings us back to seeing the movies advertised, or even going to see them. Films that are never usually mentioned and deservedly so (we’re looking at you, The Music Machine) are given some cultural worth even if it’s only as a document of a landscape that has completely changed. The hindsight perspective allows Matthews to filter the fads and make sense of the ridiculousness that we put up with. (We will agree that Slade in Flame is an overlooked classic.) The book provides an informative account of the decline of the British film industry – a victim of government policy – and, in the final chapter that looks beyond the remit of the title, the rebirth of pop and a neutered ‘swinging London’ with the Cool Britannia phase. What comes around goes around.
Anyone with interest in UK film or music will find Looking for a New England fascinating.
