More TV snap!
More instant "deja view" on BBC2 last night. I watched the third part of British Style Genius, an excellent history of British fashion from BBC Bristol, who can really do this stuff; followed by the third part of The Story Of The Guitar, with its uncharacteristically humorous, post-Q Alan Yentob voiceover. The former - subtitled Breaking The Rules: Fashion Rebel Look - looked at the work of Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, all of whom have made amazing but stupid-looking clothes that found their way onto the high street in various bastardised forms; the latter - subtitled This Time It's Personal - looked at the way rock music and the penile twiddlage inherent in rock music transformed the guitar, from Hendrix to Muse, via heavy metal and punk.
Both covered that moment in 1976 when some people in London started to pogo and gob at Sex Pistols gigs and wear homemade t-shirts with safety pins because they couldn't afford to shop in Sex. And ... both films used that exact same bit of gig footage you always see whenever a social or cultural documentary wants to illustrate that particular flashpoint: man in full-face leather "rapist" mask, three girls in rubber dresses possibly made from bin liners, young men in jumpers bouncing on each other's shoulders and gurning at the camera, shot of Sue Catwoman who looks disdainfully at the camera, and another young man shaking his hair, which has an orange streak in it, possibly achieved by a can of car paint. It's like an old friend.
I'm not complaining. I did, after all, choose to watch two BBC documentaries in one evening covering much the same period. And there is clearly only one piece of footage to illustrate that period. But it does show how creative documentary-makers must be not to churn out that same old programme. (Incidentally, Malcolm McLaren agreed to be interviewed for both programmes. He's really hard to get, isn't he?)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:20 AM
7 Comments
Contact
Andrew at
7 Comments:
Heh, it sounds like Baad Daad's Cliched History of Punk.
The first Yentob guitar doc was good (acoustic stuff), but the next episodes turned into dreary 'history of rock' programmes.
Now that we can see all the good bits (archive footage of bands playing) on YouTube rock documentaries need to bring a lot more to the table to be interesting.
I thought the episode where they deliberately cut between Mark Knopfler showing us his guitar collection and the same scene with Nigel Tuffnel from Spinal Tap was quite unnecessarily cruel and out of place.
Would they have done that with a more self-consciously 'cool' guitar hero? Somehow, I don't think so. That Yentob sneer of 'oh, we don't really believe any of this, you know' permeated through the whole thing for me.
I saw Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren on British Style Genius on BBC 2 last night and I thought it was a very good piece on Vivienne's contribution to british fashion and British culture. Haven't seen The Story of the Guitar which is odd as I do look forward to seeing these kinds of documentaries (like Pop Britannia on BBC Four/Two earlier this year)Also Andrew have you heard of a quiz programme called Celebrity Juice. I haven't seen it but what I do know is that Fearne Cotton is on it as a team captain. Also I went on the IMDB website and checked on some of the shows that Fearne has worked on and there was one show that she worked on called Pump It Up and her co-presenter was a chap called Andy Collins.(No relation I presume?)Have ever met Fearne Andrew? and if so what was she like?
That's Adam Ant in the rapist mask, I believe. Bought from Sex I expect.
Gavin, I have never worked with Fearne, nor met her. I don't even think I've been in the same room as her.
I am unlikely to watch Celebrity Juice, despite the fact that when you say it, it sounds like a programme called Celebrity Jews, which somebody probably has in production right now.
I found meself watching a spate of these docs recently The Factory,Manchester's Rock History etc.and apparently Blue Monday was the biggest selling 12" of all time don't you know.Oh and Sean Ryder did drugs.
Mick G
I think the same piece of footage was used on the last batch of music programmes on the BBC too.
I remember saying to Mr Bethnoir "Siouxsie Sioux will walk by in about three seconds" as I'd seen it so often. Was it that bit again?
Post a Comment
<< Home