The era from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s probably was the busiest period of the British film industry. Many thrillers were shot in those years, including a great number of movies (and B movies) that often featured American actors; this arrangement would draw audiences to cinemas in England and simultaneously ensure interest for moviegoers […]
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Tag: 1960s England
Ready Steady Go!: The Weekend Starts Here … by Andy Neill (2020)
What was set up as a somewhat risky experiment featuring unusual approaches towards audiences, concepts and TV viewing habits, the live broadcast of the London based production Ready, Steady, Go! became probably the best pop TV show ever. As it united a fresh concept of live music (although until 1965, bands were only miming their […]
London Life. The Magazine of the Swinging Sixties by Simon Wells (ed.) (2020)
A so far unparalleled team of talented artists, publishing pros and design specialists in their respective fields, like Peter Akhurst, Jean Shrimpton, David Hockney, and regular contributors such as Joe Meek, Eric Burdon, and Marc Bolan for a short while were all connected to England’s probably most advanced magazine of the 1960s, London Life. It […]
Heart Full of Soul. Keith Relf of the Yardbirds by David French (2020)
In the southwest of London, in 1962 a young Richmond band called The Metropolis Blues Quartet was starting to become England’s probably most innovative rock band. This band would become the nucleus of a guitar-based outfit that later significantly altered music history and started, among other things, the American psychedelic and garage rock period. The […]
Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and … by Iain McIntyre and Andrew Nett
The latest work edited by Iain McIntyre and Andrew Nette has the focus on pulp fiction published in English and connected to and influenced by the Counterculture and ideas of revolution. The emphasis is on “the long sixties,” meaning the aftermath of that truly revolutionary decade that was at work long into the 1970s, in […]
The Northern Soul Scene by Sarah E. Raine et al. (eds.) (2019)
Only a few recent local dance scenes gained enough influence on a global scale, so they could be called some sort of movement; with powerful and addictive rhythms, strong horn sections, strings, highly emotional (shouted) lyrics, an overall richly decorated studio sound, a positive outlook (in the lyrics), a genre of late-1960s soul music, played […]
The British Blues Network: Adoption, Emulation, and Creativity by Andrew Kellett (2017)
After WWII, with the British Empire finally devoid of its former power and importance, young British blues enthusiasts invented their own vision of a new country, they – metaphorically – chose as their preferred home country an idealized (American) life, namely in creating the very personal America with lots of possibilities and adventure. As all […]
Quadrophenia and Mod(ern) Culture by Pamela Thurschwell (ed.) (2018)
Now, this is probably the best book on Mod culture so far. If not, it is the one with the best academic approach to it and a real understanding of the subculture that goes beyond pure distanced sociological writing and simplifying banalities (that are used too often in other publications on the topic). The British […]
Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films … by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul (2016)
Intelligence work for centuries has been an important part of a nation’s security. Over the years, the profession of “the spy” was developed and particularly during the Cold War those people – no matter from which side of the Iron Curtain – were interested in securing their respective country an advantage in information or technology. […]