crusoe
07-30-2008, 04:35 PM
Interesting short film (30 mins) on German channel EinsFestival last night about beat music in Liverpool. It was made in 1964 (first broadcast 1965) by Werner Prym and Kurt Schraudenbach for German broadcasting company WDR, and focused on what was happening in the local music scene after the Beatles had made it big and left the city. There's some great footage of beehived girls in the Cavern and of the Escorts (featuring Terry Sylvester (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Sylvester), who were apparently bigger than the Beatles on the Liverpool scene after the Beatles left for Hamburg - according to the commentary, the feeling was that the Beatles had completely sold out by going abroad and making it big.
The film also tracks the four members of the Masterminds (pre-Joey Molland) in their daily life outside music. Its viewpoint is that Liverpool was a derelict rat-infested slum in the early 60s, with unemployment rife and gangs of feral kids roaming the streets (hmm) and that those that could, tried music as a way out of their dead-end lives. It makes a few illogical leaps - on the one hand unemployment is everywhere, on the other hand 15-year-olds are shown working 14-hour days as delivery boys - and finishes on the ominous note that the Beatles and beat music are a dying craze, and what are all these disaffected youths going to do when the bubble bursts? :rolleyes:
Commentary is only in German, but when I have nothing better to do I'll do a translation. It's an interesting take on the period and 'Pool aficionados will enjoy shots of Dingle tenements and Hessy's music shop, but be warned the style of filming is very dated - absolutely NO interviews with subjects, only lots of very carefully posed portrait-style shots.
The film can be downloaded at www.usenext.de (at least I think it can - only just signed up and new to all this downloading lark - I still have a VHS recorder!) Keep badgering me for the transcript, I'll do it some day, and if anyone downloads it let me know what you think (you'll get the general tone from the pictures).
The film also tracks the four members of the Masterminds (pre-Joey Molland) in their daily life outside music. Its viewpoint is that Liverpool was a derelict rat-infested slum in the early 60s, with unemployment rife and gangs of feral kids roaming the streets (hmm) and that those that could, tried music as a way out of their dead-end lives. It makes a few illogical leaps - on the one hand unemployment is everywhere, on the other hand 15-year-olds are shown working 14-hour days as delivery boys - and finishes on the ominous note that the Beatles and beat music are a dying craze, and what are all these disaffected youths going to do when the bubble bursts? :rolleyes:
Commentary is only in German, but when I have nothing better to do I'll do a translation. It's an interesting take on the period and 'Pool aficionados will enjoy shots of Dingle tenements and Hessy's music shop, but be warned the style of filming is very dated - absolutely NO interviews with subjects, only lots of very carefully posed portrait-style shots.
The film can be downloaded at www.usenext.de (at least I think it can - only just signed up and new to all this downloading lark - I still have a VHS recorder!) Keep badgering me for the transcript, I'll do it some day, and if anyone downloads it let me know what you think (you'll get the general tone from the pictures).