LOOKING FOR A NEW ENGLAND

Sub-titled 'Action, Time, Vision, Music, Film and TV 1975-1986' from Slade in Flame to Absolute Beginners, this carefully researched exploration of transgressive films touches on the career of David Bowie, dystopias, the Joan Collins' oeuvre, black cinema, the origins and impact of punk music, political films, comedy, how Ireland and Scotland featured on our screens, and the rise of Richard Branson and a new, commercial mainstream. The book describes over 100 film and TV productions in detail, together with their literary, social and musical influences during a time when profound changes shrank the size of the UK cinema in the industry. So, what happened to British cinema and TV when swinging London ended? Jam-packed with trivia and amusing anecdotes, the main box office smashes of the period were respectable US entertainments like Jaws, Grease and ET while the UK clung on to the increasingly threadbare Bond franchise with The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Led Zeppelin's 'The Song Remains the Same' hit the cinema screens in 1976 and the British film industry spluttered on with the occasional Carry Ons and Hammers until 1978-9, soft porn like Confessions and Adventures (discontinued circa 1978), war films, period dramas and tiny BFI-funded experimental productions. Elegant period dramas began with A Bridge Too Far 1977, Chariots of Fire 1981, Gandhi 1982 and Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan 1984, all of which did well. Television suffered too despite being the alleged cause of films' collapse. From 1972, BBC 2 ran the Old Grey Whistle Test presented by Bob Harris, part DJ and part community activist (he was one of the founders of Time Out magazine). Meanwhile, Top of the Pops was becoming increasingly tawdry. The story of live music during this period was equally patchy with few large scale festivals after 1972 and on the music scene there were established 60s acts, MOR plus of course Hawkwind, David Bowie and Roxy Music and in the cinema in 1982 Pink Floyd's The Wall. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (75), The Man Who Fell to Earth (76), The Long Good Friday (79), and This Is Spinal Tap (84) all appeared at this time, and one area that certainly held sway was comedy. A fantastically nostalgic collection, 261pp in paperback with 16 pages of colour photos and posters. Nostalgic collage on the inside covers of this softback.