Tag Archive: the fall


Trapped in the high life of sex, power and paranoia

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October 22, 2017

HIGH RISE directed by Ben Wheatley (UK, 2015)

high_rise_2014_film_posterIf this movie had met with universal critical acclaim or had achieved commercial success it would almost certainly have denoted its failure in artistic terms. Fortunately, therefore, it polarized the press and bombed at the box office.

J.G. Ballard’s novel (published in 1975) was meant as a morbid, provocative slice of entertainment designed to leave readers absorbed but seriously spooked. It begins arrestingly: “Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Doctor Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months”.

This big screen adaptation has a similarly jarring impact since, in Ben Wheatley, we have a director whose mindset is every bit as warped as the polite but misanthropic English writer. Continue reading →

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THE WEIRD AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OF MARK E. SMITH

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July 28, 2015

RENEGADE : THE LIVES AND TALES OF MARK E.SMITH by Mark E. Smith with Austin Colling (Penguin Books, 2008)
markesmith_renegade

I can visualise ghost writer Austin Collings lining up the pints of beer and whisky chasers in a Manchester pub then setting up a recording device in front of Mark E.Smith.

I doubt that any overly active conversational skills would have been required since one gets the distinct impression that his subject operates best in monologue/ranting mode.

In more or less chronological order, Smith catalogues his life and times as chief hirer and firer of The Fall “for people who are sick of being dicked around”. Continue reading →

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THE MIDDLE CLASS ARE REVOLTING

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July 11, 2015

MILLENNIUM PEOPLE by J.G. Ballard (Flamingo, 2003)

“Learn the rules and you can get away with anything”

I visualize J.G. Ballard writing his dystopian fiction from his safe European home in the Surrey stockbroker belt of Shepperton. Although his views bordered on the misanthropic, his life was outwardly respectable and I reckon he was a big softy at heart.

However, the late author hated anything that struck him as pretentious and/or fake; which accounts for his venom towards cheap entertainment and much of what passes for modern culture. Continue reading →

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JOHN PEEL’S VIRTUAL MUSEUM

Filed under: Good causes, Music — 1 Comment
April 16, 2012

John Peel with a record by The Fall - one the bands that is bound to figure prominently in the 'virtual museum'.

Excited to hear that The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts in Stowmarket, Suffolk  have been  given exclusive access by the family to the record collection at Peel Acres which includes 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and many thousands of CDs.

Tom Barker, the centre’s director, describes the collection as “one of the most important archives in modern music history.”

With the help of funding and resources of  the Arts Council and the BBC, they have an ambitious plan for this unique collection to be transformed into a digital service known as The Space, enabling visitors to view John’s home studio.his personal notes, archive performances and filmed interviews with musicians.

John Peel’s wife Sheila Ravenscroft, affectionately known as ‘the pig’ because of the way she snorts when laughing, says : “This project is only the beginning of something very exciting”.

Sounds like something worth snorting about  to me.

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