DOCUMENTARY / Lets Go Naked (1979)

A very British Doc on nudity
(Warning: May Contain Nuts)

Shot and broadcast in 1979, this BBC documentary serves as an introduction to the world of nudist camps to your average brit in the 1970s. There`s a very brief look on how the Americans do it - who have already made into a thriving money making enterprise at the time - then the programme focuses on England and how its popularity has increased in the last couple of years.

Given the time it was made and that it was made for adult British audiences, this programme seems a little quaint in itself, but the people featured in the programme are quite happy and relaxed and this is not one of those documentaries on nudity that is poking fun at the pastime.

You do get to see a bit of 70s nudity (wa hey!) and at the beginning there`s a beauty contest for women and men, why not give it a watch and see if you agree with the judges! I quite like the shaggy and hairy seventies, I`d wouldn`t have minded being one!

DOCUMENTARY / Geordie Skinheads & London Bikers - Two docs from the 1970s

TWO TRIBES

Two unrelated documentaries as a rare double header treat - Both from England in the early 1970, focusing on two distinct youth tribes in north and the south of the country. The First documentary focuses on the lives on Tyneside mod skinheads and the second tells of the life and antics of first British chapter of Hells Angels,

Tales of fights, beer, teenage boredom, drug taking, alienation and local feuds can be found in both programmes - These were shot by different programme makers and have no connection to each other. Its a fascinating watch - not only to see how youth groupings were taken so seriously by folk back then , but also to see footage of England from long ago - from the haircuts to the streets that no longer exist.

All Dressed Up & Going Nowhere (1971)

Hells Angels (1973)

From Hip Hop to Classical - The Choice - The (downloadable) playlist

15 SONGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO TAKE HOME

Fifteen pieces of music found from hours of "crate digging" on soundcloud with something in it for everyone. From Argentina to Germany the finest musicians out there have been working away to give these pieces of music..for nothing. If you`ve already got a soundcloud account give it a "like" it to play later at your leisure - and if you REALLY like what you hear, leave a comment on the track - it always does wonders for the confidence of musicians and songwriters.

They are individually available for download.

RUNNING TIME 54:40

DOCUMENTARY / THE CHART BUSTERS - FRAUD IN BRITISH RECORD SHOPS (1980)

A FILM ON
CHART HYPING IN
THE UK MUSIC INDUSTRY
IN 1980

Back when music had to be paid for, back when getting on one television show made the difference in sales, back when there were more than three labels....this film goes into the fraudulent practice of chart - hyping. Labels were encouraging record shop owners to falsify their sales of records of certain artists.

This, a World in Action film, talks to people who reveal that this is widespread, and that a few bands/artists got a leg up into the charts...this is without their knowledge, which is very serious as the organisation who compile the charts will delete and singles/albums that have any unusual sales activity - which is shit all around for all concerned.

One notable band mentioned is "The Pretenders" with their number one hit "Brass in pocket". According to one witness in this documentary that single was heavily hyped to the top. Great bit of nostalgia ...as someone who had worked in a independent record shop before they started going extinct, its nice to see those kind of places again.

Broadcast: ITV 1980

DOCUMENTARY / BANKRUPT DETROIT: THE MOTOR CITY AND THE INNER CITY GANGS OF 1970`S & 1980`S

IT USED TO BE HOME OF
THE U.S AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF MOWTOWN
THAT BOASTED A STABLE
BLACK MIDDLE CLASS POPULATION.

NOW THE JOBS HAVE GONE,
60,000 BUILDINGS LIE EMPTY.

AND BANKRUPTCY IS NOW
THE ONLY OPTION.

THIS FILM LOOKS AT THE KEY MOMENTS,THE
PEOPLE AND THE DRUGS
THAT PLAYED A PART IN THIS
CITY`S RISE AND FALL

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The fall of Detroit is many ways the story of modern America. It was the place where you could see at first hand, America`s industrial might - especially in the realms the car industry. Employing many thousands directly, and thousands more indirectly... the city`s fortune was tied directly to it`s car manufacturing plants. But when the work went overseas..and the jobs was largely replaced by drugs things.. start to go downhill.

This film charts the sorry tale of Detroit, it`s highs and lows, the music, the people, the gangs, the undercover cops, lawyers, the assassins for hire, the politics, the middle class who left the city and what came to take it`s place. You will see many photographs and hear the stories of young men who were in their prime in the 1970s and 1980`s who never lived past their 20s... and by the 1990`s came around, Detroit bore little resemblance to the hustle and bustle of the 1960`s..... few who are left from time tell their stories how they survived the streets.

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DOCUMENTARY / DEAD FAMOUS - THE DARKSIDE OF 1970s & 1980s AUSTRAILA

THE LINE BETWEEN
GANGSTERS AND POLICE BECAME SO
BLURRED THAT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO
KNOW WHO YOU COULD TRUST

A FILM THAT TAKES YOU
THROUGH THE DECADES, THE UNSOLVED
MURDERS, STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES,
BENT COPPERS AND HARD BASTARDS

The view that most people have of Australia is the sunny beaches, love of beers, the great expanses, the hot climate and its world - famous landmarks...and yet behind this is a long running culture of gangs and bent coppers. All of this centres around the drugs trade that became so lucrative that the coppers began doing more than taking a cut. If the 1970`s were bad then 1980`s took it to another level entirely...when usage of smack grew it made people in the trade of trafficking and selling it get more and more greedy, more aggressive and more ruthless.

In Melbourne, the life of a gangster resembled Miami vice rather than any Aussie TV cop show you`ve ever seen. Not only were the gangsters taking out each other, but coppers were also putting OTHER coppers in the firing line. Unsurprisingly not many people who were the major players have lived to tell the tale.

There had been a code of sorts up until then, business wasn`t done in the public eye, you kept a low profile, you never involved women or children and avoided bringing heat to your operation by trying to take out the police...by the mid 80`s that had all gone. The new generation were not bound by those rules. When a cop killed a a small time dealer in dodgy circumstances where he was lured to a meeting by another criminal in 1981, his girlfriend - a rather glamourous looking prostitute took to the TV, detailing the close relationship between drug traffickers and coppers - gaining a job writing articles for magazines, and having a 60 minutes episode dedicated to her - it exposed to the Australian public for the first time just what was going on.

She was murdered. No one was ever convicted of her murder. That happened a lot, as you will see.

That (senior) cop (who also took out a contract on another who was getting too close to his criminal friends) went to jail on two separate occasions later on. Not for killing anyone though....

In fact, some of the few gangsters who have survived the time have teamed up with him, and now do pub tours where they reminisce on the "bad old days"

This film takes a sober look at the time, without resorting to glorifying - which in a lot of made - for -TV documentaries around this subject have a habit of doing. Features Mark "Chopper" Reid with his inside knowledge of who was doing what to whom, plus other major characters on both side of the blue line.

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DOCUMENTARY / WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HIP HOP (2009)

HIP HOP
IS NO LONGER
THE AGENT
FOR SOCIAL
CHANGE AND HARMONY

WHAT HAPPENED?

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WAY,WAY BACK IN THE DAY...HIP HOP REFLECTED THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE MUSIC, CREATED THE STREET ART, SHAPED THE LANGUAGE, INVENTED THE DANCE MOVES AND THE EVER MOVING STYLE OF THE STREET. FROM THE EARLY DAYS BACK IN THE LATE 70`S TO THE LATE 90`S, HIP HOP WAS MANY THINGS TO MANY PEOPLE....NOW IT`S JUST STUCK IN THE SAME MODE.

It`s been this way for a long while, but it took awhile for people to pick up on it. The messages within rap began to wither down to one - the party thug. There was always a space for that way of music within the family of hip hop, but now it is the central message. It merged with R&B to become pop, and in time the figure of the lone lyricist became entertainment for the suburbs, the more the rapper leans onto the image of "the gangster", the more he/she sells. In fact I `d go as far to say America is far much comfortable with the idea of a black/latino living a semi criminal lifestyle than one speaking truth, talking about history, or social cohesion. (Partly to do with the country`s love of the outlaw, just as with portrayals of the "old wild west" type cowboys, the rogue detective who gets results and other mostly Hollywood hyped character types )

Yes, it came from the hip hop community itself, but how has it become it`s spokesperson? How come the hyper masculine, capitalistic, gangster approach to Hip Hop become the de facto stance that used to have a plethora of voices and styles? A good place to start is the distribution chain. What you get to hear is now determined by a few corporations. Getting a deal doesn`t mean you can now start saying what you want with labels able to reject songs that do not fit, or getting blacklisted by TV stations and radio stations having their playlist curated by higher forces and not, by the DJ themselves.

This documentary has the people who were part of Hip Hop from the very beginning plus views from current generation as to why this has happened...and how it happened. Who had been blacklisted from the music TV shows, who bought what out and what was the consequences.

STARRING: Afrika Bambaataa, KRS-ONE, Busy Bee, Kool Keith, MC Lyte, Slick Rick, Jean Grae, Gemini plus more....

DIRECTOR: Sonali Aggarwal:

What happened to Hip Hop?

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The Five: Instrumentals.

Industrial
Hip Hop
Ambient
Acoustic
Electronica

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"I`M SORRY BUT THEM LYRICS HAVE GO TO GO"

Another instalment of goodies culled from the web with no lyrics, but plenty of meaning. All different genres, so there`s a good chance you may only like one or two out the five that I`ve liked (and played). They`re all coming from different corners of the globe. Supplying the Industrial are Black - logic, coming out of LIVERPOOL. Just started following them on Soundcloud myself, but have been playing their songs for awhile now. (I have a strict policy about following on soundcloud, If I think there`s a good album or two in you then I`m interested enough to follow) The Hip hop track is being served to you from too - fucking - sunny MELBOURNE, Australia courtesy of Moutherific, all smooth and thoughtful. The beautiful acoustic guitar on track two of this selection comes from BELGIUM by the mysteriously named Jerun. We go to the other side of the world again (I`m a brit remember) to find some Industrial/Electronica coming from CHINA by 前進！Qianjin! which sounds unmistakably from the Far East - worth a listen. Then we return to our cold wet, class obsessed shores to be enveloped in the world that LONDON based Sandy Dobson creates with her treatment of "In High Contrast" , she`s a composer that works within the field of electronica as well as traditional acoustic instrumentation - respect to that. She knows her stuff.

Google is your friend, and so is your finger. Click on the artists name on each player to be taken to their profile page which SHOULD have all their social network links. This isn`t always the case, but a quick google can get the right result. Find them, say thanks for the free music, give them a like if you can`t give cash - can`t stress enough the lift you get when someone out the blue says thanks. You might as well buy me a brand new studio, I get that refreshed and buoyed up by it that you just want to get creating again - no matter how shit you`d been feeling 5 minutes ago.

Okay, time to kill the prose. Press Play.

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ARTWORK
BY
A*BOO

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DOCUMENTARY / FEAR AND FAVOUR IN THE NEWSROOM / USA

Ownership of the Media and it`s affect
on Journalists & Journalism

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There has been a gradual change in the newsroom environment over the last twenty years. This has been largely driven by the changes in technology, but also by takeovers and acquisitions inside the television, radio and print industry. What we have now is a few major players, owned by huge corporations whose interests span far and wide. An untold story in all of this, is the tale of the journalists who had worked within the realm of investigative journalism during this time.

They had worked in their field successfully, gaining awards in some instances, but as time went on they noticed a change in editorial policy. Suddenly stories were being spiked, there were now discouragement against reporting anything that would highlight wrongdoing in certain companies. People were reassignment, some resigned, the rest kept their head down. The result of this change of personnel is the entertainment led news reporting that we see today, where the news channels broadcast for 24 hours but the scope of what they report on is has narrow enough to to be repeated many times over.

Fear and favour shows what happens to the Journalists who have found themselves shut out from the newsroom, looks at articles that were dropped from publication because someone "high up" was very angry, and the link between companies via the boardroom.

It starts off with a story on banks ripping off American homeowners, and refusing black people mortgages to buy a home. This film was made in 1994, and that example of the shady banking practices, as well as other things highlighted in this documentary shows how the games being played by large corporations and banks was going unchallenged and under reported... way back then.

We are only now seeing the social importance of investigative reporting.

DOCUMENTARY / ONCE UPON TIME - AFGHANISTAN IN 1970`S BEFORE THE WARS

A BRIEF LOOK
TO THE PAST.

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The people of Afghanistan have had to deal with invasions of one sort or another in it`s history. For a lot of people under a certain age, it`s hard not to see this country as a place mostly full of conflict. Bombs, drones, death and corruption make this place a dangerous to live - and yet it wasn`t always like this.

This short documentary shows Afghanistan in the 1970`s, how it was the place where hippies came to relax, where there was women in government posts, and the seething tensions that were simmering in the background before the Soviet invasion began.

This has some parallels with the look of Iran before 1979, both countries had a drastic change in culture after religious groups took control of the power structures. The social norms were re written, "freedoms" were cracked down upon, those who had the means... fled to another place in the world.

Ultimately, if you live within a space that is constantly being invaded then it`s inescapable fact that the men who hold the most guns, hold the power. When the Soviets left in 1989, the power vacuum was filled by the U.S backed Taliban - who had no dreams of restoring Afghanistan to it`s pre soviet days.

There`s a few short images that are GRAPHIC in this film. You`ve been warned.