Tag: Beatles

Harder Than The Rock
The Cimarons Story

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 4 October 2024
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The Cimarons Story
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Director – Mark Warmington – 2024 – UK – Cert. 12a – 100m

****

The story of Cimarons, the first British reggae band, who were formed in 1967 – out in UK cinemas on Thursday, October 3rd

As teenagers, they came from sun-soaked Jamaica to the UK to be confronted with a climate that was “rain, dull and gray.” In the 1960s, one of the areas that Jamaican immigrants came to in London was Harlesden, in Brent, and it was at Harlesden Methodist Church Youth Club in 1967 where Losely Guichy (guitar), Franklin Dunn (bass), Maurice Ellis (drums), and Carl Levi (organ) first met up and started playing music together, a site today commemorated with a blue plaque. They went through s number of singers over the years, notably Winston Reedy between 1974 and 1983.

By 1968 they were gigging as Cimarons. A performance at Paddington’s Q Club saw an A&R rep from Trojan Records in attendance, which led to a recording contract, their first album appearing in 1974, recorded in part as the Jamaican studio of the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Before that, they worked mainly as session musicians, appearing uncredited on numerous singles by black British reggae artists. The film isn’t particularly clear on the matter, but it’s mentioned that they lacked management and got hardly any royalties out of all this.… Read the rest

Tags 1960s, 1970s, A&R, band, bass, Beatles, Black, blue plaque, Bob Marley, Bobby ‘Dego’ Davis, breakthrough, Brent, British, Carl Levi, Cimarons, cleaning job, COVID, Dennis Bovell, drums, France, Franklin Dunn, funeral, gig, guitar, Harlesden, Harlesden Methodist Church, immigrants, Ireland, Island Records, Jamaica, Japan, John Lennon, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Linda McCartney, London, Losely Guichy, lung cancer, management, Mark Warmington, Matumbi, Maurice Ellis, music, music festivals, Netherlands, oppression by the British, organ, Paddington, pandemic, Paul Bogle, Paul McCartney, performance, Punk Rock, Q Club, recording engineer, recording studio, reggae, royalties, session musicians, Sham 69, singer, slave trade, Spain, state oppression, Steel Pulse, Thailand, The Clash, together, Tony Platt, tour, Trojan Records, UK, Winston Reedy, Youth Club

Art Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

Squaring The Circle:
(The Story Of
Hipgnosis)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 10 July 2023
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(The Story Of
Hipgnosis)
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Director – Anton Corbijn – 2022 – UK – Cert. – 101m

*****

The story of the visual creatives behind album sleeves, for Pink Floyd and others, who revolutionised the field from the late 1960s and through the 1970s – now out on Blu-ray/DVD combo and various streaming services plus BFI Player following its release in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday, July 14th

Everyone who bought LP records from the late 1960s through to the very end of the 1970s knows the name Hipgnosis. As one interviewee points out, you would go in to the centre of your town to buy the latest album and mull over all the written information on the sleeve on the bus coming home to find out who played on it and who was responsible for the cover. Many of the most memorable sleeves were designed by Hipgnosis, the name coming from ‘hip’, meaning ‘cool’, and ‘gnosis’ meaning ‘secret wisdom’.

Director Corbijn made his name in black and white photography and album sleeves for such bands as U2 and Depeche Mode in the 1980s, so has a background in the album cover world in a later decade. He is therefore extremely well placed to tackle the subject and chooses to film many of his interviewees in trademark black and white.… Read the rest

Tags 10cc, 1960s, 1970s, 6 Denmark Street, A Saucerful Of Secrets, album, album sleeve, animals, anti-establishment, Anton Corbijn, art, artist, Atom Heart Mother, Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, bankrupt, bankruptcy, Battersea Power Station, Beatles, boring, burning man, Cambridge, camera, Coil, cow, darkroom, David Gilmour, drugs, Elegy, Emerson, fire, Genesis, giant pig, Giant’s Causeway, Graham Gouldman, hand-coloured photograph, Hipgnosis, Houses Of The Holy, Humphrey Ocean Roger Dean, iconic, illustration, Ireland, Jill Furmanovsky, Jimmy Page, Keith Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Led Zeppelin, Legerton Court, light, London, LP, LP sleeve, LSD, manager, monolith, music video, Nick Mason, Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney, Peter Christopherson, Peter Gabriel, Peter Grant, photographer, photography, Pink Floyd, presence, prism, record, record sleeve, red balls, refraction, Repulsion, Rick Wright, Robert Plant, Roger Waters, Roman Polanski, Royal College of Art, South Kensington, space rock, statue, Storm Thorgerson, stuntman, The Dark Side Of The Moon, The Nice, The Original Soundtrack, Throbbing Gristle, throwaway, Tottenham Court Road, UK, Wings Greatest, Wish You Were Here

Features Live Action Movies

Indiana Jones
And The
Dial Of Destiny

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 27 June 2023
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And The
Dial Of Destiny
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Director – James Mangold – 2022 – US / UK – Cert. 12a – 154m

*****

In the late 1960s, the newly-retired archaeologist is dragged by his goddaughter into a globetrotting adventure involving Nazis and ancient artefacts – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, June 28th

In 1945 in Europe, at the close of the Second World War, whilst fighting Nazis led by archaeologist Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) both in a castle and on a train, archaeologists Henry Jones (Harrison Ford) and Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) gain possession of an ancient artefact, the Archimedes Dial aka the Antekythera mechanism.

Over two decades later in 1969 in New York, on the day of his retirement from academia, Jones is approached by his late colleague’s daughter – his goddaughter – Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who, following her research into her father’s obsession with the artefact, believes she knows the location of one half of the dial, broken into two separate pieces by its maker Archimedes to prevent it falling into unsuitable hands.

She’s wrong though: Jones has it, although possibly not for long as a cabal of Dr. Voller plus Nazis including the trigger-happy Klaber (Boyd Holbrook), the 7’2 Hauke (Olivier Richters) and a CIA agent Mason (Shaunette Renée Wilson) turn up to regain its possession.… Read the rest