Ah, bank holiday weekends in the summer. During the early '60s, that meant one thing: a trip on your Vespa to Brighton.This is the culture captured by the album and film, Quadrophenia. Pete Townshend's masterpiece (yes, it supersedes Tommy IMHO) translated beautifully to the screen in 1979. I always find it hard to believe only six years separated the record and the film, and only 10 years between the record and the events they portray. The mod revival of the late 70s seemed so far removed from the riots in which the cool, cool Mods and those greasy Rockers clashed.
One of the things I did during this American "bank holiday" was dust off my DVD of the film and re-watch my favourite of the extras buried in the menus ... this little gem alone is worth netflixing the film, especially if you haven't seen it in a while. (And if you haven't seen it at all ... well, you're really in for a treat.)
It's a video journey from Trafalgar Square to the beach -- an hour-long trip -- in six minutes, traveling mostly on the A23. It has a great feature in which you can toggle between a little inset of a road map and the sped-up video itself. It's a little mental to pretend your Jimmy and his mates on their scooters, ready to make history, but if you're reading this you're probably a bit mad for a start.
** Thank you to the New Forest Scooter Club for the use of the photo.
1 comment:
BTW my ex-girlfriend Anya and her husband can be seen crossing the street at the very end of that sequence in Brighton. They are in full biker regalia and the video actually stops and points them out with the graphic: "Rockers?" True story!
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