Just finished watching this, as a kid in the late 1970's to mid 80's I was very much into both the British ska and punks scenes so I found this documentary by a German film maker quite interesting. The Sex Pistols, for me one of the most important bands in rock history, open up but they serve just to mark the end of 70's punk so that the film can concentrate on the British post- punk scene. There are interviews and live footage of artists that include The Clash, The Jam, The Police, Boomtown Rats, The Specials, The Selector, Madness, Ian Dury, Tubeway Army and The Pretenders, Well worth watching for this. However, as one other reviewer has mentioned, tagging Ray Davies of The Kinks on the end seems out of place. Hardly an in-depth documentary but British Rock does to quite an extent rock!
4 Reviews
only for the mods and rude boys
urinine20 October 2003
The director has created a largely a thin and superficial look at the Punk Rock(tm) movement. His interviews are uninspiring, and he often lets stars ramble on too long (please someone shut up Bob Geldolf). So what saves this flick?
1) This documentary was made in 1981, which means there is little revisionism. No one going back now pulling out the later historical importance of certain bands. This means bands like the Secret Affair and Ian Dury get attention that would never be afforded to them in a 75 minute retrospective today.
2) The real joy of this video is not the included tired footage of punk bands like The Clash or The Sex Pistols or even the relatively unseen Boomtown Rats footage -- it's the mod and ska moments. Seeing footage from The Jam, and the aforementioned Secret Affair was great. And the footage of The Specials and Madness was equally compelling.
So if you're in it for the mod or ska footage, it's great, otherwise it's mediocre at best.
1) This documentary was made in 1981, which means there is little revisionism. No one going back now pulling out the later historical importance of certain bands. This means bands like the Secret Affair and Ian Dury get attention that would never be afforded to them in a 75 minute retrospective today.
2) The real joy of this video is not the included tired footage of punk bands like The Clash or The Sex Pistols or even the relatively unseen Boomtown Rats footage -- it's the mod and ska moments. Seeing footage from The Jam, and the aforementioned Secret Affair was great. And the footage of The Specials and Madness was equally compelling.
So if you're in it for the mod or ska footage, it's great, otherwise it's mediocre at best.
Great snapshot of Post-punk bands until the last 10 minutes...
keenanchris25 October 2021
This documentary has some great footage of what was happening in the post-punk scene in 1980 but sort of fizzles out towards the end, when it inexplicably loses credibility and spoils the tone by having an interview with Ray Davies of the Kinks, who was already a rock dinosaur by that stage.
Still it's worth watching for original footage of the Clash, Spizz, the Police, the Specials, Madness etc...
Still it's worth watching for original footage of the Clash, Spizz, the Police, the Specials, Madness etc...
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