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Monday, September 16, 2024
Test Dept - The Unacceptable Face of Freedom - Bishop's Bridge Railway Depot - Melody Maker April 5 1986
Test Dept were one of those bands you didn't have to actually listen to, because you knew exactly what they were going to sound like from their name and image. I suspect that they were anathema to anybody who had actually done an industrial job; who had heard clanging all day; who experienced cranes and chains as prosaic everyday realities.
They were probably one of the few bands that could have benefited from a sense of irony, from a bit of post-modernism. In fact, there is probably some mileage in comparing them to Ghost Box/Scarfolk. Test Dept as a last gasp of the post-war consensus, verging on the hauntological but refusing to succumb to it, to admitting that that world was over.
That's an interesting idea - the refusal to mourn.
Have you seen any of those Patrick Keller films, like London and Robinson in Space. I think there's a third one called something like Robinson in Ruins. There are sort of essays about the urban landscape and changes and the politics behind, with this wry narration by Paul Scofield about a fictional character, a researcher called Robinson. The second one is not limited to London but wanders around the U.K. - and one of the arguments, or polemics in it, is that contra to the notion of de-industrialisation happening in the 1980s, there remained into the 90s a surprisingly large amount of manufacture and making-stuff going on in the UK.
They are great films, especially the first one - documenting all this stuff that doesn't often get captured in the urban landscape, or if it does, it's almost by accident, in old sitcoms with exterior footage or drama series where they are looking for a bleak backdrop.
And I think they belong to a small canon of hauntological films. Alongside Saint Etienne's Finisterre, which is fairly transparently an imitation of Keller.
Robinson in Ruins has Vanessa Redgrave doing the narration, which is an interesting variation (Paul Scofield had died). I think Robinson's name came from Weldon Kees's Robinson poems.
I haven't seen the Keller films, but I will make a note to check them out.
In "The Rise And Fall Of The British Nation" David Edgerton points out that the peak year for British manufacturing was 2007, and that in the 1950's the UK was still the most industrialised nation on Earth. For all the post-war declinist mentality, Britain has only been seriously declining since 2008, and even then it's not as bad as all the gnashing and wailing of teeth would suggest. It doesn't help of course that now the fucking Prime Minister is leading the chorus of despair.
The thing is, there were always pockets of localised decline, or exemplary poverty, before 1945, only nobody really photographed or filmed them. The prosaic films for mass audiences, which are generally marginalised by darkness-fetishising critics, are often revealing by showing how much better general social conditions used to be - clean streets, well-dressed people, an abundant variety of shops, etc.
A good example is the old "Doctor" or "Carry On" films set in hospitals, which show how incredibly orderly, well-appointed, spacious, and efficient they were compared to modern hospitals, which are comparative dumps. Those films weren't particularly idealised, as I went into hospital as a kid in the early 70's and can remember when they were really like that.
I think you'd really enjoy those films - they are are funny and eerie. Robinson - although we never actually see him - is a bit like a one-man Gilbert & George, this sort of bachelor-researcher. What we see is what he is looking at, it's all through his eyes, and then with this droll, dry voiceover.
Finisterre even copies the posh thesp voice-over, it's narrated by Michael Jayston. (It's a good film, though).
Ah that's interesting about the bright, clean U.K. of post-war years.
I suppose the thing that jumps out at me when I look at old Brit TV and films is not the delapidation of the urban environment, it's the delapidation of the people! I have been meaning to write something on British teeth. If you watch something like New Faces or Call My Bluff, it's quite startling the state of people's mouths - public figures with stained enamel and little rotted away stubs! And people generally look shitter.
Even on something as exciting and youthquakey as Ready Steady Go, you can see the kids are a bit undernourished. The hair is worst condition - they have to hairspray it to get it how they want it, which creates this stiff unwieldly helmet of hair effect.
I guess everyone smoked then and it was coming out the post-war rationing-continues era.
I think people in the UK look worse now! There is far more obesity, even fairly young people wheeling themselves about on mobility scooters. Also shapeless clothes - sweat pants from J.D. Sports etc. Sleeve tattoos, also. I suppose it's the opposite affliction, of over-abundance.
People from the 70's appear to me to be generally tougher looking, gnarlier, lean and mean. Like they all belong in an Alan Clarke film. Although speaking to your point, this is a telling moment:
Test Dept were one of those bands you didn't have to actually listen to, because you knew exactly what they were going to sound like from their name and image. I suspect that they were anathema to anybody who had actually done an industrial job; who had heard clanging all day; who experienced cranes and chains as prosaic everyday realities.
ReplyDeleteThey were probably one of the few bands that could have benefited from a sense of irony, from a bit of post-modernism. In fact, there is probably some mileage in comparing them to Ghost Box/Scarfolk. Test Dept as a last gasp of the post-war consensus, verging on the hauntological but refusing to succumb to it, to admitting that that world was over.
That's an interesting idea - the refusal to mourn.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen any of those Patrick Keller films, like London and Robinson in Space. I think there's a third one called something like Robinson in Ruins. There are sort of essays about the urban landscape and changes and the politics behind, with this wry narration by Paul Scofield about a fictional character, a researcher called Robinson. The second one is not limited to London but wanders around the U.K. - and one of the arguments, or polemics in it, is that contra to the notion of de-industrialisation happening in the 1980s, there remained into the 90s a surprisingly large amount of manufacture and making-stuff going on in the UK.
They are great films, especially the first one - documenting all this stuff that doesn't often get captured in the urban landscape, or if it does, it's almost by accident, in old sitcoms with exterior footage or drama series where they are looking for a bleak backdrop.
And I think they belong to a small canon of hauntological films. Alongside Saint Etienne's Finisterre, which is fairly transparently an imitation of Keller.
Robinson in Ruins has Vanessa Redgrave doing the narration, which is an interesting variation (Paul Scofield had died). I think Robinson's name came from Weldon Kees's Robinson poems.
DeleteI haven't seen the Keller films, but I will make a note to check them out.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Rise And Fall Of The British Nation" David Edgerton points out that the peak year for British manufacturing was 2007, and that in the 1950's the UK was still the most industrialised nation on Earth. For all the post-war declinist mentality, Britain has only been seriously declining since 2008, and even then it's not as bad as all the gnashing and wailing of teeth would suggest. It doesn't help of course that now the fucking Prime Minister is leading the chorus of despair.
The thing is, there were always pockets of localised decline, or exemplary poverty, before 1945, only nobody really photographed or filmed them. The prosaic films for mass audiences, which are generally marginalised by darkness-fetishising critics, are often revealing by showing how much better general social conditions used to be - clean streets, well-dressed people, an abundant variety of shops, etc.
A good example is the old "Doctor" or "Carry On" films set in hospitals, which show how incredibly orderly, well-appointed, spacious, and efficient they were compared to modern hospitals, which are comparative dumps. Those films weren't particularly idealised, as I went into hospital as a kid in the early 70's and can remember when they were really like that.
I think you'd really enjoy those films - they are are funny and eerie. Robinson - although we never actually see him - is a bit like a one-man Gilbert & George, this sort of bachelor-researcher. What we see is what he is looking at, it's all through his eyes, and then with this droll, dry voiceover.
DeleteFinisterre even copies the posh thesp voice-over, it's narrated by Michael Jayston. (It's a good film, though).
Ah that's interesting about the bright, clean U.K. of post-war years.
I suppose the thing that jumps out at me when I look at old Brit TV and films is not the delapidation of the urban environment, it's the delapidation of the people! I have been meaning to write something on British teeth. If you watch something like New Faces or Call My Bluff, it's quite startling the state of people's mouths - public figures with stained enamel and little rotted away stubs! And people generally look shitter.
Even on something as exciting and youthquakey as Ready Steady Go, you can see the kids are a bit undernourished. The hair is worst condition - they have to hairspray it to get it how they want it, which creates this stiff unwieldly helmet of hair effect.
I guess everyone smoked then and it was coming out the post-war rationing-continues era.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think people in the UK look worse now! There is far more obesity, even fairly young people wheeling themselves about on mobility scooters. Also shapeless clothes - sweat pants from J.D. Sports etc. Sleeve tattoos, also. I suppose it's the opposite affliction, of over-abundance.
ReplyDeletePeople from the 70's appear to me to be generally tougher looking, gnarlier, lean and mean. Like they all belong in an Alan Clarke film. Although speaking to your point, this is a telling moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBED210coew