David Porter » Archive
The Merseybeat Sound and Poetry Rocked the 1960s
Liverpool, on the banks of the Mersey, made an artistic contribution to the 1960s’ ethos, unmatched by any other UK city. It’s still the home of culture. Over 200 miles from UK capital, London, Liverpool was relatively isolated as it grew into what was known as The Port of a Thousand Ships, with vital industrial and commercial lifeblood supporting a huge labour force of rich cultural diversity. From across the waters US influence was enormous, especially in music. As the 1960s got under way, new technologies plus youngsters’ changing attitudes to cultural values, authority, drugs, entertainment, self-expression and equal rights caught on. Liverpool had a distinctiveness that set it apart. There was a buzzing nightlife and a vibrant club and music scene. The Beatles The … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
USA and UK, Two Countries Divided by the Same Language
While American-English & British-English are similar but different in spellings and shades of meaning, text-speak could render all differences academic. It seems that nobody agrees who first said that England and America are two countries separated by the same language. The 1951 Treasury of Humorous Quotations quotes Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, as saying it, but not necessarily originating it. An earlier candidate is Oscar Wilde, who wrote in The Canterville Ghost (1887), ‘We really have everything in common with America now except, of course, language”. Although later, war time Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill is sometimes also cited as the originator. Philosopher Bertrand Russell, writing in Saturday Evening Post, June 1944, said: ‘It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have … Read entire article »
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British People Have Become the Most Watched & Recorded on Earth
Big Brother systems watch each UK citizen 3,000 times and record over 3,000 pieces of personal information, every week. These figures were unearthed by the Daily Telegraph in August 2008, and on one level are strangely reassuring – more cameras (one for every 10 people) should mean less crime. Channel 4 News estimated in 2004, Britain had 4 million public and private cameras, 20% of the global total. However, more crime is being committed, so are Brits being watched to meet other agendas? When people feel watched by eyes on posters (like recently at the rail station in Brighton, England), the effect is beneficial. When motorists see a cardboard cut-out of a police car at a roadside, they reduce speed instinctively. Either way, watching eyes, … Read entire article »
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Aliens and Strange Creatures in Movies, Songs and Literature
Nobody knows what extra-terrestrials from other planets look like, but the earthly creative arts world is happy to speculate wildly and profitably. On April Fools Day 2010, a Jordanian newspaper, Al Ghad, carried a front page story of 10-foot aliens from a flying saucer landing near the desert town of Jafr. The Mayor sent out security services. It was a deliberate hoax from enterprising journalists. The War of the Worlds 1938 incident was unplanned, but had a similar effect. It was broadcast on CBS radio on 30 October as a Halloween episode of Theatre-of-the-Air, adapted from the HG Wells’ 1898 novel, War of the Worlds, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. This kick-started his career. It ran without commercial breaks, opening with simulated live news reports, leading listeners to believe an alien invasion … Read entire article »
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Life Cycle
Life Cycle Opera North Projects, Norwich Playhouse Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2011 Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 12 May 2011 Original music with haunting words chimes with mood; captures time, emotion and imagination. We have all been born, but only women have experienced childbirth. This was an evening of old and new music that evoked pain and loss of stillbirth with the tribulations of new live birth. John Reid (piano) and Oliver Coates (cello) opened with a prelude of three pieces on the theme of lullaby (Janacek, Mendelssohn and Messiaen). After an inexplicably long interval, Life Cycle followed. Built round a song cycle, it was an evolving work without finite narrative, but giving us glimpses of being a mother. Toby Litt’s words and Emily Hall’s music dovetailed to create a succession of song fragments that told … Read entire article »
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Some Celebrities Are Worth Much More Dead Than Alive
Forbes’ Magazine publishes an annual list of the top earners among dead celebrities, who last year grossed $886m. Yves St Laurent came first, at $350m. Yves St Laurent ‘earned’ the most of the dead celebrities last year, mainly through the sale of valuable paintings), and he beat Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley ($52m), Kurt Cobain ($50m) and Andy Warhol ($9m). However, it is perhaps Jackson who has the most potential to go on year after year into the future, his estate earning millions of dollars. It made nearly $100m in the first nine months after his death. Kings of Pop Music Cynics would describe death as a smart career move for the already rich and famous, especially those who have a cloud of controversy over … Read entire article »
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A Game of You
A Game of You Ontroerend Goed at The Garage, Norwich Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2011 Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7th May 2011 The fringe festival got off to a dark, strange but fascinating start. Audience members are led in singly, through tiny curtained rooms, one mirrored. You know you’ll participate and it’s going to be disturbing; you don’t know how. It’s immersive theatre, relying on clever psychology, vanity, wariness and our self-consciousness. Like a 1960s Happening which at extremes catered for an audience of one, this is about you, quite literally. You are engaged in warm conversation with a stranger. You are shown a film clip of an audience member you may have noticed outside, but don’t know. You are persuaded to play drama director, creating an imaginary life for that person. The … Read entire article »
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60s’ Pirate Radio Revolutionised British Popular Broadcasting
Ship-based pirate radio was so successful in the Swinging Sixties, it forced the BBC to create Radio 1 & Parliament to legalise commercial radio in Britain. Offshore radio was part of the burgeoning 50s/60s pop industry. It satisfied a thirst for music from increasingly affluent, independent teenagers, who wanted to buy singles and albums, and carry music around as transistor radios caught on. The BBC provided a mere hour a week for new music on the Light Programme, but only from established artists; record companies tightly controlled music performance. Teenagers relied on Radio Luxembourg, only available at night and often crackly. From 1960 they had Radio Veronica, a ship off Holland that provided pop music with Dutch DJs. Radio Caroline, 199 in the Medium … Read entire article »
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Making Laws, Branding Criminals in Britain
People in the UK Can So Easily Pick Up a Criminal Record. The Westminster and European Parliaments churn out thousands of laws annually often with little debate, most of which can now lead to a huge fine, a jail term or both. The UK operates a large bureaucratic machine called the Independent Safeguarding Authority complemented by an unaccountable system of Criminal Record Bureau checks affecting everybody who works with or has contact with vulnerable members of society. These are defined as children in educational or social environments, all ages in care and those unable to be responsible themselves. It all comes out of increased global terrorism fears of the past few years and it sounds fair enough: people should be checked. However, it’s now applied to … Read entire article »
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Nicked
Nicked at High Tide Festival 2011, The Cut, Halesworth Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 3rd May 2011 Halesworth’s High Tide Festival incubates new work and this year they surpass themselves with Nicked, a brave, innovative musical about last year’s still-unbelievable formation of the Coalition Government. Dramatised from the unlikely material of Cameron, Clegg, Brown, Cable, Laws, Miliband, Balls, Osborne and politicos wheeling and dealing in the days after 2010’s inconclusive election, it works. It’s being tried out in Halesworth, with fresh angles added as news breaks, scenes are still evolving. Last May’s events are fresh in people’s minds, so it has a contemporary feel with enough distance to be safe to laugh at. Richard Marsh produced book and clever lyrics: ‘are you a man or a focus group?’, songs about proportional representation (at one … Read entire article »
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