{"id":8057,"date":"2016-10-20T19:50:29","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T18:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=8057"},"modified":"2016-10-20T20:05:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T19:05:11","slug":"fool-britannia-scenester-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/fool-britannia-scenester-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Fool Britannia -Scenester Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fool Britannia \u2013 Scandal \u2013 Stop the World I Want to Get Off \u2013 TW3<\/strong><\/p>\n

(El Records ACMemo316CD)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Fool Britannia\u2019 takes us back to an age when politicians learnt that respect was earned, not given, and a moment\u2019s indiscretion could bring the house down. This collection of ephemera, stretched over two CDs, is essential listening for those interested in Britain in the late 50\u2019s\/early 60\u2019s, satire, pop music and the power of the press.<\/p>\n

Written by all-winning song writing team Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, and ably assisted by Peter Sellers and Joan Collins, \u2018Fool Britannia\u2019 rips the merciless out of the then highly topical Profumo Affair. At a time when politicians were generally respected by the media, even held in awe, the news of the brief love affair between Secretary of State for War John Profumo and Christine Keeler, a would-be model would have repercussions far beyond any personal embarrassment caused. That Keeler was simultaneously having an affair with Soviet Naval attach\u00e9 Yevgeny Ivanov, and the revelations about the somewhat sordid details of the case would contribute to the fall of Harold MacMillan\u2019s Conservative government. It was the gift that kept on giving, especially for newspaper owners and comedy writers involved in the popular satire boom.<\/p>\n

Performed before an invited audience at the RCA Victor Studios, New York, on 6\/8\/1963, it opens with Sellers doing a spot-on impression of Newley writing a song live in the studio. \u2018There Goes That Song Again\u2019 works on more than one level, not least of which are the awful rhymes so typical of the \u2018bash \u2018em out and sell \u2018em cheap\u2019 school of Brit song writing at that time. \u2018The House That Mac Built\u2019 stages a speech by PM MacMillan in the bear pit that was the House of Commons, tripping himself up with almost every word, every accidental admission. The impression almost out-does Peter Cook\u2019s own, Cook only trumping when he performed it live before MacMillan, one night.<\/p>\n

The hypocrisy of sexual manners during this time period is elegantly brought out in \u2018Wry On The Rocks\u2019, but for true venom, you need to cock an ear to \u2018They Only Fade Away\u2019, which goes from bar room vulgarity to buffoonish Chinese whispers to amuse us. The biting innuendo in \u2018Countess Interruptus\u2019 and the sharply drawn Royal-baiting of \u2018We Are Not Amused\u2019 would have given the average radio producer a coronary at the time, but this are only paving the way for the newspaper bidding frenzy of \u2018Mightier Than The Sword\u2019. Tony, Peter, Lesley and Joan all give their best in this staging of the scramble for
\nMandy Rice-Davies\u2019 story.<\/p>\n

The international reaction to the scandal is brilliantly satirised by way of parodied news reports in near-enough foreign languages, and followed by what may be the best one-liner of the entire satire boom:\u00a0(French accent) \u2018Eh, want to buy some filthy\u00a0English postcards?\u2019<\/p>\n

For all-out belly laughs, the telephone conversation between two dubious film producers and an agent acting for one of the girls cannot be bettered. Intending to add Mandy\u2019s story to their already impressive roster of forthright, thought\u00a0provoking films, such as \u2018Too Young To Strip\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019m Sixteen and not Ashamed of my Body\u2019, they negotiate the rights from a malodorous telephone box in Old Compton Street.<\/p>\n

Punctuated with sharp one-liners and taking in public reaction to the whole Profumo debacle, \u2018Fool Britannia\u2019 may not crack up a modern audience at fifty years\u2019 distance, but as a document of the style of humour and public attitudes, it can\u2019t be beaten. An interesting side note here: major record companies would not touch this piece with a bargepole at the time. It was Jeffrey S Kruger\u2019s \u2018Ember\u2019 label which saw its release, and its subsequent 10 week long residence in the
\nLP charts.<\/p>\n

Highlights of the soundtrack from the film \u2018Scandal\u2019 (1989) are well chosen, ranging from Frank Sinatra\u2019s sublime \u2018Witchcraft\u2019 to Guy Mitchell\u2019s hilarious \u2018She Wears Red Feathers\u2019. The full album is well worth investigating for its highly representative choices of popular (rather than \u2018pop\u2019) music of the era, the only original song being Dusty Springfield\u2019s \u2018Nothing Has Been Proved\u2019, written by Pet Shop Boys.<\/p>\n

Disk 2<\/strong>, although bearing a facsimile of the cover from \u2018Stop The World I Want To Get Off\u2019, with Anthony Newley in Pierrot costume, actually opens with Mandy Rice Davies\u2019 efforts to become a pop star; four songs which should have convinced everyone she was not suited to this particular walk of life. The upbeat \u2018You\u2019ve Got What It Takes\u2019 makes considerable use of echo on Mandy\u2019s thin voice, recalling the tuneless Yvonne in \u2018Smashing Time\u2019, and the smoochy jazz of \u2018Close your Eyes\u2019 is no better served. \u2018All I Do Is Dream of You\u2019 pitches Mandy as an innocent, and the mercifully final selection, \u2018A Good Man Is Hard to Find\u2019 must have had the listeners in fits at the suggested Spoonerism in its title. Not that Mandy was the only one seeking to make a quick buck out of this incendiary story: Joyce Blair, labouring under the well-chosen moniker, \u2018Miss X\u2019, turns in a sexily humorous one-sided conversation in \u2018Christine\u2019, and as if to ensure a complete radio ban, the sultry ditty, \u2018S.E.X.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Stop The World I Want To Get Off\u2019 occupies much of the second disk, and if you\u2019re not familiar with this funny, satirical piece from the days when going to a musical was not the dull, predictable affair it is today, then you should listen to it without delay. Basically a story of an ordinary Joe\u2019s path through life, taking in early marriage forced on by his girl\u2019s unexpected pregnancy, work and its joys, and finally, his transformation into a populist political hopeful, every song is tuneful, memorable and barbed in a way that would never do in today\u2019s no-risk
\nlight entertainment.<\/p>\n

Following this are selections from the ever sharp, slyly digging world of \u2018That Was the Week That Was\u2019, the BBC television show (1962-63) which capitalised on the satire boom. Using impressions, song, narrative and the week\u2019s news as its raw material, \u2018TW3\u2019 had a huge array of writers, a wealth of talent and presented by the legendary David Frost, it was the BBC\u2019s most strident and most feared show.<\/p>\n

TW3<\/strong> took on the establishment in a weekly sparring contest, and ran it round the ring until it was too exasperated to defend itself further. The previously untouchable subjects of sex, religion and class, Britain\u2019s much diminished place in the world and the private lives of our leaders all came under scrutiny and were mocked mercilessly. The week\u2019s news, sung by the lovely Millicent Martin makes for a good start, and the real life meeting between pop singer Adam Faith and the Archbishop of York is given a cheeky twist with \u2018Adam\u2019s Not A Sinner Anymore\u2019, sung in the adenoidal style, then still popular from the time of Buddy Holly. Lance Percival\u2019s impromptu calypsos may sound a little tame today, but were revolutionary then, but perhaps the finest sketch on offer here is the terribly well-spoken man and woman, skirting around the question of whether to have sex on their presumed first date. Our sexual manners may have moved on since the early 60\u2019s, but the humour of embarrassment is still the same.<\/p>\n

We can enjoy this world of 60\u2019s satire in sound again, thanks to this excellent double pack. BUY HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fool Britannia \u2013 Scandal \u2013 Stop the World I Want to Get Off \u2013 TW3 (El Records ACMemo316CD) \u2018Fool Britannia\u2019 takes us back to an age when politicians learnt that respect was earned, not given, and a moment\u2019s indiscretion could bring the house down. This collection of ephemera, stretched over two CDs, is essential listening …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,71,87,74],"tags":[750,751,1332,305,1331],"series":[],"class_list":["post-8057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-plugs","category-music","category-pop","category-reviews","tag-cherry-red-records","tag-el-records","tag-fool-britannia","tag-scenester","tag-tw3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8057"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8066,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057\/revisions\/8066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8057"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=8057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}