Brighton Rock trailer

The film is based on the book by Graham Greene, and was originally made into a film in 1947 with a young, dangerous Richard Attenborough.  Early reviews trash it, but I'll see it bacause it is now set in 1964 with Mods & Rockers clashing it up.The film debuts in the UK on Feb. 2.






Still from the film. Read the "pre-review" from a very passionate Simon Heffer at the Telegraph.

Painted English Pillow

This pricey hand painted silk cushion is super-cute. Regularly buy it for £85, but use the promo code: MYDECOB10 to get £10 off through 8/31/10.

 

Blog entry soundtrack: "Traveling Light" by JJ Cale

Found on Flikr...

If you have visited this blog before, you may have seen the cool Flikr feed that I have on the left. It randomly posts images tagged with key words like "scooter" and "vespa." Sometimes I follow the link to see what from what sets the images are pulled. Lots of cool scooter stuff going on around the globe!

Here is one recent set that I have enjoyed. I love the highly customized scooters of England. Also love all those old city names, so this image with a shout-out to Shrewsbury. As some readers may recall, my BF is English. Once we went back to England to sight-see and visit his family. We popped into several scooter shops and drove all over the lower part of the country. It was a blast.

I wish more US scooterists would make English-style custom scooters.

photo from nualabugeye's Flikr set.

My Fave Scooter-Riding Sleuth

If you haven't caught Hetty Wainthrop Investigates on PBS' Mystery! series, you are missing out. Not only does actress Patricia Routledge do an excellent job inhabiting the spunky and no-nonsense female detective "of a certain age" but she also does so sometimes from the back of a Lambretta.

The series has Hetty starting her own investigation agency at the age of 60, when she determines hat she has a knack for ferreting the truth.  She is assisted by her sidekick Geoffrey, played by Dominc Monaghan (from Lord of the Rings films and Lost), pilots the scooter and helps Hetty with her investigations. Not every episode has a scooter, but you'll find it interesting nonetheless if you enjoy the sort of programming that Mystery! brings.

You can get the first season at Amazon for a discount, but it looks like some independent sellers have it at a nice discount.  Go Hetty!

London Telegrah celebrates Quadrophenia Aniversary

The Telegraph "embedded" a reporter into the celebration for Quadrophenia's 30th anniversary. His report is a little humorous, but interesting nonetheless. I'm wondering what the died-in-the-wool mods think of the reporter coming along on his Vespa S.The trip culminated in a stage version of the film. The video is a fun watch.

So long, Alton Ellis...

Alton Ellis, King of Rocksteady, has died at the age of 70. The story as run in the UK' Guardian:

By David Katz, The Guardian,
Tuesday October 14 2008

Hailed as the king of rock steady, Alton Ellis, who has died aged 70 of cancer, was the first singer to popularise the style that formed the bridge between ska and reggae, and one of Jamaica's best-loved vocalists. Blessed with a distinctive voice whose emotive tones were particularly expressive, he was a constant presence in the island's charts for much of the 1960s and early 1970s. Although he never reached the pop charts in Britain, he maintained a strong fanbase here, not only among the Jamaican immigrant community that thronged to his concerts, but also among the wider population of British reggae fans, many of whom were drawn to his music following the "two tone" ska revival of the 1980s.

Born in downtown Kingston in 1940, he was raised in the heart of Trench Town, the west Kingston ghetto district that would later be home to Bob Marley and the Wailers and countless other Jamaican vocalists. At Boys' Town school, Ellis excelled at sports and music, and often broke into the school in the evening to teach himself to play the piano, sometimes spending entire nights at the instrument.

Many of his peers were reaching the stage through the weekly talent contests held by the journalist Vere Johns, but Ellis was too frightened by the competition to appear on his own, so in 1959 he formed a duo with a friend called Eddie Perkins. While Ellis worked by day on a construction site in Stony Hill, the duo made their first recording, a slow love ballad called Muriel. Produced by Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, founder of Studio One, the song was an immediate success that topped the Jamaican charts.

After recording a couple of follow-ups for Coxsone and My Love Divine for Vincent "Randy" Chin, the duo was forced to disband when Perkins travelled to the US, where he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ellis worked as a printer for the next year and a half, forming a short-lived new duo with John Holt, cutting Rum Bumpers in 1965. He then continued recording for Coxsone, notably duetting with his younger sister, Hortense.

Moving to the Treasure Isle stable of Coxsone's arch-rival, Duke Reid, Ellis then assembled a backing harmony group called the Flames, scoring one of the biggest hits of 1966 with Dance Crasher, a song decrying the "rude boys" who were wreaking havoc in Jamaica's dance halls. Soon after, still backed by the Flames, Ellis cut Girl I've Got a Date, named by many as the first rock steady recording, and later Rock Steady, the first to refer to the genre by name. Other notable tunes cut for Reid in this period included an original called Breaking Up and brilliant cover versions of Johnnie Taylor's Ain't That Loving You, Chuck Jackson's Willow Tree and the Delfonics' La La (Means I Love You), all of which are confirmed classics frequently covered by others in the decades that followed.

In 1967, Coxsone poached Ellis back from Reid, sending him to the UK to tour with Ken Boothe and the Soul Vendors. Further gems followed, such as A Fool, one of many songs inspired by the tempestuous relationship with his first wife, Pearl, as well as the album Sings Rock and Soul.

After spending several months in the US, Ellis then moved to Canada, where he was largely based for the next three years, working the nightclub circuit as a soul singer. Back in Jamaica in 1970, he scored big with his rendition of You've Made Me So Very Happy, made famous by Blood Sweat and Tears, as featured on the Coxsone-produced 1970 album Sunday Coming, and the following year, the spiritually eloquent and politically relevant Deliver Us, recorded for Lloyd "Matador" Daley; Big Bad Boy, another anti-rude boy song recorded for the producer Keith Hudson (and apparently inspired by him), was another big hit.

In 1973, Ellis moved to the UK, where he continued to record, issuing the excellent self-produced Still in Love in 1977. Although based in the UK since then, he made notable recordings in Jamaica for Sonia Pottinger during the late 1970s and the album Many Moods of Alton Ellis, released by Earl Morgan of the Heptones in 1980. Sporadic recordings continued for UK-based concerns such as Fashion Records and Jamaican producers such as King Jammy, while the series of annual Rock Steady Revues he presented in London were always eagerly anticipated, as were his live appearances in general. In recent years, despite health concerns, Ellis headlined several festivals in the US and Europe.

In 1994, Ellis received the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican government in recognition of his vital contribution to the island's popular culture, and he is to be given a state funeral. He is survived by numerous children from different relationships and many grandchildren.

• Alton Nehemiah Ellis, singer, songwriter, producer and concert promoter, born September 1 1938; died October 11 2008

Listen to a podcast at Heartbeat Records featuring, Feeling Inside. And another featuring I'm still in Love with You.

When in Birstall, get your hair cut

Saw this story on line about a scooter-loving mod who has opened up a mod/scooter themed hair salon. According to the salon owner, "My inspiration came from being one of the founding members of the Spen Valley Saints, which has given me the reputation of being a mod hair specialist."

So if you find yourself in Birstall, in the Leicestershire area of England, pop in for a mod do.

James McEvoy trades in motorcycle for scooter

Well, his reasoning may be kinda lame, but I like James McEvoy, so I'll accept him on our team:

FILM star James McAvoy has traded in his motorbike for a scooter after an encounter with a road bully.

The 29-year-old Scot fell off his red Hyosung bike after a car driver revving his engine made him nervous.

The Last King of Scotland star said: "I was lost and stopped at traffic lights.

"There was this guy looking at my shiny, red bike and he kept thinking, 'I'm going to make him race.'

"I just got terrified and very meek and thought, 'I need to get out of this guy's way.'

"I was basically intimidated into coming off my bike.

"It was someone else's fault entirely, as these things always are."

James added: "It was kind of scary, so I've gone back to just having a little scooter now. That's so much safer for me."

Source: Fiona Young, The Sunday Mail

Anyone seen "This is England"?

I heard about this 2006 British film a few months ago, but haven't seem it, yet. I'll add it to my Netflix queue. Anyone seen it & want to comment on it? Are there any scooters in it? The soundtrack has some good songs and it received several favorable reviews.
From the IFC website:

It's 1983 and school is out. Twelve-year-old Shaun is a lonely boy growing up in a grim coastal town in northern England, whose father died fighting in the Falklands War. Over the course of the summer holiday he befriends a group of local skinheads. With his pent-up rage and frustration, Shaun finds exactly what he needs in the gang-mischief, mayhem and brotherhood. He also meets the volatile and boorish Combo, an older skinhead who sees himself in Shaun. Adopting Shaun as his protege, Combo leads the gang down a hate spewing path that culminates in an irreversible act of violence.

Should be an interesting film to watch, although I wonder if it will reinforce the mistaken American idea that all skinheads are Nazis or National Front types.

This is England official website

Lemme know what you thought of it!