#music: Paul Simpson, Johnny Moped, Lee Morgan, Blitz Kids.
And so it came to pass … it appears that it was on the 7th of May 1979 - just before my 17th birthday - that I went to Middlesbrough Rock Garden to see the acoustic punk troubadour Patrick Fitzgerald supported by The Wall, from Sunderland, and The Teardrop Explodes, from Liverpool. As I remember, it was a bright sunny day outside the dingy music venue and quite appropriately, it was the bottom of the bill The Teardrop Explodes who stood out. I saw them again later that year at the Leeds Futurama, and they really were terrific. And I saw at least once more, when they were well on their way to deserved commercial success.
These are the sort of memory sparks that were kindled when I was reading Paul Simpson’s whipcrack of a memoir Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism. This really is a speeding read full of loss, hope, humour, adventure, tragedy, and an unerring belief in the power of the imagination.
At first glance. it looks like Simpson is a kind of Zelig of the post-punk music scene (s) but very quickly you realise how much of a prime mover he was, and how important he was to shaping the music, and the worldviews that came with it.
Simpson can really spin a yarn, and Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism is an engrossing look at a man coming to terms with his limitations and, more importantly, embracing his many strengths.
A corker, then.
‘Out of one small London venue called The Blitz came a generation of outrageous teenagers, working class and art school kids, who would define the look, the sound, the style and the attitude of the '80s and beyond. This is their story.’
Truth be told, I had barely a jot of interest in the New Romantic scene, and its related milieu, during its brief incandescence. At the time, I was hovering more around the ‘it’s grim up north’/ Long mac wearers with a Camus book in the back pocket’ side of things. I also had the, now clearly- mistaken, belief that those involved with the scene - Blitz Kids- were nothing more than spoilt, posh southerners dabbling with decadence, Well, how wrong could I bloody be!
Bruce Ashley and Michael Donald’s splendid Blitzed documentary bursts more than a few of those bubbles, I can tell you. The story is a joyful and inspiring tale of bloody-minded dedication, and the interviews are illuminating and frequently- especially those with Boy George and Maryln - bloody hilarious.
I have no idea what I was doing on a Tuesday night at that time but I was certainly not having as much fun as this crew!
Check it out!
Basically, Johnny Moped is a joy! Tender, funny, inspiring, tragic, enthralling. A great look at a one of life's true outsiders, the eponymous Mr Moped, but also the rest of the band and the coterie of waifs and strays that surrounded and continue to surround him. It fills in a lot of the gaps in punk history, too, with appearances from Chrissie Hynde, Captain Sensible and others. Very highly recommended.
I Called Him Morgan is a beautiful and elegiac documentary on the life and death of the great jazz trumpet player Lee Morgan. Highly recommended.
© Paul D. Brazill.