Looking for a New England: Action, Time, Vision: Music, Film and TV 1975 - 1986

(Paperback)

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Description

Looking for a New England covers the period 1975 to 1986, from Slade in Flame to Absolute Beginners

A carefully researched exploration of transgressive films, the career of David Bowie, dystopias, the Joan Collins ouevre, black cinema, the origins and impact of punk music, political films, comedy, how Ireland and Scotland featured on our screens and the rise of Richard Branson and a new, commercial, mainstream. The sequel to Psychedelic Celluloid, it describes over 100 film and TV productions in detail, together with their literary, social and musical influences during a time when profound changes shrank the size of the UK cinema industry.

Reviews

Matthews clearly knows his stuff * Fortean Times *
Simon Matthews's comprehensive and enjoyable overview... excels as a gazetteer of film genres as varied as black cinema, dystopian futures, the rise and fall of punk rock, 1980s agitprop, and the big-screen careers of Joan Collins and David Bowie * The Spectator *
This absorbing, fact-filled book highlights numerous obscure but deserving British pictures alongside chapters on punk, Bowie and other dissenting voices who kept alive a spirit of adventure and transgression in a period that began with the grittiness of Slade in Flame and wrapped with the glossy, ill-conceived Absolute Beginners * Herald *
Short review quote in here -- Thomas Patterson * Shindig! *
Hugely enjoyable * Lion & Unicorn *

Author Bio

Simon Matthews has had a varied career including a spell running the British Transport Films documentary film library and several years singing in semi-professional rock groups. He has contributed articles on music, film and cultural history to Record Collector, Shindig! and Lobster magazines. Psychedelic Celluloid, his illustrated history of UK music, film and TV between 1965 and 1974 was published by Oldcastle Books in 2016.