HOME CONTACT US Get our RSS feed: DISCLAIMER: Music hosted on this site is for preview purposes only. If you like what you hear please buy the artist's work. You can find much of it here: ARCHIVE January 2007

Under The Skins Last year, the fairer, lovelier half of Pinglewood- the half that doesn’t regularly fall asleep drunk and covered in debris on the Pinglepad’s hard, unforgiving and steep (oh, so very steep!) staircase- declared This Is England far and away the best film screened at the London Film Festival. It duly won best feature at the British Independent Film Awards and its young star Thomas Turgoose deservedly bagged the Best Newcomer award. After months of delay and an unduly harsh 18 certification, Shane Meadows’s fantastic film will finally open in UK cinemas on 27/04/07. Though it might sound a tad premature, and more than a little hyperbolic, we think this is the best film you’ll see all year. Set in 1983, against the aftermath of the Falklands conflict, the film tells the story of Shaun, a troubled eleven-year-old boy who falls in with a friendly group of local skinheads, but is slowly radicalized when a charismatic, but overtly racist friend of the gang returns from a stay in prison. Meadows has said the story is based partly on his own childhood and everything about This Is England is utterly authentic, from the desolate and desperate Midlands town that Shaun calls home to the easy banter and simmering menace that permeates such places. As with all Meadows’s work, wry comedy goes toe-to-toe with shocking violence, but it’s the empathy and warmth he shows his characters, even those who behave abhorrently, that lingers. The film is full of nuanced, well-rounded performances, but it is the extraordinary Turgoose, just 12 years old at the time of filming, who will break your heart. Lonely, funny, brave, angry and intensely vulnerable, he makes Shaun one of the most unforgettable characters you'll encounter this year. Turgoose’s performance is made all the more remarkable when you discover the film is dedicated to his mother, who lost her battle with cancer during filming. Meadows’s films are always impeccably soundtracked and This Is England is no exception. Drawing on the ska, punk and soul obsessions of the Oi! skinhead scene the film features music from Toots & the Maytals, The Upsetters, The Specials and UK Subs, as well as Strawberry Switchblade. It’s a fantastic collection of songs and you’d be a fool not to buy it. We’ve selected a few choice tracks for your listening pleasure. The film opens to the strains of Toots & the Maytals's 54-46 Was My Number and closes with Clayhill’s haunting rendition of The Smiths's Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want. Clayhill frontman Gavin Clark is an old pal of Meadows whose next project will be a documentary about the singer’s attempt to find a foothold in the music industry. The Percy Sledge number plays a key role in the film, illuminating the transcendental importance of music to its most lost and disenfranchised character; the hope it can provide, but not always deliver. Toots & the Maytals - 54-46 Was My Number [mp3] Percy Sledge - The Dark End of the Street [mp3] Clayhill - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want [mp3] If you want to read more about Meadows and his many brilliant films visit his very well-run and endlessly entertaining fansite. Here’s a 1981 BBC documentary about the Oi! scene that provides a great insight into the world of This Is England. Unfortunately some idiots have poisoned the video’s comments section proving that Meadows’s film is not only timely, but very necessary. Part One Part Two Posted by: Scott 21/03/07