{"id":6169,"date":"2023-07-27T16:19:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6169"},"modified":"2025-01-08T13:32:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T13:32:33","slug":"exclusive-shindig-qobuz-playlist-6-up-the-junction-british-pop-rock-in-the-movies-1966-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6169","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Shindig! Qobuz playlist #6: Up The Junction \u2013 British Pop & Rock In The Movies 1966-73"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re very excited to be media partners with the truly\u00a0unique online streaming platform and\u00a0download store Qobuz<\/a><\/b>. The sixth of our monthly bespoke playlists, which take in all manner of genres and sub-genres, scenes and beyond, then and now, focuses on Brit pop and rock in the movies. Celluloid has never sounded better<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Play <\/i>here<\/a> or use the scrollable frame with\u00a0tracklist the bottom of the page. You can sign up for a free trial today. Plans start from \u00a310.83 per month. For more on <\/i>Qobuz<\/a> read our interview with MD Dan Mackta <\/i>here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The moment they stuck Elvis in front of a movie camera in Love Me Tender<\/em> in 1956 the floodgates opened. Teen heartthrobs on both sides of the Atlantic (hello, Fabian and Cliff) were co-opted to add youth appeal to otherwise anodyne romance and adventure pictures. Seeing your favourite star perform in a movie or even hearing them sing the theme tune was a guarantee of getting young bums on seats.<\/p>\n

Once The Beatles had kicked down the doors and redefined the cinematic pop star vehicle forever with A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em> in 1964, a slew of hastily contrived pictures followed in which the likes of Herman\u2019s Hermits and The Dave Clark Five attempted to act while blasting out their latest hit. The advent of Swinging London saw filmmakers dig a little deeper as they invited hip songwriters and cool rock bands to reflect the changing times. By the dawn of the \u201970s, even the most anti-establishment underground acts were in on the act.<\/p>\n

Our collection focuses on films featuring music by British artists (some made overseas, or by foreign filmmakers) made between 1966 and \u201973 (its US counterpart will follow). It opens with the undisputed titans of UK pop: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Sort of.<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney wrote \u2018Love In The Open Air\u2019 for the Boulting Brothers\u2019 melodrama The Family Way during the fabs\u2019 post-touring sabbatical in \u201966; George Martin\u2019s arrangement is flawless. Mick Jagger recorded \u2018Memo From Turner\u2019 three times (initially with Traffic, more on whom shortly) for Performance, the controversial gangster noir in which he starred. It was released as his first solo single in \u201970. On a Beatles-adjacent note, George Harrison enlisted Liverpool group The Remo Four to help him complete the music for \u201968 psychedelic reverie Wonderwall, although their own song \u2018In The First Place\u2019 was omitted from the soundtrack album.<\/p>\n

Bona fide stars who flexed their acting muscles and contributed theme tunes include Lulu (To Sir With Love), Paul Jones (Privilege) and Cilla Black (Work Is A Four Letter Word), while cult singer-songwriter Roy Harper achieved a one-off star billing in gritty \u201972 drama Made, for which he composed four songs including \u2018Bank Of The Dead\u2019, later included on his album Lifemask.<\/p>\n

Rock bands were routinely brought in for the obligatory night club\/party scene. Witness The Yardbirds\u2019 guitar-smashing turn in Blow-Up, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown\u2019s scene-stealing appearance in The Committee, Amen Corner barely visible in Scream And Scream Again and The Freedom gamely lip-synching away in the background in Nerosubianco, for which they wrote and recorded an entire album. The Freedom were formed by ex-members of Procol Harum, whose \u2018Salad Days (Are Here Again\u2019) was featured in \u201967 drama Separation.<\/p>\n

One of Traffic\u2019s first assignments upon their formation in \u201967 was to write the theme tune for much-loved sex comedy Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, in which Steve Winwood\u2019s former band The Spencer Davis Group make a cameo and contribute the bulk of the soundtrack album. The Kinks managed to knock off an entire album\u2019s worth of music for another sex comedy, \u201971\u2019s Percy, the quality and depth of the music far outstripping that of the movie. Similarly, The Tremeloes recorded 14 songs for \u201970 Italian thriller May Morning that went unreleased for over 20 years. Five Bee Gees songs found their way into \u201971 children\u2019s film Melody (AKA Swalk), with \u2018Melody Fair\u2019 from their \u201969 album Odessa becoming something of a theme tune. Three Badfinger songs appear in \u201970s\u2019s The Magic Christian, including the specially composed \u2018Carry On Till Tomorrow\u2019.<\/p>\n

Representing the folk-rock community are Donovan, whose music appeared in several films during this period, his theme to Ken Loach\u2019s \u201967 kitchen sink drama Poor Cow being the most high-profile; Sandy Denny, whose two contributions to \u201971 Danish skin flick Swedish Fly Girls are not only unique to the soundtrack but beg the question, why?; Pentangle, offering an otherwise unavailable epic take of folk standard \u2018Tam Lin\u2019 to the \u201970 folk-horror oddity of the same title; Third Ear Band, who composed the entire score for Roman Polanski\u2019s grimy \u201971 adaptation of Macbeth. Notorious \u201970 exploitation film Permissive fictionalised the downbeat adventures of real-life band Forever More, who are seen performing in several scenes. (The soundtrack also features cuts by cult heroes Comus and Titus Groan.)<\/p>\n

Elsewhere we find individual tracks by a bewildering array of artists being employed as theme tunes or making ad-hoc appearances in all manner of celluloid outings: Cat Stevens in Deep End, Alan Price in O Lucky Man!, Katch 22 in Baby Doll, The Foundations in Take A Girl Like You, Nirvana in The Touchables, Don Partridge in Otley, Roger Waters & Ron Geesin in The Body, and The Hollies (\u201cassisted\u201d by the film\u2019s star Peter Sellers) in After The Fox.<\/p>\n

We end almost as we began, with Billy Fury \u2013 a genuine British rock \u2019n\u2019 roll star equally at home in the worlds of singing and acting \u2013 as he tears through The Who\u2019s \u2018Long Live Rock\u2019, immortalised in a scene in \u201973 coming-of-age drama That\u2019ll Be The Day, set in the singer\u2019s formative late \u201950s heyday.<\/p>\n

The moment they stuck Elvis in front of a movie camera in Love Me Tender in 1956 the floodgates opened. Teen heartthrobs on both sides of the Atlantic (hello, Fabian and Cliff) were co-opted to add youth appeal to otherwise anodyne romance and adventure pictures. Seeing your favourite star perform in a movie or even hearing them sing the theme tune was a guarantee of getting young bums on seats.
\nOnce The Beatles had kicked down the doors and redefined the cinematic pop star vehicle forever with A Hard Day\u2019s Night in 1964, a slew of hastily contrived pictures followed in which the likes of Herman\u2019s Hermits and The Dave Clark Five attempted to act while blasting out their latest hit. The advent of Swinging London saw filmmakers dig a little deeper as they invited hip songwriters and cool rock bands to reflect the changing times. By the dawn of the \u201970s, even the most anti-establishment underground acts were in on the act.
\nOur collection focuses on films featuring music by British artists (some made overseas, or by foreign filmmakers) made between 1966 and \u201973 (its US counterpart will follow). It opens with the undisputed titans of UK pop: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Sort of.
\nPaul McCartney wrote \u2018Love In The Open Air\u2019 for the Boulting Brothers\u2019 melodrama The Family Way during the fabs\u2019 post-touring sabbatical in \u201966; George Martin\u2019s arrangement is flawless. Mick Jagger recorded \u2018Memo From Turner\u2019 three times (initially with Traffic, more on whom shortly) for Performance, the controversial gangster noir in which he starred. It was released as his first solo single in \u201970. On a Beatles-adjacent note, George Harrison enlisted Liverpool group The Remo Four to help him complete the music for \u201968 psychedelic reverie Wonderwall, although their own song \u2018In The First Place\u2019 was omitted from the soundtrack album.
\nBona fide stars who flexed their acting muscles and contributed theme tunes include Lulu (To Sir With Love), Paul Jones (Privilege) and Cilla Black (Work Is A Four Letter Word), while cult singer-songwriter Roy Harper achieved a one-off star billing in gritty \u201972 drama Made, for which he composed four songs including \u2018Bank Of The Dead\u2019, later included on his album Lifemask.
\nRock bands were routinely brought in for the obligatory night club\/party scene. Witness The Yardbirds\u2019 guitar-smashing turn in Blow-Up, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown\u2019s scene-stealing appearance in The Committee, Amen Corner barely visible in Scream And Scream Again and The Freedom gamely lip-synching away in the background in Nerosubianco, for which they wrote and recorded an entire album. The Freedom were formed by ex-members of Procol Harum, whose \u2018Salad Days (Are Here Again\u2019) was featured in \u201967 drama Separation.<\/p>\n

One of Traffic\u2019s first assignments upon their formation in \u201967 was to write the theme tune for much-loved sex comedy Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, in which Steve Winwood\u2019s former band The Spencer Davis Group make a cameo and contribute the bulk of the soundtrack album. The Kinks managed to knock off an entire album\u2019s worth of music for another sex comedy, \u201971\u2019s Percy, the quality and depth of the music far outstripping that of the movie. Similarly, The Tremeloes recorded 14 songs for \u201970 Italian thriller May Morning that went unreleased for over 20 years. Five Bee Gees songs found their way into \u201971 children\u2019s film Melody (AKA Swalk), with \u2018Melody Fair\u2019 from their \u201969 album Odessa becoming something of a theme tune. Three Badfinger songs appear in \u201970s\u2019s The Magic Christian, including the specially composed \u2018Carry On Till Tomorrow\u2019.
\nRepresenting the folk-rock community are Donovan, whose music appeared in several films during this period, his theme to Ken Loach\u2019s \u201967 kitchen sink drama Poor Cow being the most high-profile; Sandy Denny, whose two contributions to \u201971 Danish skin flick Swedish Fly Girls are not only unique to the soundtrack but beg the question, why?; Pentangle, offering an otherwise unavailable epic take of folk standard \u2018Tam Lin\u2019 to the \u201970 folk-horror oddity of the same title; Third Ear Band, who composed the entire score for Roman Polanski\u2019s grimy \u201971 adaptation of Macbeth. Notorious \u201970 exploitation film Permissive fictionalised the downbeat adventures of real-life band Forever More, who are seen performing in several scenes. (The soundtrack also features cuts by cult heroes Comus and Titus Groan.)
\nElsewhere we find individual tracks by a bewildering array of artists being employed as theme tunes or making ad-hoc appearances in all manner of celluloid outings: Cat Stevens in Deep End, Alan Price in O Lucky Man!, Katch 22 in Baby Doll, The Foundations in Take A Girl Like You, Nirvana in The Touchables, Don Partridge in Otley, Roger Waters & Ron Geesin in The Body, and The Hollies (\u201cassisted\u201d by the film\u2019s star Peter Sellers) in After The Fox.
\nWe end almost as we began, with Billy Fury \u2013 a genuine British rock \u2019n\u2019 roll star equally at home in the worlds of singing and acting \u2013 as he tears through The Who\u2019s \u2018Long Live Rock\u2019, immortalised in a scene in \u201973 coming-of-age drama That\u2019ll Be The Day, set in the singer\u2019s formative late \u201950s heyday.<\/p>\n