Re: Quadrophenia film

[John Hughes <john@pureneasy.fsnet.co.uk>]

Mark, re

> > Second, even without the Townshend story it's a damned good picture 
> > of that period of history in the UK (like the British American 
> > Graffitti, you could say, only darker and more dramatic).

Well, speaking as  British lad who was in his early teens in that
period, it's a lot more like reality was for us then than I suspect
American Graffiti was for most Americans:-)

My problem with it is that being set in London, it has no relevance to
where I was living; for instance, the pie and mash cafe - nothing like
it where I lived. The public baths; I'm not aware that there were any of
these where I lived. 

Many houses didn't have proper bathrooms when I was 14 or 15 in the UK;
(I'm a 1950 baby, work it out yourselves!) and to own a scooter at
least, you really had to have quite well off parents or be in a job. 

The mods depicted in the film were much like the mods who ran around in
my hometown, though London boys would no doubt have sneered at
"provincial" mods. 

I knew a few bikers - (let me make it clear, I am referring to young men
who rode motor bikes, not some chapter of the Hells Angels!) who by and
large were good mates.

We never had the kind of trouble which seemed to surround the mods in
London; I think that my schoolmates and I would have been shocked if
we'd seen anything like the pill popping depicted in parts of the film.

Cheers,

John