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A camp classic! David Bowie’s ‘Love You Till Tuesday’, 1969

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Here’s something for casual Bowie fans and die hards alike. In fact, it doesn’t really matter if you are a fan or not, this is guaranteed to brighten up your autumn Monday blues.

Bowie’s pre-1970s career is rife for re-evaluation I reckon, and I think this is as good a place as any to start.

Love You Till Tuesday is a half-hour show-reel of Bowie and a couple of his compatriots performing his songs in a bare TV studio. It was recorded in 1969 at the behest of his manager Kenneth Pitt, and was due to be shown on German TV with some of the sections re-dubbed from English. Unfortunately it never aired, though it does contain the original promo clip for “Space Oddity” you may have seen, erm, floating around.

But really, none of that is too important. The thing is… it’s really fucking funny.

The film’s opening promo, to accompany the song “Love You Till Tuesday,” is like an exquisite distillation of everything that made the late 60s so kitsch.

Just look at little David flopping onto a pillow in the campest imaginable way, while boasting that he will love you for TWO WHOLE DAYS! Try not to think of Austin Powers. it’s pretty hard. There’s a big lol at 1:44, and the music itself is like something from a shitty 70s English sex-comedy, or perhaps one of those racist, unfunny sitcoms people were so fond of back then.

Sadly, David, this is much more Robin Askwith than Anthony Newley.

You don’t have to watch all of this film for the funzies, just the first 4 minutes. But if you care to watch on, there are some good tunes, including the very Kinksy “Rubber Band,” and a mid-section mime performance about a mask.

Well, it was the swinging Sixties, after all:
 

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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09.24.2012
05:32 pm
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The changing face of London during the Swinging Sixties

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These two short films from Rank’s classic Look at Life, hint at two of J G Ballard’s preoccupations - high rises and cars.

“Rising to High Office”, made in 1963, examines the development of high rise corporate life; while “Goodbye Piccadilly” looks at the planned redevelopment of the famous London landmark at the start of the sixties that intended to create a “double-decker” Piccadilly Circus, with a new pedestrian concourse above the ground-level traffic. The plans were lasted for most of the decade, but were killed off in 1972 when it was discovered the plans would not help the required increase in traffic flow.

Amazing quality and in fabulous color, they capture a little seen aspect of the changing face of London during its most famous decade.
 

 
Previously on DM

London in the sixties: 2 groovy films on fashion and cafe culture


 
High Rise London in the swinging sixties, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.21.2011
07:36 pm
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