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| UK poster, looks like the work of Alan Aldridge. |
Although today's clip is neither off the telly nor technically lost, it's from a film that's very hard to come by in the UK - although available on import, we've never had a videocassette or DVD release, and RBFTP only got to see the whole of 'Smashing Time' after it popped up on a file sharing site.
Its abscence from the release schedules is baffling; although not without flaws, it's a charming time capsule, with a raft of British character actors, some great shots of Carnaby Street and sixties London, and lashings of satire from its writer, switched-on renaissance man George Melly, who knew a few things about youth culture, writing the seminal Revolt Into Style in 1970. It's certainly a whole lot more fun than 'Blow Up'.
The plot concerns two friends from the north played by Lynne Redgrave and Rita Tushingham, who move down to London to experience the capital as it swung. Redgrave's character Yvonne comes into money, and decides to launch a pop career, despite her lack of talent.
After a dialogue with her Austin Powers-esque manager we join her in the studio, recording her first song. Surrounded by musicians with wind instruments, harp, sitar, real-life psych-pop flops Tomorrow and three old woman going 'Ba-ba-ba-ba!', the utter cacaphony, with a few tweaks to the recording studio dials turns into a brassy, driving number, as the screen montages into enthusiastic DJs, pop charts and articles, cash and cases of whisky delivered as bribes as the record spreads all the way to the Queen's radiogram.
Yvonne gets advice from her manager:
"Broaden up your northern accent a bit, remember, you worked in a mill"
"I didn't, I worked in a record shop!"
"You worked in a MILL, baby!"
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