Beat Girl

This 1960 film by Edmond T Greville is one of the earlier attempts at portraying the emerging concept of teenage rebellion as well as the London beatnik culture.

Gillian Hills stars as the she-devil protagonist Beat Girl, who spends most of her time hanging out in cave-like underground clubs and coffee shops. Her father marries a French woman, who he later finds out to be an ex-stripper. Meanwhile, Beat Girl allows herself to be seduced by a sleazy strip-joint owner played by Christopher Lee.

Full of kitsch and 60’s cool, it is especially worth noting for its enchanting soundtrack of dark jazzy 60’s rock composed by John Barry (it is actually his first movie score). Despite being a rather monotonous affair, the title track has a fascinatingly haunting feel to it and has been covered by many bands like The Damned, ska band The Kingpins, Brian Setzer Orchestra and surf band Satan’s Pilgrims

Check out the title track and opening scene (look out for the John Barry Seven on stage) of this social commentary here

The Meteors at Corsica Studios, 31/10 - 2007

It’s halloween again and what better way to celebrate than watching The Meteors, the kings of psychobilly?

Formed in 1980, The Meteors are generally credited with inventing the whole psychobilly genre, mixing a horror and science fiction sensibility with a punk and rockabilly sound, thus creating a niche scene largely undiscovered by the public and mainstream media. Featuring what might be the world’s burliest fanbase, the band helped develop what is knows as “wrecking” – a mix between fighting and dancing (it really has to be seen with your own eyes!).

In the early days the singer P. Paul Fenech would be known for spitting chicken blood at the audience. The audience of tonight were not treated to such delights, but the band definitely pleased the crowd with a string of their hits like “Slow Down you Graverobbing Bastard”, “Rawhide”, “Wrecking Crew” etc. Formulaic and repetitive? Perhaps, but definitely not short of surprises.

The concert, held in an old warehouse underneath the railway arches of London’s Elephant & Castle station, featured some of the wildest, craziest crowd one could ever witness. With ghouls lurking everywhere in the dark corners, and tattooed giants in the the pit tossing each other around like ragdolls, the scene was brutal and exciting.

At one point singer P. Paul Fenech suddenly collapsed on the floor in the middle of a song. Carried out in a seemingly lifeless state, we were shocked to what could have happened. A heart attack? Is he dead? But halloween is the night when the dead come back to life and within a few minutes the Meteors were back on stage again. A rather sick joke perhaps, but The Meteors were never known for their good taste or being nice and polite!

After an hour of mayhem, The Meteors proved once again that psychobilly is the sickest, most evil music there is out there, and just as hilarious and fun as a B-grade horror film.

Trivia: A short film made in 1980 titled Meteor Madness was released as a double bill with the 2-tone film “Dance Craze”, and featured comedian Keith Allen (Lily Allen’s dad).