Control or Maybe Not - Mimitig

Once upon a time there was a city called Manchester. It was great for various reasons – the cotton industry, the Manchester Ship Canal – just two reasons pulled from history.

Then came the Twentieth Century – everyone gets a go at being an entrepreneur as industry and manufacturing decline. There were some spectacular successes in the music business from all over the UK – in London there was Malcolm McLaren (The Sex Pistols



in Scotland: Alan McGee (Creation), and in the selling of records as well as making them there was Geoff Travis (Rough Trade) – they all made their mark and have left a legacy. But to my mind, none have left as much of a mark as Tony Wilson



and Factory and the Hacienda from the Manchester scene. Tony died this year. In a couple of day’s time we will see the release of a film documenting the rise and demise (literally) of the band Tony was most closely involved with;Joy Division



Ian’s music, but Tony’s business genius brought this set of musicians to the world’s attention.After Ian’s tragic suicide, Peter Hook and the others regrouped and formed New Order. With Blue Monday they topped the charts and should have made fortunes for themselves and their cohorts. Of course with Tony in charge that didn’t happen. Attention to design and detail ensured that this, one of the world’s best-selling singles never made a bean. That was Tony, and in a way that was Ian too. His motivation for music was never to top the charts. He wrote and sang because he had too. I wait now to see the film of his life. He was depicted in 24 Hour Party People – a damn good film, actually – but this is different. This one is not about Manchester or Madchester. This one is supposed to be about him “Control”

A Solitary Vice (For Men Only) - Tony Ellis

Boys, I’d like to talk to you about a very difficult and embarrassing subject. You know what it’s like: Your mother or partner is getting ready to go out and you have a couple of hours to yourself. They take ages to get ready and you’re beginning to think they’ll never go. You pace around the house, trying to look calm and purposeful but inside you’re screaming: “just put anything on and go!”

Finally, after the keys and mobile have been found and you’ve been told what needs doing, you’re alone. Still, better to check. You sneak a look out the window and wait until they disappear around the corner. You begin to relax. A final look out of the window then lower the blind. Pour yourself a drink, put the Kleenex nearby and you’re ready.

Let’s start with this one. It doesn’t really do it for me: too clichéd and Hollywood, I suppose. Still…


Well, now that you know what this about, did it work for you? If not, what does? I know that sometimes even the most manipulative US TV film can catch me unawares, but which scenes or films always guarantee you a good sob? Add your clips and maybe we’ll vote for the top 10 heartbreakers…. Here are my three in reverse order:

3. I’m not sure what it is about this scene. I’ve always found the music stirring, but the song on its own does not have quite the same effect. Maybe it’s because I can feel the emotion of the participants as it spreads around the room, expressing their courage and their hopes.



2. This one is cheating a little. I’ve only seen it once, but it represents a first for me: it hit me in the cinema and didn’t leave me alone until I got home. In a way it’s a natural: ‘ordinary’ people; dysfunctional families; an impossible situation. Then there’s the writer and director giving perfect lines to an excellent cast and catching every nuance of expression as they deliver them. I doubt that even this short trailer will leave you unscathed. Those last lines…



3. I can hardly write about this one. Sometimes, even seeing on the TV page that it’s on will set me off. Excuse me…

No, really, I’m OK now. I think the main reason this film has such a devastating effect on me every time is its innocence. ‘It could all be so simple, just leave it to ordinary people’ it seems to say. I don’t know; maybe you need to be English or an Eastender to feel it. Or British and of a certain age. Or maybe you just need to be me…



Anyway, I feel much better for that; hope you do too. And I’ve still some Kleenex for my next top 10…

Parkour - file

Yamakasi was the name of the first band of Traceurs (Parkour practitioners) and the title of Luc Bessons’ 2001 movie. This is a clip from the movie but it’s worth noting that while the publicity focused on the Japanese urban samurai angle the word Yamakasi actually comes from the Lingala language of the Congo and means ‘strong body, strong spirit, strong person", though in French usage its meaning is closer to ‘high energy’.



George Hébert noticed in the early 20th Century that success in rescue attempts relied on the combined skills of athleticism, courage and altruism. His response was to go on and develop a personal exercise regimen focused on building ability in real life situations, this system exemplified his personal maxim "Etre fort pour être utile" - "Be strong to be useful."

He wrote: “A (Natural Method) session is composed of exercises belonging to the ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, equilibrium (balancing), throwing, lifting, defending and swimming, which are part of the 3 main forces; Energetic, Moral and Physical.

The true Natural Method, in its broadest sense, must be considered as the result of these three particular forces; it is a physical, virile and moral synthesis. It resides not only in the muscles and the breath, but above all in the "energy" which is used, the will which directs it and the feeling which guides it.”



David Belle is the founder of Parkour.

“Understand that this art has been created by few soldiers in Vietnam to escape or reach: and this is the spirit I'd like parkour to keep. You have to make the difference between what is useful and what is not in emergency situations. Then you'll know what is parkour and what is not. So if you do acrobatics things on the street with no other goal than showing off, please don't say it's parkour. Acrobatics existed long time ago before parkour.”

Totally Wired – Mark E Smith and the strange and frightening world of the Fall - Mimitig

And that’s the thing, ain’t it just? He has always been wired – you don’t have to be weird to be wired was his thing.

Mark is one of those maverick musicians that England throws up from time to time. They are seminal to the musical heritage but outside it, because they simply don’t care for how the world sees them.

The Fall were taken to John Peel’s



heart and he made sure that all their releases were played on his late night Radio One show. But more than that – all the indie promoters wanted the Fall, even though we knew that Mark was a difficult bugger. I never got him to play at my club, but I went to see him and his various cohorts so many times. And, in a very unusual circumstance for an indie producer, I PAID for his records. In my vinyl collection now, I still have all the limited release coloured records – and none for free.

One time fellow Fall man, Mark Riley, once said to me, bloody hell, Mark’s a tricky bugger.



John Peel is dead (RIP) but Mark, amazingly, isn’t. We totally are in awe of the talent and stoicism and just toughness that means Mark is still rocking the vaults and disturbing the elements, even if he isn’t troubling the “charts”. His mates knew their true mission was to be in The Fall.

English Free Running

The Hanging Pig - file

In a week that saw the passing of ‘The Quiet Artist’ Marcel Marceau, one of the last bastions of real Theatre tradition, it’s tempting to think on the inner life of performers.

In Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s astonishing 1991 movie Delicatessen, the day to day trials of unemployed circus clown, Louison, are revealed; his memories and affections. and his ability to bring the musical circus world into the real world.

Er…that is to say; the real world of post-apocalyptic 1950’s France, of course. Louison lives in a big old boarding house over a sinister delicatessen, it’s owned by Clapet the butcher who collects his weekly rent for board and lodging.



This world echoes the rationing and food shortages of the war years in Europe; it thrusts the sinister butcher into a position of power, which he abuses. Where, for example, does his meat come from and why do workmen keep disappearing?

Louison lives in ignorance of this for the longest time, attached, as he is, to his memories, his chores and his love for the butcher’s daughter Julie.



As a film, Delicatessen is quite unique in its entirety; the story is unusual, to say the least, the wonderful cast reach all the corners of their characters with panache and the vision of this little corner of bizarro France is delicately painted.



There is a haunting atmosphere that prevails throughout the movie and like the best suspense movies it knows how to use silence. The empty spaces between the dialogue and the action, where there is time just to watch, beautifully mimic the fresh air of live theatre which isn’t so dependent on packing time as Hollywood and the short-attention-span-generation.



As befits a movie whose anti-hero hails from the circus, the score is dreamlike in the extreme. Like the circus too, the music asks questions about itself through parody.



There are many delicious strands to be savoured in Delicatessen, even if the food itself is perhaps best left on the plate.



To me, I love the way that the music is organic in this movie, it feels like the noises of the house (it is, in part) and gently plays the soundtrack to Louison’s strangely talented life, more than that, it shows me how life might be musical by nature

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