Youthfulness Is About How You Live, Not When You Were Born

Well I admit to being a cynical old bastard who ceremoniously moans about all the boring, safe, predictable aspects of British media and British occasions.

A safe attitude of adorning our TV screens with celebrity chefs, long since redundant soap stars, clean cut ‘pop stars’ that your gran would like, and music so turgid that it’s ilk provides the bread and butter playlists of radio stations like Heart FM.

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‘Fred Perry Presents Subculture‘ is a series of six short 10 minute films about teenage subculture, directed by Don Letts, and showcased by Channel 4 in the Summer of 2012. These really are a treat to watch and they have been added for your enjoyment.

Robert Elms starts the first episode with the comment “British youth subculture starts in that rather grey period after the war“…

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Guilfest 2012 was wet. Guilfest smelt of freshly excreted pungent cow manure. Guilfest charged an exorbitant £4.50 for a pint of Brother’s cider. Guilfest had over zealous security staff who regularly tugged at your wristband and rummaged through your belongings.

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This is a look back at the last great ‘working class’ youth subculture…the original Skinheads movement of the late 1960’s.

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The Face magazine was a monthly independent music publication launched in May 1980 providing a totally new slant on modern dance music, incorporating a photo-laden style more often seen in the middle class ladies magazines of the day.

It’s style changed immensely during it’s lifetime, originating from a showcase for the popular quasi-independent music acts of the time, before evolving into a lifestyle magazine focusing more on fashion and style trends of youth culture.

These are the covers of it’s golden period, the first 50 issues.

Culture continues to be contested and struggles free of being pinned down because it belongs to no one. We have our own culture / cultures which we are a part of but it is continually evolving.

So many lifestyles, attitudes, art forms and social activities have used the word culture in describing their beliefs, actions and pastimes, that it is now commonly used. The ‘music culture’, ‘football culture’, ‘film culture’, ‘pub culture’, ‘theatre culture’ and so on.

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