jacquette du DVD Good Morning England (The Boat That Rocked) par Richard Curtis, 2009
On the BBC airwaves, the pirate radio Rock Radio broadcasts 24h/7 the last pop and rock sounds from Great-Britain and the USA. On a ship which sails on the North Sea, two famous DJ's – the Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his rival Gavin Kavanagh- break the taboos and feed the British youth on eclecticism.
Carl, a rebel teenager, is put by his mother in the dandy captain's care, Quentin (Billy Nighy). He has to discover who his father is, and with the kindliness of Dr Dave (Nick Frost), a stout sex appeal, he is to put his deep feelings to the test.
Existential lines like “it's not simple to be cool, but it's cool to be simple”, or sarcastic ones as “increasing murders, increasing rapes, these are the news” scatter the whole movie. These daring statements remind us of comical, awkward or coarse situations according to the law of friendship and love relationships.
Counter-culture...
In Richard Curtis' eyes, pirate radios, accused of being too subversive (and not morally correct), disturbed the British Government, lead by the Labour Party ( Harold Wilson as Prime Minister). But in reality, it dealt more with an economic conflict.
In the Sixties, radios such as RTL or the BBC were the State monopoly. Besides, the Irish broadcaster, Ronan O'Railly, asked for the radios to produce new artists and to record new albums. The BBC refused to do so, since he did not present famous musicians; in addition with that, Radio Luxembourg demanded the labels. Then, Ronan O'Railly met an Australian businessman, Alan Crawford, who owned a liner. They both founded a radio there called R&R : Radio Caroline, which reminded of John F. Kennedy's daughter.
In 1964, Chris Moore and the actor Simon Dee marked the start of the station: “This is radio Caroline on 199, your all day music station”. At the time, the BBC radio only allowed two hours of rock per week, thus, Radio Caroline was becoming its direct rival. As the time went along, Radio Caroline had more audience (10% extra)... That was real affront and provocation, which bore in themselves reprisals from the part of the government. Yet, as long as the ship was over the territorial waters, the pirate radio was protected by the international law according to which, high-sea zone are independent of any state. Rock and pop culture ruled over England and Ireland.
Since the early 60's, talented artists proliferated in the whole England (such as the Who, the Kinks...). In Liverpool, the mythical Beatles embodied both the real R&R and the sign of the raise of the social scale. In 1966, John Lennon stated that 'the Beatles were more popular than the Christ himself'.
...Or Subculture?
The very same year, London was proud of its capital as a cultural one. The Time Magazine called it the 'swinging London'. The City took part of the fashionable vanguard, along with the luxurious shops and art galleries. Actually, the pop music was part of this movement. The upper middle class of London listened to it and admired it, thus, the 'popular music' was loosing its underground colours and became then a controversial topic -at the beginning, it represented the working-class values. Beyond the differences, the British youth, called the Generation (according to the song by the Who 'Talking about my generation', 1965), was much more federated against traditional values, and was waiting for a sparkle to burn the Bush. Yet, the British May 68 seemed to be a stifled movement: Mike Jagger wrote 'Street fighting man' for the young to rebel and to sing his song during the summer of 68 but his song was banned from the BBC.
« Hey, Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy…
Think the time is right for a palace revolution.
Well then what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
Cause in sleepy London Town.
There's no place for a street fighting man. »
Street Fighting Man, 1968
Later on, the October 25th 1968 in London, an important demonstration took place at Grosvenor Street. It gathered students and pacifist people who were less involved in order to overturn the authorities (as in Paris for instance), than to speak against the commitment of the US in the Vietnam war.
Eventually, the pop/rock music got into all the social classes. Even though it kept a philosophy which was far from social conventions, consumption and cultural orthodoxy, its leading role as a political subversion ran out of steam. Its main actions were then to take up public places to turn it as a cultural alternative theatre.
Today, Radio Caroline still broadcasts radio programmes from the North Sea.
Rédacteur :
Pierre-Alexandre Charrier, Nantes France
Traducteur :
Flora Rosillette, Nantes France
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