Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed
Directed by
Hasan Shah & Dom Shaw
Archive post-punk documentary
classic ‘Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed’, buried in
a vault for twenty years is released on DVD by ILC Prime on 13th
June 2005.
Featuring: Stiff Little Fingers, Cockney Rejects, The Selecter,
Patrik Fitzgerald, Purple Hearts, Sham 69, John Peel, A Certain
Ratio, Tony Wilson, Garry Bushell
Dvd Extras: Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed Re-Visited featuring the
original cast twenty five years on and an interview with the directors.
Fabulous long unseen movie of the post punk period between 1978
and 1981 that is more than just a music record, featuring as it
does the looks, the poses, the rucks, the riots and the slaggings
of bands and their fans. Filmed by a bunch of spit covered teenagers,
this is not so much a documentary as a series of forays into the
opinions of the protagonists of Punk, Mod, Oi, Dance and Ska; the
kids on the street, the music, press and of course, the bands themselves.
Originally, shot on Super 8 and blown up to 16mm, the film retains
it’s rough and ready cut to produce a gem of street level
cinema. Also has some cracking performances from exponents of punk,
mod, oi and ska all filmed in the same DIY ethic that spawned punk
itself!
PRODUCTION NOTES
Shot on Super 8 then stretched printed to 16mm for post production
which took nearly a year to complete. At the time it used the
latest technology for picture and sound to transfer onto 16mm
and director Derek Jarman used some of the techniques on his
own Super 8 epics. The British Film Institute who had co-financed
the post production brought in a brilliant film editor, Alan
Mackay, to work with Dom & Hasan. After many months and over
23 hours of footage, the one hour documentary was created and
released around the world.
In 1982 ‘Rough Cut and Ready Dubbed’ won The Grierson
Award for Best UK documentary. Later it was followed by awards
in Melbourne (Silver Boomerang), Los Angeles Filmex, Chicago, and
Toronto. After its release and a brief period on VHS in the eighties, ‘Rough
Cut and Ready Dubbed’ finally came to rest in the National
Film Archive vaults.
In 2003, Hasan & Dom decided to bring it back to life. With
help from facilities company ‘The Machine Room’, the
negative was cleaned, re-graded and transferred to High Definition.
Once on HD, digital cleaning and scratch removal begun. Then it
was the turn of the sound. Digital sound cleaning, mixing, remixing
from Mayflower Studios, Goldcrest, and veteran record producer
Mick Glossop, created a stereo and surround mix. Once again, the
latest technology of the day, this time digital, was used to help
restore and enhance the original movie.
The entire digital post production process took over a year and
was completed in early 2005. A short follow up film ‘Rough
Cut & Ready Dubbed Re-visited’ was completed during the
year using the cheap medium of compact DV cameras to reproduce
the same low tech feel of the original.
PRESS QUOTES PAST & PRESENT
1981 -
‘Rough Cut takes big cuts out of all the tastiest rock cakes
around and spits out a frenetic and funny collage which manages
to splice together all the chaotic contradictions of the music
scene – its men, its women, its passions. This may well be
a rough cut, but its sharp edges slice through to the nitty gritty
without the distraction of hyper-polished dazzle.’ Anne Billson – EVENT
MAGAZINE
Many of the performers (most notably the Cockney Rejects) are
bright as berries and totally self-aware. Most of the fans are
tribals, conforming not just to their obligatory uniforms as skins
or mods or punks but also to group attitudes on race, authority
and riot. There is a startling glimpse of the power of the performer
as demagogue: a musician recalls how a word to the mod supporters
at a concert was enough to launch a sharp military fashion mop-up
of hostile skins in the audience. As lively and intimate a view
as we have seen of punk bands and their followers. A funny, amiable,
truthful and finally disquieting ethnographical study of the lost
tribes of London. ‘ David Robinson - THE TIMES
It’s ironic that two twenty year old directors with a Super
8 camera can improve on over twenty years of plodding ‘rock’ cinema.’
James Manning – RAM MAGAZINE
The film’s title is an honest appraisal of its cinematic
qualities, but it’s worth striving to catch the words of
the street gurus and their aggressive counterparts, the Cockney
Rejects, if only to bear out Charles Shaar Murray’s defensive
but ironic statement: ‘Nothing I write is to be taken as
gospel’.
Fiona Ferguson - CITY LIMITS MAGAZINE
‘Best to avoid this film until at least 1995 when it can
be viewed by amnesiac sociologists with dewy eyed nostalgia’.
‘TIME OUT MAGAZINE’ (Well, there’s always one…)
2005 -
‘
It’s the best music documentary I’ve seen in the last
five years’
Lenny George, XFM DJ, XFM Radio
‘
With fantastic sound and picture quality, Rough Cut…is unique.
No other film bears witness to punk’s aftermath in such an
engaging way’
Kieron Tyler – MOJO MAGAZINE
‘
This doc captures the anarchic spirit of the punks, skins and mods
in London on the cusp of the ’80s. It’s crackling with
energy, there’s nothing slick about it. An archive nugget.
Jamie Gr – Raindance Film Festival
QUOTES FROM THE MOVIE
'Anyone who says we've sold out, will get a smack in the mouth.
I mean I wanna be on swapshop.'
Stinky Turner - 15 year old singer with the Cockney Rejects
'Nothing I write is to be taken as gospel. Nothing any rock critic
writes should be taken as gospel. Nothing anybody writes should
be taken as gospel.'
Charles Shaar Murray - Music Journalist NME
‘I just try to write honestly, I think, and avoid all the
bribery’.
Garry Bushell – Music Journalist SOUNDS
'Someone from the Radio Times has just asked me to predict what
will happen in music in the nineteen eighties and I just avoided
the question. It’s the not knowing that gives you the most
pleasure.'
John Peel - Disc Jockey
'What do the fans mean by selling out? Making a living out of
it probably.'
Jake Burns - Stiff Little Fingers
‘I like really sort of early raw punk. Badly played stuff,
y’know’
Dave Ferguson – Punk
‘What’s going to happen now is that there’ll
be second and third generation punk bands and all the younger kids
will copy their big brothers who are into the Oi! bands. Then it
will all be shit, then there’ll be another revolution and
it will all start all over again.’
Tony Wilson – Factory Records
‘The only real punk bands there ever were, were the Sex
Pistols and The Damned. The Clash were always a bit too sensible.’
Jake Burns – Stiff Little Fingers
I think the way your Wellers, your Strummers, your Geldofs behave,
is infinitely preferable to the way your Jaggers, your Zeppelins
or Rod Stewart behaves.’
Charles Shaar Murray – Music Journalist NME
‘I want a dressing room, I want a roadie, a great big mixing
desk. Then I’ll be a star’.
Johnny G
SONGS FEATURED
‘
Suspect Device’ Stiff Little Fingers
Alternative Ulster’ Stiff Little Fingers
‘
I’m not a Fool’ Cockney Rejects
‘
Missing Words’ Selecter
‘
Skip Scada’ A Certain Ratio
Tonight’ Patrik Fitzgerald
‘
Can’t Catch Every Train’ Johnny G
‘
Millions Like Us’ Purple Hearts
‘
Poor Cow’ Sham 69
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