Test Transmission Archive Reel 48

After quite a long break, here is Archive Reel 48. Spring is here so I have a right old foot tapping collection to keep you going through the season. For your audio enjoyment we have Cate le Bon, Can, British Stereo Collective, Basil Kirchen, France Gall, Stavely Makepiece, Vince Guaraldi, Third Ear Band, Vic Mars, Billy Nomates, Unthanks, Pneumatic Tubes, Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals and loads more. Do I know when there will be another Archive Reel.....have not got a clue???? might be a few changes to all this soon. So until then TATA

The Committee

The Committee is a 1968 film Directed by Peter Sykes and staring Paul (Manfred Mann) Jones. The film features a superb score by Pink Floyd, and even The Crazy World of Arther Brown make an appearance.  In the film Paul Jones who is unnamed is picked up and given a lift in a car. The driver of the car pulls over because he does not like the sound of the engine. When the driver is checking the engine Paul Jones slams the bonnet of the car down on him decapitating his head. After a while Paul Jones sews the drivers head back on. The driver wakes up and Paul Jones informs the driver he does not want to drive with him anymore and he should leave. A couple of years later Paul Jones is invited to join a committee. These committee groups seem to exist to keep the system??? up and running, but really seem to not do anything. Later Paul Jones encounters the driver who gave him a lift a few years before. The driver does not seem to recognise Jones or remember having his head cut of. Jones then asks the man "are your teeth ok?" Jones then spends the rest of the film talking with The Committee Director (Robert Lloyd) about his earlier actions involving the car driver.

The film is in black and white and is quite compelling. Take the sequence early on in the film, when a number of suit and tie gentlemen are walking through a building, accompanied by a 1st class Pink Floyd score. The camera follows these men going to a meeting, intercut with other images of old reel to reel computers and card index machines. The musical score by Pink Floyd at this moment is a must and would not sound out of place on Piper at the Gates of Dawn. After a very successful run in The West End in 68,  screenings of The Committee were almost non existant.  I won't pretend that I fully understood what was going on in The Committee, but that is what makes the film interesting and as a slice of 60s weirdness The Committee is definitely there.
The Committee YouTube

Racton Ruin and Demis Roussos

 

Welcome to Racton Ruin also known as Racton Monument and Racton Tower. Racton is not the most easiest place to find. Tucked away in the back waters of West Sussex just of the B2147 and then up a tiny lane/horse track. You can see Racton from the B2147 but I still managed to drive past it. Racton was built around 1772, designed by Theodosius Keene for The Earl of Halifax. There are mixed views as to the purpose of Racton. Some say it was built as a summer house as part of The Stansted Estate. Another is that it was a view point for the Earl to observe ships in the Solent. The Totally Haunted Bods say they found a reference to Racton being used as a brothel, but do not include any info about this reference.

Racton is a popular place for the Ghost Hunters, and is supposed to have had links to The Occult and Devil worship. Another local rumour is that it was used by smugglers. In the late 80s and early 90s Racton was the scene of many raves and parties. I personally remember driving with a car load of people from one end of Sussex to the other in search of a party at Racton, which we never found and maybe never even really happened. Perhaps the strangest story concerning Racton Ruin is the rumour that the singer Demis Roussos was interested in buying the Folly once. Strange indeed.