Celebrity working class heroes

[Oxpecker]

We said working class heroes not nationalist fuckwits!

Just googled and found this interview in Red Pepper:

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/cularch/xgriffit.html

Griffiths argues that 'class still is a grand narrative; capitalism will continue to generate class consciousness' - but he is not in the business of writing manifestos. 'I'm a political writer, but first of all I'm a writer,' he insists. We briefly enthuse about the Newbury tree-huggers, and he adds that there are exciting new possibilities on the Internet and that Noam Chomsky seems to be thinking of ways of making political and theoretical links between the disparate activities we've mentioned. With the title of his play, Griffiths dares to ask a basic question about happiness, a question always posed in popular culture but never in mainstream left politics. You can probably predict his answer, but it's worth seeing his play just to check.

Who Shall Be Happy...? is at the Bush Theatre, West London, 4-29 June. Max Farrar and Trevor Griffiths are both members of the Red Pepper advisory board.

So he's not just a "nationalist fuckwit" but a complicated political animal, just like the erst of us.

 

[john malcolm]

I said worldwide!

Have you never seen "Breathless"?

do you mean A Bout de Souffle, not the Richard Gere remake which was OK in a tacky sort of way.

 

[rednblack]

Eh?

no idea what he's on about - he should just admit he fancies her and be done with it

 

[rednblack]

Who Shall Be Happy...? is at the Bush Theatre, West London, 4-29 June. Max Farrar and Trevor Griffiths are both members of the Red Pepper advisory board.

So he's not just a "nationalist fuckwit" but a complicated political animal, just like the erst of us.

i except he's a working class hero - but a celebrity, i've never heard of him

 

[Oxpecker]

i except he's a working class hero - but a celebrity, i've never heard of him

I suspect that's a generation thing, "son".

 

[shandy]

James Kelman, the author. Is he a 'celeb'? Fuck knows, he's never been in 'Hello' but he's won the booker prize anyroad.

He's campaigned for workers exposed to asbestos on Clydeside since the year dot. Sound as a pound.

And his last book 'You have to be careful in the land of the free' is superb. Mentions the 'wobblies' a fair few times. Wonder if he is one? Hope so.

 

[Fisher_Gate]

Ken Loach.

 

[shandy]

Ken Loach.

He crossed the road to stop at a picket at one of our offices. Took the leaflet and stood and had a chat for a while and asked what the strike was all about. He chatted for a bit and then said 'good luck to ye all' and walked on. Fair play, Kenneth.

 

[Sorry.]

is that the same Trevor Griffiths who wrote The Comedians (the play, not the tv show)?

 

[Pilgrim]

I was wondering about James Connolly, Padraic Pearse and Michael Collins.

Or Joe Hill for that matter.

Would they count at all?

 

[audiotech]

Just a point, John Lennon, who recorded the song 'Working Class Hero' was brought up by:

His aunt Mimi...after he was removed from the care of his mother in 1944. "He was taken away from his mother and brought up in a cold, austere home with little affection or comfort."

In the book's foreword, their son Julian writes: "Dad was a great talent, a remarkable man who stood for peace and love in the world. But at the same time he found it very hard to show any peace and love to his first family, my mother and me."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3409263a5620,00.html

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they're telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

Not much fun being working-class for him, as he spoke through that song to the then middle-class radicals of the anti-war movement.

Where are they now? Most did very well thank-you very much, but to be fair a few are still actively involved in opposing this war.

 

[Oxpecker]

is that the same Trevor Griffiths who wrote The Comedians (the play, not the tv show)?

Yes.

And Reds with Warren Beatty.

 

[Oxpecker]

I've been labouring under a massive misapprehension throughout this thread. The etails of which are far too embarrassing to admit or even to contemplate further

So I'm unsubscribing and never coming back

 

[Thora_v1]

I've been labouring under a massive misapprehension throughout this thread. The etails of which are far too embarrassing to admit or even to contemplate further

So I'm unsubscribing and never coming back

Eh?

 

[rednblack]

I've been labouring under a massive misapprehension throughout this thread. The etails of which are far too embarrassing to admit or even to contemplate further

So I'm unsubscribing and never coming back

what???

 

[cockneyrebel]

Aye, and paid for it with her baby's life and eventually her own.

Yeah that link is depressing reading at the end.....

 

[Sorry.]

I've been labouring under a massive misapprehension throughout this thread. The etails of which are far too embarrassing to admit or even to contemplate further

So I'm unsubscribing and never coming back

It's ok. I often misapprehend Icepick, he's come to expect it.

 

[sipriano]

Adam West, the actor who played Batman on the tv, refused to cross a Gmtv picket line.

 

[Sorry.]

Adam West, the actor who played Batman on the tv, refused to cross a Gmtv picket line.

he's also Major West in Family Guy.

 

[soulman]

I've been labouring under a massive misapprehension throughout this thread. The etails of which are far too embarrassing to admit or even to contemplate further

So I'm unsubscribing and never coming back

Yep the thread is shite. What can you expect given the thread starter

 

[rednblack]

Yep the thread is shite. What can you expect given the thread starter

i'm having a flimsier moment

 

[Nigel Irritable]

no idea what he's on about - he should just admit he fancies her and be done with it

Admit? I'd be proud of it, except of course that she's dead.

But, arousal aside, she surely has one of the best claims to be on this list of anyone. She was from a small-town working class background, she was a lot more famous than most of the people on this list (particularly in France), and she was a lot more politically radical than pretty much any of them both before and after she became famous. The fact that she was astonishingly good looking is just a bonus.

 

[Oxpecker]

what???

I was getting my Trevor Griffiths mixed up with my Kenneth Griffiths Hence my republican comments; but then the reality crept up on me like sitting on a warm damp patch in a doctor's waiting room.

Don't go telling Revol

 

[revol68]

Admit? I'd be proud of it, except of course that she's dead.

But, arousal aside, she surely has one of the best claims to be on this list of anyone. She was from a small-town working class background, she was a lot more famous than most of the people on this list (particularly in France), and she was a lot more politically radical than pretty much any of them both before and after she became famous. The fact that she was astonishingly good looking is just a bonus.

Nigel im with you, her looks hint a meloncollie and her life story is as close to a beautiful tradegy as your ever going to get.

This women was the embodiment of beauty torn apart by the ugliness of a brutal world.

Emoness over.

 

[soulman]

i'm having a flimsier moment

I'm sure it'll pass 'sunshine'

 

[rednblack]

I was getting my Trevor Griffiths mixed up with my Kenneth Griffiths Hence my republican comments; but then the reality crept up on me like sitting on a warm damp patch in a doctor's waiting room.

Don't go telling Revol

it's ok - we're all too young to hve heard of either of them

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Nigel im with you, her looks hint a meloncollie and her life story is as close to a beautiful tradegy as your ever going to get.

This women was the embodiment of beauty torn apart by the ugliness of a brutal world.

Emoness over.

Worryingly this is the second thread in a week where I've found myself posting about her. Worse still the first thread was called "filmstars you have an unhealthy fascination with".

Something about her triggers all kinds of subliminal adolescent and vaguely chauvinist fantasies about saving and protecting pretty but fragile and troubled women. I think I'd best stop posting on this thread before I manage to seriously embarrass myself.

 

[soulman]

There's room at the top they're telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

Not bad for someone brought up on Mather Avenue, a nice middle class area of Liverpool.

The weird thing is Paul McCartney comes from a working class background.

 

[Dilzybhoy]

Not difficult to get your average "trevor" mixed up.

 

[revol68]

Worryingly this is the second thread in a week where I've found myself posting about her. Worse still the first thread was called "filmstars you have an unhealthy fascination with".

Something about her triggers all kinds of subliminal adolescent and vaguely chauvinist fantasies about saving and protecting pretty but fragile and troubled women. I think I'd best stop posting on this thread before I manage to seriously embarrass myself.

Im always attracted to troubled fragile pixie types, of course I couldn't save in a Blue cross sale or protect jack shit but still im attracted to that type.

It's shit of course cos they're not the type ever likely to approach you and I never approach girls, cos im a shy wee poof.