Soul Boys of the Western World

Director George Henken.

This treat of a triple DVD set is neatly sub-divided into rockumentary, archive footage, and a reunion gig at 2010 Isle of Wight festival. You can almost feel yourself there at the concert but all of it is so deliciously nostalgic, it could be called indispensable for anyone who was a teen or in their twenties during the 1980s.  As a value-for-money proposition, the 3 discs buy is the better bet, even if at the time, Duran Duran or Culture Club were the band of choice. Undoubtedly DD was the group (along with Wham!) that seemed to have the high life in their pop videos, CC made a gay icon of Boy  George but 'Gold' - the massively popular ditty penned by Spandau, was the soundtrack to accompany eighties excess.

Never mind that the eighties brought us MTV, Thriller and the emergence of the pop video, it is a decade that is seen as a bit of a let down by serious music fans: this is accompanied by the embarrassment factor of the fashions - all high gloss, masses of blusher, eyeliner for men and shoulder pads. The one and main flaw in the rockumentary is addressing this all too common mindset. The retrospective needs Michael Bracewell and Peter York (who makes only a short and very fleeting appearance). First look at the period being covered, 1981 - 1990. There were enormous shifts from the turn of the eighties to the nineties, which saw different emphasis from German inspired electro pop (Kraftwerk/Gary Numan/OMD) and synthesizer music, new wave (Ian Dury & The Blockheads) and gothic punk (Bauhaus/Souxsie & The Banshees), to the rock contributions from The Police, U2, Simple Minds, Genesis and Dire Straits to name but a few. 1981 was the year of/for Adam & The Ants, the most commercially successful band of that year and do not get even a nod in this film. There is a glaring lack of musical context. The bands that were around at the same time were very different from their origins by the close of the 1980s. Ultravox was headed by John Foxx (who was great as a sole artist with Tidal Wave, There's No-One Driving), and Systems of Romance was a great album, before Midge Ure joined the band and John left. Ultravox later bringing us the mainstream classic 'Vienna' and other equally as palatable items. Human League had only men at the onset and two brilliant albums (Travelogue and Reproduction) before the split gave way for Heaven 17 and Phil Oakey got himself two gals. The sound of the early eighties was far braver, moodier, more doom laden and got lighter as the decade progressed. Musclebound, and To Cut a Long Story Short were part of the 'existentialist doom' songs which were the token thoughts to go with cold war ruminations, unemployment and the memories of endless dark nights brought about by power cuts. Later the music and the men would appear a great deal happier. Undoubtedly, the power of the band was the great vocal capability of Tony Hadley who has still one of the richest sounding male voices in show business, his contempories sounding like weeds in comparison without anything like his range and projection.

The connectivity between music, graphics and fashion is rightly made: there is a nod to Punk as an inspiration - with the (wrong) observation that it could never progress to anything as Punk was a statement without much room for development - Gothic Punk was a distinct derivative. This didn't mean that New Romanticism was the natural way for things to go…the connectivity between them is the DIY nature of the aesthetic. The look of punk could be emulated with safety pins and a bit of tartan strung together with some bondage straps. A bit of fabric swirled around the neck was all that an avid aficionado of New Romanticism needed to be part of the movement that could make one feel rich if money poor. The widespread nature of New Romanticism in that the bands that spawned it came from Sheffield, Manchester and London, whilst being inspired by/from Germany, is not really looked into. But the club origins (with wonderful footage) of Blitz in London (the precursor to The Camden Palace) are given the once over and we are introduced to Marilyn (the alternative cross dresser of the eighties to watch alongside Boy George) and commentary by Steve Strange, the man behind Visage/Fade to Grey and nightclub pioneer. Some of this footage is reminiscent of the documentary 'Paris is Burning' where the origins of voguing and the New York gay movement is focused upon as a synthesis of dance, posing, and clubbing. Here and there, the underlying feeling of seedy bedsit land is not very far away but this is merely brushed over. Make Up and exaggerated styling of New Romanticism allowed the gay movement a particular surge of acceptability and swagger in the 1980s which was marked in both music and film. The film really doesn't work as a cultural and social document for failing to note all of this. 

The 'Soul Boys' themselves were London lads par excellence and their origin as the spawn of the post war generation is however a delight where obvious personal 8mm archive of Dad's is used. There is a slight and significant leaning toward the Kemp brothers - which is hardly surprising as these two were the guys most of the female fans rooted for (especially Martin) and the entertainment background of these two is mirrored somewhat in the story of the Kray twins - with performance artists as forbearers in the backstory of both sets of London brothers.  It is absolutely no surprise that two of the troupe would go on to be Reggie and Ronnie Kray in 1985 in spite of the massive differences in appearance between Gary/Martin, Ronnie/Reggie. One key feature that comes over is the evident pride felt by all at working class roots and its influence in shaping the guys and the music. The working classes in England have always been the origins of the most interesting music and music movements with some rare exceptions, such as David Bowie, and Bryan Ferry who were marked early by their art school experience. The working classes are angrier and more defiant, more creative than the cosy and socially mobile middle classes and the stalwart loyalty as expressed by Gary to their roots is noted as is his nastiness and greed.

The other band members Tony Hadley, Steve Norman, and John Keeble with Martin staying sensibly neutral, took Gary to court with the sights on royalties for Spandau output, which Gary mostly wrote, but the others contributed to. The sense of sadness and devastation between the guys on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice is almost tangible, but no comparisons are made between the wranglings of this band and their contempories: the members of The Police (Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summer) couldn't stand the sight of each other by their split in 1984, but undoubtedly the band members were collaborators on the band stuff and soloists with their own careers. There is little evidence to suggest Gary could do much in terms of delivery without the rest of them, though it does suggest that Gary's ego was behind all bad feeling and negativity.  

The concert footage of 2010 and the Jonathan Ross Show appearance with them back together happy and smiling is great, but lacks the meat in the sandwich in terms of letting us know how they got from one place to another. Who did the consolidating, when and how is not really delved into much, if at all, though it is amusing on the set of the Ross show when JR makes it clear where he sits on the issue of the rest of the guys getting their just rewards. 'Soul Boys of the Western World' suffers from having a clumsy title with the reference being made to their sources of inspiration in developing soul, jazz and disco fusions which is adequately explained in the film to describe the evolution of their style but feels grandiose and nondescript as a name for the film. Their contribution to mainstream pop in Britain and on a wider stage in the 1980s was incredible, which was an indictment of the power of English Dandyism - which Peter York describes as one of the main tenants of New Romanticism and is as old as the hills as a form of expressionism and style. A contextual analysis of their place in music of a much derided decade, their change and development through that decade in style and compromise into mainstream would have made this a better document of the times, but it is still a satisfying way to spend three hours or so and is well worth the buck.

Reviewed by Gail Spencer.