N ERATIO N
For the next six weeks on Channel 4. Saturday nights will be taken over by Tribe
Time — a late night telly season devoted to urban sub-cultures linked by a series of loose themes. The List picks out the highlights.
WORLD SHUT YOUR MOUTH (7 OCTOBER)
They come from a land down under and take over huge tracts of west London with their communal flats and boozy pranks. Yes. the Aussie backpacker is the less salubrious flipside of the slacker coin as Crowded House demonstrates. In World of Skinhead a completely different ethic applies: the hair is shorter. the geographical horizons narrower but the sense of group identity isjust as
strong. As Roddy the skin says: ‘lfyou ain't got the nerve to stand by your roots. maybe it‘s time you hung up your boots.‘ Far more media friendly are Slackers. whose mentor. if they could be bothered reading his books would be Douglas Coupland (see left). Also staying out late. but with a faster pulse rate. are the Balearic ravers in A Short Film About Chilling. ‘How can lbiza be so tranquil and yet people go so mad when they get here.‘ ponders one thoughtful Clubber.
Rror Gilli. (14 ocroRER)
Girls have gangs too. even if they're not all like the ones in Girlz n the Hood. a scary collection of Latino and Hispanic homegirls who fight each other when they're not battling other gangs who dis their 'hood. They may look like a
collection of independent- minded Tank Girls. but most are aching to settle down with a caring homeboy. Just as feisty. but with healthier complexions. are the clear-skinned cheerleaders with Scottish American football team the Claymores. There are plenty of bands with girl singers. but all-girl bands are thinner on the ground. There was spotty metalheads Girlschool. the tampon-wielding L7. the recently reformed Go- Gos and. perhaps. Treacle. These foxy chicks with straight hair and centre partings hail from Sheffield and Peter Stringfellow reckons they‘re rather good. What a recommendation!
THE er0 ms (28 OCTOBER)
Most self-respecting tribes have had their brushes with law and order. but there are some that the media seems to love to hate. Blood sports are always a favourite and two Tribe Time films. The Punk Kes made by Carl Hunter. former member of Liverpool band The Farm. and Dog Fight about illegal dog-baiting in the Midlands. take a look at animal cruelty as entertainment. in l.os Angeles. the black-on- black violence revealed in Eight-Tray Gangster has driven affluent whites ever further into the suburbs. leaving the gangs to light over inner-city territory.
TRIBE TV FEATURE
The 80s fascination with football casuals is reprised in a short drama called Awayday. while Cosh Boy from 1952 - the first British-made film to receive an X certificate amid calls for it to be banned altogether — shows that fighters in smart threads are nothing new.
RHYTHM THIEVES (4 NOVEMBER)
It's marching season and the Billy Boys of Liverpool are banging the drum for William of Orange. ‘We don't go
around playing silly tunes.
we go round kicking the Pope‘s arse.‘ explains one member of the Purple Sorts of Derry. In London
a tight-knit Pentecostal congregation encourages its Gospel Girls to dance
and sing for Jesus. to steer
them away from the secular seduction of jungle and ragga clubs. But to keep the young folks‘ interest. new rhythms borrowed from reggae and soca are being combined with the traditional gospel sound. Beating out a rhythm of rubber on tarmac is
Helicopter. a young black American kid who lives for basketball. He‘s offered a college scholarship; will sport offer the classic route out of the ghetto? Meanwhile The Boys from Milan already have it all. but want more as they hang around the fashion industry looking to break into the vac uous world of male modelling.
REBEL YELL (11 HoVEMRER)
One of Britain‘s youngest tribes — the new age travellers — alarmed the property-owning classes to the point where legislation was passed specifically to combat their itinerant lifestyle. Luton—based squat collective Exodus. who say they aren't drop-outs but ‘force-outs'. organise free raves and protests
WHEELS ON FIRE (21 OCTOBER)
‘What are you rebelling against Johnny?‘ ‘What've you got'?‘ When Marlon Brando rolled his jeans up over biker boots and burnt some rubber in The Wild One. the connection between motorbikes and rebellion
was cemented. From the mod-inspired 90s scooter gangs in Run (‘I would never have got to know what northemers were like ifl hadn't come on a scooter rally') to suburban GTi turbo-lads in Beach (‘With a car you feel in control - with a woman you never know what‘s coming next'). the fact is. if you‘re going to rebel.
you gotta have wheels. ln
Westway. Billy the Skid is
king ofa gang ofjoyriders who get their kicks on the A40 elevated section out of London. while Blood Brothers shows how Danish bikers are rekindling the Viking spirit on Harleys.
against road building programmes. This documentary also visits their crusty colleagues at the Possil Free State in Glasgow. while living on the Edge looks at the links between 90s new agers and Britain's ethnic travelling people. In Belgrade — Zombie Town — a pirate radio station has become the focus of an underground alternative to
Milosevic's dream of a Serb-only state. The film takes a scratch 'n' mix approach with no clear narrative because. according to director Marc Hawker. ‘there is no clear narrative in their lives’. This film by two Edinburgh [)Js documents the musical resistance movement in the former Yugoslav capital.
The List 6-19 Oct 199511