Celebrating 45 years of Quadrophenia

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Chris Hallam celebrates 45 years of Quadrophenia.

Monday 2 October 1978 would turn out to be a very eventful day for Gordon Sumner. It was his 27th birthday, but Gordon, who increasingly preferred to be known by his nickname, “Sting” would have no time to celebrate. That evening, his still little-known band, the Police, were scheduled to perform on The Old Grey Whistle Test, arguably the most influential British TV music show of the day. Sting would have to get to Manchester for the recording, but most of his day would be spent in Brighton, taking part in a riot sequence for the film Quadrophenia.

Sting was playing Ace Face, a supporting role in a film which aimed to recreate the notorious battles fought between the rampaging rival gangs of mods and rockers in the seaside resort of Brighton in 1964. Sting was required to throw a crate through a shop window and drag a policeman from a charging horse to the ground.

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In the end, he actually had to break the window twice, as a technical fault ensured the first shot could not be used. He was increasingly anxious and not just about getting to Manchester on time. There were real police dogs around and real bricks and bottles flying through the air.

“There is much pushing and jostling and an increasing sense of genuine panic, as the assistant directors, shouting into electronic bullhorns, try to bring some order to the mounting chaos but only succeed in making matters worse,” he recalled later. “The whole situation seems to be dangerously out of control. Nonetheless, the cameras keep turning. Franc [Roddam, the director] is watching from above, perched on a scaffold like the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, calm and inscrutable.”

Director Franc Roddam, pictured on the set of The Bride (1985), is now best known as the creator of Masterchef. Credit: Creative Commons/Pat Latimer

In the end, Sting would end up sat in the back of a police van with the film’s teenaged star, Phil Daniels, who was playing the only other mod in a van full of rockers. Sting privately despaired: he would never make it to Manchester in time now. In fact, he made his flight with seconds to spare, singing I Can’t Stand Losing on the show which aired the following weekend. By the time Quadrophenia was released in cinemas the following August, the Police generally and Sting in particular, would be well on their way to becoming household names.

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Today, Sting’s presence in the film seems slightly conspicuous. In a film packed with then largely unknown young actors who have since become very familiar, Sting is today the most famous person in it by far.

Quadrophenia was released on Friday 17 August 1979, one day after its official premiere at the London Plaza. The film would prove to be a sensation, exciting audiences with its raw, vibrant energy, introducing a hugely talented cast to the world and triggering or at least coinciding with a mod revival fuelled by the emergence of groups like the Jam, Secret Affair and the Lambrettas.

It is essentially the story of Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels) an ordinary London teenager who identifies as a mod – wearing a parka and riding a scooter – at the time of the notorious rivalry between the mods and the leather-clad rockers in 1964. The film is partly so-called because we see how Jimmy’s life is divided into four different elements. Most of the film is devoted to his social life. Jimmy rides around on scooters with his mod friends, goes to parties, takes amphetamines (at one point robbing a chemist’s to top up his supply), gets into fights with local gangs of rockers, goes to parties, dances, pursues girls, gets off with one known as “Monkey” (Toyah Willcox) while lusting after another, local beauty Steph (Leslie Ash). The high point of the film is the trip to Brighton during which he and many others engage in the rioting and fighting already described above.

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At the height of the violence, Jimmy and Steph, thoroughly exhilarated by all the excitement, find time to consummate their relationship down a discreet alleyway.

The Brighton alleyway where Steph (Leslie Ash) and Jimmy (Phil Daniels) have sex in has become a shrine for Quadrophenia fans. Credit: Creative Commons/Christopher Hilton

But we also see the three other lives which Jimmy leads. We see his home life where he lives an unsatisfactory existence with his parents (Michael Elphick and Kate Williams) and sister (Kim Neve). We see his work life, which is similarly unfulfilling: working as a post boy in a busy office. Finally, there is his fourth life: the real Jimmy and how he is underneath. After Brighton, all four elements of Jimmy’s life fall apart.

But there is more to Quadrophenia than that. For the inspiration for the film came from a desire to translate the 1973 rock opera album produced by the Who into cinematic form. The Who had formed in 1964 and had enjoyed massive success with hits such as My Generation, I Can’t Explain and Pinball Wizard in the years since. They had been down the cinematic route once before when, in 1975, Ken Russell had directed Tommy, a spectacular musical fantasy based on their earlier classic 1969 album. Weird and wonderful, that film had proven a success. But Quadrophenia would be very different. This time, the four members of the Who would not appear on screen at all, except on posters and once when Jimmy, who is clearly a fan, watches them perform on TV, while his father endlessly disparages them (“Is that how you’re supposed to play a guitar now, then? Gawd help us!”). The film is also not a musical, despite featuring plenty of music by the Who as well as many other artists.

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At another level, it has been said Jimmy’s personality represented a composite of the four members of the Who namely: A tough guy who is a hopeless dancer (lead vocalist Roger Daltrey), a romantic (guitarist Pete Townshend), a beggar and a hypocrite (a curiously harsh description of bassist John Entwistle) and, finally, a “bloody lunatic” (drummer Keith Moon). All of which makes the film sound much less accessible than it is. It is perfectly possible to enjoy Quadrophenia without any prior knowledge of the Who at all.

Then suddenly, just as TV documentary maker Franc Roddam prepared to commence filming in September 1978, shocking news about the “bloody lunatic” reached the set. After years of wild living, Keith Moon had died following a drug overdose. He was 32. Roddam recalled meeting the ever-eccentric drummer for the first time. Arriving in a Rolls-Royce, Moon had been dressed in jodhpurs, sported a monocle and had frequently broken into a pirate voice reminiscent of Robert Newton in Treasure Island. He also insisted on being accompanied by an eight-foot-tall bodyguard who laughed every time Roddam spoke. Moon had nevertheless been a major talent and his early death was a devastating blow to the Who. Even so, the film went ahead.

Keith Moon, drummer in the Who, died of a drug just as filming for Quadrophenia was about to begin. Credit: Creative Commons/Jim Summaria

Casting was always going to be a big issue. “They basically said: ‘We don’t know how to do this. You do it,’” Roddam remembered. “At that age – I think I was 30 or 31 – you’re full of it and I felt very ready. I said: ‘There’s no point in trying to get a known cast, they’ll be too old. Any kids who are 18 will be unknown. Let’s just get the best of them.” An appeal was sent out in The Sun newspaper to help cast the lead role of Jimmy. In the end, three actors were seriously considered: Phil Daniels, Phil Davis and, fascinatingly, John Lydon, who until recently had been better known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols.

Lydon was helped through his screen test by a still uncast Toyah Wilcox. He was ultimately ruled out on insurance grounds, although it is interesting to speculate how he would have fared in the role. Phil Davis, meanwhile, was boosted by his physical resemblance to the Who’s Roger Daltrey. In the end, he was, at 25, deemed a little too old for the role and landed the supporting part of Chalky instead. He has since gone on to become a prolific and very recognisable character actor.

Quadrophenia is a rare example of a youth film where many of the cast really are as young as the parts they are playing. Phil Daniels, meanwhile, performed poorly in his first screen test, largely because he was clearly desperately ill as a result of a tropical disease he had contracted while filming Zulu Dawn in South Africa. In his memoirs, Daniels admits his decision to wear pink flared trousers for the audition probably didn’t help. At 19, Daniels was already experienced with a CV boasting appearances in Bugsy Malone, The Naked Civil Service and in the banned BBC borstal drama Scum. Daniels performed far better in his second audition, his cockney accent, age and screen presence ultimately making him a perfect fit for the part.

“Roddam had us hang out for a month before filming started,” Daniels remembers. “He encouraged the depraved side of our nature – he was not one for tucking us into bed at night. We wore authentic clothes and were given lessons in how to dance and ride a scooter – and we got to hang out with some original mods. We were living it, doing all sorts of stuff to get like we aren’t acting.”

Times had moved fast in the 14 years between when Quadrophenia was set and when it was filmed. It is hard to imagine a film set in 2010 having the same resonance were it released today. There are a few minor anachronisms in the film, notably a cinema advertising the 1978 films Grease and Heaven Can Wait at one point being visible in the background.

But at any rate, with the lead actor cast, the other parts soon fell into place. Eighteen-year-old Leslie Ash was cast as Jimmy’s love interest, Steph. An actress since she first appeared in a series of commercials at the age of four, Ash was uncomfortable with the idea of doing a sex scene in the film. “It’s just a bit embarrassing to watch,” she has said since. “It’s the only sex scene I’ve seen where both actors are fully clothed.” The Brighton alleyway has since become something of a shrine for fans of the film.

Teenaged Mark Wingett would be cast as Jimmy’s best friend, Dave, years before his long-running role as Jim Carver in the popular ITV police drama The Bill. After agreeing to kiss Phil Daniels passionately as part of her audition, future punk rock star Toyah Willcox was cast as Monkey, following her turn in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee. Michael Elphick, later the star of TV detective drama Boon became Jimmy’s father, despite being technically too young for the role, turning 32 in September 1978. Many other now familiar faces can be spotted among the cast including Timothy Spall, Ray Winstone, John Altman (later EastEnders’ “Nasty” Nick Cotton), veteran actor Hugh Lloyd and the late Gary Holton, who like Timothy Spall would later star in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Despite the film’s success, fame would elude many of those associated with the film for some time. While their music careers ensured both Sting and Toyah were destined for great things anyway, Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash and Ray Winstone would all have to wait until the 1990s before coming back into fashion again, while director Franc Roddam is today best known as the creator of TV’s Masterchef. Yet as a powerful and searing depiction of the experience of youth and explosive violence based within a particular moment in time, Quadrophenia’s impact on the legacy of British cinema is undeniable.

Mark Wingett: How I was cast in Quadrophenia

I went to comprehensive school, Horndean Secondary School, which had a really good English and drama department, and it developed through there, really. I got a thing called an exhibition from Hampshire County Council, so that enabled me to have extra drama lessons after school and take part in productions and festivals with a drama teacher called Mrs Audrey Avery. There were five or six of us from the school that had this particular thing. And Mrs Avery suggested I audition for the National Youth Theatre when I was 16.

The first year there, I was in the crowd in Julius Caesar, and then in the second year I had a lead in a play called England, My Own by Peter Terson. And from that, about 20 of us went up for this thing called Quadrophenia, and I was the one that got cast in the main role, although there was a few of us in the rest of the film, people like Robert Glenister, Peter McNamara and Bruce Payne were extras in Quadrophenia. So, a few of us got jobs from it.

Apparently, Nicholas Lyndhurst is in it as well. I know he comes from, sort of, Wittering, Selsey Bill way, I  think. He probably heard about it and just turned up.

It was just good fun. You just get on with it. I mean, there were hopes for it. I didn’t know anything about showbusiness, didn’t know about films, just hoped it would turn out well. So, it was thrilling.

The music press cottoned on to it and appreciated it for what it was. We got some very favourable reviews at the time from the Melody Maker and the New Musical Express and Sounds, all the kind of things that the kids had then. Therenwas no social media, no kind of youthnculture. So no, we didn’t know hownsuccessful it was going to be, nobody did.

When it first appeared, it wasn’t that successful. I mean, it caused a bit of a buzz and it disappeared. When it came out on VHS, it became successful. I didn’t meet Keith Moon. His death was never mentioned at the time, you know? I did a documentary called Our Generation for Sky Arts, and Bill [Curbishley, the Who’s manager] talked about that particular moment in time.

He’d just got the news that he’d got the backing money for two films. And he walked to the office: “It’s great news. I’ve got something to tell you.” “I’ve got something to tell you, sit down.” And that’s when they told him Keith Moon had died. So, Quadrophenia could possibly not have been made.


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