Quadrophenia – Interview Transcripts
Franc Roddam: director/co-writer: Pete Townsend wrote the album for Quadrophenia when he heard about the mod who had committed suicide of Beachy Head. Beachy Head Represents England. The album was about teenage anxiety.
Robert Sandall, music journalist and broadcaster: The Who are the only band from the 60’s who addressed full on the issues of youthful identity and the violence that is inherent in a lot of youthful protest. They wrote great youth anthems, even the Beatles who wrote big catchy songs, but no one wrote a song like my generation, or anywhere anyhow anyone or substitute all of which key into in different ways key impulses in young people particularly young men.
Franc Roddam: The stories in the music Pete Townsend wrote dealt with concerns of young people which were truthful..getting the girl, not getting the girl, drugs, wanting to fight, being a loser, being a winner, all those archetypal things that go to make teenage anxiety, Roddam could see that the album was a skeleton for that.
Robert Sandall: The film highlights the main protagonist as having a 4-way split personality. The film is fleshed out with some very well observed social realism from the 60’s
Franc Roddam: in the 60’s there was a social revolution in the 60’s in England, where the working class started to break out. What really happened was the working class had more money. Blue-collar society was becoming more middle class and it meant that the youth had more money in their pockets to spend.
Youth were separating themselves from the family. They were no longer slaves to their parents. Suddenly they had their own rooms, their own music, their own clothes, their own transport with the scooter and it was a social revolution. One of the main groups that started this revolution was the mod group. The other part of the social revolution was the social sexual revolution was the pill and birth control and so for the first time young people could have sex without the fear of pregnancy or the embarrassment of having to go and buy condoms and young people were able to have safe sex.
Vision in Sound to Sound in Vision.
Mark Wingett- Actor who played Dave: The film is very different from the stage performance of the rock opera. The film is of its own.
Robert Sandall: all of Townsends original vision is in the film plus a lot more besides. The film adds a lot of back-story in terms of introducing more characters. A whole layer of social set up at the beginning, exploring the homes and backgrounds in London.
Franc Roddam: Pete Townsend is an in credible social chronicler and rock musician and storyteller. When Franc Roddam first met Pete Townsend, Townsend brought with him a strings version of the rock album Quadronphenia. Townsend anticipating that Roddam would be directing a movie in a similar style to the film director Ken Russell Tommy.
Quadrophenia was much more real, it was much more about working class culture, much more about street, much more about rock and roll. Roddam wanted to direct it in a much more realistic approach. ……Naturalistic if you like. So he had to say to Pete on his very first meeting with him that he didn’t want to do it with strings. It had to be rock n’ roll and it had to be street. Also if we are going to deal in some kind of truth from that period than we can not use just your music we have to have other music that they were also listening to.
Robert Sandall: one of the most memorable concerts I went to was the who at the lyceum in 1973 performing Quadrophenia huge undertaking before digital technology. They were a very impressive act but the ideas in the stage act suited the format of the film were they were able to expand.
Franc Roddam: there is an interesting dynamic between Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry, which I tried to include in the film. If you see them on stage they almost spar with each other, demanding more from each other.
Robert Sandall: the who in their different ways did encapsulate something of the mods about them. Roger Daltry and Keith Moon had that wild, maverick energy and anger to them.
Suited and Booted:
So much energy put into looking the part clothes were always going to be important.
Franc Roddam: Roger Daltry advised on style and he was keen that the look and style of the film was right. He pointed out that they all wore white jeans. He would say there are not enough people in white jeans.
Phil Daniels actor who played Jimmy: playing a mod was good fun it was just a smart good look that had happened in 1964. We had a chance to wear a lot of the original clothes.
Toyah willcox actress who played Monkey: make up enjoyed working with me because I was the same physical build of women’s in the 60’s, slightly rounded, slightly chubby you had none of this culture of thin women, thin women. Thin women were frowned on ‘twiggy’ was a phenomenon. Women in the 60’s were round and robust and I physically fitted the bill. Roger Daltry felt that Toyah was the right image for women of the 60’s. He would have liked Lesley Ash’s image to be similar but it would have detracted from the attractiveness because it was old fashioned. You wouldn’t have been able to sell the sexuality of Lesley’s role if she had the bouffant.
Mark Wingett and Toyah Willcox on Franc Roddam;
Mark remembers Franc as a giant but of course he isn’t he just had a lot of authority. He knew what he wanted and he got things done. Franc was very fatherly to all of us and he was always there if we wanted to discuss something but he was also in control. Many situations he was in control of a monster because he had to direct these huge dance scenes in the club that was a big club. We shot that in Southgate in London and it was a massive place with tons of extras. So he was always having to in control of a lot of people wanting a lot of attention. And a lot of young actors who wanted to be listened too and he controlled it very well. He was a very good master of a very big ship.
Phil Daniels: franc wasn’t pushy, dictatorial. He was very easy with young people. When you’re directing 18/19 year olds and you’re letting them have their heads…they’re going to go mad – aren’t they.
The kids are alright:
A few weeks before filming Keith Moon died and there was a point when it was thought that the film might not happen.
Parka Life, Part 2:
Who are you?
Franc Roddam: I didn’t want to make a film that was set in an era that the current youth would be abusive towards or who would think the film was crap. Because there you had this punt attitude, this great lets burn all the bridges, lets throw away all the clothes, lets throw away all the music let’s start again. And there we were making a film about an era that had been abandoned by the hip youth of the day. So when I looked at it I decided that if I made a very emotionally honest film it didn’t matter which era it was set in, but at the same time the producer side of me was saying on the other hand may be I should investigate using some of the punk icons of the day so that I create bridge between the youth of then and the youth of now. And so I investigated quite a few guys who were in the punk or around the peripheral of the punk movement. One of the people I met with was Johnny Rotten and I thought Johnny could play this role he’s a disenfranchised youth.
Toyah Willcox: my first meeting with Franc Roddam was he called me to a pub to meet Johnny Rotten and asked me to get Johnny Rotten through the screen-test at shepperton for the role of Jimmy. I went to Johnny’s flat and we went through everything. We did the screen test at Shepperton, which I thought Johnny Rotten was ‘fucking brilliant’.
Franc Roddam: Unfortunately that screen test has been lost. I wished I had the foresight to keep it because he was quite good.
Toyah Willcox: he was conscientious, he knew his lines and he was on the ball, but Franc Roddam said the insurers won’t insure Johnny.
Franc Roddam: they had seen him spitting on pictures of the Queen, cutting people up, puking up and they said they could not rely on this guy to turn up 60 days in row on film set, he might just blow the investment, so they wouldn’t let me use him.
Phil Daniel was cast instead. Franc Roddam considered Phil Daniels a partner in this movie; he helped to create the character.
Phil Davis played Chalky.
Franc Roddam: I had about forty people, some of them became the top 6 roles and some of them were supporting roles and some of the were special extras but they were all together all of the time.
Toyah: we were quite a wild gang; everything we did from there on was to make us a gang. We went off to parties in the east end of London where we met real mods who were real mods and we met some real rockers.
Phil Daniels: we were living the way of live that’s why the film looks so good and looks like the people aren’t acting really. Including mod parties and drug taking
The moves:
The choreographer was a ballet tutor and she wasn’t really able to help with the mod dancing. Roddam brought in this guy from the street called Geoff Dexter and he was fantastic so we had him working with the choreographer. Dexter taught us authentic 60’s dancers.
The Ace face:
Sting, Gordon Sumner: Gordon is a Moron by jilted john a hit single in 1978
Roddam gave the young cast motorbikes and scooters to become skilful at riding them. Mark Wingett made the point that he didn’t believe the film would be made in that way today.
Toyah: the whole experiencing from getting the job to filming was all about absorption and being immersed in the lifestyle.
Phil Davies: and we worked to create this group of friends in the film to establish groups. People fall into types, who was this type of person and who was that type of person.
Toyah: it became more and more obvious before we started film that the film was going to be more like a documentary about Phil’s character Jimmy.
Jimmy Jimmy: Franc Roddam: there is a extra point about Jimmy’s character. Yes he wants to be the mod, but he doesn’t have all the best attributes for the mod. He’s not the tallest most beautiful looking guy, he doesn’t have the best job, he doesn’t have the money, he isn’t necessary going to get the girl.
Phil Daniels: he is the boy next door. Because he’s not the super hero or a hero of any kind, except he’s just normal and that’s what makes him work.
Franc Roddam: there is a political aspect to the film which is my own aspect which is that I was very concerned that if you run with the mob you get carried away with bad ideas. Even though you admire the group and what the group is doing, you must think as an individual, you must stand up for your own morality and your own ideas because in the end those guys are going to drag you towards violence or drag you towards or drag you towards drugs or drag you towards something that actually you should give up.
Toyah: Jimmy’s character was the kind of character that all women in that environment would be drawn to including monkey. Jimmy was an independent person, a bit of a loner and somebody who would probably end up breaking way from the gang when it came to a crunch situation.
Franc Roddam: In a way he goes into the movement and the disappointment of his level of achievement, moves him towards looking at the movement and seeing what is wrong with it.
Phil Davis: That’s what the film’s about waking up to a grey bleak realty
Part 3:
Franc Roddam: when I was contracted to do the film there was no script. End of the film was filmed first. This was helpful to the actors because they know where they need to go to with the part.
I predict a riot:
The fight sequence with 100’s of extras mixed in with members of the public. 14 separate action que. Mods over one side the rockers at the other end of the beach the police in another place all ready to go. The stunts looked real because there were fight sequences set up but then crows ran through them so that punches weren’t completed and as result looked like real action. Much of the fight action was spontaneous everyone was keen and put 100% of themselves into the scenes.
Keeping it real:
Mark Wingett: we had a 2 week period to get together. FR used improvisation instead of the script. FR was a documentary maker and PD was taught improvisation and some of the work from the improv sessions made it into the film.
My generation was played at the party scene, anacrusis.
Franc Roddam: Getting in on the action: at the time there was a very static feel to films. The shot was set up and the actors walked into the shot. Because we were at the mercy of the action the camera had to follow the actors and that gave the film a very good energy and also a very realistic quality. So instead of bringing the actors in and saying. I put my cameras here I am already lit you guys do your bit I would bring the actors in to the space and say you do your bit, move how you would like to move, show me how you’d like to move and I’d follow with the eye piece and I’d watch it and I’d see if it looked okay. Then make suggestions and mark the place on the floor as a reference so the gaps weren’t too big.
Frank Roddam: talks about the Mark Wingett character referring to the Gary Cooper character Lesley ashes boyfriend in the film. He thinks he’s tough but I’m tougher and next year I’m going to beat the fuck out of him, also I’m going to steal his girlfriend so when I’m with him. I’m just going to get a little close to him. FR told MW to get a little too close to him so that he has to turn away from you. FR and I worked out all these little physical dynamics, which give the film a very strong sense of reality, you really feel these people do know each other they have these relationships and in fact they are real.
Franc Roddam: as a young film director you have little agendas you would like to follow through with. So I had male nudity instead of female nudity and I had the guy besotted with the girl and being love lost.
The film centred around the love relationship of the Lesley Ash character and the Phil Daniels character. The famous sexual experience of the two characters in the alleyway is pivotal and represents the experiences of a lot of young people.
Frank Roddam: said lets be modern and to portray that scene and it might help film making in the future. It might help the film agenda to have more freedom.
Bygone Britain. RS part of the appeal of the film is the very powerful portrayal of a vanished Britain of the early 1960’s when most houses didn’t have bathrooms, with a great scene of the Jimmy and his mate having a verbal in a public bathhouse. And another scene where Jimmy’s sister is sunning herself in front of an ancient sun lamp.
Frank Roddam: when it came to language I had to say is the truth of the matter is that blue collar working class people swear all the time. They swear at the beginning of sentence, at the end of a sentence, in the middle of a word….they say ‘sandfuckingwich’, ‘holifuckingday’ and I wanted to say let’s do that because I won’t my realty unless I do it.
The scene when the scooter is destroyed by the crash represents Jimmy’s aspirations being destroyed too and is difficult to watch.
Franc Roddam: Music was fantastic
The cast weren’t interviewed or flown to America
It was panned, but because it was criticized but this made it more attractive to the young people.
Timing was excellent because when it came out in 1979 it was just before the mod revival in 1980. It showed up in Mexico and San Diego. There was quite a political point, there was trouble between the far left and right wing groups BNP.
The film was about identity. The difficulty particularly young people have establishing their place in the world. And that message clad as it is in the clothing and style of a bygone era is simultaneously is nostalgic but it is also relevant because that quest that all young men in particular have to try and make their mark in the world and figure out who am I question never goes away.
It is easy to see how it resonates in audiences today.
Audiences today relate to the universal themes.
Toyah: Passage through the teenage years into adulthood, it’s an emotional journey we all have to make.
Franc Roddam: film seems as pertinent to this generation as it is to the generation when we made it.
Life is rubbish:
Phil Daniels: Jimmy doesn’t kill himself. What he rejects is making his whole life revolve around being a mod and sitting on a silly scooter.
RS it is a bleak film in many ways. It’s hard to see how this young man is going to find his way back into the world. He’s lost his job, he’s lost his girlfriend, he’s in quite a state and he’s coming down off a massive amphetamine binge. Life is not looking good for him, even though the cinematography tries to suggest differently, it’s quite an ambivalent ending and works quite well for that reason.
Franc Roddam: I’ve been asked, where would Jimmy be if he survived the end of Quadrophenia and he didn’t go off the cliff. I have different visions of him and they do range from. He might have got into advertising, he might have ended up a BNP member, or he might have ended up becoming an ordinary Joe with a smoking habit and a beer gut. I would like to think though that if you go through what he went through, that he would be liberated enough to become something special.
Toyah; The end sequence is symbolic and that’s good because no matter why you watch this film or why you identify with it, whether it’s because of the drugs and the culture, the loosing of the virginity and getting the girl, that kind of suicide image, symbolism of letting go and moving on, works so well in film genre. I think it is almost necessary for the film to end like that because that’s the lasting image and its so powerful.
Phil Daniels: what he come up against is that you couldn’t continue with the drugs and booze and the whole rock and roll thing and in the end he had to jack it in.
