The Real Thing were a home-grown Black British group of singers who have worked from the 1960s onwards. The group came from Liverpool and played support for the Beatles at the Cavern Club! Respect for that.
You can watch the film, here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lj5v
It’s unbelievable nowadays to hear the stories and struggles of exclusion associated with the music industry back in the day…The Real Thing held strong and have kept going…a great example.
BBC2TV are showing a two-part documentary about the political legacies of the Cuban revolution of the 1950s. These legacies are interpreted in relation to the cold war (USA vs USSR) and the international struggle for post-imperial independence in Africa and Asia.
Notwithstanding the long-term failure of international revolution, the history of Cuban politics is of a small country that has punched way above its weight. Even today, Cuba exports doctors around the world…
You can watch the documentary, here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lj6l
The legacies of western imperialism across latin-America (and Africa, and Asia) have not been good. Mostly, countries and people have been exploited and held-down through poverty, and by the systemic exclusion of access to healthcare, education etc…
By the 1950s, the island of Cuba had, under the corrupt military dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista, become an off-shore playground for American gangsterism and money laundering through gambling and prostitution etc etc…(see The Godfather, Part Two (1974) for the background to US organised crime’s involvement in Cuba).
The Cuban international effort was about correcting these systemic exclusions and promoting a form of personal liberation.
If you are interested in this, you can also watch these films
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Che (2008) parts one and two
The BBCiplayer is listing this classic Hitchcock adventure…
The BBCiplayer is listing this classic from the 1960s…with Michael Caine and from a story by Len Deighton
The BBCiplayer is listing this classic by Orson Welles…perhaps the greatest film of all time?
The BBCiplayer is listing this comedy classic by Howard Hawks. Well worth a watch.
The BBCiplayer is listing the Stephen Frears classic from 1988…well worth watching
The BBCiplayer is listing Francis ford Coppola’s classic…well worth a watch.
Also, The Fog of War and The Deer Hunter
The BBCiplayer is listing Stanley Kubrik’s, Shining. Well worth a look.
Here is a history of gospel music in six songs…