Back To Bashing The Rich
Having just moved down to London, Ian is back out on the streets of Portobello with an unruly mob trying to make it to David Camerons house. In the meantime I have broken down every chapter of the book onto cue cards and made a very long character list. We sit down after food and chat over all the people, their characteristics, their pasts and present.
Last I had heard of Martin Wright prior to going up to Manchester in 2006 was that he was very very ill. A blood clot on the lung. I had expected the worst. So was very pleased to meet up with him, looking in fine health and good spirits at our old haunt of the LARC library. We chat over his recollections of his Class War days and the general political climate of the 1970’s to the 1980’s. I meet with Martin regularly. At the Boo-A-Bobby event and round his flat to talk more about the characters in Ians book and his recollections of Class War. Like Ian, Martin is still very much filled with passion and political venom, yet is modest and realistic about the past and present. The cosh wielding maniac is articulate, humble and truly entertaining. A proper working class hero. Having recommended a few books for me to read, to get an understanding of the decade that spawned Class War, one particularly sticks out with it’s vivid and striking first hand account of fighting the national front from 1970s to 1980s, “Anti-Fascist” by Martin Lux (A former comrade of Martin and Ian’s). Covering a decade of rising right wing sentiments on a street level that would find themselves echoed through the reign of Thatcher and also “the lefts” reaction to defeating the fascists – the classic pacifism/violence debate – sentiments that were to come to the fore of the 1980’s and mark the birth of Class War and the confrontational class anger that surrounded it.
I begin to get in touch with more of the old Class Warriors. Firstly meeting with Ron The Builder and we put away a fair few pints, again at The Chandros, as he fills me in on the story of Martha’s wedding. He is excited at the prospect of cameoing and wants to play a copper. Brilliant. Next up to meet properly with is Phil Gard the printer and Chris Low the angry fourteen year old. I must also get in touch with Ian Slaughter!
A story appears in The Independent over Christmas about me acquiring the film rights. Trust the old Bone. Still got plenty of life in him. And more some. Cracking article on Page 14!!
From the cue cards I move into putting each scene down into a rough script format so I have something to work with. Then I can iron out the narrative and get a first draft nailed. In the meantime I have been waiting anxiously to hear if my other film “Dark Night Of The Soul” is going to shoot this summer. I’m itching to be filming. And desperate for employment. Need to channel my frustrations. Starting to get into the mood for writing “Bash The Rich”. It is epic. Yet exciting. And completley different to anything else I have made. A full out comedy.
And to help those writing juices flow I meet up again with the man who kick started it all into action. Ray Jones. The character in the book who links Swansea with London. A key figure. And funny fucker. Ian phones telling me that a new film is out called The Bank Job mentionning John Bindon so the three of us spring into action. The famous welsh punk band Page 3 is reformed – Ray “Roughler” Jones and Ian “Class War” Bone reunite to sing “John Bindon” a song dedicated to his party trick of balancing five pints on his cock!?! So we film it on the fly in Ladbroke Grove. The double act is faultless. And it is great seeing them together – helps formulate the characters in my own mind by seeing the real characters in the living flesh. All coming together nicely I think.
