Has the world of Blade Runner come true?
QUESTION How accurate has Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner proved in its predictions of what the world would be like in 2019? Ridley Scott’S film, based on Philip K. dick’s 1968 novel do Androids dream of electric Sheep? tells the tale of special police operative Rick deckard’s hunt for four dangerous genetically engineered ‘replicant’ humans in a dystopian future 2019 los Angeles.
the film’s setting is a vast metropolis version of los Angeles, a conglomeration of slums and super-skyscrapers. the sheer size of the city and its buildings is fantastical, more New york than lA. With 2019 two years away, we’re nowhere near seeing flying cars roaming the skies or sentient automatons prowling the streets.
the giant advertising moving image billboards, however, depicting a woman enjoying food and various supplements, are now commonplace. the movie appeared a decade before the jumbo billboard was installed at one times Square and similar billboards were ruining Piccadilly circus and other shopping districts.
Some of Blade Runner’s 2019 lA residents talk in ‘cityspeak’, a patois mixing various languages. deckard says: ‘that gibberish he talked was cityspeak, gutter talk, a mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you. i didn’t really need a translator. i knew the lingo, every good cop did. But i wasn’t going to make it easier for him.’ this is coming true.
los Angeles has undergone rapid demographic change. At the last census, in 2009, 47.5 per cent of residents identified themselves as Hispanic or latino, 29.4 per cent as white, 10.7 per cent as Asian and 9.8 per cent as African American.
Blade Runner explores the privatisation of space exploration. the majority of humankind in the movie has chosen to live in ‘off-world’ pleasure colonies run by private companies. last month, california company SpaceX succeeded in sending an unmanned cargo capsule to the space station. Private enterprise might be the source of future space funding — but there’s a long way to go.
Jake Furlong, Oxford.
QUESTION What was the last UK pop chart No1 to be released on a 78rpm shellac disc?
SeveN-iNcH 45rpm vinyl discs were first issued in the U.S. on March 31, 1949, but it wasn’t until November 1952 that they were introduced to the UK, initially featuring classical music.
this was probably because this new music format required new playing equipment and it was only seven years since the war had ended. With rationing still in force, only the wealthy could afford what must have been considered a frivolity in those austere times.
the 78rpm shellac discs were 10in in diameter, heavy and fragile. drop one and you could say goodbye to it. if left in the sun, they distorted so they could no longer be played. even playing a disc resulted in its deterioration, making hissing and extraneous distortion sounds which spoiled the music quality.
As times improved, 45s were sold in increasing numbers until their sales overtook the old-fashioned 78s in 1958. the last regular 78s were released in 1960.
the final 78rpm issues included the columbia release of cliff Richard’s A voice in the Wilderness coupled with don’t Be Mad At Me (col dB 4398) which reached No 2 in February that year, according to the New Musical express.
on Warner Brothers, the everly Brothers’ cathy’s clown coupled with Always it’s you reached No 1 in May and June for nine weeks.
in November and december, elvis Presley’s it’s Now or Never coupled with A Mess of Blues (RcA 1207) topped the charts for eight weeks. this RcA single is considered the final No 1 issued on 78. All production of 78s ceased in 1962.
Mick Jones, Northfleet, Kent. QUESTION Charlton Heston used the term ‘Judas Priest!’ in the circus film The Greatest Show On Earth in 1952. Is this where the rock band got their name? tHe previous answer reminded me of the time in the late Sixties/early Seventies when i wrote a weekly pop and rock column in the local paper in West Bromwich. i interviewed the emerging bands of the time (i was one of the first to interview a then unknown local rock singer called Robert Plant, later of led Zeppelin) and i distinctly remember interviewing bass player Bruno Stapenhill.
Just as i was about to leave, he said: ‘By the way, from Saturday we’re changing our name, so if you could mention it in the paper that would be great.’
Back at the office i declared with some hilarity to my fellow reporters: ‘i’ve just heard the most ridiculous name i’ve ever heard for a band — they’re going to call themselves “Judas Priest” — they’ll never catch on!’
this embarrassing memory is matched only by my being offered in the late Sixties an interview with an up-coming new singer — who, his agent told me, often wears make-up and dresses on stage as a woman.
i declined the interview on the basis that such stuff would hardly go down well in the Black country. His name — david Bowie.
How the past can come back to haunt you! Richard Westwood-Brookes, Bucknell, Shropshire.