Look at Life - Coffee Bar, 1959

Рет қаралды 116,832

13 жыл бұрын

Posted by nostalgoteket.se U.K. newsreel. It's a look at the SOHO bohemian coffee bars of London. Many famous coffee bars are shown on the inside and out. Very cool scene in the 2Is with a rock & roll band playing wildly and the crowd jiving away! A square invades a hipster coffee bar and all the cats give him the evil eye. "The French" is the most bohemian coffee house of the lot-with beatniks discussing planetary movements. Some of the coffee bars shown include: The 2Is, the French, the Macabre, Le Grande, Stockpot, Sam Widges, Melbray, Universal, La Roca, Freight Train, El Toro, Picasso, Las Vegas, Moka Bar, and more.

Пікірлер: 84

@andreagaul4960 4 жыл бұрын

I think this short film is my favourite thing on the Internet.

@TheRowlandstone73 7 жыл бұрын

Great stuff. I really wish this had been my era. It's almost 15 years before I was even born, but I've always had a huge affinity for the late 50s, whether it be the films, the music, the cars, the fashion, everything.

@RockinRedRover 7 жыл бұрын

Great clip. As already said at 3mins it's Brian Bennett & Licorice Locking playing drums & bass in the 2 I's band. They were regulars at the 2 I's and in Marty's Wildcats b4 joining the Shads. Playing guitar is Joe Moretti, so this was filmed after November 58 when he'd moved to London from Glasgow. He famously played lead on "Brand new cadillac" with Bennett & Locking when they were Vince Taylor's Playboys, and also on "Shakin All Over" for Kidd's Pirates in May 1960, just before backing Gene Vincent in Italy. Jivin' in blue suit & cool white shoes is early rock n roller Rory Blackwell.

@misyd72 4 жыл бұрын

Yes,great indeed-and there's some nice LP's on the wall behind the band,too-I spotted Elvis' Rock n' Roll (no.1) on HMV ,Tommy Steele Stage Show- Decca 10' inch, A Steady Date With Tommy Sands and Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps self-titled 2nd LP of 57' (took me years to find a good nick copy of that!) A fine film for sure and a precious bit of social history

@chalkncheeseneeds723 8 жыл бұрын

I know one of the astrologers at 5:52 left hand side Anthony (Tony) Potter, a great man sadly now dead. Such a lovely find thanks for posting!

@neilmccormick2064 3 жыл бұрын

My grandfather (Joe McCormick) lived on Kemble Street during the 50s and 60s. Joe was a retired mercantile marine( chief Petty officer) who worked as Porter at the Waldorf Astoria until his death in 1968 aged 62. Joe would have known all those haunts in Soho at that amazing time in history. To say I'm envious would be an understatement.

@MsNellieBrown 12 жыл бұрын

7.48 Red head guy at bar with black tie is my friend REG!! (The Duke) Still living hard! Had one of the first 'strip' joints in Soho. He's 80 now. And a legend. x

@pigknickers2975 6 жыл бұрын

wow, the legendary iron foot Jack, mentioned by Ian Dury.

@nevermind824 10 жыл бұрын

Birth of British rock and roll in this clip!

@VinnyDaQ 6 жыл бұрын

"I was a Teenage Dracula from Outer Space" - sounds like a smash hit to me ! : P

@simonlilley 9 жыл бұрын

On drums is Brian Bennett and double bass is Brian Locking both later of The Shadows

@suaragitar 2 жыл бұрын

Yes absolutely two of the future Shadows!

@mwnciboo 4 жыл бұрын

Grandma and Grandad were rocking out at a Coffee bars, and we think we are special with Pumpkin spice lattes in Costa...Nothing really changes.

@AndyGait 8 жыл бұрын

Looks like Galton and Simpson had been to one of the bars here, from Hancock's Half Hour: The Poetry Society (1959) Hancock - Not the one you go to. Oh no. - not El Castanetto. That’s bourgeois, that is; we go to the one done up like a graveyard. We sit on the old cardboard tombstones round the plastic coffins...and we indulge in philosophical analysis. We formulate our plans for our Brave New World; Gladys takes it down in her notebook and when she’s filled it up we’re going to publish it. We’re calling it "A Thesis on the Reconciliation of Homo-Sapiens in Relationship with his Natural Destiny and the Theory of Selective Evolution".

@postscript67 3 жыл бұрын

These films are like the "News of the World"'s famous slogan at the time: All of human life is here. And isn't it marvellous!

@youtubister 8 жыл бұрын

Quite a gem, this. Great to be able to look back. Notice, nobody there staring at their phones all the time.

@utuber2 8 жыл бұрын

Nobody was overweight either it seems. Wouldn't fancy sitting there immersed in all that smoke though!

@MrPoupard 6 жыл бұрын

My God yes.. now you point it out it's obvious. Nobody is over weight .... incredible .....by today's standards where obesity has become the norm but as you say almost everyone is smoking which suppresses appetite.

@jusb1066 5 жыл бұрын

people usually read the papers instead, they just put them down for the filming

@paulh1679 10 жыл бұрын

Flicking ash into a skull ashtray at 7.10 very apt!

@andrewbeadle1517 8 жыл бұрын

Brilliant! Been reading stories of Iron foot Jack tonight. What a character!!

@allenworth4307 3 жыл бұрын

A square in a round hole is just not dug. Classic beatnik.

@barryallan7992 4 жыл бұрын

Came to London with Chris Morris (who later became Lance Fortune) and played guitar in resident band there in summer 1959. Magical days...

@RoseTaitsinger 9 жыл бұрын

Ironfoot Jack!! Ernest the Astrologer! The Partisan! Sam Widges! Thanks for sharing, Ron Gould

@gordonlewis1962 7 жыл бұрын

yes remember iron foot jack all those years ago what a character

@D-777i 10 жыл бұрын

Great to see these amazing independent coffee bars, so full of character, and what do we have now? - Costa and Starbucks!

@moochincrawdad 8 жыл бұрын

I walked into the Merrion Centre in Leeds to find out that one of the oldest and most respected music shops in Leeds had been replaceed by a Costa - surprising to say the least since there's another Costa at the front of the Merrion Centre next to Morrison's!

@D-777i 8 жыл бұрын

+moochincrawdad Costa are taking over! In Northampton they have 2 on one fairly small retail park!

@davidbeckett3313 8 жыл бұрын

+moochincrawdad used to love the merrion centre , me and a mate would come from chester to watch u t d in the 70, s , is the general wade pub still there ? remember the guilford pub and the beer keller , and there was a giant heath-robinson automaton on show , happy days

@davidbeckett3313 8 жыл бұрын

+moochincrawdad walked through chester a few weeks ago , people sitting outside starbucks drinking coffe in the pouring rain {undercover} , who pays 3 quid to sit outside in the fucking rain to drink coffee , nuts !!!!!!!!

@lesreed9269 6 жыл бұрын

Ahh, Gaggia!

@andromedastar4900 5 жыл бұрын

I was born three decades after this, but this video gave me a weird sense of deja vu.

@howardmckeown7187 3 жыл бұрын

OOOOOOOOhhhhhhhh

@MrPoupard 6 жыл бұрын

"Meet to put the world right ..... or more often left" : ) I know there's a tendency to look back thro rose-tinted glasses but still wonderful to see so many independents before big business appropriated the whole thing ....... and lovely to see a world without mobile phones and a poignant thought .... those young boys and girls who are still alive will be in their late 70s by 2018 and grandparents also! I want to enter that world if only for a day .....

@Roger.Coleman1949 7 жыл бұрын

Narrated by Michael Brooks, a famous BBC radio announcer of the time.

@KentishLad 7 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that info - I was curious to find out who the narrator was. At first I thought it sounded a bit like Ronald Fletcher

@harleyhartley3168 5 жыл бұрын

3:13 that’s my grandmother and her (now) wife!

@mwnciboo 4 жыл бұрын

Your Gran was into more than just flicking coffee beans....

@melancolie83 10 жыл бұрын

amazing clip!!

@jamesbatchelor4772 8 жыл бұрын

5:26 It's Marley from Home Alone.

@suaragitar 2 жыл бұрын

This is amazing!

@fastn1 12 жыл бұрын

these Rank films are great

@sto59 8 жыл бұрын

At 5:51 Ernest Britten Page (1913-1966) was a well known character in Soho Cafés of the 50s and 60s.

@carolelangford2896 8 жыл бұрын

1959 Erdington bhàm loved glass cups and saucers

@ivanahavitoff7308 11 жыл бұрын

Iron Foot Jack!!!

@KayVilleRecords 7 жыл бұрын

take me there

@eddywilliams6212 10 жыл бұрын

and on that note.. i'm off out for a coffee ;-)

@denzlepob 12 жыл бұрын

Cool dadio!

@farahvogue8623 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks ❤️❤️❤️i was born 1961

@JamesPawson 8 жыл бұрын

7:31 she's had a bit more than coffee I think.

@57brentford 8 жыл бұрын

at 6.5 in the coffee bar,there is a francis bacon picture on the wall

@steveambrose5580 3 жыл бұрын

The 2i’s coffee bar , where british rock really started.

@jeanhodgson8623 5 жыл бұрын

We used to have a grey cat.

@Springamatul 9 жыл бұрын

smoking replaces with technoligy in coffee shops now

@namaste91 12 жыл бұрын

@skiman55 Thank you very much.

@arielaguilar2786 4 жыл бұрын

Coffee house are home of Skiffle music Saludos de Argentina

@Roberto-mu1wd 8 жыл бұрын

1950's goths 7:05

@jsimm20 4 жыл бұрын

oh! for the days of infamous PURPLE HEARTS.

@psycoticbastard 4 жыл бұрын

3:50 Dracula from Out of Space...is that Del Boy who said that in Rock and Chips?

@tarotbear 12 жыл бұрын

It's the cat's pyjamas!

@rwmhunt7562 4 жыл бұрын

Is that Ottilie Patterson at 2.52?

@heinkle1 8 жыл бұрын

Where would these films have been shown? At the cinema?

@blackthorne57 8 жыл бұрын

They were shown at Rank Organisation cinemas before the feature film. They were introduced to replace newsreels which became redundant when TV started to provide instant daily TV news coverage.