With unemployment running at twice
the national average, and further redundancies in the shipyards, the age of leisure has come early for many of Sunderland's
youngsters.
Michael is 16, on the dole, and buying a £300 guitar on HP. His recently-formed group -- The Rejected -- is receiving
encouragement from the local
community theatre, which also faces redundancies
as government cutbacks begin to bite.
What use is Sunderland's £7-million leisure centre and its pedestrian precincts to Michael's generation? Indeed,
what will make things all right for these kids?
Sunday Sun
12 August 1979
Kids on the scrap heap
The youth of Sunderland is being thrown
on the scrap heap.
Unemployment has sapped their energy, they are shattered and just hanging about miserable.
That is the picture gained by a BBC film crew which they will pass on to the nation via "Brass
Tacks - Are the Kids All Right?" (BBC-2, Thursday, 8.05 p.m.).
A New Wave group called The Rejected is featured heavily and programme researcher Ian
McNulty said the lads in it were the only positive youngsters they met among the unemployed.
"Football used to be the way out of boredom and frustration for the youngsters, but now the
heroes are Punk rock stars.
"The kids see a chance for a working class lad to make millions. They want to be rich, they
want people to take notice of them," said McNulty.
New Wave music has as much right to Government money as
an art gallery, and McNulty said the Sunderland
youngsters do not want squash courts and leisure complexes but some support for what is important in their lives
- music.
The programme paints a grim picture and there are no stock answers. "We hope the programme
and phone-in will prompt the people on the spot who live with the problems to come up with the answers."
Sir Keith Joseph talks of incentives and the creation of more small businesses, but in the North-East
the message does not seem to have got across, and there are 40 percent fewer small businesses than the national average.
"The area seems to have suffered a loss of confidence, and unemployment is on the tips of
most people's tongues."
"The apathy is appalling, yet the youth should be full of energy and inspiration. The future
of this country is going to depend on them."
The Liverpool Echo
14 August 1979
TV GUIDE
NO JOB, JUST A £300 GUITAR
TONIGHT'S CHOICE
A SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD who's on the dole
and whose dream of making something of his life centres on a £300 guitar is one of the most interesting characters
in tonight's Brass Tacks film (BBC-2, 8.10).
Although the film is about Sunderland, much of what it has to say about youth unemployment and
bored youngsters could just as well apply to Liverpool.
While many of the youngsters just drift from day to day and end up dispirited or in trouble, people
like Michael Crawford with his new guitar and the new band he has founded (aptly
called The Rejected) are getting help
from Alan Cohen, director of a local community theatre group, who thinks involvement in the arts will help enrich
kids' lives.
But now Cohen is facing cutbacks by the Government and his project is threatened with closure.
And, meanwhile, the City Council's solution to the problem seems to meet no response from the unemployed
youngsters, who refuse to identify with the massive new £7,000,000 leisure centre the Council have just built.
Birmingham Evening Mail
14 August 1979
We're riveted by Brass Tacks
by Stafford Hildred
"BRASS TACKS" (BBC
2, 8.5), the current affairs show that has pioneered viewer participation, would like to announce a modest success.
The Monday evening chance for feedback from the show - "Return Call to Brass Tacks"
- has been extended until the end of the series.
And calls following the weekly Tuesday evening documentary to local radio stations across the country
are building up to a regular avalanche.
All of which delights editor Roger Laughton, who gained much of his considerable TV expertise helping
to run "Pebble Mill," the lunchtime show produced here in Birmingham.
"We still only get around two million viewers a week," says Roger, "but when you
consider that we deal with one serious subject in some depth then maybe that is quite a high figure.
"And there is a sort of cultural watershed that prevents people switching to BBC 2 before
nine o'clock."
The series has certainly built
up a considerable following among those who remember that the BBC's brief is to educate and inform as well as to
entertain.
"This week we are focusing on some kids in Sunderland," says Roger Laughton. "They
are members of a punk rock group called The Rejected but they are also victims of a system that educates
young people and then fails to find work for them.
"They could equally be in Handsworth in Birmingham, say. It is a problem that exists in many
cities.
"What we try to do is to use one specific example and then try to widen the discussion."
And on subjects as unlikely as the problems of the deaf, factory farming and artificial insemination,
"Brass Tacks" has stimulated exactly the sort of healthy informed debate our leaders want.
Congratulations to Mr. Laughton and "Brass Tacks." I hope they keep hitting
the nails on the heads.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus
14 Aug 1979
Plight of the youngsters
In Sunderland the problems of youth
unemployment are writ large. There are 40 percent fewer small businesses than the national average. The shipyards
and coalmines are threatened with closure. Dole queues and boredom are the lot of many youngsters in the area.
In Are the Kids All Right? BRASS TACKS (BBC-2, 8.5) talks to the young unemployed of Sunderland
including Michael, a 16-year-old whose dreams of
making it are all centred on his £300 guitar
and his new band, The Rejected.
The City Council's solution to the problem includes a seven million pound leisure centre and a
pedestrian precinct. Alan Cohen, director of the Community Theatre group, thinks that involvement in the arts will
enrich the children's lives, but the Government cutbacks are threatening to close down his project.
Evening Chronicle
Tuesday 21 Aug 1979
Tory councillor lashes BBC
A TELEVISION documentary which painted
an abysmal picture of Sunderland may discourage industrialists from moving to the town.
It probably frightened off Argentinean soccer star Alex Sabella and it could spark a huge migration
of youngsters.
So says Tory councillor Joseph Landau, who condemned last week's BBC-2 Brass Tacks programme
as one sided and unbalanced.
Coun. Landau, Sunderland member, Conservative Group chairman on Tyne Wear Council and ward member
on Sunderland Council said: "This is my town and it's a fine place, with lost of good qualities."
Despite initial revulsion, he says the episode has prompted him to look for new solutions to the
town's serious youth unemployment.
Now he's planning to set up a working party to investigate and report on the problem, the members
to be drawn jointly from the district and county councils.
He's also appealing for practical suggestions from the public which could be considered by the
group.
He said of the programme: "My first impression was that if any industrialist was contemplating
a move to the area, he would have to
be a very compassionate person indeed to further
that interest.
"The rejection of Sunderland by Alex Sabella could have been the combination of viewing this
programme and he and his wife's conducted tour of the town on a wet, windy and miserable day.
"My biggest worry is that our own youth would see the programme and say: "There are no
prospects here for us. Let's get the hell out of Sunderland."
"In many ways the programme was very one sided but even if it was 95 per cent wrong, it's
the five percent that's right about the problems that I want to attack and solve.
"To make matters worse, ITV was off the air and there was a rotten film on the other channel,
so Sunderland got nationwide bad publicity."
"Unemployment of the young is something we haven't tackled properly and I want to get to the
bottom of it."
An official of the BBC said: "If Mr. Landau writes to us, we will, of course, consider his
remarks and reply to them.
"There is also the opportunity for him and anyone else wishing to respond to the programme
to have their views aired on the weekly follow-up programme to Brass Tacks."
Evening Chronicle
August 79
Picture of Wearside - in the right focus
JOBLESS teenagers hope to give ailing
Wearside a television tonic.
They believe there is plenty in Sunderland to smile about and to prove it they are to make a film
of life in the town.
The film makers then plan to send their documentary to the BBC in answer to a film about the town
called "Are the Kids All Right" which painted a dismal picture of dole queues and street fights.
Danny Dixon, a member of Southwick Neighbourhood Youth Projects (SNYP) explained yesterday that
the youngsters were so annoyed by the BBC film that they decided to make their own.
"We are all so angry because it just did not paint a fair picture of Wearside," said
19-year-old Danny, an unemployed factory worker, of Ellis Square, Southwick.
"The BBC film totally ignored all the good things that exist in the town - and just dwelt
on closed factories and dole queues."
Danny is no stranger to film making as two years ago he directed a short documentary called "Life
on the Dole" for a Manchester company.
About 12 SNYP members, aged from 13 to 19, are involved in the project, and hope to feature Sunderland
Football Club in the film.
"We also want to show some
of the community projects that are going on, such
as the Southwick village farm, and also show the great neighbourhood spirit that exists in Southwick and other areas
of Sunderland," added Danny.
Borrow
The teenagers have been given a big start in the project by being able to borrow film and sound
equipment from Sunderland Polytechnic.
"All the people involved in making the film have been born and bred in Sunderland, and I am
sure they have a lot more idea what the town is like than film crews from London," said Danny.
"Most people involved in the film are on the dole so none of us would deny there is unemployment
in the town. But I do not believe that it is that much higher than in other towns."
The film makers also hope to improve the image outsiders have of the town.
"I know of quite a few people who were put off coming to Sunderland after seeing the BBC film,
and we hope that after they see our film they will realise it is not such a bad place after all," said Danny.
Coun. Alan Waistell, chairman of the polytechnic governors, said he thought the film was "an
excellent way to improve the image of Sunderland."
Daily Mirror
23 August 1979
Story: Ken Tossel
Picture: Tom Buist
Jobs for the boys at last..Watty, Tony Mick and Jeff
no longer feeling so rejected in Sunderland yesterday.
These four 16-year-old punk rockers
might look dejected.
But soon they may find it difficult to live down to the name of their group . . .The Rejected.
For they performed a song they wrote - about the plight of jobless teenagers like themselves in
their home town of Sunderland - on a BBC-2 documentary last week.
And now three recording companies are interested in the
boys who "seem to be able to speak for their
generation."
Singer Mark "Watty" Whatcott, unemployed since he left school in June, said
yesterday:
"We called ourselves The Rejected because that was how we felt."
Guitarists Tony Sidney and Mick Crawford are also on the dole, while drummer Jeff Page is a £25-a-week
tyre fitter. So they all agreed: "This is great news!"
