No 1

9 March 1985

WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL YOUTH YEAR AND WHY ARE ALL THESE POP STARS MAKING A FILM ABOUT IT?

Report by Paul Bursche.

Pictures by Kerstin Rodgers.

ONE FEBRUARY MORNING

A Sunday morning in London’s Regent’s Park. A gaggle of popstars are mucking about on the grass to the amusement of passers-by.

Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware is chatting to Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook.

Comedian Robbie Coltrane is cuddling Rose and Jill of Strawberry Switchblade, the three of them having a Glaswegian conversation that no other soul can understand.

Nearby Paul Weller and Suggs from Madness are cavorting on the pavement.

Few of the laughing spectators realise that there’s actually a serious purpose to all this frivolity.

INTERNATIONAL RESCUE

The United Nations has named 1985 International Youth Year, to give youth a fair deal worldwide.

The decision was taken in light of growing unemployment, insufficient training opportunities, prevailing racism and sexism, and the constant threat of nuclear war.

The English branch of the Youth Year has helped to form over 140 different youth groups in England. These groups have undertaken projects from setting up youth centres and housing co-operatives to publishing books on young people’s rights.

So far, so good. But at the start of 1985 there had still not been enough publicity for the Year. Few young people had even heard about it.

‘The problem was that it was adults who conceived the idea,’ says development officer Evelyn Gillan. ‘At the beginning of the year few youngsters had actually heard of it.

‘So I went around the various existing youth groups and asked young people how we could involve the unemployed, Asians, blacks, everyone’.

The simple answer she received: get someone involved who has credibility with the young. Someone like Paul Weller.

The Style Councillor was approached immediately and offered the position of joint president, along with actress Julie Walters, herself a keen mover for youth rights.

‘I agreed,’ says Weller, ‘on the condition that I could have some sort of say in it. I didn’t just want to be a figurehead. If they’d wanted that then they could have got someone in the Royal Family.

‘I wanted involvement.’

The first thing Weller wanted was publicity for the Year and the idea for the film was born…

STAR STRUCK

The brief photo call over, the stars return to the welcome warmth of the Diorama, a stylish old building overlooking the park.

The filming continues. The full cast is the Style Council, Madness, Jerry Dammers of the Special AKA, Strawberry Switchblade, Martyn Ware, Paul Cook and Robbie Coltrane. Swimmer Duncan Goodhew makes a brief appearance, as do Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry and Julie Walters.

The point of the video is to show young people that it is their year and their opinions matter. (Quite how much they matter is another question. The government coughed up a massive £400 to make this video!)

People from youth groups around the country participate alongside the famous names. Indeed the film starts with some young people accidentally stumbling upon the stars making the video (phew, heavy concept here!).

‘We have certain information that we want transmitting,’ says Robbie Coltrane, who wrote the script. ‘But we don’t want to make it too obvious that we are transmitting information, say by having some boring person talk at the camera for ten minutes. That would serve no purpose.

‘This is a more exciting way of doing it’.

OVER TO YOU

And so it was. The video was made, everyone had a laugh doing it, some kids met some genuine popstars and the cause was helped. You’ll be seeing the video soon, if you haven’t already, and then it’s up to you.

‘We’re saying that this year can be what people make it,’ says Weller. ‘It can just be about climbing in the Yorkshire Dales or it can be more than that. It can help youth become a strong force to change issues.

‘Kids should learn that if they rally round they can change things’.

If you want more information on the International Youth Year, write to the English IYY Committee, 57 Charlton Street, London NW1 1HU. Watch out for their magazine, Sparks. They can tell you how they can help you and how you can help them.

Echoing the final words of all the stars in the film – ‘Do it now! Do it in 85!’

Photo is captioned ‘they’re all in there somewhere. See if you can spot em’.
Back row: Mick Talbot (Style Council), Mark Bedford (Madness), Robbie Coltrane, ?, Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), ?, Dee C Lee (Style Council).
Middle row: Jerry Dammers (Specials), ?, ?, ?, Jill Bryson, Rose McDowall, Paul Weller.
Front row: ?, ?, ?, Suggs (Madness), ?, Cathal ‘Chas Smash’ Smyth (Madness), ?