Author: Jack LeggattMusic & Visuals (002)
Yo People.
With the football season well under way, I wanted to explore the music within the gritty, criminal underground film series of ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ across different musical genres of the 70s and 80s Punk scene, into the late 80s and 90s electronic scene. These genres not only give you a sense of time passing throughout the films, but also give rise to specific feelings of nostalgia within the viewer – even if you are not born in that era.
The first film follows a young Carlton Leach, who becomes a notorious member of the Inter-City Firm (ICF) in the late 1970s following West Ham in the terraces. At this time in the film, the punk scene is well established with notable songs such as ‘Borstal Breakout’ by Sham 69 and ‘(We Are) The Road Crew’ by Motörhead. This truly gets the heart racing, making us feel the adrenaline and how truly hectic it was associated within the scraps that happened in the football hooligan rival meet ups on match days. Iconically, this time period is where Carlton meets his first wife, but we can see later on how his priorities shift as we move into the next era causing his marriage to break down.
We can tell that time moves on through the change in music choice, with Carlton moving into the nightclub/rave world and away from football hooliganism in the early 80s acting as security for the club owners. We are sucked into the new decade with songs such as ‘French Kiss’ by Lil’ Louis and ‘Voodoo Ray’ by A Guy Called Gerald. We feel welcomed by the change from hardship and aggression associated with Punk, to a sense of community and a more peaceful outlet for the youths’ political frustrations at the time and we can see how this foundational era of music leans into music produced and the club scene today giving that nostalgic feel of good times. Groups would flock to abandoned spaces around London to make them their own, through raves. Here we see a notable increase in the presence of drugs, while Carlton’s presence in the criminal underground begins to grow and his network of criminal friends expands. This is where he also meets his second wife. A second wife to show a second stage in his life. Drugs, Sex and Crime – with a splash of Electronic.
Interestingly, in the first film there is an entry within the soundtrack named ‘Walk Away’ by Rebecca Moon. This entry is very different from the previous, a more sombre and thought-provoking song. It appears at the time when his close friends/criminal colleagues Tony, Pat and Craig are brutally murdered gangland style in the Essex countryside. The shift in Carlton’s psyche is evident, a more removed and conservative Carlton, juggling his thoughts about his life up to this point and ultimately struggling with a drug addiction. Will he stay in this life or move on?
Carlton Leach, the ex-hooligan, gangster and now author telling his story (above)