Good Vibrations Film Review

This wonderful little music film is bloody good. The film follows Terri Hooley; an idealist, peace loving man at odds with the “troubles” in Belfast in the 70s. He sees a parallel between his city and Jamaica and decides to open a record shop, to bring reggae to Belfast, in the most bombed street. Later at a gig, he sees the beginning of a new music scene, Punk. With his idealistic spirit, he starts a small record company to record the local Belfast punk bands; including Rudi, The Outcasts, and The Undertones with their classic single “Teenage Kicks” the number one song of legendary radio one DJ John Peel. Terri is a character you want to see succeed; my favourite scene is when a record company executive is telling him the record is “shite” Terri incensed begins to take gold records off the wall smashing them claiming they are “shite”. This made me laugh so hard and personally would love to do that to all those glorified tea boys in business suits. All the idealism comes at a cost though. Terri sells the record “Teenage Kicks” to a record company for £500 and a signed photo of The Shangri-Las; Terri never got the photo. Terri had no head for the business side and he loses the shop in the end, there is a pattern of reopening and shutting until the final time in 2015. The “Troubles” created Belfast Punk, the youth needed something to make them feel alive for a while instead of the constant fear of being lynched, beaten, and bombed. It was their escape and the ticket out of the status quo. In the finale, Terri’s speech about the importance of punk was right “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!”

Stuart Ritchie  

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Vibrations_(film)