NO JOB, JUST A £300 GUITAR

TV GUIDE, TONIGHT'S CHOICE
The Liverpool Echo, 14 August 1979

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.