hrmmph hrmmph at the risk of ridicule due to my advanced years.Here are some observations
by a Brit who was a teenager during those exciting early days of Rock and Roll.
in the early 50's I became an inmate of an English boarding school, this possessed one solitary radio monopolised by the
older boarders and from which one could typically hear such long forgotten gems as "Jezebel" by Frankie Laine and "Cry" by Johnnie
Ray.Then the film Blackboard Jungle opened to bring riotious behaviour in the cinemas and rocking all round the clock.
At this time the BeebBeebCeeb had a monopoly on radio broadcasts and the UK musician's Union not only severely limited
the needle time the BBC could use to play actual records but also restricted the appearance in the UK by non-UK artists unless a reciprocal arrangement could be set up with equivalent UK acts touring America. oh come on there were none back then the states was where it was all happening!! (all to conserve employment for live British musicians). hence it was quite a while before any of the new American acts could
tour the UK (I believe Bill Haley was the first quickly followed by "the killer" Jerry Lee who was soon sent packing when the tabloid press found out that his new wife was in fact his teenage cousin.
At about the same time there was a revival of New Orlean jazz initiated by one
Ken Colyer who spawned the
Chris Barber Band of which a sub group was formed to play the newly popular Skiffle music led by the ebulliant Lonnie Donegan (at first I thought he was a woman!!)
No doubt people here have heard about his father being a dustman (garbage collector) and his question about the flavo(u)r retaining capacity of chewing gum.This lasted until a Memphis truck driver erupted on the scene plus the son of Ozzie and Harriet
(Nelson) escaped from his television show.
In the summer of 1957 there was an explosion of great new sounds beginning with Paul Anka's Diana and the Everly's Bye Bye Love and reaching a crescendo with
Buddy Holly's That'll Be The Day
One of my life's biggest regrets is that due to the restrictions placed on the boarders I was unable to get to the concert by Buddy and the Crickets at Salisbury a mere 36 miles east of my school. Then in february 1959 another blow when a planned follow up UK tour did not happen due to his unfortunate death.So Rock and Roll grew in popularity and Britain created its own R and R
stars beginning with Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Duffy Power Billy Fury Dickie Pride etc. (all pale shadows of the original US variety). talking of
"Shadows" in 1958 Harry Webb/Cliff Richard and his group The Drifters ( renamed The Shadows) urged us to "Move It" and UK
R and R found its voice still going strong nearly 50 years later.
Around that time my father made me a fine crystal set and after I became the head boarder I found that the position of my
bed near a window gave access to the building's lightning conductor and this plus an old under floorboard gas pipe we found
enabled reception of a steady stream of highly distorted pop from the commercial radio station based in Luxembourg a
lamentable situation not assuaged until the Auntie Beeb woke up to reality in 1967 with their radio 1 replacement for the
by then burgeoning pirate radio transmitters
John Fowles
The radio is playin’ a soft country song
frtom:-
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