0:00:02 > 0:00:04The music's always been about change.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07You've got to do something that sweeps away the past.
0:00:08 > 0:00:13What has kept British music so exciting and refreshing
0:00:13 > 0:00:19is because someone comes along and changes it all again and we seem to welcome those changes,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22which I don't think necessarily happens in other countries.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33My name is Annie Nightingale. I am a Radio One DJ
0:00:33 > 0:00:35and I have been now for four decades.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40I may have done other things in my life, but this film is a personal account of my life in music
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and some of the artists I've been passionate about.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I'm still crazy about music and I'm always looking for something new and exciting.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02Probably once a week, somebody says, "What's your all-time top ten?"
0:01:02 > 0:01:07And you think, "Oh, don't ask me that! That is so difficult!"
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Or, "What's your favourite tune of all time?"
0:01:09 > 0:01:13I go, "I might tell you one today but it'll be different from last week".
0:01:13 > 0:01:17The point is, you're always looking forward. You haven't got time to look back.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24"Annie Nightingale on BBC Radio One."
0:01:24 > 0:01:29What happens with most people is their interest in pop music is greatest when they're teenagers,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32perhaps into their early 20s,
0:01:32 > 0:01:37and then you have rather more important things to take up your time.
0:01:37 > 0:01:44For some reason, for me, I've gone on on that interest in the new music,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49the undiscovered, the underground, and seeing it, nurturing it, really.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52The length of how long she's been on the radio, four decades,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and she's still down, still cool. She's a legend.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58She's given a lot of people breaks and she's got the spirit
0:01:58 > 0:02:02that she's always stuck with the music. She's into what she does
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and she's not in any way like a celebrity DJ, is she?
0:02:05 > 0:02:09She's here for the music. She loves what she does.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12I unfortunately was not born with a great singing voice,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15which is the more embarrassing if your name is Nightingale,
0:02:15 > 0:02:21and I certainly didn't feel confident enough to become a professional musician,
0:02:21 > 0:02:27much as I would've loved to have done it. So that's how becoming a DJ, appreciating music,
0:02:27 > 0:02:33playing it and huge enthusiasm for it and wanting to spread the word to other people,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35that is how this job happened.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40It's actually like being on the phone.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Being on the phone to your friend saying,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47"I've just heard this great tune, I'd love to play it to you. Have a listen, see what you think."
0:02:49 > 0:02:53You've got to be honest to yourself. I don't play anything I don't like.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56You play a tune until it's peaked.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00If it's going to be something that's in the charts, as soon as it's peaked in the charts,
0:03:00 > 0:03:06you don't play it any more because you've got all these other tunes going, "Please play me!"
0:03:07 > 0:03:13If you have a radio show or if you have a music column in a magazine or a newspaper,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17you'd be deluged, inundated, everyone wants a review
0:03:17 > 0:03:20or everyone wants airplay.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26My role is just the conduit, get the good music out there.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32So on what basis do you choose what to listen to? I can't tell you that.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35If it gets some kind of emotional response from me, that is what you want.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39What makes an emotional response is very difficult to say.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44As John Peel rightly said, "I just want to hear something I haven't heard before."
0:03:45 > 0:03:50You're never off duty. At home, I've got one set-up in the kitchen,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54I have decks in the living room and then laptop on my bed,
0:03:54 > 0:04:01so I've got all these different tunes all poised to listen to
0:04:01 > 0:04:04simply because I want to get to hear everything.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06Getting played on the radio...
0:04:06 > 0:04:09In the days pre-internet, getting played on the radio
0:04:09 > 0:04:14was your bread and butter. That's the only way people could really hear you apart from playing gigs.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18So getting support from DJs who would play something that wasn't in the charts,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Annie and John Peel broke so many bands.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23They were kind of our only real voice.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26She was a great help to Primal Scream in the early days.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29She's always championed us and she's a love for doing that.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32# I have to praise you
0:04:32 > 0:04:38A tune that hasn't got a plugger behind it, or hasn't got money behind it to promote it,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42this is somebody at the beginning of their career, they can't afford to have...
0:04:42 > 0:04:48They haven't even got a record deal, they haven't got a big label behind them. Who's going to get play that?
0:04:48 > 0:04:51So that's why the evening DJs on Radio One
0:04:51 > 0:04:56were much more likely to give those tunes an airing,
0:04:56 > 0:05:01because they weren't playlist material possibly, and that's where I've always been.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06The first time I can remember her was when the Stone Roses played at Alexandra Palace.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Just after the gig, we were on this fire escape having a crafty smoke
0:05:10 > 0:05:15and we saw the girl mooching across with Stewart Copeland out of the Police
0:05:15 > 0:05:19and I think I gave him a bit of cheek and got a good laugh out of her,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22but she's always been around and always been very supportive
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and she's a great lady. She's is the grand dame of Radio One.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34AIRRAID SIREN BLARES
0:05:36 > 0:05:40This thirst for the new is something that came from deep inside me,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42probably connected with my childhood.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48Growing up in this post-World War II environment
0:05:48 > 0:05:52was not at all a bad thing.
0:05:52 > 0:05:59Obviously, you only have one childhood, so I couldn't compare it with anyone in any other era.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02To me, it was not a bad thing. It was very exciting
0:06:02 > 0:06:08because it was a bit like having Bonfire Night every day.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Obviously, people had suffered terribly, but you don't realise that as a small child.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18I didn't know any different. It didn't bother me in the slightest.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24It wasn't just for me it was like that. All over the UK.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30Growing up in Liverpool, can you remember what the landscape was like?
0:06:30 > 0:06:35Places we would play we called bombies. "We're going down the bomby."
0:06:35 > 0:06:39And then only later you realise you were talking about a bomb site.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And then it still didn't click.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45It was only later you thought, "Oh, there was a house there
0:06:45 > 0:06:49"and a bomb destroyed it and now we're playing football on it."
0:06:49 > 0:06:52One of the other things I remember is you'd see what I now realise
0:06:52 > 0:06:58were servicemen coming back from the war with shellshock.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02You'd see guys walking down the street and they'd be sort of twitching
0:07:02 > 0:07:05and you'd say, "What's that? What's up with him?"
0:07:05 > 0:07:08And the grownups would say, "That's shellshock."
0:07:08 > 0:07:13When I was growing up, all the relatives were talking about the wars they'd been through
0:07:13 > 0:07:18and I thought, "I don't want this to happen again. I don't want to go through what they went through."
0:07:18 > 0:07:21I do remember once talking to my dad
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and this is probably why I asked the question.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27I said, "Do people want peace?"
0:07:27 > 0:07:34And he said, "Yeah, people everywhere want peace, it's the governments that screw it up."
0:07:36 > 0:07:41The 50s, now considered dull and austere, I found really exciting.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47Mainly due to the sounds coming out of the family radiogram.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52The radiogram that I remember growing up with
0:07:52 > 0:07:55was the kind of focal point of the room.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59And it was from there that this music came out.
0:08:06 > 0:08:13The first memories I have were violins making me cry buckets
0:08:13 > 0:08:18and it still does. I'm terrified of things like symphony orchestras,
0:08:18 > 0:08:23I have to run away because it affects me so much, I don't know why, and it still does.
0:08:31 > 0:08:37As soon as the remnants of World War II had gone, we were in the space age!
0:08:40 > 0:08:44This was very, very new and exciting.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49And also this was the beginning of things like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
0:08:49 > 0:08:56and strange sounds coming out of the radio which were not conventional music and were not orchestras
0:08:56 > 0:09:00or popular music or crooners. It was like, "What is this?"
0:09:05 > 0:09:09I was obviously very open to all these sounds
0:09:09 > 0:09:12and I still am.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14I guess that's why I ended up doing what I do.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23The rebellious and independent streak I'm known for,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26I'm still really not sure where that came from.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31I was not approved of at school.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36I mean, looking back on it, possibly it did build that sense of independence.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Independent girls-only school.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43They didn't encourage this very left-field, weird, raver person.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45# Gonna keep a-shaking, gonna keep a-moving baby
0:09:45 > 0:09:48# Don't you cramp my style, I'm a real wild child
0:09:48 > 0:09:54When I was 17, despite my parents' wishes, I was hell-bent on doing a journalism course.
0:09:54 > 0:10:00I used to think it was the movies. That was my other great passion as a youth,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03to go to the movies, and it was something like Roman Holiday
0:10:03 > 0:10:07in which a journalist was making a really good time, and I think I thought,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10"Well, that looks like a really exciting life,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13"running around in sports cars and going, "Hold the front page!"
0:10:13 > 0:10:18"and you're on the phone or chasing criminals, exposing corruption."
0:10:18 > 0:10:24It was purely Hollywood fantasy, I suppose, of what I thought a journalist would be.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27# Come on, baby, let the good times roll
0:10:27 > 0:10:32It was a growing up process. It was as much a year of leaving school
0:10:32 > 0:10:36and experiencing the big, wide world, which I desperately needed to do.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40One of the interesting parts about this college was that every Friday
0:10:40 > 0:10:48there would be a get-together in the main sort of hall of the polytechnic on Regent Street.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50It was like a disco, really.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54The music wasn't all that great, because this was just pre-Beatles,
0:10:54 > 0:10:59and it was things like Bobby Vee, rubber ball bouncing back to you.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01# Rubber ball, I come bouncing...
0:11:01 > 0:11:05It was not a very good period of music.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10And I would notice that in one corner there was this very cool gang.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13And they were the art school.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19These people looked amazing and I thought, "I'd like to be friends with them".
0:11:19 > 0:11:23And it took a whole term, which was a lifetime in those days,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25I was only doing a one-year course,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28to be accepted by any of them.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35Meeting these art students changed everything for me.
0:11:35 > 0:11:41They opened the doors to a whole new world, from beat poetry to French new-wave films.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48That became the Beatles' world.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52The art school thing was a very important phenomenon.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55I think it allowed kids like us
0:11:55 > 0:12:01to think more freely than we'd been encouraged to think to that point,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04which is one of the points of art school.
0:12:04 > 0:12:10You look at a thing and are you going to make an abstract painting of it or figurative? It frees your mind up.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16We'd kind of cobbled together this identity
0:12:16 > 0:12:20which was happening anyway amongst the youth.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23You know, there were millions of art students
0:12:23 > 0:12:27who were kind of looking like we looked.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35My father bought me a little... I'm sure he wished he hadn't afterwards!
0:12:35 > 0:12:43..this very small, white, I guess it was called Bakelite, radio which I had all to myself.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46I didn't have to share the musical choices with my parents,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50I could have whatever I liked. And that's when I found Radio Luxembourg.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53# You ain't nothing but a hound dog
0:12:53 > 0:12:56# Crying all the time
0:12:56 > 0:12:58# Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
0:12:58 > 0:13:01# And you ain't no friend of mine
0:13:01 > 0:13:04# Goodness gracious, great balls of fire
0:13:04 > 0:13:07This was the opening into this world,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11this completely different world of different music which was for teenagers.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18This generation who were not children and we weren't adults
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and it was incredibly exciting.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28And years later, you hear from The Who
0:13:28 > 0:13:30and the Rolling Stones and the Beatles
0:13:30 > 0:13:34that they were also listening to Radio Luxembourg
0:13:34 > 0:13:37and that's what brought us all together.
0:13:37 > 0:13:45Elvis appeared, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and all these people we loved,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47and that was the big shockwave.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49SCREAMING
0:13:49 > 0:13:52That was it. It was like...
0:13:52 > 0:13:55- # Shake it up baby now - # Shake it up baby
0:13:55 > 0:13:58- # Twist and shout - # Twist and shout
0:13:58 > 0:14:01# Come on, come on, come on, come on baby now
0:14:01 > 0:14:03# Come on baby
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- # Come on and work it on out - # Work it on out
0:14:06 > 0:14:10- # Ooooh- # Work it on out now - # Work it on out
0:14:10 > 0:14:16Through all these little influences, the whole generation was going through a change.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19So that positioned us, that we sort of came on the scene
0:14:19 > 0:14:24and everyone just looked and went, "Yeah, I could do that".
0:14:24 > 0:14:27# Shake it up baby
0:14:30 > 0:14:37Shortly after my one year as a student, I became a journalist
0:14:37 > 0:14:40and met somebody who was married.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43We ran away to Brighton.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46# Love, love me do
0:14:46 > 0:14:48# You know I love you
0:14:48 > 0:14:52When the whole beat boom happened,
0:14:52 > 0:14:58all the bands like the Beatles, they all toured endlessly, that's how they got known.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00So, of course, they came to Brighton
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and I by then had got a job on the local newspaper
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and I got to interview anybody I liked.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13When I saw the Beatles the first time, I clicked.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15I thought, "I sense I know these people".
0:15:15 > 0:15:17They were like the art students I knew.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22And famously I was told that I launched my career by insulting John Lennon.
0:15:22 > 0:15:28It's not strictly true, but I just said, "Ah, you're the difficult one, then." And it caught his attention.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35# Why do I never even try, girl?
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Going to cover a pop concert or doing an interview with a pop star
0:15:40 > 0:15:42for some journalists might have just been part of the job
0:15:42 > 0:15:47and they'd be going, "Yeah, OK, what's your name? John. George..." And that would be that.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51I was obviously insanely excited about all this
0:15:51 > 0:15:55and to have the chance to meet them... You know, I was a fan!
0:16:00 > 0:16:07I felt that rapport because it was an echo of the people I'd met, the art students I'd met particularly,
0:16:07 > 0:16:13with that attitude and that kind of really irreverent attitude.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16You had not had that in show business before.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Although I was living in Brighton, I started writing music reviews
0:16:23 > 0:16:26for London-based newspapers and magazines.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31# I see a red door and I wanted it painted black
0:16:31 > 0:16:37I started working on a national paper and I had a column in the now derided Daily Express
0:16:37 > 0:16:41and another paper which doesn't exist any more called the Daily Sketch,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45so I became the pop columnist. There weren't music journalists, really,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48apart from those at NME and the Melody Maker,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51but working on local and national papers,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55there weren't really people who specialised because it had only just begun.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01I was excited by That Was The Week That Was,
0:17:01 > 0:17:06by satire, by Private Eye, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Beyond The Fringe,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10that was all part of how society was completely changing.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13And the Beatles were the musical reflection of that.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18They just reflected this groundswell of change and excitement
0:17:18 > 0:17:21that this young generation were bringing.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Also, it didn't matter what background you came from,
0:17:24 > 0:17:29it didn't matter if you had a working-class accent.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33In fact, now it was suddenly deemed to be brilliant to come from Liverpool!
0:17:37 > 0:17:40A lot of things were more possible and they were possible for
0:17:40 > 0:17:43young people who hadn't had good educations.
0:17:43 > 0:17:44# Pretty woman
0:17:44 > 0:17:49That's why it's so important. It opened up the world to a lot of people
0:17:49 > 0:17:51and the opportunists got in there and got on with it.
0:17:53 > 0:18:00I felt I had to contribute something to this. Because you could feel it. It was changing everything.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Part of this social revolution that was happening.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05So it was happening in television
0:18:05 > 0:18:08and it was happening with music.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12But we still had the BBC.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14# Ding dong, the witch is dead
0:18:14 > 0:18:16# Which old witch? The wicked witch
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Who were not keen on all this pop music.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27And then along came a pirate ship playing pop music
0:18:27 > 0:18:32in international waters, so therefore not restricted by any British laws.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37We're going to do the thing right here on Caroline South.
0:18:37 > 0:18:44Along with Radio Caroline, other pirate radios also broadcast from international waters.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46I mean, it was a brilliant idea.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51They changed everything because they were playing great tunes all day long.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56# Wonderful Radio London
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Luxembourg was only, I think, on in the evenings, but this was all day long.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07And it was American-style radio
0:19:07 > 0:19:11and it was helping all the young music.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16It was just another part of this youth revolution that was affecting all areas.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21It was hugely enjoyable. It was just a feeling that you could do anything you wanted to.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23The opportunities were there.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27# I hope I die before I get old
0:19:27 > 0:19:30- # Talking 'bout my generation - # This is my generation
0:19:30 > 0:19:33# This is my generation, baby
0:19:33 > 0:19:37"Go on, have a go, you may be able to do it. Don't be afraid to try something."
0:19:37 > 0:19:40The opportunities were there.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50The first opportunity I had to do a bit of radio was actually a little un-manned studio
0:19:50 > 0:19:53inside the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which may still be there.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58And it was sort of automated studios, there was nobody else there except me,
0:19:58 > 0:20:03and I had to put these headphones on and then somebody would speak to me who was in Bristol or somewhere.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06And whilst I started doing it, it felt great.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09I thought, "This comes naturally to me".
0:20:12 > 0:20:19Having seen Broadcasting House every day when I was at Regent Street Polytechnic,
0:20:19 > 0:20:23I never imagined that I would end up working there
0:20:23 > 0:20:26because it was part of the establishment.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33Then again, I couldn't really see myself at sea with the pirates, either.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38But then they got shut down and the BBC started their own pop station,
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Radio One, in 1967.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43# Radio One, good time music
0:20:45 > 0:20:51- # Right! - Right! And it is three minutes past one o'clock on a Monday afternoon.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Radio One had begun and it was all male.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58And I was more than shocked to hear that, "No, no, no women."
0:20:58 > 0:21:03"Disc jockeys are husband substitutes." This is what they said. I couldn't believe it.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07And therefore they don't want women broadcasting.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11# There's nothing you can do that can't be done
0:21:11 > 0:21:15This is ridiculous. What is so special about this pop radio station
0:21:15 > 0:21:19that it could not... that it had to be male only?
0:21:19 > 0:21:23I didn't get it. I couldn't understand it. It didn't make any sense.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27By now, I was becoming quite a feminist, I had a column in Cosmopolitan Magazine,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31I was feeling quite strongly about feminism generally.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36So I couldn't understand it. So I'd write attacking them.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39So eventually I think they thought,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43"We'll have to have one. Who do we know?"
0:21:43 > 0:21:47- "Mary Nightingale - BBC Radio One." - And so I became the token woman.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52Then they went, "Erm, can you work a desk?"
0:21:52 > 0:21:57And you go, "What? What do you mean, work a desk? What does that mean?"
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Cos I hadn't thought about that. I thought you speak into a microphone,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04somehow the music just gets played and that's it.
0:22:04 > 0:22:10But it's a whole technical aspect of it which was intimidating
0:22:10 > 0:22:14because you had this whole...like a recording studio and I was thinking,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18"I don't know how that would work" and this was a big problem.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23And on the very first show I did, I stopped the record that was actually being broadcast
0:22:23 > 0:22:26because I thought, "I'll do something useful."
0:22:26 > 0:22:29We were half doing the desk, half me and half the producer,
0:22:29 > 0:22:34so I thought, "Well, that's just going round and round, why don't I do something useful and stop it?"
0:22:34 > 0:22:38But it didn't just stop, it ground slowly to a halt.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Eight seconds of dead air, which is a lifetime.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47So that was quite a tough learning curve.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52My first show at Radio One after the tryouts
0:22:52 > 0:22:55was in the middle of the afternoon
0:22:55 > 0:22:58and there were very great restrictions on playing records.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01It was called needle time. So you had nothing like you have today
0:23:01 > 0:23:05where you have pop stations playing music 24 hours a day.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07That didn't exist. There were very strict rules about it.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11So other hours were given to... It was a loophole, really.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15So it was reviewing records. So because I'd been...
0:23:15 > 0:23:20He said to me at one point, "The only reason we've accepted you here is cos you're a journalist."
0:23:20 > 0:23:23So not really a proper DJ.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25I was a journalist who'd been allowed in.
0:23:25 > 0:23:32But it meant that I could do a show where we playing new records
0:23:32 > 0:23:38and say, "This is the new one by whoever it was and it's on this label and the number is so-and-so"
0:23:38 > 0:23:43rather than going, "Hey, everybody, have a good time! Bang, bang, bang!"
0:23:43 > 0:23:49It was a device so we could fill the airwaves with more new music.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Certainly in the UK, certainly on Radio One,
0:23:54 > 0:23:59you're either a specialist DJ who plays music of your own choice,
0:23:59 > 0:24:04you bring the music with you, or you're a daytime presenter
0:24:04 > 0:24:09who plays the playlist and you don't have any free choice, or very little.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14Whether they intended me to be a daytime DJ I don't know,
0:24:14 > 0:24:18because Radio One was still relatively young,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21but I noticed the people who were on the evening
0:24:21 > 0:24:24were able to play more adventurous music,
0:24:24 > 0:24:29so I said, "I want to be on in the evening" and they went, "Oh, OK, then".
0:24:29 > 0:24:34Because it seemed to me that you were more, again, underground. You could play more underground music.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44There was still a very chauvinistic attitude,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47and in those days there would be an engineer through the glass,
0:24:47 > 0:24:52so they could talk to me on the talk-back and they'd be going, "This is rubbish, isn't it?"
0:24:52 > 0:24:55But these were all tunes that I'd personally chosen,
0:24:55 > 0:25:01so I thought it was an insult to the music and it would drain you of any confidence you were building.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05There was years and years of that. It took me a huge amount of time...
0:25:05 > 0:25:09I didn't have any problem with talking about the music or any of that,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13but it was the technical side, it was this woman-driver complex
0:25:13 > 0:25:17and the feeling that they were waiting for me to make some very big mistake.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Of course people made mistakes. It didn't matter, actually.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Then television started exploding
0:25:26 > 0:25:29and we had a programme called Ready Steady Go,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32one of the best pop music programmes ever,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36and the editor of it was Vicki Wickham,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39who was also manager and very close friend of Dusty Springfield.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43One Sunday night, literally on an impulse,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46I thought, "I should really go and see Dusty Springfield"
0:25:46 > 0:25:49at somewhere called the Asoldo in North Street, Brighton.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52# Anyone who had a heart
0:25:52 > 0:25:57# Would take me in his arms and love me, too
0:25:57 > 0:26:00I went into her dressing room.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Dusty said, "Oh, this is Vicki Wickham." I went, "Oh, really?"
0:26:03 > 0:26:09She went, "We're starting to do a new show and we're looking for a presenter. Would you be interested?"
0:26:09 > 0:26:12And that became my first TV series.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15It was all live. No recordings of it exist.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18It was called That's For Me. So now I'm in another world
0:26:18 > 0:26:20and I'm going to Ready Steady Go every week
0:26:20 > 0:26:25and you all go out to a meal afterwards and then you all go to the Ad Lib Club
0:26:25 > 0:26:30and there's the Stones and the Beatles and Michael Caine, everyone all around you,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34and you're suddenly in the midst of this extraordinary world.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41The end of the 60s and the end of the Beatles felt very much like the end of a chapter.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45# Is equal to the...
0:26:45 > 0:26:50When the Beatles broke up, everyone was looking for, "Who'd be the band who replace the Beatles?"
0:26:50 > 0:26:54And then I realised, it wasn't a band at all,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57it was David Bowie.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01# Ground Control to Major Tom
0:27:01 > 0:27:05I'd been to see him play at the Dome in Brighton, he sat on a wooden stool
0:27:05 > 0:27:09wearing a pair of jeans and a white shirt, playing acoustic guitar.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13He was magnetic. You could not take your eyes off him.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16# Here am I sitting in a tin can
0:27:16 > 0:27:21# Far above the moon
0:27:22 > 0:27:24# Planet Earth is blue
0:27:24 > 0:27:28# And there's nothing I can do
0:27:28 > 0:27:31I thought, "This guy is the future".
0:27:31 > 0:27:34That is what music's always been about.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Change. You've got to do something that sweeps away the past.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42# Oh, you pretty things
0:27:42 > 0:27:48# Don't you know you're driving your mamas and papas insane?
0:27:48 > 0:27:52Suddenly this androgynous look
0:27:52 > 0:27:58and very thin blokes dyeing their hair bright colours, wearing makeup,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01which a few years ago would've been unthinkable!
0:28:01 > 0:28:05# Say it again, you gotta make way for the homo superior
0:28:05 > 0:28:08David Bowie was part of a great art movement.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12He was very involved with art on many levels. He was the man.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15And then he took this whole generation with him.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20That became the 70s.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22# Well, you're dirty and sweet
0:28:22 > 0:28:26# Clad in black, don't look back and I love you
0:28:26 > 0:28:29# You're dirty and sweet, oh, yeah
0:28:32 > 0:28:34# Get it on
0:28:34 > 0:28:35# Bang a gong, get it on
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Marc Bolan, he and Bowie were very close
0:28:39 > 0:28:42and what is to be called glam rock
0:28:42 > 0:28:44was actually quite a short period of time.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46# Bang a gong
0:28:46 > 0:28:49He was a very good friend. I remember him saying that
0:28:49 > 0:28:52they had to shorten the name of Tyrannosaurus Rex to T-Rex
0:28:52 > 0:28:56cos he thought radio DJs wouldn't be able to pronounce it.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01# You're built like a car, you've got a hub cap diamond star halo
0:29:01 > 0:29:07That's what has kept British music so exciting and refreshing,
0:29:07 > 0:29:12because someone comes along and changes it all again and we seem to welcome those changes,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15which I don't think necessarily happens in other countries.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20The 70s not only gave us glam rock, but rather more dubiously, prog rock.
0:29:20 > 0:29:26And bundled up in that mainly regrettable genre was King Crimson.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Still special to me today.
0:29:28 > 0:29:35This album arrived with an extraordinary cover
0:29:35 > 0:29:39which was really quite scary. It was like a troll
0:29:39 > 0:29:41or something out of Grimms' fairytales.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45# I wait outside the pilgrim's door
0:29:45 > 0:29:48# With insufficient schemes
0:29:48 > 0:29:50I was absolutely transfixed by it
0:29:50 > 0:29:54and I was so excited cos I'd never heard anything like it before.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58I remember the next day thinking, I want to put it on first thing, as soon as I woke up,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02to see if it's still as good as it sounded the night before. And it was.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08So then I was a passionate follower of this band
0:30:08 > 0:30:13and I became very friendly with Robert Fripp, who's the main protagonist.
0:30:13 > 0:30:19That band was very, very important to me and I became very evangelical about them
0:30:19 > 0:30:23because I could hear things I had not heard anywhere before.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30That's what you're always looking for.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32I just want to hear something I haven't heard before.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36And that was certainly true of them.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40# 21st century schizoid man
0:30:52 > 0:30:58It's quite interesting that Kanye West sampled 21st Century Schizoid Man,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01which I absolutely love, and has brought that back to life.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04# 21st century schizoid man
0:31:04 > 0:31:08# The system broken, the school's closed, the prison's open
0:31:08 > 0:31:12That sort of spans eras between the two, to me, very brilliantly.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14# Everybody we rollin'
0:31:14 > 0:31:17# With some light-skinned girls and some Kelly Rowlands
0:31:17 > 0:31:20# In this white man's world we the ones chosen
0:31:20 > 0:31:24# So goodnight, cruel world, I see you in the mornin'
0:31:24 > 0:31:29- # Huh? I see you in the mornin' - # 21st century schizoid man
0:31:33 > 0:31:36You want to go onto punk now? Brilliant.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39# I am an antichrist
0:31:39 > 0:31:43# I am an anarchist
0:31:43 > 0:31:47I think one of the reasons punk happened was because of the pomp rock.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Self-indulgent, pretentious,
0:31:55 > 0:32:00long, long, awful, boring, long guitar solos.
0:32:08 > 0:32:15But when you got to the point where you have Rick Wakeman doing ice shows...
0:32:17 > 0:32:21..this really was kind of ridiculous.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26That was when I think everyone went, "Enough!"
0:32:28 > 0:32:32And meanwhile, you've always got a new generation of people coming along
0:32:32 > 0:32:34wanting to create their own music
0:32:34 > 0:32:38and do not want to be part of what is established and popular.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41I think that's what brought about punk.
0:32:44 > 0:32:50It's always been bubbling away for some years before the underground comes up
0:32:50 > 0:32:55or someone has a breakthrough hit and then the door is kicked open again
0:32:55 > 0:32:58and then a whole generation comes rushing through.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01# God save the Queen
0:33:01 > 0:33:06How do you shock people? The Stones had done urinating against walls
0:33:06 > 0:33:09and "Would you let your daughter go out with them?"
0:33:09 > 0:33:13They shocked one generation. It was now quite difficult to be shocking
0:33:13 > 0:33:17cos it'd all been done. How do you... What can you do now?
0:33:17 > 0:33:19# There's no future
0:33:21 > 0:33:25We were also into a very difficult time...
0:33:26 > 0:33:31..for most people financially. The 70s was miserable.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Music reflects what's happening.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36# No future for you
0:33:36 > 0:33:39# God save the Queen
0:33:39 > 0:33:42# We mean it, man
0:33:42 > 0:33:47# We love our queen, God saves
0:33:47 > 0:33:52With the Sex Pistols, you kind of needed to have more than one band
0:33:52 > 0:33:58to create a movement, so we had the Sex Pistols, The Clash and many, many others.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03# London calling to the faraway towns
0:34:03 > 0:34:07# Now war is declared and battle come down
0:34:07 > 0:34:11The Clash stood for incredible defiance.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14I mean, obviously, some people thought,
0:34:14 > 0:34:21Joe Strummer, son of diplomat, how could he have the proper working-class credentials
0:34:21 > 0:34:27that you were supposed to have if you were going to be a credited punk band?
0:34:27 > 0:34:31But they were coming out with incredible music and incredible gigs.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35They were amazing to see them live.
0:34:35 > 0:34:40And they were very much... That was what they were about live
0:34:40 > 0:34:42but had that kind of call to arms.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51They captured that voice of the nation.
0:34:52 > 0:34:58Co-founding member of The Clash Mick Jones represents that generation.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03I joined him in West London where he was rehearsing with the newly-reformed Big Audio Dynamite
0:35:03 > 0:35:05to find out what has fed his musical passion.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13So, is this the Clash Cave?
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Yeah, it's a Clash-opolis.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20It's not only Clash-opolis, it's all the other stuff.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23It's like a personal collection
0:35:23 > 0:35:28running alongside a cultural collection, so all the other stuff that went alongside it,
0:35:28 > 0:35:34and what informed it, what came before it. I've been collecting since I was a kid.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38# In here we're all right
0:35:38 > 0:35:41People went to art college not to do fine art necessarily
0:35:41 > 0:35:45but just to form bands. Were you part of that?
0:35:45 > 0:35:48Well, actually, all the people I liked had gone to art college
0:35:48 > 0:35:52so I knew I wanted to go to art college if I wanted to be in a band.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57The only reason I went to art college, in all honesty,
0:35:57 > 0:36:00was for the grant, which I used to spend immediately
0:36:00 > 0:36:03on amplification and guitar strings.
0:36:03 > 0:36:09All the people before, in the generation before, had all gone to art college,
0:36:09 > 0:36:14all the people I liked, so I knew that was my route to music.
0:36:14 > 0:36:20But I did fine art and then at the end of art college, I was doing The Clash.
0:36:20 > 0:36:26They were going, "Have you done any paintings?" and I was going, "Yeah, look at my shirt."
0:36:26 > 0:36:30# A couple of years ago down Ladbroke Grove
0:36:31 > 0:36:35# The Dreads uptight sitting on a treasure trove
0:36:35 > 0:36:40Music changes people's lives. It was so great that we went so far,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44from a council block to untold, you know?
0:36:44 > 0:36:48And that wouldn't have happened before the 60s, as well,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51because there was the class disassemblation
0:36:51 > 0:36:55and that's what took us on to what happened with punk and stuff.
0:36:55 > 0:37:01When punk came in, it was about that anybody could do it, for a start,
0:37:01 > 0:37:07and it was that do-it-yourself ethic, but also, if the class barriers hadn't gone down in the 60s,
0:37:07 > 0:37:12that wouldn't have happened. So it was still connected,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15even though it was supposed to be the end of days and Year Zero,
0:37:15 > 0:37:17there was a big connection for a lot of us.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22We'd come out of that. We still studied and followed the counter-cultures.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26# My baby drove up in a brand new Cadillac
0:37:26 > 0:37:28# Yes, she did
0:37:28 > 0:37:32# My baby drove up in a brand new Cadillac
0:37:32 > 0:37:35I wrote most of my best songs on the bus.
0:37:35 > 0:37:40The rumble of the bus actually starts the tune and then the next thing you know...
0:37:40 > 0:37:45It's like Janie Jones, which was written on a number 31 bus.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48# He's in love with rock'n'roll, whoa
0:37:48 > 0:37:50# He's in love with getting stoned, whoa
0:37:50 > 0:37:52# He's in love with Janie Jones, whoa
0:37:52 > 0:37:57I do need to be able to walk around and stuff,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00and so I just try to look to the future.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05I always think it's like in the Second World War, they had a gun that shot round corners,
0:38:05 > 0:38:11and I always think the next thing I'm going do if I go round the corner might be the really good thing.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15So I try to keep looking forward in what I do.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23There. The old ones are still the good ones. Thank you very much.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28BBC was very behind with punk.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32I'd been playing it, John Peel had obviously been playing a lot of punk on Radio One,
0:38:32 > 0:38:36but it's quite hard to get that music across.
0:38:39 > 0:38:45At the time, the most significant music programme on television was The Old Grey Whistle Test.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49When punk came along, punks hated it,
0:38:49 > 0:38:53they wanted nothing to do with the show as it was.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58It was with great interest that I watched the piece of film you're going to be shown, it really was.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01I think it's an important piece of reference.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03Bob Harris, who'd been the presenter...
0:39:03 > 0:39:07An unfortunate incident in a club with one of Sid Vicious's mates
0:39:07 > 0:39:11and Bob's mate got glass in the face...
0:39:11 > 0:39:13Bit of a surprise, that.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17Bob went, "This is not my kind of thing, it's not my kind of music"
0:39:17 > 0:39:22at which point the show was handed over to me
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and they said, "Would you like to become the presenter?"
0:39:25 > 0:39:29and I didn't have a problem with punk so I went, "Yeah, that would be great"
0:39:29 > 0:39:32Ladies and gentlemen, The Damned!
0:39:36 > 0:39:39Siouxsie and the Banshees.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48The Skids.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52I ended up presenting the show for five years,
0:39:52 > 0:39:57embracing not only punk but introducing an eclectic variety of other acts.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Please welcome Elton John.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05You're not supposed to be playing tonight?
0:40:05 > 0:40:08No, no, some other queen's playing there.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11Gary Numan with Me I Disconnect From You.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17# The alarm rang for days
0:40:17 > 0:40:21First of all, I can remember the last time and first time I ever met you was in a hotel room
0:40:21 > 0:40:29- and you used to say then that if any of your band were found with dope on them, they were fired.- Yeah.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34- Have you stuck to that all these years?- I've bent the rules a couple of times.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54The studios are haunted by The Who.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Every few years, there is a peak artist
0:40:59 > 0:41:03and this one happened through a label, through Stiff Records.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06Along came, to me, one of the greatest albums of all time,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09New Boots And Panties by Ian Dury and the Blockheads.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12# I could be the driver an articulated lorry
0:41:12 > 0:41:15# I could be a poet, I wouldn't need to worry
0:41:15 > 0:41:18# I could be the teacher in a classroom full of scholars
0:41:18 > 0:41:21# I could be the sergeant in a squadron full of wallahs
0:41:21 > 0:41:22# What a waste
0:41:23 > 0:41:25# What a waste
0:41:26 > 0:41:28# What a waste
0:41:29 > 0:41:31# What a waste
0:41:32 > 0:41:35# Because I chose to play the fool in a six-piece band
0:41:35 > 0:41:39# First night nerves every one night stand
0:41:39 > 0:41:43One of the threads in my interest in music has been lyrics.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45I like great lyricists.
0:41:45 > 0:41:52And lyrics or a line in a song that really resonates with you, stops you in your tracks.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54# Sex and drugs and rock'n'roll
0:41:56 > 0:41:59# Is all my brain and body need
0:42:01 > 0:42:04This guy is a poet, purely and simply.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09He's very, very well known. Everyone knows the songs on that album.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13There's Billericay Dickie, Clever Trevor. They were all naughty.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16They were always going to be difficult to play on the radio.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20There was a B-side called Razzle In My Pocket which I got away with playing.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24# In my yellow jersey I went out on the nick
0:42:24 > 0:42:27# South Street Romford, shopping arcade
0:42:27 > 0:42:31# Got a Razzle magazine, I never paid
0:42:31 > 0:42:35# Inside my jacket and away double quick
0:42:35 > 0:42:39Fascinating character. He'd had polio,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42he was quite severely crippled.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46I didn't know the expression "raspberry ripple" before I knew Ian.
0:42:46 > 0:42:53And to become a sex symbol, being a tiny guy with a withered arm who could hardly walk,
0:42:53 > 0:42:57that was quite something to achieve. I remember saying to him once,
0:42:57 > 0:43:02"When did you realise that you actually had become famous?" and he said, "When you wrote about me".
0:43:02 > 0:43:06# In the deserts of Sudan
0:43:07 > 0:43:10# And the gardens of Japan
0:43:10 > 0:43:14I found a telegram from him saying, "We couldn't have done it without you".
0:43:14 > 0:43:19Something quite amazing which, as he's quite a long time deceased,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21means a huge amount to me.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23# Hit me with your rhythm stick
0:43:23 > 0:43:26# Hit me, hit me
0:43:26 > 0:43:28# Je t'adore, ich liebe dich
0:43:28 > 0:43:30# Hit me, hit me, hit me
0:43:30 > 0:43:33# Hit me with your rhythm stick
0:43:33 > 0:43:35# Hit me slowly, hit me quick
0:43:35 > 0:43:37# Hit me, hit me
0:43:37 > 0:43:40# Hit me
0:43:40 > 0:43:44I do think it was grossly unfair
0:43:44 > 0:43:50that he battled with polio and then he should die of cancer.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53It's just really, really not on. Pretty disappointed for him.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56# Hit me with your rhythm stick
0:43:56 > 0:43:58# It's nice to be a lunatic
0:43:58 > 0:44:00# Hit me, hit me
0:44:00 > 0:44:02# Hit me
0:44:04 > 0:44:09It's interesting to me that every few...maybe every few decades
0:44:09 > 0:44:12or generations
0:44:12 > 0:44:19this desire to express your music with really original, witty lyrics,
0:44:19 > 0:44:24the opposite of a Hallmark greetings card's lyrics,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27as in Everything I Do, I Do It For You...
0:44:27 > 0:44:30# Everything I do
0:44:30 > 0:44:33# I do it for you
0:44:33 > 0:44:37- ..lazy... - # And I
0:44:39 > 0:44:42# Will always love you
0:44:42 > 0:44:46- ..cliche-ridden... - # We'll stay
0:44:46 > 0:44:51# Forever this way
0:44:51 > 0:44:58..drones that I find it hard to believe that they've been number one for years,
0:44:58 > 0:45:00sometimes it feels like for years...
0:45:00 > 0:45:04# I feel it in my fingers
0:45:04 > 0:45:07# I feel it in my toes
0:45:07 > 0:45:11It obviously works on some level that resonates with that audience.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15# Love is all around me
0:45:15 > 0:45:18# And so the feeling grows
0:45:18 > 0:45:24But I prefer something, you know, wittier. And we have it.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26# Dear Slim, I wrote you but you still ain't calling
0:45:26 > 0:45:29# I left my cell, my pager and my home phone at the bottom
0:45:29 > 0:45:32# I sent two letters back in Autumn, you must not have got them
0:45:32 > 0:45:35# There probably was a problem with the Post Office or something
0:45:35 > 0:45:38# Sometimes I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot 'em
0:45:38 > 0:45:41# Anyways, what's been up, man? How's your daughter?
0:45:41 > 0:45:44# My girlfriend's pregnant, too, I'm about to be a father
0:45:44 > 0:45:46# If I have a daughter...
0:45:46 > 0:45:49Obviously, it's come from hip-hop and rap, which is all about words,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53and extraordinary... I mean, I'm a huge Eminem fan.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57# I know you probably hear this every day, but I'm your biggest fan
0:45:57 > 0:45:59# I even got the underground ... that you did with Scam
0:45:59 > 0:46:03# I got a room full of your posters and your pictures, man
0:46:03 > 0:46:07We've had a long period of dance music, instrumental music, which I love,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11but recently there seems to be a great resurgence
0:46:11 > 0:46:17amongst what is loosely called the urban performers. It's brilliant, it's genius
0:46:17 > 0:46:20# And it's only right you ain't feeling let alone rating that
0:46:20 > 0:46:23# But babe it's a fact that they call me the latest map
0:46:23 > 0:46:26# I had to live by that I spend nights in your flat
0:46:26 > 0:46:28# And I know that thought alone is ill
0:46:28 > 0:46:31# Left the next taste in your mouth like a drink gone flat
0:46:31 > 0:46:33# Yeah, we bring the stars out
0:46:33 > 0:46:35# We bring the women and the cars and the cards out
0:46:35 > 0:46:38# Let's have a toast, a celebration, get a glass out
0:46:38 > 0:46:41# And we can do this until we pass out
0:46:41 > 0:46:44# I ride this ... beat like a tractor
0:46:44 > 0:46:47# I ride this ... beat like a train
0:46:47 > 0:46:49# Choo-choo, go hard, go faster
0:46:49 > 0:46:56To me, people like Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, Wretch 32,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59there's so many joining in this incredibly rich period
0:46:59 > 0:47:02that we're going through in the UK and there's a lot of wit going on.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05# My lifestyle's terribly wild
0:47:05 > 0:47:08# But you never catch me on the Jeremy Kyle show
0:47:08 > 0:47:14That line is enough to... catch people's attention.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27Despite what some people thought, the 70s were really creative musically.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29ENGINE REVS
0:47:36 > 0:47:40Once I'd heard German electronic music,
0:47:40 > 0:47:46to me, it was like the invention of the atomic bomb. You could not uninvent it.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49ELECTRONIC MUSIC
0:47:56 > 0:47:58I absolutely loved it.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02But from then on, there was always going to be this backlash
0:48:02 > 0:48:04of people talking about real instruments
0:48:04 > 0:48:09and thinking that synthesizers were something horrible. They're not.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Electronic music just changed everything and I knew it would.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16# She's a model and she's looking good
0:48:20 > 0:48:22# I'd like to take her home...
0:48:22 > 0:48:28Kraftwerk are fated and honoured to this day for their contribution and rightly so.
0:48:28 > 0:48:34We accept electronic music now totally. Nobody goes, "That's not a real piano"
0:48:34 > 0:48:36or "That's not a real guitar"
0:48:36 > 0:48:42and am amazed by the fact that with a box of electronic tricks
0:48:42 > 0:48:45you could create that sound. Why wouldn't you?
0:48:47 > 0:48:51It's originality. To me, it's what music should be about.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54# He's gonna step on you again
0:48:54 > 0:48:57So, I wake up one morning and the beat has changed.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03That is what causes the main changes in pop music is when the beat changes.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08We'd had this rock beat that had been going for 20 years or more
0:49:08 > 0:49:12that was one, two, three, four.
0:49:12 > 0:49:18Now it was one, two, three and a four, one, two, three and a four.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22It became called acid house.
0:49:22 > 0:49:24# You're unbelievable
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Several DJs went on holiday to Ibiza
0:49:31 > 0:49:34and found that there were DJs in the clubs there,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36which stayed open all night,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39which was unheard of in the UK,
0:49:39 > 0:49:41and they were mixing music together,
0:49:41 > 0:49:44they were mixing guitar music and flamenco
0:49:44 > 0:49:47with Chicago house music
0:49:47 > 0:49:50and this became the basis of acid house.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54So they came back from their holiday,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57as you do, in your holiday clothes thinking,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00"Oh, well, that was great, why can't we carry this on?"
0:50:00 > 0:50:05- And so the whole rave scene developed.- # You're unbelievable
0:50:05 > 0:50:11One of the figureheads of this new musical movement that started in the late 80s was Primal Scream.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14And they came to make this album called Screamadelica
0:50:14 > 0:50:17which they put together in bits and pieces,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21but that became one of the defining albums of that time.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Now, this lot were a Scots band that came to live in Brighton
0:50:25 > 0:50:31who'd started out by being influenced by The Birds, who were one of my first hero bands.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34So we all started to hang out together.
0:50:36 > 0:50:44They met a guy who was running a fanzine who was part journalist, part all sorts, Andrew Weatherall,
0:50:44 > 0:50:46and they gave him this track that they were doing.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54And they said, "Would you like to do a remix of it?"
0:50:54 > 0:50:58So he changed the whole thing and he put horns in
0:50:58 > 0:51:02and he put all kinds of things in, it completely changed it and it became Loaded.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Which became the tune of that generation.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18That, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22If we had to have bands then they were the bands, but they worked with DJs
0:51:22 > 0:51:25and they would put on an event where the DJ would play first,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28then they would play, then a DJ would play till five in the morning
0:51:28 > 0:51:32and people weren't used to this at rock gigs. It wasn't the thing to do.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36You saw the band and you went home. But no, you stay,
0:51:36 > 0:51:40and because everyone was E'd up, as well, they would stay awake.
0:51:40 > 0:51:41# Baby, let's go
0:51:41 > 0:51:43# I don't want to lose your love
0:51:43 > 0:51:47Acid house was very much about colour
0:51:47 > 0:51:51and the DJ became the star.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56This was a new generation.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Now we had this new drug called ecstasy.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03But the problem is nobody wanted to outlaw it.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06I don't think the police wanted to. They were ravers.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16The 90s were actually a bit like the 60s.
0:52:16 > 0:52:21Exuberance, creative and very inclusive. It was just a wonderful party,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25So there's this new feeling of camaraderie and love.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30This reminded me of the kind of 60s thing, but they weren't hippies.
0:52:30 > 0:52:35With the new heroes, who were DJs not bands,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38and new environments, which were raves or they were outside in fields,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42which then revived the whole idea of festivals.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46I was in Brighton where we had the Zap Club
0:52:46 > 0:52:51so we had that kind of north-south, and in between and all around, these raves were happening.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56The government's considering giving local councils new powers to control acid house parties.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59On Saturday night, several policemen were hurt
0:52:59 > 0:53:03as they tried unsuccessfully to stop a party going ahead near Reigate.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05The government were furious about it!
0:53:05 > 0:53:08A bill to ban acid house parties
0:53:08 > 0:53:11has been given an unopposed second reading in the Commons.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15The illegal parties, with tickets costing up to £30,
0:53:15 > 0:53:17have led to running battles with police,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20a barrage of complaints over noise levels, drug abuse
0:53:20 > 0:53:24and concern over inadequate safety and fire precautions.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Government ministers support the bill.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29I don't think it's stuffy or boring
0:53:29 > 0:53:32to tell young people to watch it.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35It couldn't be worked. It was unworkable.
0:53:37 > 0:53:43To me, the effect of acid house, which is from 1987, 1988 onwards,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46the whole effect is still there.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Much more so than punk, really.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54And yet it doesn't seem to be recognised, so that's my personal platform.
0:53:57 > 0:54:03This was the Skream mix of Cassius - I Love You So.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05# I love you so
0:54:05 > 0:54:08# But why I love you I never know
0:54:08 > 0:54:11The second time I heard it, I thought, "This is genius".
0:54:11 > 0:54:17The first time, I thought, "These squeaky girls at the beginning, I don't know, really".
0:54:17 > 0:54:22But then I listened to it again and I thought, "It's absolutely brilliant. It's genius."
0:54:22 > 0:54:25You've changed the music. I mean, are you aware of that?
0:54:25 > 0:54:28There's a team of us. We're sort of had a genre.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30We've brought a genre...
0:54:30 > 0:54:33A solid genre now that I can't see going anywhere
0:54:33 > 0:54:36cos it's improved, it's not a fad.
0:54:36 > 0:54:43Grime and dubstep has its resonance with people like Linton Kwesi Johnson,
0:54:43 > 0:54:48who's now recognised very much as a sort of godfather of dubstep.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Skream remixes today are very special.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55He puts the gaps in. He's not afraid of silence and most people are,
0:54:55 > 0:55:01so when everyone else is filling it up with so much tune and so much noise
0:55:01 > 0:55:07and so much rhythm and so much RPMs, he will just make it completely silent. So here it is.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10MUSIC: "I Love You So" by Cassius (Skream Remix)
0:55:21 > 0:55:24It's taught me never, ever to get disheartened,
0:55:24 > 0:55:28because something will come up through the cracks,
0:55:28 > 0:55:34up through the paving stones, as it has just done right now with grime and dubstep.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38You're going to play at Coachella. Tell me where the billing is for you for Magnetic Man.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43We're on the same line as Lauren Hill and just under Kanye West
0:55:43 > 0:55:46and I can't remember who else is headlining that night.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50- But, yeah... - So you're going stratospheric, which is very exciting.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52# Electronic world
0:55:52 > 0:55:56# Supersonic girl
0:55:57 > 0:56:00The first album by Magnetic Man
0:56:00 > 0:56:06went to number five in the charts in late summer of 2010.
0:56:06 > 0:56:12I had a message on Facebook saying, "Oh, so dubstep's gone commercial, then, so what's going to happen?"
0:56:12 > 0:56:17You think, "Hang on, this is one band with one record going to number five,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21"so already they're being dismissed as having gone commercial."
0:56:21 > 0:56:23All those years for me, that always happens.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28That underground might stay underground, it may go over-ground.
0:56:28 > 0:56:34And when it goes over-ground, I go, "Great, they're off on their journey now, they don't need me any more."
0:56:34 > 0:56:37This now is informing what goes forward
0:56:37 > 0:56:39and so they'll be variations on that.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Now everybody is playing dubstep.
0:56:42 > 0:56:48Cos that's changed the beat. You see? Like acid house changed the beat and house changed the beat.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53When that happens, there's a major step change.
0:56:53 > 0:56:59And so everyone then is in... Well, nearly everyone in contemporary music
0:56:59 > 0:57:03will become involved in it, because otherwise you sound dated.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08"Annie Nightingale - BBC Radio One."
0:57:16 > 0:57:20Life has taken me on the most extraordinary musical journey.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24And I've been fortunate enough to experience many changes along the way.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28I'm still passionate about finding new talented people
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and I hope that perhaps I can help some of them along the way.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35I am a freak, really. I don't understand why.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38The only other person I ever knew like this was John Peel,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42who had his passion for new music, as well,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47and as he's no longer with us, I kind of feel like it's good to keep that flag flying, as well,
0:57:47 > 0:57:51as someone who's of his generation.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55# I'm beautiful in my way cos God makes no mistakes
0:57:55 > 0:57:59# I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way
0:57:59 > 0:58:03# Don't hide yourself in regret Just love yourself and you're set
0:58:03 > 0:58:06# I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way
0:58:06 > 0:58:10I don't seem to forget tunes. I might forget a lot of other things,
0:58:10 > 0:58:16friends' names and stuff, but you don't forget a tune and what it is and where you heard it.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:22 > 0:58:26E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk
0:58:27 > 0:58:31# I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way
0:58:31 > 0:58:34# I was born this way, I was born this way
0:58:34 > 0:58:39# I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way
0:58:39 > 0:58:39.