0:00:02 > 0:00:05Someone apparently said that, if you remember the '60s,
0:00:05 > 0:00:07you weren't really there.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10Well, that's not true for everyone, of course.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13This is me in the '60s, and I remember it all very well.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17# What's new pussycat? Whoa whoa whoa whoaaa
0:00:17 > 0:00:22# What's new pussycat? Whoa whoa whoa whoaaa... #
0:00:24 > 0:00:27You could say that, if you remember the '50s,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30it's because there wasn't much to remember, anyway.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Just a grey, boring, grown-up world.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36At least until rock and roll came along,
0:00:36 > 0:00:40and taught my generation that we didn't have to know our place
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and that we could have our own music and our own identity.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51The '60s were the reward, but the '50s was the decade that made me.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55I spent all of it here in South Wales.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01I think I'm going back.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15MUSIC: Take The "A" Train by Duke Ellington
0:01:18 > 0:01:21The early '50s were grey and boring and flat.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24The '50s have been wronged.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27They were not grey and gloomy and depressing at all.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33It was post-war, dreary and grey. What can I tell you?
0:01:33 > 0:01:35Clothes were grey and boring and flat,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37and men's clothes, in particular,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40and it would be regarded as unmanly to wear
0:01:40 > 0:01:44anything other than something that was grey and boring and flat.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48We remember the '40s - dark, depressing, violent.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51The '50s were giddy and full of optimism.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57It was a time when you went to a barber and you asked for
0:01:57 > 0:02:00a short back and sides, and it would have been considered unmanly
0:02:00 > 0:02:02to ask for anything else.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07Far from being poor old thing, we're waiting for the '60s,
0:02:07 > 0:02:11we were extremely cheerful people because we were in the '50s.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14But it was grey. It was that post-war sadness
0:02:14 > 0:02:18and trying to get...you know, trying to start again.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22This whole idea that nobody ever knew about sex outside marriage
0:02:22 > 0:02:25until it was the '60s - oh, for God's sake.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31It was a time when everybody was waiting to get married.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34When sex was something that you never talked about.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Absolutely never discussed and certainly never done.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Nah!
0:02:40 > 0:02:44The 1950s were swinging, you know.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46It was a little bit boring, I think,
0:02:46 > 0:02:47until the end of the '50s,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50when the rock and roll era started, really.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Sort of '57, '58.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55And then it sort of started getting a bit exciting.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04The way you think and how you feel is all about where you come from,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08so I suppose my character was formed in the '50s
0:03:08 > 0:03:12here in Pontypridd because I lived here until I was 24.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14I didn't leave until the early '60s,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17by which time I was ready to take on the world.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22The 1950s, for me, growing up in the South Wales valleys,
0:03:22 > 0:03:23were very special.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29But that's maybe partly because I was born during the war,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33so my memories of life before the '50s are of being frightened
0:03:33 > 0:03:35or confused a lot of the time.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40I can remember the sirens.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44I can remember the noise of being under attack.
0:03:44 > 0:03:45SIREN BLARES
0:03:46 > 0:03:48I was, yeah, I was frightened as a child
0:03:48 > 0:03:51because everybody was running around.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55WHISTLE BLOWS
0:03:55 > 0:03:59You remember enormously powerful feelings of anxiety,
0:03:59 > 0:04:05of hating something very, very innocently and severely.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Like the Wicked Witch.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11And that was the Germans, you hated the Germans.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15You know, who were the Germans? Are they from outer space?
0:04:15 > 0:04:18I mean, where are they from? And why are they attacking us?
0:04:20 > 0:04:24To somebody who was born in 1940, the war was a living,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26breathing reality.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29The war was defining. The war defined us.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31And I've always thought, ever since,
0:04:31 > 0:04:36you either remember the war or you don't, and it's a great divide.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40The thing I remember most about the war is that,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43even when it ended, things stayed pretty much the same.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Everyone was happy but everything was still on ration.
0:04:46 > 0:04:51The war was over, we had a party in the street, right,
0:04:51 > 0:04:52when Germany surrendered.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54I thought - wow, this is great!
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Whatever it means, it feels great to me.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02The parties were fantastic.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06I mean, we'd lived in a world where the blackout was universal.
0:05:06 > 0:05:12The war was over, all the lights went on, shop lights, street lights.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18Our early years are of not war, but the huge aftermath of war -
0:05:18 > 0:05:22rationing is still going on, the country is full of bombsites.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25The fact that there aren't actually planes overhead,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28dropping things on you, or V2s, is... I think
0:05:28 > 0:05:31that's almost a detail, we're still in a war mentality.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38When I was told that it was going to change, I couldn't quite believe it.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43Especially the sweets. They said, "One day, you're going
0:05:43 > 0:05:47"to be able to buy as many sweets as you want without the ration book."
0:05:47 > 0:05:51I thought, "That's impossible. That's not going to happen."
0:05:51 > 0:05:56But it did. Sweet rationing ended, finally, in 1953.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00'They're already learning to eat sweets like little gentlemen!'
0:06:02 > 0:06:05This is what's left of the County Cinema in Pontypridd.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07It's just a shell now. But in the '50s,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11whole families would come here on a Saturday to watch the pictures.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15I remember seeing a lot of them, like The Al Jolson Story,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17which I loved.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Probably because Jolson knew how to make people watch him
0:06:20 > 0:06:21and listen to him.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26# A million baby kisses
0:06:26 > 0:06:28# I'll deliver
0:06:28 > 0:06:33# If you will only sing The Swanee River. #
0:06:33 > 0:06:35# Old man river
0:06:35 > 0:06:38# That old man river
0:06:38 > 0:06:40# He must know something
0:06:40 > 0:06:43# But don't say nothing. #
0:06:43 > 0:06:47GUNFIRE
0:06:47 > 0:06:49My father liked gangster movies.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51George Raft in particular.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53He even dressed a bit like him.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Catching cold?
0:06:57 > 0:07:01Yeah, maybe I shouldn't stay out so late at night.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04You know, slang that we used was American slang.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08My father used to talk like George Raft, you know what I mean.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09"No kiddin'", you know.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13He used to say things that I'm sure it wasn't Welsh, you know.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17You know, "you'd better believe that", or "no kiddin'", you know?
0:07:17 > 0:07:21These slick phrases, all coming from American movies.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Go on, draw.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25And then there were the Westerns.
0:07:25 > 0:07:26I said, draw!
0:07:26 > 0:07:29These were my favourites, too.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And all of them came from a place called America.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35- And I'll make ya! - GUNFIRE
0:07:36 > 0:07:41My father took me to see a film called Red River.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43He loved John Wayne.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50And that's the only time I think I ever went anywhere
0:07:50 > 0:07:54with my father, just the two of us, was to see Red River.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56So that movie is still very important to me.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Yellow belly, livered.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04The cinema was the great, great thing you went to,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and the cinema was your window on the world.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15I remember a landmark moment being the arrival of Oklahoma!
0:08:15 > 0:08:18from America, a musical about wide open spaces
0:08:18 > 0:08:20and happy, happy, singing people.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25And that was America, for me.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38The word "America" is sort of exciting, isn't it?
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Certainly when we were a kid. Still is.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46No, it's just everything good seemed to come from there.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56One of the great things about growing up at that time
0:08:56 > 0:08:59was that there were a lot of American GIs stationed here.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03They seemed interested in us kids and treated us more like adults.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06They always had sweets and gum.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08And some of them were black.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11The only black faces that we'd seen on the streets of Ponty
0:09:11 > 0:09:14at that time.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18That was the thing why I didn't feel that we were far
0:09:18 > 0:09:20away from anywhere because there were Americans here.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22You know what I mean? They were right here.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26I saw them in the movies and there they are on the streets.
0:09:26 > 0:09:27You know what I mean?
0:09:27 > 0:09:31So, I didn't feel like South Wales was any different to
0:09:31 > 0:09:33anywhere else in Great Britain.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35The Americans were here, all over.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42I think it's important that it is people like Tom Jones in bits
0:09:42 > 0:09:45of the country that really would never have expected to
0:09:45 > 0:09:47encounter anything as alien as an American.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50That's where the Americans tended to be based,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54was right across southern England into Wales.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57These places where London was a foreign country.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06There was an American base near where I used to live.
0:10:06 > 0:10:07It was a huge base.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12We had all the Americans and their dependents, which meant young men.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17# I got a beautiful feeling... #
0:10:17 > 0:10:19It was very exciting, I think, for young girls
0:10:19 > 0:10:23because you used to go to the lido and there would be these rather
0:10:23 > 0:10:28handsome-looking Americans with flat tops and sneakers and jeans.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32We hadn't seen jeans, blue jeans, and things like that.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34I think a couple of my friends got pregnant.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39The golden glow of American GIs, who were taller than English
0:10:39 > 0:10:42squaddies, because they were so well nourished.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45They were golden-limbed and they were breezy
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and they were enormously informal. They chewed gum.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50They chatted to the girls.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53And as a little girl, I thought that was dazzling.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56They'd walk up the street, you know, four, five, six of them.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59So I was walking my mother one day and she said,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03"Now, look, there's American troops coming here, so don't say anything."
0:11:03 > 0:11:06And they would go, "Hey, baby, how are you doing?" You know, like this.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08"Is this your sister?" You know.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Which I thought was... "No, it's my mother!"
0:11:11 > 0:11:14These are not simply the two dimensional figures that
0:11:14 > 0:11:17you've seen on the screens or in the magazine pages, you actually
0:11:17 > 0:11:20have real people, and they have objects with them.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23They have chewing gum, they have comics, above all else.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Batman comics and Superman comics and they're big
0:11:26 > 0:11:29and they're fat and they're beautifully produced.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Why would you not fall in love with that?
0:11:39 > 0:11:42The South Wales mining valleys are still a place
0:11:42 > 0:11:45overshadowed by the inter-war depression.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48The huge levels of unemployment witnessed in towns
0:11:48 > 0:11:51like Pontypridd cast a shadow over South Wales
0:11:51 > 0:11:55and there was still this sense that we don't want to go back to that.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58The war had brought prosperity in some ways for the first time.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01There was a generation of young men who were working
0:12:01 > 0:12:03for the first time, in come cases.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13We were in the coal mining area, the Taff.
0:12:13 > 0:12:14The river was black.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17The coal was still coming down.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22It would spill into the river and there were big rats there alongside,
0:12:22 > 0:12:28and the black mud, so that blackness was definitely here in South Wales.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33They are urban industrial communities
0:12:33 > 0:12:36but places where a rural character is never that far away.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39You can literally just walk up the side of the mountain.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42You may have to walk past the remnants of slag heaps
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and industrial dereliction, but you can get very quickly
0:12:46 > 0:12:49to a space of green where you can look beyond.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54In this area, this is what we had, we had mountains to play in.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57We were not in a city, this is a village.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59Tommy!
0:12:59 > 0:13:02So, everything was very close here, I remember that.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04We walked everywhere.
0:13:04 > 0:13:05We never went to the other valleys.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09We knew they were there but we never went there.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11But then, when I started singing in the clubs,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14we would visit these other places and they were different.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21Wales is known as the land of song and everybody sings in Wales.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24And church music was very big.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Chapel or whatever church you went to, there was always singing.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29# All we like sheep
0:13:29 > 0:13:34# Have gone astray
0:13:34 > 0:13:37# All we like sheep. #
0:13:37 > 0:13:39We sang in school.
0:13:39 > 0:13:45# For ever and ever. #
0:13:46 > 0:13:48When I left school, I started singing in pubs.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51There were plenty of pubs, always with a piano.
0:13:51 > 0:13:58LOUD SINGING
0:14:00 > 0:14:02So there was music everywhere.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Nobody said, shut up!
0:14:10 > 0:14:14"Yes, oh, Tommy can sing. Come on, Tommy."
0:14:14 > 0:14:18So I was up and I was giving it plenty.
0:14:18 > 0:14:26CHORAL SINGING
0:14:28 > 0:14:31I was like a sponge, I was taking it all in.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41And so the voices, I heard a lot of voices.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49# And the Lord
0:14:49 > 0:14:53# Amen. #
0:14:55 > 0:15:03CHORAL MUSIC
0:15:03 > 0:15:05My father was a strong coalminer.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07My mother looked after me and my sister,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09and we had aunties and uncles and cousins
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and we all lived around here.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15My family always sang.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19We always had parties on Saturday nights, and we sang.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22# Listen, my honey, listen to me
0:15:22 > 0:15:25# I want you to understand
0:15:25 > 0:15:29# That every silver dollar goes from hand to hand
0:15:29 > 0:15:32# A woman goes from man to man
0:15:32 > 0:15:36# A woman goes from man to man. #
0:15:37 > 0:15:40My mother was a good-looking woman and she could get up and sing,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Roll A Silver Dollar Down Upon The Ground, and give it plenty.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47My old man would be sitting there, going, "Oh, OK, then."
0:15:47 > 0:15:51But then he'd get drunk enough and he'd get up
0:15:51 > 0:15:53and sing Besame Mucho or My Mother's Eyes.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56# Besame
0:15:56 > 0:16:00# Besame mucho
0:16:00 > 0:16:03# Each time I cling to your kiss
0:16:03 > 0:16:08# I hear music divine
0:16:08 > 0:16:16# Besame mucho
0:16:16 > 0:16:18# Hold me, my darling
0:16:18 > 0:16:23# And say that you'll always be mine. #
0:16:25 > 0:16:30My Uncle Georgie put me on his knee one time and I was singing.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34He said, what's the latest song? A Frankie Lane song.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36He said, "So, sing it."
0:16:36 > 0:16:40So I was singing it and he said, "Look at me when you sing it."
0:16:40 > 0:16:43I said...you know, I was looking around.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46He said, "Hey, look at me, don't be frightened."
0:16:46 > 0:16:49He said, "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm listening to you.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52"But don't be frightened of me, sing right at me,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55"because you've got a great voice. Let me hear it."
0:16:55 > 0:16:58So, I did and I used to look at him.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02As a child, I liked to sing popular American cowboy songs
0:17:02 > 0:17:05like Tennessee Ernie Ford or Frankie Laine.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09# Clippetty-clopping over hill and plain
0:17:09 > 0:17:10# Seems as how they'll never stop
0:17:10 > 0:17:13# Clippetty-clop, clippetty-clop Clippetty-clop
0:17:13 > 0:17:18# Clippetty, clippetty, clippetty Clippetty, clippetty-clopping along
0:17:18 > 0:17:21# There's a plug of chaw tobaccy for a rancher in Corolla
0:17:21 > 0:17:24# A guitar for a cowboy way out in Arizona
0:17:24 > 0:17:28# A dress of callico for a pretty Navajo
0:17:28 > 0:17:33# Get along, mule, yeah! #
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Tom McGuinness joined Manfred Mann in the early '60s,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40just about when I was making my name.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43He grew up in South London but, in the '50s, we both started
0:17:43 > 0:17:47listening to a lot of black American music, gospel and the blues.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50You know, the stuff that started to give us identities
0:17:50 > 0:17:52outside of our homes and communities.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56- Sister Rosetta Tharpe. - Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
0:17:56 > 0:17:57- Well.- Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01When I saw her on television at some point, it was just astounding.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04- This woman bashing the hell out of a guitar...- Yeah.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06..and singing gospel.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10# Didn't it rain, children
0:18:10 > 0:18:12# Rain, oh, yes
0:18:12 > 0:18:16# Didn't it, yes Didn't it, you know it did
0:18:16 > 0:18:21# Didn't it, oh-ho Yes, how it rained. #
0:18:21 > 0:18:22What year were you born?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- '41.- '41, I was born in 1940.
0:18:25 > 0:18:31So, you know, the war, and then growing up, really, after the war.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34And I remember, when I was a kid in Wales,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38we were all encouraged to sing because most people sing in Wales,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41so it was a great place for me to grow up
0:18:41 > 0:18:44because I wanted to sing, you know.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47I wouldn't thought you'd fit in a choir.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49- You're not a team player. - You're right.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51No, you're right. I didn't!
0:18:51 > 0:18:53I didn't like singing in choirs because I couldn't shine.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55- You know what I mean?- Yeah.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57They'd say, "You've got to sing this part," you know.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59And I'd go, "But I don't want to sing that part.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03"I want to sing the melody. I want to sing the lead part."
0:19:03 > 0:19:04"Just be quiet!"
0:19:08 > 0:19:12The only time in my life I was quiet was when I was told not to sing.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16I was 12 years old and they told me I had TB.
0:19:16 > 0:19:17It was imprisoned in bed
0:19:17 > 0:19:23here in the family home for two years from 1952 to '54.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26'Are you sitting comfortably?
0:19:26 > 0:19:28'Then we'll begin.'
0:19:29 > 0:19:32When I was young, there was a lot of TB around.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37One of my cousins died from it.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42Maria, her name was, and she was only 21 years old.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46And one of my cousins had to have her lung removed,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49so they had to take ribs out of her back.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51- VOICEOVER:- Any of these people without knowing it
0:19:51 > 0:19:53may be harbouring this germ -
0:19:53 > 0:19:54any one or all.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56That man, he spat.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59His spit may contain the germs of tuberculosis.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Many people are still living in substandard industrial
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Victorian housing, places without inside toilets
0:20:08 > 0:20:09or hot taps or fixed baths.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13So the diseases of industrial Victorian Britain,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16things like TB, were relatively common.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22The doctors checked me out and they found a spot on my lung,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24but they caught it early and they said,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28"Tommy doesn't need drugs, he just needs to go to bed.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31"You know, for at least a year," this is what they said.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34You could be attacked by germs or you could be attacked by Germans
0:20:34 > 0:20:36and both of them were bad for you.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42You took national health for granted. I did, anyway.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47"Oh, I'm sick, but they'll look after me.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49"I'm British, I'm part of the system."
0:20:49 > 0:20:52- VOICEOVER:- This leaflet is coming through your letterbox
0:20:52 > 0:20:57one day soon, or maybe you've already had your copy.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59Read it carefully.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03I wasn't frightened because I was getting a lot of attention
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and I liked that.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09So, it was like, "Oh, poor Tommy. Got to look after Tommy."
0:21:09 > 0:21:12My mother was like, ooh, up and down the stairs
0:21:12 > 0:21:15from the kitchen to where I was in the room.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18HE CHUCKLES
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Because the doctor said, "He cannot worry about anything,
0:21:21 > 0:21:22"stress is the worst thing."
0:21:25 > 0:21:28During my first year in bed, I was still contagious.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30There wasn't much to do except listen to the radio,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33so I did, all the time.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36There was always something on the BBC, some music
0:21:36 > 0:21:40I hadn't heard before, but a lot of it was family entertainment.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43British pop star Marty Wilde remembers just how
0:21:43 > 0:21:46frustrating some of it was, especially
0:21:46 > 0:21:49when your hormones were beginning to give you trouble.
0:21:49 > 0:21:50Yeah.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53I mean, on every Sunday, I'm sure you were the same,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56- we used to listen to Billy Cotton's Band Show...- Yeah.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00- ..and Family Favourites, that was another one.- Yeah.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04My parents used to send me to bed early of a Sunday night
0:22:04 > 0:22:06and it was the Palm Court Hotel Orchestra.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09- Max Jaffa.- Max Jaffa.- Max Jaffa!
0:22:09 > 0:22:11- That was it.- You remember.- Yeah.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14That's all we were getting late at night.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16I used to lie there and I thought...
0:22:16 > 0:22:18I used to try and get something out of it
0:22:18 > 0:22:20and I thought, well, I could see Palm,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22I could see ladies in sort of...
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Very sort of like Edwardian or Victorian clothes
0:22:25 > 0:22:27and I thought, all right, so I imagined that.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29Oh, it was a horrendous time, though.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34GONG CHIMES
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Ladies and gentlemen, we invite you to have a go.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Journey into Space.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52WHOOSH!
0:22:52 > 0:22:54BBC presents Jet Morgan in...
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Dick Barton - Special Agent.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Tell us about your early days when you married.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Where did you spend your honeymoon?
0:23:06 > 0:23:08- Where did I have my honeymoon?- Yeah.
0:23:08 > 0:23:09Oh, in the lambing pen!
0:23:09 > 0:23:12LAUGHTER
0:23:16 > 0:23:18The best station for popular music
0:23:18 > 0:23:22and American music was hard to find on the dial.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25It came from a place I had never heard of called Luxembourg.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29And the best show on Radio Luxembourg in 1952,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33just when the pop chart started, was Pete Murray's Top 20.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38That Top 20 programme on Radio Luxembourg had the highest
0:23:38 > 0:23:41listening figure anywhere in the world
0:23:41 > 0:23:46because it was heard not only in England, but in Germany and France.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50You live or die by what you're playing.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56I would want to play the records, as I have always done
0:23:56 > 0:23:59in the past, that I want to play.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05There was nowhere else you could hear popular music.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07BBC frowned on popular music.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10This is Radio Luxembourg, your station of the stars,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13broadcasting on 208 metres medium wave.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15It's time for Top 20.
0:24:15 > 0:24:16Hi, everybody.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Radio Luxembourg depended on where you were in the country.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23It has this incredibly powerful transmitter,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26but it is in Luxembourg.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29The further south you are, the better the chance of getting it.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31# Up in the morning
0:24:31 > 0:24:34# Out on the job
0:24:34 > 0:24:41# Work like the devil for my pay
0:24:41 > 0:24:47# But that lucky old sun got nothing to do. #
0:24:47 > 0:24:49I didn't want to copy anybody.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53I didn't want to do exactly the same as that person.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55I mean, I used to do it for effect, like Vaughn Monroe,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58when I used to do Ghost Riders In The Sky.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00I used to go... MUFFLED SINGING
0:25:00 > 0:25:01Because that's how he sounded.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03So, I mean, it was like that, but just for fun.
0:25:03 > 0:25:09# An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day
0:25:09 > 0:25:15# Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
0:25:15 > 0:25:19# When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
0:25:19 > 0:25:23# A'ploughin' through the ragged skies
0:25:23 > 0:25:27# And up a cloudy draw. #
0:25:27 > 0:25:30I knew that I was picking up information,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32I'm the first one to say it.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34You know, where do you get your style?
0:25:34 > 0:25:36From listening to the radio.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42# Ghost riders in the sky. #
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Halfway through my two-year rest, we got a TV,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48maybe like a lot of other people, because we had a new queen.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52All set to film the full splendour of the momentous day.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55But, anyway, guess where it lived?
0:25:55 > 0:25:58In the back parlour, along with me and my bed.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03The TV was very important because then, the second year,
0:26:03 > 0:26:08when I wasn't contagious any more, the kids would come in, you know.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12Partly to see me, but I think mostly to see the TV.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15So that was great, again, you see. I felt that thing.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19I had something that nobody else in the street had.
0:26:19 > 0:26:25# Andy goes down, isn't he small?
0:26:25 > 0:26:30# Andy stands up, isn't he tall? #
0:26:30 > 0:26:36But I was watching Andy Pandy and Muffin The Mule.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41# We want Muffin, everybody sing
0:26:41 > 0:26:45# We want Muffin, the mule. #
0:26:45 > 0:26:46Hello.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48So you're here at last.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52I would watch anything that was on there because it was so fascinating.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54Cos television was brand-new then.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59You know, just to look at it and think,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01the wonder of television.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06I remember watching Robin Hood in the first year.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10And now I think about it, as there was only one channel in 1953,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13the BBC, everyone else watching TV in Britain
0:27:13 > 0:27:16when I was watching it were seeing exactly the same thing.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19- Are you a friend of Sir Guy of Gisborne?- That villain?
0:27:19 > 0:27:22- Or the Sheriff of Nottingham? - These are no friends of mine.
0:27:22 > 0:27:23Good answers.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26We'll do you no harm, so long as you do us no mischief.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28- HE LAUGHS - Mischief, sir?
0:27:28 > 0:27:30I suffer mischief, I don't do it.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34Mahalia Jackson, that's the first time that I saw her.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38# You may talk about the men of Gideon
0:27:38 > 0:27:40# Talk about the men of Saul
0:27:40 > 0:27:44# Not like the good old Joshua
0:27:44 > 0:27:47# And the battle of Jericho... #
0:27:47 > 0:27:50And I thought, "Who is this person?"
0:27:50 > 0:27:51# Jericho
0:27:51 > 0:27:54# Jericho, oh, Jericho
0:27:54 > 0:27:57# Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho
0:27:57 > 0:27:59# And the wall came tumbling down
0:27:59 > 0:28:01# Alleluia... #
0:28:01 > 0:28:03My family didn't have television.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Well, I think they did... I think my family got a television
0:28:06 > 0:28:10by the time I was in my late teens. It was about this big,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13it was in a big, brown piece of furniture,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15given pride of place,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18and the family sat round in armchairs to look at it.
0:28:18 > 0:28:19Um...
0:28:19 > 0:28:22And my mother became enthralled by it.
0:28:22 > 0:28:23Frankie Vaughan I saw.
0:28:23 > 0:28:24# Ba-ba-ba, hey!
0:28:24 > 0:28:26# For love came just in time
0:28:26 > 0:28:29# You found me just in time
0:28:29 > 0:28:31# And changed my lonely life
0:28:31 > 0:28:34# On that lovely day
0:28:34 > 0:28:38# You changed my lonely life that lovely day... #
0:28:41 > 0:28:42Yeah!
0:28:42 > 0:28:45I'd seen The Jolson Story.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48I think Frankie Vaughan had learned from Al Jolson
0:28:48 > 0:28:51cos he had a lot of the moves, he was larger than life.
0:28:53 > 0:28:59The sound of his voice was... was rich and powerful.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03And, er, I liked that, and I liked what he was doing.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11I was a singer and I loved singing and I could sing, I felt,
0:29:11 > 0:29:13as good as anybody that was coming on there.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15So it was a possibility
0:29:15 > 0:29:19that I would one day be on the TV.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24I didn't make it onto that TV until 1962.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27But, luckily, the '50s was already hotting up
0:29:27 > 0:29:30in the arrival of teddy boys and girls.
0:29:30 > 0:29:31JAZZ MUSIC
0:29:37 > 0:29:39The first time we had an identity
0:29:39 > 0:29:44and a look that was different from our parents.
0:29:44 > 0:29:45Fashion...
0:29:45 > 0:29:46changed radically.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49We went completely the opposite, not really knowing it.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52I didn't think, "Oh, my father's jacket is short,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55"I'll wear a long one. My father's trousers are wide..."
0:29:55 > 0:29:58I didn't think that, I just didn't like the way they looked.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03And I didn't like short haircuts. I wanted a Tony Curtis haircut.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07The whole point of the teddy boys
0:30:07 > 0:30:09was they draw on a huge range of influences.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11The reason they're called teddy boys
0:30:11 > 0:30:13is because it's named after Edwardian,
0:30:13 > 0:30:15they're wearing Edwardian clothes.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21A whole load of South London youth decided that they rather liked that
0:30:21 > 0:30:23and then they started messing it about.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26We had the drainpipe trousers, the suede shoes, you know,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29with the crepe soles, and the long jackets.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32They wore the thick crepe shoes, which had...
0:30:32 > 0:30:33evolved from the desert shoes,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36which had come from the North African campaign.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39So this whole range of different ideas and styles
0:30:39 > 0:30:41that they blended together.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45They incorporated the bootlace ties and the Slim Jim ties
0:30:45 > 0:30:46that they'd seen in Hollywood,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49they looked like Mississippi gamblers.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52The sheriff or the marshal, you know, had a black suit on.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57If you look at the Gunfight At The OK Corral,
0:30:57 > 0:30:58they had narrow pants,
0:30:58 > 0:31:03you know, with these black suits, long jackets, so it was like that.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06I'm thinking about more about that now than I did, you know,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08than I have before.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12It was groovy, it was cool, to look like that.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15Would you rather go with a teddy boy than an ordinary boy?
0:31:15 > 0:31:16Teddy boy, any day.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18- A teddy boy any day?- Yes.- Why?
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Don't know. People wearing bell bottom trousers,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23I wouldn't be seen dead in with one.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26So, you'd have the black jeans with the green stitching
0:31:26 > 0:31:29and a jacket that your father gave you, well, I did, anyway,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33and then I got this velvet from the glove factory I was working in
0:31:33 > 0:31:37and my mother put on this black velvet collar,
0:31:37 > 0:31:39so there I was, a teddy boy.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42I looked like, you know, slicker than slick.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44JAZZ MUSIC
0:31:44 > 0:31:47You know, I wanted to be a man, desperately.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51And it wasn't until I was talking to a tarty-looking girl in a doorway
0:31:51 > 0:31:52in Pontypridd,
0:31:52 > 0:31:57and this girl, you know, had tight, they were wearing those things,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00big earrings hanging down, you know, tight sweaters,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05and she was a swimmer, so she was, you know, well-built girl,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09so she was, like, looking like the girls were looking
0:32:09 > 0:32:12and there I was, looking like the fellas.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14So, I'm chatting her up at the doorway and my mother
0:32:14 > 0:32:16and sister walked straight past me.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18You know, I went, "Hello, Ma..." NEEDLE SCRATCH
0:32:18 > 0:32:20..and when I got back home, she said,
0:32:20 > 0:32:22"I'm taking that velvet collar off there
0:32:22 > 0:32:24"because you've become a teddy boy."
0:32:27 > 0:32:30The teddy boy phenomenon predates rock and roll
0:32:30 > 0:32:32by about five or six years.
0:32:32 > 0:32:37The idea of a youth culture growing up, a gang culture growing up,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40a desire to express an identity that is separate
0:32:40 > 0:32:44and deliberately rejecting society,
0:32:44 > 0:32:46that's already all in place.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49What is needed is a soundtrack to go with that.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51It's ten years on from the end of the war,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55people are now teenagers who only just really remember the war years.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58There's this feeling of...enough.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02It's actually not a bad place if you can just lift yourself out
0:33:02 > 0:33:06of the mental greyness of austerity '50s.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09We were ready for change, we were, I mean, the stuffy old world
0:33:09 > 0:33:13that was demonstrating in the '50s that it was out of date,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17we were preparing the way for the changes that would come.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19And at this point,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22suddenly, there's a searchlight from across the Atlantic,
0:33:22 > 0:33:23which is rock and roll
0:33:23 > 0:33:26and, suddenly, the whole landscape seems brighter.
0:33:28 > 0:33:29Ah!
0:33:29 > 0:33:30TOM LAUGHS
0:33:32 > 0:33:34# One, two, three o'clock Four o'clock, rock
0:33:34 > 0:33:37# Five, six, seven o'clock Eight o'clock, rock
0:33:37 > 0:33:40# Nine, ten, eleven o'clock Twelve o'clock, rock
0:33:40 > 0:33:44# We're going to rock around the clock tonight... #
0:33:44 > 0:33:45There's two drummers on here.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48There's one, going...
0:33:48 > 0:33:49Then the other one does that.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52# We're going to rock, rock, rock till broad daylight
0:33:52 > 0:33:54# Going to rock... #
0:33:54 > 0:33:57I mean, nobody had ever done that before, and the sound of it,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59listen to the drums.
0:33:59 > 0:34:00# Three and four
0:34:00 > 0:34:03# If the band slows down We'll yell for more
0:34:03 > 0:34:05# Going to rock around the clock tonight... #
0:34:05 > 0:34:07Some of the kids,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11they said, "Yeah, it's all right." You know. It's all right?
0:34:11 > 0:34:14I couldn't believe it. It's tremendous stuff.
0:34:14 > 0:34:15GUITAR SOLO
0:34:15 > 0:34:16Oh...
0:34:21 > 0:34:24I mean, it hit me like a tonne of bricks. I couldn't believe it.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31That record, right there, Rock Around The Clock,
0:34:31 > 0:34:32that was the beginning.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34Then Elvis Presley came, and then Jerry Lee Lewis came.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37So they were the three most important records, you know.
0:34:37 > 0:34:38Not in sequence.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40But maybe they will be when you edit it,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43but it's Rock Around The Clock... LAUGHTER
0:34:43 > 0:34:45Rock Around The Clock, Heartbreak Hotel,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47and then Whole Lotta Shaking.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Bill Haley's first single in Britain is a hit
0:34:52 > 0:34:56because Radio Luxembourg play it. BBC didn't play it at all.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00# Going to rock, going to rock around the clock tonight... #
0:35:00 > 0:35:01Here it comes.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03INSTRUMENTAL
0:35:05 > 0:35:06Da-da-da!
0:35:06 > 0:35:08I thought it was thrilling.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12There'd never been anything like it, its impact was huge.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15We all were dancing, dancing, dancing and jumping around,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18not ballroom dancing, of course - that was suddenly over.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22And there was... That too was enormously liberating
0:35:22 > 0:35:23and spontaneous.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26# We're going to rock, rock, rock till the broad daylight
0:35:26 > 0:35:28# We're going to rock Going to rock
0:35:28 > 0:35:30# Around the clock tonight. #
0:35:30 > 0:35:31GUITAR SOLO
0:35:33 > 0:35:34Da-da-da-da.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37DRUM AND SYMBOLS
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Jesus!
0:35:41 > 0:35:43I mean...wow!
0:35:43 > 0:35:47MUSIC: Charmaine by Mantovani
0:36:02 > 0:36:04The trouble was, if you wanted to hear rock and roll,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06or jive with your girlfriend,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10there wasn't anywhere to do it in Treforest or Pontypridd in 1955.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15Dance halls didn't like teddy boys and girls and they hated our music.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21This was the dance hall in Treforest.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24This is the Catholic hall.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27They would have dances here on a Saturday night.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29My mother and father came here when they were young.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33So that's how old this place is, and they were ballroom dancing.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40It was only ten years after the war had ended, you know what I mean?
0:36:40 > 0:36:44So everybody was relaxing now, they were all going ballroom dancing
0:36:44 > 0:36:46and having a few drinks on the weekend.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Everything was nice, everything was calm,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52the Germans were not bombing us any more, and all of a sudden...
0:36:52 > 0:36:53# Bam-bam, one, two, three... #
0:36:53 > 0:36:55It was like, Jesus!
0:36:55 > 0:36:57JIVE MUSIC
0:36:57 > 0:37:02It was like almost as bad, to the adults, as being under attack.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06And that's how powerful rock and roll was in 1955.
0:37:10 > 0:37:11It's difficult to explain it,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15the explosion that rock and roll gave you,
0:37:15 > 0:37:16gave you as a kid.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Obviously, you didn't want your parents' music.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22MUSIC: The White Cliffs Of Dover by Glenn Miller & Orchestra
0:37:22 > 0:37:25Or Glenn Miller, we don't want to listen...
0:37:25 > 0:37:29to Glenn Miller, particularly, you know, when you're 14.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31Glenn Miller, yeah, I mean...
0:37:31 > 0:37:33I think he should've lived
0:37:33 > 0:37:36and his music should've died, but I mean, that's...
0:37:36 > 0:37:37LAUGHTER
0:37:37 > 0:37:40That's just...
0:37:40 > 0:37:45No! That's just my opinion, please. I'm not, no...
0:37:45 > 0:37:48That's what I thought at the time, anyway.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53With ballroom dancing, it seems to me, you know, they liked it
0:37:53 > 0:37:57because they were holding, they had an excuse to hold one another.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Now, the jive, because we were like slicker than slick, you know,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07with the hair and the velvet collars and the girl, you know?
0:38:07 > 0:38:10You know, like this, you know, chewing gum and everything.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15And looking, you know, at the girls from a distance.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18Phew! You know what I mean? "Look at MY girlfriend."
0:38:20 > 0:38:23As were the other older people, were like, you know,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25"This is mine and leave her alone."
0:38:28 > 0:38:30Everybody would be going around in a big circle.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34- You know, the ballroom dancing... - Yes.- A big circle!
0:38:34 > 0:38:36And you'd think, what if somebody went...
0:38:36 > 0:38:38HE WHISTLES You know, all change?
0:38:38 > 0:38:41I don't know what they would've done going the other way.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45And then to jive, you know, in the corner of these...
0:38:45 > 0:38:48I used to go to a Catholic hall, it was a big dance...
0:38:48 > 0:38:50a dance hall in Treforest and,
0:38:50 > 0:38:51if you were caught jiving, you know,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55you'd have to go in the corner to have a jive
0:38:55 > 0:38:58and 20 minutes, you could have a 20-minute intermission
0:38:58 > 0:39:00and they'd play rock and roll records.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02We'd go in there for the 20 minutes and,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05soon as he'd come back on, we'd leave!
0:39:05 > 0:39:09So that was it, but we were starved for...
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Well, you couldn't hear it.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13- No.- You could hear it on Radio Luxembourg on a bad signal
0:39:13 > 0:39:16- coming in late at night.- Yeah.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18It just seemed so exotic.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20The sound changed, I think that was another big thing.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22Because the fellas that I was working with,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25- they were amateur musicians playing in dance bands.- Yeah, yeah.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29And they could not play rock and roll, but they would condemn it.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31They'd say, "Oh, what are you listening to that crap for?"
0:39:31 > 0:39:34And I'd say, "Can you play it?"
0:39:34 > 0:39:37"Of course we can play it, it's 12 bar blues."
0:39:37 > 0:39:40"I don't know how many bars are in it, but can you do it?"
0:39:40 > 0:39:43And I'd go and see them, in these dance halls,
0:39:43 > 0:39:44and then Monday morning, I'd say,
0:39:44 > 0:39:48"Hey, you're full of... You're not playing it!"
0:39:48 > 0:39:51But they didn't seem to get it like we did.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54You know, the young, the teenagers. We were getting it, right?
0:39:54 > 0:39:56# Well, since my baby left me
0:39:56 > 0:39:59# Well, I found a new place to dwell
0:39:59 > 0:40:02# It's down at the end of Lonely Street at
0:40:02 > 0:40:04# Heartbreak Hotel... #
0:40:04 > 0:40:08Rock and roll is seen from its first arrival as being,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11in the words of the Daily Mail, "the negro's revenge".
0:40:12 > 0:40:14It is also a fear of sex.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17# Although it's always crowded
0:40:17 > 0:40:19# You still can find some room
0:40:19 > 0:40:24# For broken-hearted lovers to cry away their gloom... #
0:40:24 > 0:40:28It is seen as unbridled sexual expression.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30And obviously, that's what rock and roll is,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33that's what the original expression "rock and roll" means.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36# Well, since my baby left me (Bam, bam)
0:40:36 > 0:40:39# I found a new place to dwell... #
0:40:39 > 0:40:41You see, it's like that.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44The voice is isolated and then, you just, bam-bam.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47# Down at the end of Lonely Street at...
0:40:47 > 0:40:49# Heartbreak hotel... #
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Then you're in, then the music's in. Never been done before.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55They knew what would excite the kids, the breaks.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00# She can't help it The girl can't help it. #
0:41:00 > 0:41:02We were also getting excited by seeing our rock and roll heroes
0:41:02 > 0:41:07on the big screen in the Hollywood movies, like The Girl Can't Help It.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10# Ready, set, go, man, go!
0:41:10 > 0:41:13# I got a girl that I love so I'm ready
0:41:13 > 0:41:15# Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready
0:41:15 > 0:41:17# Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready
0:41:17 > 0:41:18# Ready, ready teddy
0:41:18 > 0:41:21# I'm ready-ready-ready to rock and roll... #
0:41:21 > 0:41:23CHATTER
0:41:24 > 0:41:29Elvis was in a string of movies, and one of my favourites was Loving You.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34We all looked like Bill Gates.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39And then Elvis came along.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41And we went, "Wow."
0:41:41 > 0:41:44# I got a woman here She can be... #
0:41:44 > 0:41:47Elvis knew what he was doing...
0:41:49 > 0:41:51..when he looked at the camera, when he moved.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54I think he looked in the mirror a lot, you know?
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Elvis, I was in the Elvis Fan Club,
0:41:59 > 0:42:01which was a bit of a swindle, actually,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03it was 11 shillings a year, you got one photograph
0:42:03 > 0:42:06and Elvis never came over here and we were always waiting for him,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10but of course he was so different, I suppose cos he was sexy,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13he was really sexy, and he was so handsome.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15This sexy thing again, he was...
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Nobody had ever gone, "Uh-huh-huh."
0:42:18 > 0:42:20HE GRUNTS
0:42:20 > 0:42:24I remember listening to, er... Hound Dog, I think it was,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28and there's a little "whoop" in it, in his voice,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and your whole body sort of goes, "Whoop!"
0:42:31 > 0:42:33And you think, "Blimey, what's going on?"
0:42:34 > 0:42:36Uh-huh-huh.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39How do you write down...? I want you to sing...
0:42:39 > 0:42:41HE GRUNTS
0:42:41 > 0:42:42You can't.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46In fact, rock and roll churned us up so much
0:42:46 > 0:42:49that my girlfriend, Linda, got pregnant
0:42:49 > 0:42:51and we had a son, Mark.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53We're still married 59 years later.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56'And this is exactly where I first saw her
0:42:56 > 0:42:59'when I was only ten years old.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01'This is the street where she lived.'
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Cos this was not paved, this was all... It was a dirt road.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11So Linda used to sleep up in that room there.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15And so I would serenade her from here.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22Irene Goodnight, that was the one, so I changed it from Irene to Linda.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24So Linda Goodnight. You know...
0:43:24 > 0:43:27She was there and her father used to get...
0:43:27 > 0:43:29ticked off cos I used to whistle as well a lot, you know,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33when I'd come past, just to let her know that it was me.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36So he used to say, "That whistling crow is out there again."
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Linda was pregnant and so something had to be done.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Thank God, my parents and Linda's parents
0:43:45 > 0:43:47agreed on us getting married,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50because you must have your parents' consent,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53under 18, and they agreed on it
0:43:53 > 0:43:56because they could see that we were in love with one another.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Of course, he was quite lucky because he, as I understand it,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04had a fairly...had parents who were fairly liberal about it,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08and that was very, very unusual, I would think, in 1956.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10You wouldn't find many of them like that.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12I mean, the rule in my house was
0:44:12 > 0:44:14there would be no sex until you were married.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17That was assumed to be the case and was assumed to be the ethic
0:44:17 > 0:44:20and, of course, the human race isn't quite like that,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24but if you fell from grace and committed a sin
0:44:24 > 0:44:26and got pregnant, then it was a total catastrophe.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30Do you think that you ought to have sex before marriage?
0:44:30 > 0:44:33I don't think it matters, really.
0:44:33 > 0:44:34What do you think?
0:44:34 > 0:44:37- I don't think you ought to at all. - You don't think...?
0:44:37 > 0:44:38No, it's more...
0:44:38 > 0:44:41it's more important to have it, you know, when you're married.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44I was now suddenly a teenage husband and father,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47just when I started seeing British rock and rollers
0:44:47 > 0:44:52on TV for the first time, like Cliff Richard and Marty Wilde.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55MUSIC: Six-Five Special by Bob Cort Skiffle Group
0:44:56 > 0:45:00# The Six-Five Special steaming down the line
0:45:00 > 0:45:03# Six-Five Special Right on time... #
0:45:03 > 0:45:05Six-Five Special was the first one.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07You know? And I remember Don Lang.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09- Yeah, yeah. - He was a trombone player.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11And he was a jazz, you know, he was a jazz musician,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13and he was trying to sing,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15# The Six-Five Special's coming down the line
0:45:15 > 0:45:17# The Six-Five Special Right on time... #
0:45:17 > 0:45:20And he'd go... INDISTINCT
0:45:20 > 0:45:21Get the... I mean,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24you know, because he's like supposed to be rock and roll,
0:45:24 > 0:45:26you know, with a trombone.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29You don't use a trombone in a rock and roll record.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31It's time to jive on the old Six-Five!
0:45:31 > 0:45:33INSTRUMENTAL
0:45:36 > 0:45:39It all seems like ancient history, doesn't it,
0:45:39 > 0:45:42when we talk about it now? Things have changed so tremendously.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Well, it was a long time ago now. HE LAUGHS
0:45:45 > 0:45:48- Thank you, Tom!- Well, I mean, it was! The '50s, you know.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51- What is that, 60 years ago? - Yeah, yeah.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54- Isn't it?- And it was life-changing for our generation.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57- Definitely.- The music, the fashion, film, novels,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59everything changed in a very short space.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04- That IS 60, isn't it? 1955 to 2015.- It is.
0:46:04 > 0:46:0760 years, so I mean, 60 years...
0:46:07 > 0:46:10When you think of it as 60 years, it IS ancient history, isn't it?
0:46:10 > 0:46:12THEY LAUGH
0:46:14 > 0:46:17# Well you see now I've got a girl
0:46:17 > 0:46:19# And we stay out late
0:46:19 > 0:46:21# Almost every night
0:46:21 > 0:46:26# Well, the people just stare and they declare
0:46:26 > 0:46:30# Well, well It just ain't right. #
0:46:30 > 0:46:34How old were you when you got on the telly, then?
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Mm...I was 17.
0:46:37 > 0:46:38- 17.- 17 years old.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40All of those early British records,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43it was different for you cos you came slightly later,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45- not being funny...- No, I know.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47You came at a slightly better time for musicians because,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51when we started, there were no musicians that could play
0:46:51 > 0:46:54- rock and roll guitar, not really. - And you couldn't get the guitars.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56You couldn't, and you couldn't...
0:46:56 > 0:46:58If you listen to all those early British records,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02they had that jazz cos they were all jazz-influenced guitarists.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04This old British sound.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08# Three cool cats
0:47:08 > 0:47:11# Three cool cats
0:47:11 > 0:47:14# They looked like angels from up above
0:47:14 > 0:47:17# Three cool cats really fell in love
0:47:17 > 0:47:21# Three cool chicks made three fools out of
0:47:21 > 0:47:24# Three cool cats
0:47:24 > 0:47:26# Three cool cats. #
0:47:26 > 0:47:29And then Oh Boy! I saw you on there.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31- Those were the early days.- Yeah.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34- When I thought Cliff Richard was short...- He is!
0:47:34 > 0:47:36Well, I know, but... THEY LAUGH
0:47:36 > 0:47:38I didn't realise you were so tall!
0:47:38 > 0:47:40You know, looking at him on the telly.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42But I mean, in the '50s, I was in the pubs.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45I was doing basically the same as you were doing,
0:47:45 > 0:47:46but I wasn't on television.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50You know, I was singing in pubs, doing '50s rock and roll.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57This is where I played my first gig in 1957.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59I sang six songs here, for which I was paid a pound.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05I was trying to bring rock and roll to the South Wales Valleys,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08and pubs and working men's clubs were all there was at the time.
0:48:10 > 0:48:1260 years later, it looks a bit different,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16but this was the Wood Road Working Men's Club.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20The Wood Road Non-political, because you couldn't talk politics in it.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23- Why?- Cos it was against the rules.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28That's why they called it, that's why they called it...
0:48:28 > 0:48:30the Non-political Club.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33If you wanted to go and talk, if you were Conservative,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36you'd go to the Con Club, which was a Conservative club.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Mostly, it was Labour.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43South Wales was Labour because of the industry, you know, coal mining.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48So Conservatives were a bit upper-crust, if you like.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53When we would go to the pictures and the news reader would come on,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56we were taught to boo Churchill
0:48:56 > 0:48:59because he was the cause of the 1926 strike,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02even though he saved the world in the Second World War.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Well, he didn't save South Wales as far as they were concerned.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09So when Clement Atlee would come on, we would say, "Hooray!"
0:49:09 > 0:49:13We didn't really know why we were saying it, we were taught to say it.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15My parents were saying, "There's a good man, Clement Atlee.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20"He will be great. After the war, to build the country up again,
0:49:20 > 0:49:22"we need a Labour government."
0:49:27 > 0:49:28You want to go in there or not?
0:49:31 > 0:49:33Yeah, sure.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38- Where is he? How are you, all right? - Nice to meet you.- How's it going?
0:49:38 > 0:49:41- Bit of a Memory Lane trip, is it? - That's right.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45- Hasn't changed a bit, this place, has it?- Oh, I don't know...- Well...
0:49:54 > 0:49:57'People dressed up to go drinking.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01'They never went casual, especially on a Saturday night.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03'You'd have to have a suit on and a collar and tie.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05'You'd take your girlfriend or your wife,
0:50:05 > 0:50:07'they'd have to look like a million dollars,
0:50:07 > 0:50:09'the best they possibly could.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11'They would wear their best clothes
0:50:11 > 0:50:13'to come in here on a Saturday night.'
0:50:13 > 0:50:14Well, this is it.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20It's not the same now, though. No, this is nothing like it used to be.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24The women were only allowed in one Saturday a month but,
0:50:24 > 0:50:26when I was a teenager,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29it was every Saturday, the women would be allowed in.
0:50:29 > 0:50:30But that was all.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33You know, only Saturday night. It was a men-only club.
0:50:33 > 0:50:34Members only.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38So it was like that, but it was all very orderly
0:50:38 > 0:50:42and I think that's why they created these working men's clubs
0:50:42 > 0:50:45so that people would be in order rather than going into a pub
0:50:45 > 0:50:47and not know what you're walking into, you know.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49And then you couldn't use any bad language.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52You know, in those days, you'd never swear in front of a lady so,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55if you did, your name would be in the box
0:50:55 > 0:50:57and they'd make a complaint and you'd either
0:50:57 > 0:50:59have your membership taken away from you or something.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02So it was like that then.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05- All right, boys?- All right, Tom? - Take care.- Goodnight, Tom.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12So when I was singing in these working men's clubs, the reaction...
0:51:13 > 0:51:17..was they would get worked up.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20I was singing Breathless, I think, a Jerry Lee Lewis song,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23and this girl was banging her head on the stage.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27I don't think that had happened before.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30I wanted to give as much of myself...
0:51:30 > 0:51:34I didn't want to leave anything to chance, you know.
0:51:34 > 0:51:35Here I am and here it is.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37- # What'd I say - What'd I say
0:51:37 > 0:51:40- # Tell me what'd I say, what'd I say - What'd I say
0:51:40 > 0:51:41# Tell me what'd I say, baby
0:51:41 > 0:51:44- # What'd I say - Tell me what'd I say, honey
0:51:44 > 0:51:47- # What'd I say - Tell me what'd I say
0:51:47 > 0:51:50- # What'd I say - Tell me what'd I say, oh
0:51:50 > 0:51:53- # Now, tell me one more time - One more time
0:51:53 > 0:51:55- # Tell me one more time - One more time
0:51:55 > 0:51:57# Tell me one more time
0:51:57 > 0:52:00- # One more time - Tell me one more time, one more time
0:52:00 > 0:52:02- # One more time - Tell me one more time
0:52:02 > 0:52:05- # One more time - Tell me one more time, whoa
0:52:05 > 0:52:07# Tell me what'd I say
0:52:07 > 0:52:08# What'd I say
0:52:08 > 0:52:10- # Tell me what'd I say - What'd I say
0:52:10 > 0:52:13- # Tell me what'd I say, yeah - What'd I say
0:52:13 > 0:52:15- # Tell me what'd I say - What'd I say
0:52:15 > 0:52:17# Tell me what'd I say
0:52:17 > 0:52:18# What'd I say
0:52:18 > 0:52:23# Tell me what'd I say. #
0:52:23 > 0:52:26There was one thing I still had to do as a singer.
0:52:26 > 0:52:27I had to record.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29I would have done it in Cardiff, if I could but,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32like all the British rock and rollers just ahead of me,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34I knew I had to go to London.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37Which, before the Severn Bridge was opened much later,
0:52:37 > 0:52:39was like going to a foreign country.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Right in. One, two, three...
0:52:48 > 0:52:50# All right... #
0:52:51 > 0:52:55Teenagers in South Wales in the '50s are listening to the same music,
0:52:55 > 0:52:56they're watching the same television,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59they're going to the same movies as people were everywhere.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01And that gave people the sense
0:53:01 > 0:53:02that they were part of something bigger,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05that there was a bigger world out there but,
0:53:05 > 0:53:06at the same time,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08they might look at the streets that they lived in
0:53:08 > 0:53:12and it didn't look like some of the images that you might see
0:53:12 > 0:53:14on the television of what London looked like,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18and it gave people a sense that maybe you need to escape to get to
0:53:18 > 0:53:22this popular culture, that somehow this popular culture was elsewhere.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24The best thing about Newcastle at the time, on the Tyne Bridge,
0:53:24 > 0:53:26there was a big sign saying,
0:53:26 > 0:53:27"The A1 South."
0:53:29 > 0:53:31But we had to go to London.
0:53:31 > 0:53:32Had to go to London.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40Hank and I came to London in April of '58.
0:53:40 > 0:53:4316 years old, from school,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47and then we read about a place called the 2 I's Coffee Bar,
0:53:47 > 0:53:49which was in Soho.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51It just sounded sexy, Soho.
0:53:55 > 0:53:56Everybody went there.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02And it was like a little coffee bar, probably 20 feet long
0:54:02 > 0:54:03and 12 feet wide.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09People would jam with you, they'd get up and play with you.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14And during that period, we played with guys that became The Shadows.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16We didn't know at the time.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21We were the first steel band to come to England,
0:54:21 > 0:54:221951.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30You would go to the Contemporary Club, the Sunset Club,
0:54:30 > 0:54:35then you have the Glass Bucket, you have the Hay Hill, and we used
0:54:35 > 0:54:39to be going from club to club and we were well-known in those clubs.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46People used to mix a lot in those days.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51The pimps, the good, the bad, the ugly, everybody mixed, no problem.
0:54:54 > 0:54:55HE LAUGHS
0:54:55 > 0:54:57I saw a couple of guys, you know, having a kiss
0:54:57 > 0:54:59and a cuddle in a doorway in 1958.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02I thought he was giving him the kiss of life, to be honest.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05- But, you know...- He was.- He was!
0:55:06 > 0:55:08Yeah. But it was,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12and some lovely strange girls were around in the 2 I's.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14Lovely girls.
0:55:14 > 0:55:15Good, though.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21I had this idea that I was going to go to London, you know,
0:55:21 > 0:55:23and I was going to become a singer.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26You know, I said, "I'm going to be a recording artist.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30"I'm going to make records, I'm going to meet Elvis Presley."
0:55:30 > 0:55:34"Yeah, Tom, you know, you're a great singer and we all love you but...
0:55:34 > 0:55:35"Elvis Presley?"
0:55:35 > 0:55:39# Well, since my baby left... #
0:55:39 > 0:55:45It turned out to be pretty much like I expected it to be.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47You know, there's no big surprises like,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50"Oh, my God, I thought this was going to be better than this."
0:55:50 > 0:55:52Or, "That would be different than this."
0:55:52 > 0:55:54But it's not.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56You know, you can achieve to buy a lovely house
0:55:56 > 0:55:58and you can have a lovely car,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02and you can put your children in better schools, better education.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06But to come straight from a working class background, you know,
0:56:06 > 0:56:11doing menial jobs, to boom, to stardom, is a big leap.
0:56:12 > 0:56:13But I was prepared for it.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20So you're working out a bit here, boys? Are you rugby players?
0:56:20 > 0:56:22- It's a pleasure to meet you.- Yeah?
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Christ, they're making them bigger nowadays.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26Thank you very much, flattering!
0:56:26 > 0:56:29- All right. Nice to see you. - Nice to meet you.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31Cannot believe we just bumped into him.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34- THEY LAUGH - Can't believe it!
0:56:34 > 0:56:36- Well, Mr Jones, I'll call you... - Remember that?- Whoa!
0:56:36 > 0:56:40- That's me and you, 1966. - No, really?!
0:56:40 > 0:56:43- Is that a joke?- No. - Yeah, there you go.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Tom lived by there and I lived by here.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50- I lived in number 1.- How long ago was this, sorry?- That's when...
0:56:50 > 0:56:52- It's not...- It's Not Unusual.
0:56:52 > 0:56:54- My grandfather... - LAUGHTER
0:56:54 > 0:57:00- It was March 1965.- Oh, yeah. - 1965? Wow.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02That's mad.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05- Look at that. So that was you, then? - Yeah, that was me.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Look at me, I've got dark hair there!
0:57:08 > 0:57:11I'll tell you what it was, it was when it got to number one,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14- you had the New Musical Express and that was the front cover.- Oh, yeah?
0:57:14 > 0:57:17- They sent me the actual photograph. - Ah, right.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20- Yeah, sure, of course. - Can someone take a picture?
0:57:22 > 0:57:24Boys are bigger now than they used to be!
0:57:24 > 0:57:27- I used to be considered tall when I was here.- What you doing?
0:57:27 > 0:57:29Can't cut me out with Tom Jones!
0:57:36 > 0:57:40Timing is very important. That's what I lived through.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44You know, I was 15 when rock and roll kicked in - perfect.
0:57:45 > 0:57:51What they created in the '50s is why we're all here
0:57:51 > 0:57:55in the rock and roll or the music business now.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01I think it was years before one could look back and say,
0:58:01 > 0:58:04"Yes, that was the moment when the world stood on its head,
0:58:04 > 0:58:08"that was the moment we started thinking differently."
0:58:10 > 0:58:12I saw a programme last night, funnily enough,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15about love in Britain, you know.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Love and sex, and they said that more young people got married
0:58:19 > 0:58:23in the '50s than ever before or since.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29How about that, then? So you've got to put it down to rock and roll.
0:58:29 > 0:58:30You know, you have to!
0:58:32 > 0:58:36So it's not war that we were making, it was love.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39MUSIC: It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones
0:58:47 > 0:58:51# It's not unusual to be loved by anyone
0:58:53 > 0:58:56# It's not unusual to have fun with anyone
0:58:58 > 0:59:03# But when I see you hanging about with anyone
0:59:03 > 0:59:05# It's not unusual to see me cry. #