0:00:05 > 0:00:06GENTLE POP MELODY PLAYS
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Long before The Beatles or The Stones...
0:00:18 > 0:00:20..there existed a mysterious music.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28It was called British rock and roll.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32# Hear a newborn baby... #
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Born into the hinterland of the late '50s...
0:00:37 > 0:00:41..it was a strange facsimile of a distant original.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44# That once brought you to me. #
0:00:47 > 0:00:50# The desk clerk's dressed in black. #
0:00:50 > 0:00:56I remember clearly hearing Elvis for the first time. My friends and I,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00we were just wandering about one day, and this car -
0:01:00 > 0:01:02I think it was one of those fancy French Citroens,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04they looked a spacecraft -
0:01:04 > 0:01:06and a guy jumped out,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09left the engine running and the windows were down.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13He went into a newsagent and, on the radio, we heard
0:01:13 > 0:01:15Elvis singing Heartbreak Hotel.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18# So lonely, baby... #
0:01:18 > 0:01:22Before we could find out what it was or who it was,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25the guy got back in his car and drove off!
0:01:25 > 0:01:26HEARTBREAK HOTEL CONTINUES
0:01:32 > 0:01:33Through Elvis, really.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38And Marlon Brando and James Dean.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40All that same sort of time - '55, '56.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44So, everybody, all the kids in Newcastle or Birmingham
0:01:44 > 0:01:48or Liverpool, you know, John and Paul, we all wanted to be, "Aww..."
0:01:48 > 0:01:51I still keep the sideburns, as a memory of the great man.
0:01:51 > 0:01:57With Cliff, myself and Billy Fury, we were avid fans.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Thousands of us wanted to wake up being rock and roll singers
0:02:03 > 0:02:05and just a few of us got lucky.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07And I was one of them. I got lucky.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15# Shake, rattle and roll
0:02:15 > 0:02:17# Shake, rattle and roll. #
0:02:17 > 0:02:20In the beginning, there was British rock and roll,
0:02:20 > 0:02:22only it wasn't called that.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26As early as 1953, British big bands, like Ted Heath
0:02:26 > 0:02:29and Jack Parnell, thrilled jivers with performances
0:02:29 > 0:02:35of American R&B and Western Swing, hot off Tin Pan Alley's presses.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Black American music was a facet of the British showbiz diamond
0:02:39 > 0:02:42waiting to be realised.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46# Shake, rattle and roll. #
0:02:46 > 0:02:52It was there, right from the start, rock and roll being rhythmic
0:02:52 > 0:02:58and energetic, and we were an energetic group.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And rock and roll had to be a must.
0:03:01 > 0:03:02- # Talk to me, baby- Talk!
0:03:02 > 0:03:04# Whisper in my ears
0:03:04 > 0:03:06# Talk, talk, talk
0:03:06 > 0:03:08- # Mmm, talk to me baby.- Talk!
0:03:08 > 0:03:09# Whisper in my ears. #
0:03:09 > 0:03:12This is the earliest surviving BBC footage of anything
0:03:12 > 0:03:17resembling rock and roll, and dates from 1955.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21The Southlanders were British-Jamaican entertainers
0:03:21 > 0:03:25who covered American doo-wop for Dick Rowe's Decca Records.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30# Whenever I hear Kokomo. #
0:03:30 > 0:03:32There was a music publishers
0:03:32 > 0:03:37and they were the agent for Rock Around The Clock.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40They sent us a copy, for us to record.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45We took it to Dick and Dick said, "No, nothing like that."
0:03:45 > 0:03:46# I love you so! #
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Kokomo!
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Then, immediately Bill Haley came out with his version of it
0:03:55 > 0:03:58and zoop! Number one.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02We look at Dick Rowe and say, "Dick!" Dick says,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04"Well, you win some, you lose some."
0:04:04 > 0:04:07# Rock around the clock tonight
0:04:07 > 0:04:09# Put your glad rags on Join me, hon. #
0:04:09 > 0:04:12It would take the combination of a white American
0:04:12 > 0:04:16and the mass marketing muscle of Hollywood to inaugurate
0:04:16 > 0:04:18the rock and roll era in Britain.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Rock Around The Clock was a jazzy Tin Pan Alley number,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25performed by avuncular Bill Haley.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28But when the song was featured on the soundtrack
0:04:28 > 0:04:33of Blackboard Jungle in late '55 and in the film Rock Around The Clock
0:04:33 > 0:04:37a year later, the ensuing scenes led to moral outrage.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45So this is from
0:04:45 > 0:04:48the Daily Mail, then, as now, Britain's finest newspaper.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52It's the editorial, "Rock And Roll Babies".
0:04:52 > 0:04:55"Dig, folks. You're in for a rock and roll session which will send you.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59"Or will it? Our purpose is not to work up, but to play down,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03"to enquire into the high-pitched scream of the soprano saxophone
0:05:03 > 0:05:07"and the maddening, monotonous, compulsive rhythm of the jazz drums."
0:05:10 > 0:05:13"These are the main elements of rock and roll,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17"this sudden musical phenomenon..." - 'musical' in inverted commas -
0:05:17 > 0:05:20"..which has led to outbreaks of rowdyism.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25"Under its influence, youths and girls jive in the gangways of cinemas
0:05:25 > 0:05:26"and tear up the seats."
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I went to see a film called Blackboard Jungle,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36and when we came out, two guys with me, who were mates of mine,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39were guitar players, and said,
0:05:39 > 0:05:40"Oh, let's form a rock and roll group."
0:05:40 > 0:05:43So I said, "Yeah. What do I play?"
0:05:43 > 0:05:45They said, "You play drums." So I did.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51"It is deplorable.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53"It is tribal. And it is from America.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59"It follows ragtime, blues, Dixie, jazz, hot cha-cha and boogie-woogie,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02"which surely originated in the jungle.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07"We sometimes wonder whether this is the negro's revenge."
0:06:07 > 0:06:09# We're going to rock around the clock tonight
0:06:09 > 0:06:11# We're going to rock, rock, rock Till broad daylight
0:06:11 > 0:06:15# We're going to rock, going to rock Around the clock tonight. #
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Bill Haley turned British youth onto the rebellious
0:06:18 > 0:06:20possibility of rock and n roll.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25But it would be a home-grown talent who would give them the means.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Like Haley, Lonnie Donegan had his roots in jazz,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35and also insisted on wearing a suit to perform.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38# Now this here's a story about the Rock Island Line
0:06:38 > 0:06:41# The Rock Island Line She runs down into New Orleans
0:06:41 > 0:06:44# And just outside of New Orleans There's a big toll gate
0:06:44 > 0:06:47# And all the trains They go through the toll gate
0:06:47 > 0:06:49# They got to pay the man some money
0:06:49 > 0:06:52# But of course If you got certain things on board
0:06:52 > 0:06:54# You're OK, you don't have to pay the man nothing
0:06:54 > 0:06:57# And just now, we see a train She coming down the line
0:06:57 > 0:06:59# And when she come up near the toll gate
0:06:59 > 0:07:01# The driver He shout down to the man
0:07:01 > 0:07:06# He say, "I got pigs I got horses, I got cows
0:07:06 > 0:07:09# "I got sheep I got all livestock". #
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Lonnie Donegan recorded Rock Island line, the huge hit that started
0:07:13 > 0:07:16him off, really, in 1954,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19and Elvis, eight days earlier had recorded It's All Right
0:07:19 > 0:07:23in the Sun studios. The great thing about him is,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Lonnie, with three chords and a washboard and a bass player,
0:07:27 > 0:07:32anybody could do it, suddenly. Anybody could get hold of a guitar,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36make a guitar, buy a guitar and do it themselves.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Three chords, that's all it took. That's all Rock Island Line was.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46# Mama don't allow no skiffle here
0:07:46 > 0:07:48# Oh, no she don't
0:07:48 > 0:07:50# Mama don't allow no skiffle... #
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Lonnie Donegan invented skiffle.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54A British take on American folk music,
0:07:54 > 0:08:00skiffle was the proving ground for every notable British rock and roller.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03# Mama don't allow no guitar playing in here
0:08:03 > 0:08:05# Oh, no, she don't
0:08:05 > 0:08:09# Mama don't allow no guitar playing in here
0:08:09 > 0:08:11# Well, we don't care what Mama don't allow
0:08:11 > 0:08:13# Going to play that guitar any old how
0:08:13 > 0:08:16# Mama don't allow no guitar playing... #
0:08:16 > 0:08:18What are your two names? Yours is...
0:08:18 > 0:08:20- James Page and...- David Haskell.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21- Both from Epsom.- Yes.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26It was American, it was exotic, it was the Mississippi,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28it was people breaking out of prison and listening to the
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Midnight Special coming down the line
0:08:30 > 0:08:34and the Wabash Cannonball, the great Grand Coulee Dam.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36Where's that, for a boy from Harrogate?
0:08:36 > 0:08:38You know, just marvellous stuff.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43- You play anything except skiffle? - Yes, Spanish and dance.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Do you, as well? Getting a move on.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48What are you going to do when you leave school, take up skiffle?
0:08:48 > 0:08:50I want to do biological research.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54Working class kids suddenly thought you don't have to go to music
0:08:54 > 0:08:59lessons on a Saturday morning with Ms Primstick to learn the piano.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01You can pick up a thing and you can thrash it.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07This is the song that started us on the rocky road of fame and fortune!
0:09:10 > 0:09:12# Let me tell you what's going on
0:09:12 > 0:09:15# The Rock Island Line She's mighty a mighty good road
0:09:15 > 0:09:17# Rock Island Line is the road to ride
0:09:17 > 0:09:20# Yes, Rock Island Line She's a mighty good road
0:09:20 > 0:09:23# If you ride, you got to ride it like you find it
0:09:23 > 0:09:25# Ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line
0:09:25 > 0:09:27# A, B, C, W, X, Y, Z
0:09:27 > 0:09:30# Cat's on the cover but he don't see me. #
0:09:30 > 0:09:37Sometime in 1956, as a result of hearing Lonnie Donegan's
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Rock Island Line,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42a lot of people decided to form skiffle groups,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and at Quarry Bank school was a lad called George Lee,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50and, apparently, he suggested to John Lennon, Eric Griffiths
0:09:50 > 0:09:53and Pete Shotten that they start a skiffle group.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Over here, we've got Peter Shotten reclining in this chair,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59and I think he's actually playing his washboard.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Next to him is Eric Griffiths, who is playing the guitar.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05This with the back here and the smart checked shirt is Len,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07playing the TCS bass.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Then, moving across, you got John sitting here,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18playing his guitar and singing. He's got his eyes closed,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22for some reason. And next to him is Colin, on the drums.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24# Rock Island Line She's a mighty good road
0:10:24 > 0:10:27# Rock Island Road is the road to ride. #
0:10:27 > 0:10:30- It was exciting music. - It was different music.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34- It was lively music.- It wasn't Doris Day.- No, no. I like Doris Day.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35I like her, but, you know...
0:10:38 > 0:10:41One day, my washboard player Sid, says to me
0:10:41 > 0:10:44"You got to come round my house."
0:10:44 > 0:10:48He said "I've got a record to play for you." I said, "OK."
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Now, Sid had a gramophone,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55and you hired these things from a firm called Radio Rentals
0:10:55 > 0:10:59and they used to actually push a hand barrow around the streets
0:10:59 > 0:11:03with all these gramophones and radio things on it for hire.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06And Sid had hired one of these,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and put the record on and a voice went....
0:11:09 > 0:11:11# I'm going to tell Aunt Mary....
0:11:11 > 0:11:12# About Uncle John
0:11:12 > 0:11:15# He claims he had the misery But he having lots of fun
0:11:15 > 0:11:16# Oh, baby
0:11:16 > 0:11:18# Yes, baby #
0:11:18 > 0:11:21I went, "What's going on here?" Little Richard, man.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Rock and roll, and it just hit skiffle a knockout blow,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29really, to the jaw. And that was the end of skiffle.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33# Well, I saw Uncle John with bald-headed Sally
0:11:33 > 0:11:36# He saw Aunt Mary coming and he ducked back in the alley
0:11:36 > 0:11:37# Oh, baby
0:11:37 > 0:11:39# Yes, baby
0:11:39 > 0:11:40# Woooo-oooooh
0:11:40 > 0:11:42# Baby
0:11:42 > 0:11:44# Having me some fun tonight
0:11:44 > 0:11:46# Yeah, ow! #
0:11:46 > 0:11:49It's well known that American rock and roll
0:11:49 > 0:11:52electrified British youth in 1956.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56But it was a strangely invisible affair.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59The tail end of a Musicians' Union ban on touring Americans
0:11:59 > 0:12:03dating back to the '30s, meant rock and roll arrived, essentially,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05via record and Radio Luxembourg.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09They may have been oversexed and overpaid,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12but they weren't over here...yet.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16It's fascinating how suspicious people were about all things
0:12:16 > 0:12:18American in the 1950s.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21There was this sense that anything American was, by its very nature,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25tawdry, debased, vulgar, commercialised...
0:12:25 > 0:12:28You know, in some way a, kind of,
0:12:28 > 0:12:30falling off from Britain's high standards.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35And to the BBC,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39which is still the, kind of, guardian of the Reithian ethos -
0:12:39 > 0:12:43the cultural pyramid, where everybody will eventually
0:12:43 > 0:12:46one day listen to the third programme and it would be terribly worthy -
0:12:46 > 0:12:51the appearance of American music as a mass thing for young people,
0:12:51 > 0:12:52is deplorable.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02This is the BBC Variety Programmes Policy Guide,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04for writers and producers, from 1948.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08This was the Bible, really, if you were a BBC producer in the 1940s
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and 1950s - what you could and couldn't get away with.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Vulgarity, for example, was a definite no-no.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17"There is an absolute ban," it says upon the following -
0:13:17 > 0:13:21jokes about lavatories, effeminacy in men, immorality of any kind.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27"It is the corporation's policy actively to encourage British music,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30"so long as this does not lead to a lowering of accepted
0:13:30 > 0:13:31"musical standards."
0:13:34 > 0:13:37"American idiom and slang frequently find their way,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39"quite inappropriately, into scripts
0:13:39 > 0:13:41"and dance band singers for the most part
0:13:41 > 0:13:44"elect to adopt pseudo-American accents."
0:13:44 > 0:13:45Oh, dear, oh, dear.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48"The BBC believes this spurious Americanisation
0:13:48 > 0:13:50"is unwelcome to the great majority of listeners."
0:13:53 > 0:13:55"Jazzing The Classics:
0:13:55 > 0:13:58"The jazzing by dance bands of classical tunes
0:13:58 > 0:14:02"or the borrowing and adaptation of them is normally unacceptable."
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Small wonder that, when it appeared,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11British rock and roll was perhaps an undernourished affair.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13Right now, ladies and gentlemen,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16we would like you to meet another of Britain's rock and roll bands.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Let's give a big hand for Tony Crombie And His Rockets.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Our very first rock and roller was a jazz drummer...
0:14:26 > 0:14:30..who had been inspired by the film Rock Around The Clock.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Tony Crombie went to see the film. He came away,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38he formed his own rock 'n' roll band - all within about a month.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41He recorded one of the tracks he had heard in the film,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44which was Freddie Bell And The Bellboys doing Teach You To Rock,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47and the first rock 'n' roll hit in the charts,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49a number 25 hit, with that song.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51# Let's you and I rock
0:14:51 > 0:14:53# There's time to save your money
0:14:53 > 0:14:56# And the time to save your soul
0:14:56 > 0:14:58# But I think that this time, honey
0:14:58 > 0:15:00# It's time to rock and roll
0:15:00 > 0:15:02# If you're looking for a man... #
0:15:02 > 0:15:06Teach You To Rock hit the charts in October '56.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10This performance of a similar Haley-inspired number appeared
0:15:10 > 0:15:14in one of Britain's first rock 'n' roll films, Rock You Sinners.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19The kids in this country, not only could they buy the song,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23but they could actually go and see him, which was a big deal.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26If they wanted to go and see Bill Haley And The Comets at that time,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28they would have to go over to the States to see them.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Let's take over from where that square just interrupted us, eh?
0:15:32 > 0:15:35# His way with women was rather neat
0:15:35 > 0:15:37# He'd love a girl right off her feet
0:15:37 > 0:15:39# You know that lyric writers never lie
0:15:39 > 0:15:41# It's where they got the sayin' "starry eye"
0:15:41 > 0:15:43# Rock with the caveman... #
0:15:43 > 0:15:46There was a real divide in cultural terms between the skiffle clubs,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48which came out of jazz,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52and rock and roll, which was seen as having more of a hoodlum element.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54# Stalactite, stalagmite, hold your baby - rock it! #
0:15:54 > 0:15:56And the first real British equivalent to Elvis
0:15:56 > 0:15:58was Tommy Steele.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Rock With The Caveman was Steele's debut single.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06He was our first rock and roll pin-up, but the recording
0:16:06 > 0:16:12still featured older jazz musicians, including Ronnie Scott on sax.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16# Piltdown poppa sings this song
0:16:16 > 0:16:18# Archaeology's done me wrong
0:16:18 > 0:16:20# British Museum's got my head
0:16:20 > 0:16:22# Most unfortunate, cos I ain't dead
0:16:22 > 0:16:24# Rock with the caveman... #
0:16:24 > 0:16:27When Tommy Steele first went on tour in this country, and he started out,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30I think in Sunderland was his first gig, and everybody screamed.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32# Make with the caveman, here we go
0:16:32 > 0:16:34# C-A-V-E...
0:16:34 > 0:16:36# M-E-N - CAVEMAN! #
0:16:36 > 0:16:40There was upset in the New Musical Express afterwards, because his hair was messy.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42He hadn't combed it nicely before he went on.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45That is the kind of tradition that he was having to try
0:16:45 > 0:16:49and work in, where you had a suit and tie on for Saturday night,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51Sunday night television
0:16:51 > 0:16:55and anything outside of that was just seen as not very nice.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01Tommy was the first rock and roll English star.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04He came out of a place called the 2i's Coffee Bar.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11All of Soho had coffee bars everywhere.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Heaven And Hell, with coffins and all that sort of stuff.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21So when Hank and I came to London at the age of 16,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24we went to the 2i's Coffee Bar, to be discovered,
0:17:24 > 0:17:29as did Cliff and lots of other people.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34The newly-arrived coffee bar was an exciting hangout for youth,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36bored of old men's pubs.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Time gentlemen, please.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41The rock and roll scene centred on the 2i's
0:17:41 > 0:17:44in Soho's Old Compton Street.
0:17:45 > 0:17:46Oh.
0:17:49 > 0:17:56The sight of the 2i's Coffee Bar, when we first came in 1957.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59This is it!
0:18:01 > 0:18:03It all started here.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08What about that, then, you know, we lived and died in here.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14In 1957, the strange alchemy
0:18:14 > 0:18:17transforming skiffle into rock 'n' roll at the 2i's
0:18:17 > 0:18:21was captured on film, for a pre-feature cinema release.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25I remember the film crew came down...
0:18:26 > 0:18:29Everyone was very excited about that.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33They asked us to play a number.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38None of us knew what we were going to do.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42So we just made up a fast 12-bar number.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Of course, rock 'n' roll in those days,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48our rock 'n' roll, was a lot of swing rock 'n' roll in them days.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54We all squeezed onto this stage and just rocked away...
0:18:54 > 0:18:57at quite a fast tempo.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10To those viewing it from the outside,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12early British rock and roll was an amusement -
0:19:12 > 0:19:15an amateur scene in the style of Bill Haley,
0:19:15 > 0:19:20with the emphasis less on danger and more about good, clean fun.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Just another in a long line of popular music fads.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Sure, let's slip out, shall we? For a quiet cup of coffee.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32You had rock and roll by 1956 and then by the start of '57
0:19:32 > 0:19:34everybody is saying, "Oh, it is dead.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38"The new thing is calypso", because of Harry Belafonte and the Banana Boat Song,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40and so everybody in the music press here
0:19:40 > 0:19:42and in America was quite happily saying,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45"OK, rock and roll has had its six months, now let us forget that
0:19:45 > 0:19:48"and get onto the next thing," because that was the way
0:19:48 > 0:19:51the music business worked really, all the way through to the Beatles.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54There was always a new dance, always a new sound and nobody
0:19:54 > 0:19:57imagined that rock and roll could possibly have any staying power.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59# Daylight come
0:19:59 > 0:20:05# And me wanna go home. #
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Other than the faint crackle of Radio Luxembourg,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12the only place to hear rock and roll was on the BBC,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15who ruled Britannia's airwaves in the 1950s.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18The corporation did its level best to snuff out the new music,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22by convening its Dance Music Policy Committee.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31So these are the banned songs - "Mack The Knife.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35"Originally allowed to be broadcast only in the context of The Threepenny Opera."
0:20:35 > 0:20:38# Well, a hard-headed woman A soft-hearted man
0:20:38 > 0:20:41# Been the cause of trouble ever since the world began... #
0:20:41 > 0:20:44"Hard-Headed Woman - refer to the head of religious broadcasting,
0:20:44 > 0:20:45"June 16, 1958."
0:20:45 > 0:20:48"Love Is Strange." Well, the title says it all.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50That's definitely dubious.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52- # Sylvia? - Yes, Mickey... #
0:20:52 > 0:20:55"Passed with the condition of an alternative lyric."
0:20:55 > 0:20:57# Come here, lover boy! #
0:20:57 > 0:21:00"Rock, You Sinners." Well, that's again, a bit dodgy.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03"Not passed for broadcasting, 9 April, 1957."
0:21:03 > 0:21:07I suppose sinners and all this, sort of, religious baggage that would go with it.
0:21:07 > 0:21:08Definitely out.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10# Oh, baby
0:21:11 > 0:21:14# My sweet baby... #
0:21:14 > 0:21:17But in February 1957,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21on the brash, and frankly, American medium of television,
0:21:21 > 0:21:22there was a break in BBC ranks.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26# Over the points Over the points, over the points
0:21:26 > 0:21:29# Over the points Over the points, over the points
0:21:29 > 0:21:31# Over the points Over the points... #
0:21:31 > 0:21:34# The Six-Five Special going down the track
0:21:34 > 0:21:35# The Six-Five Special right... #
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Somethin' like that sort of business!
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Really, I mean, it was a great catchy thing
0:21:39 > 0:21:41and you waited at six o'clock on a Saturday night
0:21:41 > 0:21:44because this is the first time you had seen popstars,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47rock and roll stars, appearing on TV.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52Up until the start of '57,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55there was a break between six o'clock and seven o'clock
0:21:55 > 0:21:59when decent, middle-class parents were supposed to put their children to bed.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01The very first TV programme
0:22:01 > 0:22:04that filled the gap between kids' programs
0:22:04 > 0:22:08and adults' was the first edition of Six-Five Special in February 1957.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11It's time to jive on the old six-five!
0:22:13 > 0:22:16The Six-Five Special featured the great and good of the British
0:22:16 > 0:22:21dance band scene, trying their best to jump the rock and roll train.
0:22:21 > 0:22:22# Everybody do the rock
0:22:23 > 0:22:25# Everybody do the roll
0:22:25 > 0:22:28# Everybody do the rock and roll with the merry old soul
0:22:28 > 0:22:31# Called Old King Cole... #
0:22:31 > 0:22:34So you get jazz musicians playing on live TV shows,
0:22:34 > 0:22:36playing rock 'n' roll music.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Don Lang And His Frantic Five. Jazzers, correct.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Not rock and rollers.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52If you look back at the Radio Times,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54they are actually billing it as being for the young at heart, not
0:22:54 > 0:22:58for young people, cos they didn't want to put adults off watching it.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03So really, there is still a teenage market that is being missed there.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08The trouble with the Six-Five Special is what they used to do
0:23:08 > 0:23:13was put in little bits of public service announcements and things
0:23:13 > 0:23:17like that, teaching you how to cross the road and all this sort.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20It wasn't very hip at all, with these little bits in.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Why do men climb mountains? Because they are there!
0:23:24 > 0:23:26At least, that's the only reason
0:23:26 > 0:23:29the members of the Polytechnic Climbing Club gave me.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34It is anything but a cutting edge, hoodlum-laced,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36fast-paced rock and roll show.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37Nearly there.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40And this is as good a place as you will find to take a breather.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42There is a wonderful view at this stage
0:23:42 > 0:23:45and I am beginning to understand why people climb mountains.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02All right, you guys, rise and shine!
0:24:03 > 0:24:08Born into a country where the original was scarce and seized upon
0:24:08 > 0:24:10by older professional musicians,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14early British rock'n'roll simply did not move a restless generation.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25British youth craved the excitement and danger of the real deal,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29living in the hope that one day a saviour would appear in their midst.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37- NEWSREEL:- Liner Queen Elizabeth glided in sedately enough.
0:24:37 > 0:24:43It was Southampton that was rock'n'rolling for the arrival of Bill Haley and his Comets.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Here on a tour of Britain, Bill left for London
0:24:48 > 0:24:52and soon that boat train was rocking over the rails in hep time.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56MUSIC: "Forty Cups Of Coffee" by Bill Haley and his Comets
0:24:57 > 0:24:59# 40 cups of coffee
0:25:01 > 0:25:02# 40 cups of coffee
0:25:03 > 0:25:06# 40 cups of coffee... #
0:25:07 > 0:25:10On the 5th of February 1957,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14British youth got the opportunity it had long dreamed of,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18with the arrival in the UK of the first American rock'n'roller,
0:25:18 > 0:25:2031-year-old Bill Haley.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24- # 40 cups of coffee - 40 cups of coffee
0:25:24 > 0:25:28# 40 cups of coffee waiting for you to come home... #
0:25:28 > 0:25:31The first record I ever bought was a Bill Haley record,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33but we hadn't really seen him.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36It was only when he came to England and I saw him on the television
0:25:36 > 0:25:39getting off the train at Euston Station.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43He had a camel-hair coat with a big belt on.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47- Yeah, a bit of a letdown, wasn't it, really?- Wow!- It was a letdown.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50"He looks like me old uncle. I'm having nothing to do with him!"
0:25:50 > 0:25:54- NEWSREEL:- The visit of Bill Haley began in grand style.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57The forthcoming tour will be crazy, man, crazy, so you cats
0:25:57 > 0:26:01keep your enthusiasm in bounds and don't let the squares stop the rock.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04CROWD CHANT: We want Bill! We want Bill!
0:26:04 > 0:26:08We loved Bill Haley's records, but we didn't want to be Bill Haley.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11We wanted to be, you know, Little Richard, Fats Domino,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13all the greats that followed, you know.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20By 1958, British emulators had begun to supplant Bill Haley's swing
0:26:20 > 0:26:23with more sophisticated attempts.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26In Liverpool, one group made its first recording,
0:26:26 > 0:26:28with a Buddy Holly cover.
0:26:28 > 0:26:29# That'll be the day when I die... #
0:26:29 > 0:26:33Well, by '58 the Quarrymen line-up had changed considerably.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37Obviously, John was the main man when we started, erm,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41but then we met Paul McCartney and then, a bit later on,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45we met George Harrison, so it was John, Paul, George and meself.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48And they found out that, in Kensington in Liverpool,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51you could actually go to this guy's house and pay a small fee
0:26:51 > 0:26:54and he would make a... a record for you.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57# That'll be the day when I die... #
0:26:59 > 0:27:05This would have been blank when we left Percy Phillips' studio.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09Paul's written here, "That'll Be The Day" and, underneath, "Holly/Petty"
0:27:09 > 0:27:12and on the other side, we've got Paul's song,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14In Spite Of All The Danger,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and he's written underneath "McCartney/Harrison".
0:27:17 > 0:27:22The Quarrymen are an absolutely perfect example of the genesis
0:27:22 > 0:27:24and journey of British popular music
0:27:24 > 0:27:27in the second half of the 20th century.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31They're hearing, they're listening,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33they're absorbing all the time, and those ripples,
0:27:33 > 0:27:38those explosions, lead to this, kind of, massive nuclear epicentre
0:27:38 > 0:27:40where British beat is born.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43ROCK'N'ROLL PLAYS
0:27:43 > 0:27:47The power and reach of newly-formed commercial television would
0:27:47 > 0:27:51finally provide British rock'n'roll with a fitting platform.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57In September 1958, former Six-Five Special producer Jack Good
0:27:57 > 0:28:01was released from his public service obligations and let loose on ITV.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05The result was spell-binding.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11- CROWD SCREAM - OK, come and get it! It's Oh Boy!
0:28:11 > 0:28:14# Oh, oh, oh, oh Wait for it, baby
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Oh Boy took the cream of British rock'n'roll
0:28:21 > 0:28:24and served it up to a hungry audience.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32# Oh, yeah!
0:28:33 > 0:28:35# Wait for it, baby! #
0:28:35 > 0:28:37The young people went mad.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41And I think some of the older people also suddenly went,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43"What is this that's happening?" You know.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47And it just took off, it just took off with flying colours.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51# Don't look now but we're being followed
0:28:51 > 0:28:53# Hey, there, baby
0:28:53 > 0:28:57# Don't look now but we're being followed... #
0:28:57 > 0:29:00It was all really tightly choreographed, to make it look
0:29:00 > 0:29:03as exciting as possible, to make it look as if there was
0:29:03 > 0:29:06the wildest rock'n'roll show in the world and it was taking place now.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11# But recall what Mama said That stranger means stranger
0:29:11 > 0:29:13# Yeah! #
0:29:14 > 0:29:17But it was so exciting, and the musicians were fantastic.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21The band was fantastic, the sound was fantastic.
0:29:21 > 0:29:22# Ooh! #
0:29:22 > 0:29:24And so the excitement was there every week
0:29:24 > 0:29:27and you waited to see who came on.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33The show's backbone was Lord Rockingham's XI,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36a scratch band of ace jazzers, anchored by the first lady
0:29:36 > 0:29:39of British rock'n'roll, Cherry Wainer.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44They were session musicians. Red Price was with Ted Heath's band.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50I think Benny Green was the top session musician.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57None of them were rock musicians until they came onto the show.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00So of course we never went on the road.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Rockingham's XI just only existed for those records,
0:30:04 > 0:30:08which is a shame, because I think if they had gone on the road
0:30:08 > 0:30:11at that time it would have stayed up there for quite a while.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14SHE PLAYS "HOOTS MON"
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Lord Rockingham's XI scored a very British number one in 1958.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34# Hoots, mon, there's a moose loose aboot this hoose. #
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Maybe you remember that one.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40It just jumped to the top, which has never happened,
0:30:40 > 0:30:42never happened in England.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47Up until then, there had never been an instrumental at number one
0:30:47 > 0:30:51in the hit parade and, all of a sudden, Hoots Mon was number one.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03# Hoots, mon, there's a moose loose aboot this hoose. #
0:31:03 > 0:31:05That's one you should remember.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07It's a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht tonight.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11# Hoots, mon It's a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht
0:31:26 > 0:31:27# Hoots, mon! #
0:31:31 > 0:31:34British rock'n'roll was a strange facsimile,
0:31:34 > 0:31:36born into a cultural vacuum.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Nobody really knew what to do with it, least of all the British recording industry.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47In Britain, there were only really four major record companies
0:31:47 > 0:31:50and I don't think any of them understood rock'n'roll.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54Well, they hadn't got anybody on board who was young, for a start.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57They were very much geared towards making records
0:31:57 > 0:31:59that either were going to appeal to an adult audience
0:31:59 > 0:32:02and, therefore, might have a slightly longer shelf life, or were going to
0:32:02 > 0:32:07appeal to young people, who were notoriously fish-brained
0:32:07 > 0:32:11and they would forget something within two minutes, so just give them
0:32:11 > 0:32:14some rubbish and then they'll buy the next rubbish that comes along.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23Nevertheless, the arrival of rock'n'roll
0:32:23 > 0:32:25delivered the first million-selling singles
0:32:25 > 0:32:30and kick-started what became a 50-year gold rush for record labels.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43By the mid to late '50s, Britain's recovered from
0:32:43 > 0:32:47the Second World War, the great, kind of, consumer boom is underway.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53The average, kind of, 16-year-old, 17-year-old maybe gets pocket money
0:32:53 > 0:32:56and there are a lot of people out there who are very keen to
0:32:56 > 0:33:00take that money from you. Chief among them are the record companies.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02And rock'n'roll is their way, basically,
0:33:02 > 0:33:06of taking that money off you and putting it into their own pockets.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14- NEWSREEL:- Civilised man has always craved some sweet-sounding instrument
0:33:14 > 0:33:16so that he might make music and be glad.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24It wasn't just a record label that could thwart
0:33:24 > 0:33:27the ambition of an aspiring rocker.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Today, his fancy turns more and more
0:33:29 > 0:33:32to something he can hang easily around his neck.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37A Board of Trade ban on the sale of American goods meant that
0:33:37 > 0:33:40the tools of the trade lay tantalisingly out of reach.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48You couldn't go in a shop and buy an American guitar, like you can now.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51You know, "I'll have a Telecaster. Can I have a Stratocaster,
0:33:51 > 0:33:53"can I have a Gretsch?"
0:33:53 > 0:33:56You couldn't get them, you just couldn't get them.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59We were stuck with these German guitars,
0:33:59 > 0:34:01which didn't go down too well, actually,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05as the war had just finished, but they were made of German plywood.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17I saw this in my local music store. In Wolverhampton, there was
0:34:17 > 0:34:18a shop called the Band Box.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21It's a Dallas Tuxedo, an English bass.
0:34:21 > 0:34:27The neck is about as fat that way as it is this way.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31On Buddy Holly's first album, which is called The "Chirping" Crickets,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33you see him posing with the guys
0:34:33 > 0:34:36and you saw this thing, and we didn't know what it was.
0:34:36 > 0:34:37It looked like a spaceship.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42And Cliff said, "I'll get one of those," and he had to import it.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Well, the dream was to have a Fender Precision Bass.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51It's a real instrument. This was a kind of...amateur plank, really.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54So this became, courtesy of Cliff,
0:34:54 > 0:34:56who paid 140 guineas for it,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00this became the first Fender Strat in the UK
0:35:00 > 0:35:03and I would guess in Europe, too.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14This is the first time this has been plugged in for 52 years,
0:35:14 > 0:35:16so I hope it works.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21The radio is from 1952.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28This is not going to work now, is it?
0:35:30 > 0:35:31HE LAUGHS
0:35:31 > 0:35:33HE PLAYS "PEGGY SUE"
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Thank you, Buddy Holly.
0:35:41 > 0:35:42Ah. Right...
0:35:44 > 0:35:47Yeah. We have sound.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49HE PLAYS "RAVE ON"
0:35:57 > 0:35:59COCK CROWS
0:35:59 > 0:36:02CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:36:10 > 0:36:14The success of Oh Boy provided both a market and framework
0:36:14 > 0:36:19that allowed British rock'n'roll to grow in confidence and stature.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26The show was the finishing school for a new generation
0:36:26 > 0:36:30of British boy stars beamed into living rooms nationwide.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Perhaps its most significant contribution to rock'n'roll culture
0:36:38 > 0:36:41was the discovery of Britain's first rock'n'roll god.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53People have got to put aside their prejudices,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56cos in the end, history doesn't give a darn
0:36:56 > 0:37:00whether you like a record or not or whether you like an artist or not,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04it's just independent of what he or she did or didn't do.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09And one thing that they'll never be able to take away from me is that...
0:37:09 > 0:37:13I did play a major, major role in the birth
0:37:13 > 0:37:15and the growth of pop/rock music.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19MUSIC: "Move It" by Cliff Richard and the Drifters
0:37:19 > 0:37:23With his first single, Cliff laid down British rock'n'roll's
0:37:23 > 0:37:25finest two and a half minutes.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28# Come on, pretty baby Let's a-move it and a-groove it
0:37:31 > 0:37:35# Shake, oh, baby, shake, oh, honey Please don't lose it
0:37:37 > 0:37:40# The rhythm that gets into your heart and soul
0:37:43 > 0:37:46# Now, let me tell you, baby It's called rock'n'roll... #
0:37:46 > 0:37:49The great thing about it, it was written by Ian Samwell,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52who was playing guitar with Cliff, at the time.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54It was written as a defence of rock'n'roll,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58because he'd read an article in a newspaper or the NME or something
0:37:58 > 0:37:59saying, "Bill Haley's rubbish,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02"rock'n'roll should be thrown away," and he said,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04"NO, this is great stuff" and he writes his rock'n'roll manifesto.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07And I think that's why it's delivered with such,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11sort of, snarling conviction by the band and also by Cliff,
0:38:11 > 0:38:14because this was something they really believed in.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22The one thing that I'd like to think would become true is that
0:38:22 > 0:38:25people would recognise what Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, me,
0:38:25 > 0:38:30the Shadows, a couple of other people did to create something that
0:38:30 > 0:38:35became...just different enough to become European.
0:38:35 > 0:38:36Or otherworldly.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39# Come on, pretty baby Let's a-move it and a-groove it
0:38:43 > 0:38:49# Shake, oh, baby, shake, oh, honey Please don't lose it
0:38:49 > 0:38:51# The rhythm that gets into your heart and soul
0:38:54 > 0:38:58# Well, let me tell you, baby It's called rock'n'roll... #
0:39:02 > 0:39:04- NEWSREEL:- An ordinary street in a nice part of London.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06An attractive, but ordinary, house,
0:39:06 > 0:39:11except that it's occupied by the parents of one of showbusiness's most appreciative sons.
0:39:11 > 0:39:12This is where Mr and Mrs Smith live.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Their most frequent visitor is their son,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18a boy the pop music world knows better as Marty Wilde.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Well, this is my nostalgia room here, really.
0:39:22 > 0:39:23It's just everything that was
0:39:23 > 0:39:26part of my life through the '50s.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30Mrs Smith is proud of her son.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33All around the sitting room are souvenirs of Marty's struggles
0:39:33 > 0:39:34to climb up the ladder of fame,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37people he met and the shows in which he starred.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42I wouldn't have collected it myself but my mother, after
0:39:42 > 0:39:48she passed away, she left me this box with a load of paraphernalia.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53A lot of this, they're my mother's things, really!
0:40:05 > 0:40:10Like Cliff, Marty Wilde also came to fame via Oh Boy.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12In the Tin Pan Alley era,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14Marty was one of the first to write his own songs.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Er, this is a silver disc.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23It was awarded for a quarter of a million British sales of Bad Boy.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26Although it was British, it had a good feel.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29It was a song that I wrote more out of frustration than anything else.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34The basis of that song was the idea of a bad boy being, you know,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37looked down upon by his parents, in those naive times!
0:40:37 > 0:40:38Staying out late.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43# Well, you see now I've got a girl
0:40:43 > 0:40:48# And we stay out late Almost every night
0:40:48 > 0:40:52# Well, the people just stare and they declare
0:40:52 > 0:40:56# Well, well, it just ain't right
0:40:57 > 0:41:02# But if only they knew how I love you they'd say bad boy... #
0:41:02 > 0:41:04Marty wasn't really wild.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09He was part of a generation of well-behaved stars whose every action
0:41:09 > 0:41:13was guided by older men with an eye on the burgeoning pop market.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17# Open up, Bonnie, it's your loverboy, me, that's a-knocking
0:41:17 > 0:41:20- # Oh, won't you listen to me, sugar... #- Nah, nah.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23- That's not the sort of song we want. - Well, you have a go, then.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24No, it's this type of thing.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Rock'n'roll was born into the world of British showbiz
0:41:28 > 0:41:32and the men in charge kept a tight rein on their steeds.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35# Well, I don't care if the sun don't shine
0:41:35 > 0:41:38# I've got my loving little girl right by my side
0:41:38 > 0:41:39# With my baby... #
0:41:39 > 0:41:42In the staid, respectable neighbourhood of Kensington,
0:41:42 > 0:41:47there's a nice, upper-income-bracket block of flats.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52Inside, a doormat, over which pass some rather flashy feet.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56The doormat belongs to Mr Laurence Maurice Parnes,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59who also owns a batch of golden boys.
0:41:59 > 0:42:05# I want to be your lover
0:42:06 > 0:42:11# But your friend is all I stay... #
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Roy Taylor, 18, alias Vince Eager.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23Larry had this tendency to want to dress us
0:42:23 > 0:42:26and give us our image, which is fair enough,
0:42:26 > 0:42:29but, you know, I was a Lincolnshire lad and wearing pink shirts
0:42:29 > 0:42:33and having permed hair didn't happen in Grantham - for lads, anyway.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35Do you rechristen all your boys?
0:42:35 > 0:42:37Oh, yes, I think this is terribly important.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40For example, Marty Wilde, as you probably know,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42his real name was Reg Smith.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45He was a big tall lad, of six foot four,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49who had to be kept friendly, yet he had to be kept...wild.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Well, Larry always wanted...
0:42:51 > 0:42:57He wanted a powerful surname, so you had a Fury, you had a Power,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00you had a Gentle! I don't know why he called him Johnny Gentle, but anyway.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03He had a Pride, he had an Eager.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05And I got the worst one of the lot.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07Mine's terrible.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10I think, in my case, I quite like the name Marty Wilde.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14I'm not sure I would have liked to have had some of the other names!
0:43:14 > 0:43:16PHONE RINGS
0:43:19 > 0:43:23- Hello, Larry Parnes speaking.- Do you control the market in rock singers?
0:43:23 > 0:43:28Well, if I do control the market in rock singers, it was never
0:43:28 > 0:43:32my intention to do so, but it's a very fortunate position to be in.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35- Do you think that Joe Brown has a future?- Oh, yes.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39Yeah, I mean, Peter Sellers has done stuff on Larry Parnes, you know.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43"Would you like to see a pop singer? I'll get one for you."
0:43:43 > 0:43:45And all that, you know, the Major.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47- SELLERS, AS ROCKER: - Oh, er, Major?
0:43:47 > 0:43:51Some rotten hound's pinched the strings off my guitar, look.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54- AS "MAJOR":- You've got the guitar on back to front.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59How many times must I tell you, the hole points away from you?
0:43:59 > 0:44:02- AS ROCKER:- Oh! So much to learn, so little time.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06- AS "MAJOR":- And you should know better than to enter this part of the flat.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08It's in your contract - where the carpet begins, you halt.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Now, which one are you, anyway?
0:44:11 > 0:44:14- AS ROCKER:- Er, Cyril Rumble.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19The controlling interests of showbiz sought to keep our stars
0:44:19 > 0:44:20nice and presentable.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24MUSIC: "Brand New Cadillac" by Vince Taylor
0:44:24 > 0:44:29But in 1959, British rock n'roll produced its first bona fide
0:44:29 > 0:44:31rebel without a cause.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33There's me.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40# Well, my baby drove off in a brand new Cadillac. #
0:44:40 > 0:44:42Everybody assumes Vince Taylor is American,
0:44:42 > 0:44:43because he came from America,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46but he was actually born just outside London and then was
0:44:46 > 0:44:49shipped off to the States at a very young and impressionable age.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51# Ain't never coming back
0:44:52 > 0:44:57# Baby, baby, baby Won't you listen to me?
0:44:57 > 0:44:58# Come on, sugar... #
0:44:58 > 0:45:00He could carry himself like nobody else,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04and on a record like Brand New Cadillac, it's all attitude.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08It's all swagger. It's all, sort of, juvenile delinquency.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10# Cadillac car, oh, yeah! #
0:45:14 > 0:45:18The way he performed, like Gene Vincent, really,
0:45:18 > 0:45:20he was a Gene Vincent clone.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26Really swung inwardly, you know? He was swinging inward and outwardly.
0:45:26 > 0:45:31# Caddy's rolling and going about 95
0:45:31 > 0:45:35# Oh, the Caddy's rolling Going about 95. #
0:45:36 > 0:45:39He lived his dream to the hilt.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46# I say baby, baby, baby Won't you listen to me? #
0:45:47 > 0:45:52These guys in the late '50s are the real pioneers.
0:45:52 > 0:45:58I mean, these are people who are exciting, threatening.
0:45:58 > 0:45:59# Scotty, here we go! #
0:46:03 > 0:46:06There's this sense of uncertainty, I think, which is
0:46:06 > 0:46:08so nice about the, sort of, late '50s music.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10You know, it's something entirely new
0:46:10 > 0:46:12and nobody knows where it's going to go.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17And it, kind of, has this joie de vivre about it,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21this sort of spirit of the pioneer, of really having fun with it.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24# My baby took off in a brand new Cadillac. #
0:46:24 > 0:46:27They're creating their world around them, in a way.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31# She looked at me "Daddy, I ain't ever coming back." #
0:46:31 > 0:46:34But what I like about this is the ending.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36If you listen to the ending,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38everything was choreographed beautifully.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46# Cadillac car, oh, yeah! #
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Ooh.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53# Well, be-bop-a-Lula... #
0:46:53 > 0:46:57In January 1960, rock and roll-starved Brits
0:46:57 > 0:46:59were treated to a double helping of the real deal,
0:46:59 > 0:47:04when Americans Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran visited the UK.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07With their backing bands unable to come, promoter Larry Parnes
0:47:07 > 0:47:11hooked the duo up with the stars of British rock and roll.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18That's Eddie Cochran, that's myself,
0:47:18 > 0:47:24and this was taken backstage at the Gaumont in Bradford in 1960.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28Gene Vincent, Joe Brown, Eddie Cochran, Adam Faith,
0:47:28 > 0:47:30and I'm at the very end.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34# Be-bop-a-Lula, she's my baby. #
0:47:34 > 0:47:39That's Eddie, Gene and myself with a bunch of admiring ladies,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41which was quite nice.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44Used to do that as often as we could, go and meet the fans,
0:47:44 > 0:47:49and the boys were always enjoying meeting English roses.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51Great picture.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53Fond memories.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57The tour brought into focus the innate danger
0:47:57 > 0:47:59of American rock and roll.
0:48:02 > 0:48:03People used to come to me and say,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07"Gene's waving that gun around on the coach." You know, a gun.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12I said, "What are you doing?" "He likes you." You know.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14And then you'll go and sit with him and...
0:48:14 > 0:48:17With this bloody gun, you know.
0:48:17 > 0:48:18And he'd point it at you and go,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22"I don't want to hurt YOU, Joe." I was like, "Put it away, mate.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27"It's England, you can't do that." "Is it loaded?", he said.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31"What's the point of having a gun if it ain't loaded?"
0:48:31 > 0:48:34and all that, you know.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Equally dangerous was the revolutionary guitar style
0:48:38 > 0:48:40of Eddie Cochran.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45# I'm going to raise a fuss I'm going to raise a holler
0:48:47 > 0:48:51# About working all summer just to try to earn a dollar. #
0:48:51 > 0:48:53I remember when Eddie Cochran came over.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56# Every time I call my baby Try to get a date... #
0:48:56 > 0:49:02That was the change from just swinging away to, like,
0:49:02 > 0:49:03Summertime Blues.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05# Ain't no cure for the summertime blues. #
0:49:05 > 0:49:08Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, ding-da.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11That was, sort of, a new rhythm at the time, you know,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14which not many were actually doing.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17# Well, I called my Congressman and he said, quote
0:49:17 > 0:49:20# I'd like to help you, son But you're too young to vote
0:49:20 > 0:49:23# Sometimes I wonder what I'm going to do
0:49:23 > 0:49:26# Cos there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. #
0:49:27 > 0:49:29Cochran's rockabilly guitar had a huge impact
0:49:29 > 0:49:33on the sound of a little-known classic from 1960,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37now seen as British rock and roll's first great album.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41There you are, The Sound Of Fury. Do you want to hear it?
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Come on, kid.
0:49:45 > 0:49:46Right, here we go.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53Touch like a midwife.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58# Someday, somehow
0:49:58 > 0:50:01# I know we'll make that vow
0:50:01 > 0:50:03# That's love
0:50:03 > 0:50:07# Baby, I know that's love. #
0:50:07 > 0:50:11A lot of pop stars, rock stars, were having songs written for them
0:50:11 > 0:50:13by the Tin Pan Alley writers.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Billy Fury wrote his own songs.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19All of Sound Of Fury is written by Billy Fury, each song.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23# Well, that's love
0:50:23 > 0:50:25# My love. #
0:50:25 > 0:50:27So, Billy Fury, I suppose,
0:50:27 > 0:50:31is the first British singer to not just be a rock and roll fan,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34not just take on board everything that's come out of America,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37but also find a way to make it his own,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40to actually turn it into, sort of, confessional music, in a way
0:50:40 > 0:50:43that I don't think anybody else in this country had done before.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46# Baby, I know that's love. #
0:50:46 > 0:50:47It shows in Joe Brown's playing.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52It was only 1960 when he met Eddie Cochran and, by April,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55he was playing guitar on The Sound Of Fury,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58and sounds as if he was born in Memphis, you know.
0:50:58 > 0:50:59Well, it's great.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02I am pleased to be associated with it,
0:51:02 > 0:51:07cos you don't get the opportunity to do this kind of thing anymore.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11You're sitting around virtually jamming.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13It was all done really quickly.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17Only in those days, if I was doing sessions,
0:51:17 > 0:51:23I'd do an album in the morning and another album in the afternoon.
0:51:23 > 0:51:24You know?
0:51:24 > 0:51:26Got to get to a recording session.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28See you.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30# That's love. #
0:51:31 > 0:51:33It was recorded in April, 1960,
0:51:33 > 0:51:39which was probably less than 18 months after he'd been discovered.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44So to actually go from being dictated what records he had to cover
0:51:44 > 0:51:49and he had to play to actually producing his own LP was amazing.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53# That phone will ring today
0:51:53 > 0:51:55# You know my number. #
0:51:55 > 0:52:00It's a sound which nobody else captured, really, in this country.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02# Please call, baby
0:52:02 > 0:52:07# And say you're mine. #
0:52:07 > 0:52:08Hit it!
0:52:08 > 0:52:12Billy Fury is one of the lost greats of British rock 'n' roll.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17So much so that, when Larry Parnes held an audition for a backing band
0:52:17 > 0:52:22in 1960, the group that had started out as The Quarrymen turned up.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25The Silver Beetles didn't get the gig that day,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28but John Lennon came away with an autograph
0:52:28 > 0:52:29from the king of British rock'n'roll.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35# I'm tired of being all alone
0:52:35 > 0:52:38# Waiting by my telephone
0:52:38 > 0:52:42# Waiting for no-one but you
0:52:42 > 0:52:46# Please call me, baby Say your love is true... #
0:52:46 > 0:52:48For guys in those days to write
0:52:48 > 0:52:50their own songs was very unusual.
0:52:50 > 0:52:51Marty and, of course, Billy Fury
0:52:51 > 0:52:53was another one that actually
0:52:53 > 0:52:56did write a lot of his own stuff.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59For me, one of the best guys I worked with in that era
0:52:59 > 0:53:03was Johnny Kidd, of course. Johnny Kidd & The Pirates.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06Again, Johnny wrote some of his stuff, which was unusual.
0:53:06 > 0:53:07Shakin' All Over.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10Shakin' All Over, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14my favourite British rock'n'roll record by a mile.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17I thought it was authentic rock'n'roll. I loved it.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21Shakin' All Over by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
0:53:21 > 0:53:26was the apex of British rock'n'roll's 45rpm journey.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31# When you move in right up close to me
0:53:35 > 0:53:38# That's when I get the shakes all over me... #
0:53:38 > 0:53:41I always think that Shakin' All Over is probably the first
0:53:41 > 0:53:45British record that actually is made by a group of people
0:53:45 > 0:53:47who are 100% convinced that they are doing the right thing.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51# Quivers down the backbone
0:53:52 > 0:53:55# I got the shakes down the kneebone
0:53:56 > 0:53:59# Yeah, the tremors in the thighbone
0:54:01 > 0:54:03# Shakin' all over... #
0:54:03 > 0:54:05With Shakin' All Over, it's almost like the birth of rock
0:54:05 > 0:54:08five years before anybody had even considered the idea
0:54:08 > 0:54:10that there could be a rock culture.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13It just sounds like this organic thing that has always existed
0:54:13 > 0:54:15and had to come out to the surface.
0:54:15 > 0:54:16# Doo doo-doo
0:54:16 > 0:54:19# Doo doo-doo-de-doo
0:54:19 > 0:54:21# Doo doo-doo
0:54:21 > 0:54:23# Doo doo-doo
0:54:23 > 0:54:25# Doo doo-doo
0:54:25 > 0:54:26# Doo doo-doo... #
0:54:26 > 0:54:28To the outside world, British rock'n'roll
0:54:28 > 0:54:31had always been regarded as a passing fad
0:54:31 > 0:54:34and, by 1960, the writing was on the wall.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36# I'll meet you at your locker
0:54:36 > 0:54:38# When the school's dismissed... #
0:54:38 > 0:54:42The 16-year-olds who had screamed at Tommy Steele in 1956
0:54:42 > 0:54:47were now 20. In the '50s, that meant grown-up.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49# Doo doo-doo
0:54:49 > 0:54:51# Doo doo-doo-de-doo
0:54:51 > 0:54:53# Doo doo-doo... #
0:54:53 > 0:54:57It was time to act like a responsible adult.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01The assumption, really, among everybody
0:55:01 > 0:55:04was that this was something you would buy and listen to
0:55:04 > 0:55:06between the ages of about 14 and 18,
0:55:06 > 0:55:09and then you would stop. You know, in the same way that
0:55:09 > 0:55:12you would no longer read Famous Five books or have a skipping rope,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17or, you know, be interested in toy tanks when you were an adult,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20because those were children's things. There was no sense at the time
0:55:20 > 0:55:24that this was an art form that might have more sophistication
0:55:24 > 0:55:27and depth to it, and might be something that, as an adult,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30you would voluntarily buy for yourself and not your children.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32# Doo doo-doo-de-doo
0:55:32 > 0:55:33# Doo doo-doo... #
0:55:33 > 0:55:35Because hard rock didn't last that long.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39What we call rock'n'roll style was, maybe, two or three years,
0:55:39 > 0:55:43and then it was sanitised by all of us.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46MUSIC: "The Young Ones" by Cliff Richard
0:55:53 > 0:55:55By the turn of the decade,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Cliff had mirrored the journey of his American counterpart Elvis,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03by transposing himself from vinyl to celluloid.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05# The young ones
0:56:05 > 0:56:07# And young ones
0:56:07 > 0:56:10# Shouldn't be afraid... #
0:56:10 > 0:56:13We lost that, sort of, rock'n'roll edge,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16and we were suddenly into The Young Ones, you know.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21Mums' and dads' tunes and, you know, all-round entertainers.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25By the time The Beatles came, Cliff and The Shadows
0:56:25 > 0:56:27and a few others were The Rat Pack, in a way.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30# Why wait until tomorrow
0:56:31 > 0:56:33# Cos tomorrow
0:56:33 > 0:56:36# Sometimes never comes... #
0:56:36 > 0:56:39The pioneers of British rock'n'roll
0:56:39 > 0:56:42created the foundations and culture for everything that has followed
0:56:42 > 0:56:46in a 50-year golden era of popular music,
0:56:46 > 0:56:48and now, well into their seventies,
0:56:48 > 0:56:53the flame still burns strong in the original Young Ones.
0:56:53 > 0:56:54Good evening, viewers!
0:56:54 > 0:56:57If you're wondering who I am, let me show you.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02I'm one of the rock'n'roll stars from the 1950s.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04Started in '57.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07Still doing a good job, even though I'm coming up to...
0:57:07 > 0:57:10What is it? 80. Well, that's getting old. It's terrible.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12But I'm enjoying it. It's a lovely life.
0:57:14 > 0:57:15OK, here we go.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30# I turned on the Dansette and I lifted the arm
0:57:30 > 0:57:33# Rock Island Line It's a mighty fine line
0:57:33 > 0:57:36# My pa said the music It could do me some harm
0:57:36 > 0:57:39# Rock Island Line It's a road to ride
0:57:39 > 0:57:43# The record played Was it Rock Island Line?
0:57:46 > 0:57:49# Lonely together Lonnie and I were doing fine
0:57:51 > 0:57:54# I headed for London A long way from home
0:57:54 > 0:57:58# Recorded for Decca Sang Lend Me Your Comb
0:57:58 > 0:58:02# And, of course, appeared on the Oh Boy and the Six-Five Special... #
0:58:02 > 0:58:04British rock 'n' roll -
0:58:04 > 0:58:07a strange beast because, in a way, it almost never existed.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10You can blink and look backwards and think,
0:58:10 > 0:58:12"No, it never actually happened."
0:58:12 > 0:58:16It went seamlessly from the big band era straight into The Beatles.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20# I'll make you a star, son If you're looking for fame
0:58:22 > 0:58:26# Cos I'm Larry Parnes and I'll change your name... #
0:58:26 > 0:58:28And that's why the arrival of The Beatles and The Stones,
0:58:28 > 0:58:31'63, '64, comes as such a shock.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34Although, actually, they were really just
0:58:34 > 0:58:37a continuation of what had happened earlier,
0:58:37 > 0:58:40it is the first time that it's got any staying power.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44# You're never too old to rock'n'roll
0:58:44 > 0:58:46# It's in your spirit It's in your soul
0:58:46 > 0:58:50# So if you like the music and you wanna hear more
0:58:50 > 0:58:53# Call out the rock'n'roll dinosaur
0:58:53 > 0:58:54# That's me. #
0:58:54 > 0:58:56Yeah.
0:58:56 > 0:58:57# That's me. #
0:59:05 > 0:59:06Hey!
0:59:14 > 0:59:17Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd