0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language
0:00:05 > 0:00:09America, the land of opportunity for British music since the '60s.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13And in the late '70s and '80s, we invaded again.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17America is like a big treasure chest.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20It's the jackpot, it's the place where starving English musicians
0:00:20 > 0:00:23dream of greater glory. It's making it.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Journey or Duran Duran?
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Are you going to stay with what you know and love
0:00:33 > 0:00:36or are you going to go over to the dark side?
0:00:36 > 0:00:37We won.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39GIRLS SCREAMING
0:00:40 > 0:00:44In the post-punk era, a new wave of Brits would wage war
0:00:44 > 0:00:48on a country still in thrall to long-haired rock gods.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54I think we went to America with the intention
0:00:54 > 0:00:55of not being seduced by it.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57We went there with a very kind of hardened,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01English punk mentality when we first went.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04In America, if you don't arrive in a limousine,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07they're not going to pay to see you.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09In England, if you arrive in a limousine,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12they'll key the side of it. That was it for me.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15The difference between America and England with the punk invasion.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20# Sweet dreams are made of this... #
0:01:20 > 0:01:24For the first time since 1964, British cool would eventually
0:01:24 > 0:01:27capture the hearts and minds of young America
0:01:27 > 0:01:32while inspiring US musicians to raise their own game.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Really, really loved it.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Loved the different localised cultures
0:01:36 > 0:01:39and the friendliness of the people.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Even the unfriendliness of the people, occasionally.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01AUDIENCE ROARING
0:02:03 > 0:02:07'I think this is a song of hope.'
0:02:07 > 0:02:10MUSIC: "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin
0:02:13 > 0:02:19In the late '70s, America was still under the spell of classic rock.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25Throughout the land and across the dial,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29American radio belonged to long-haired rock bands
0:02:29 > 0:02:31who had been around for nearly ten years.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37For a new generation of musicians
0:02:37 > 0:02:41baptised in the British punk revolution and now about to go west,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43this came as some surprise.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50I remember the first time I went to America, there was a bit of a shock
0:02:50 > 0:02:54because my musical education, or my view of the music world
0:02:54 > 0:02:58was shaped by the New Musical Express
0:02:58 > 0:03:02and Sounds and Melody Maker and such.
0:03:02 > 0:03:10And if you had been reading them between 1976 to 1978,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13you would have thought that the whole world
0:03:13 > 0:03:14was aflame with punk rock.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19And the shock was finally getting to America and, in fact,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23radio was still playing Led Zeppelin.
0:03:23 > 0:03:32# And she's bu-u-uying a stairway
0:03:32 > 0:03:34# To heaven. #
0:03:34 > 0:03:37You could turn on a radio
0:03:37 > 0:03:40when you were driving along the freeway and switch channels and hear
0:03:40 > 0:03:43different parts of Stairway To Heaven. It was played so much,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47it would be on different channels. You'd get to the end on one channel
0:03:47 > 0:03:49and go, "Oh, I've had enough of this."
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Turn it to another channel and it would just be starting again.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01On Christmas Eve 1977, a new British sound
0:04:01 > 0:04:04landed on American shores.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Over the past year, the Sex Pistols had single-handedly changed
0:04:08 > 0:04:10the musical guard in the UK.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Could they now do the same in the USA?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16We went to America because it was, er...
0:04:17 > 0:04:20The fatal attraction!
0:04:20 > 0:04:24It was the...a big boil on the backside of the world, that one.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28An absolute "That's a nuthouse. Gots to get there.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31"Gots to see what that place is about."
0:04:31 > 0:04:34MUSIC: "Roadrunner" by The Modern Lovers
0:04:38 > 0:04:42The Pistols were the first British band who went to America
0:04:42 > 0:04:45who didn't primarily care about making it,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49so much so they didn't bother playing Los Angeles or New York
0:04:49 > 0:04:51in favour of a chaotic southern itinerary.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56I'd seen the John Wayne cowboy films, hadn't I?
0:04:56 > 0:05:00I'd imagined cactuses and prairies and all of this.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Driving around in the tour bus, I don't think I slept at all.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Just staring out the window at the absolutely incredible
0:05:08 > 0:05:11landscapes that America has.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17It's an awful long time
0:05:17 > 0:05:20to get from one place to another
0:05:20 > 0:05:23and there is so much to see in between.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27# Is this the MPLA
0:05:27 > 0:05:30# Or is this the UDA
0:05:30 > 0:05:34# Or is this the IRA
0:05:34 > 0:05:37# I thought it was the UK... #
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The south we went to, because the north was so co-opted.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43It was Yankieville.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46The recommendation from the record company Warners was,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49"You don't want to go down there. They're all pig-ignorant."
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Well, I never found that to be the case.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53# Cos I-I-I
0:05:53 > 0:05:55# Wanna be-e-e... #
0:05:55 > 0:05:59The Sex Pistols played in Texas, in Oklahoma,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01but I suspect they did it more for the provocation
0:06:01 > 0:06:04than thinking they would be loved. I don't think it was about that.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08# And I-I-I
0:06:08 > 0:06:11# Wanna be-e-e
0:06:11 > 0:06:12# Anarchy... #
0:06:12 > 0:06:14They just didn't want to succeed.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17By the time they got there, they were breaking up.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. It wasn't about success.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23# I want to be-e-e... #
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Whilst America had loved the parochial charm of the Beatles,
0:06:26 > 0:06:30the uniquely British attitude that the Pistols were exporting
0:06:30 > 0:06:32was lost in translation.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Destroy!
0:06:38 > 0:06:41REPORTER: 'And here they are, two of them in a hotel room in Atlanta,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44'waiting for the other two to do a promised interview.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47'But they're in a strange mood, flaky,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50'demanding they be paid ten bucks
0:06:50 > 0:06:53'before they do any bleep-bleep interview.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56'Denied that, they stomp off. "Bleep!" they say.'
0:06:58 > 0:07:01When the four young men left, their spit was on the carpet,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05their butts on the floor, the dregs of an afternoon's beer and booze
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and a couple of empty boxes of Clearasil.
0:07:08 > 0:07:14The Americans themselves had got hold of a strange idea
0:07:14 > 0:07:17about The Sex Pistols. They seemed to take the violence
0:07:17 > 0:07:20part of it to heart, you know.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Whereas in England, I think we saw the joke in it. I don't know.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27I just came up and upset the bass player
0:07:27 > 0:07:31because I knew that he knew that I meant physical harm.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33I was ugly about it. But he came and hit us
0:07:33 > 0:07:35over the head with a bass!
0:07:35 > 0:07:39I think there were audiences there for them, that's for sure.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43But they were often in areas where
0:07:43 > 0:07:47they had to work for it. They wouldn't be readily accepted.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49REPORTER: 'The group will certainly make money.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52'But they've a long way to go before they hit the really big time
0:07:52 > 0:07:55'and follow in the footsteps of those other British exports
0:07:55 > 0:07:58'The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.'
0:07:58 > 0:08:02At that time in particular, the States was very regional musically.
0:08:02 > 0:08:09You really had to cover a lot of territory to make it happen
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and, you know, I don't think they were prepared for that.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15I don't think they were prepared to do, you know,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17a month and a half of shows.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19DRUMBEAT
0:08:19 > 0:08:24You'll get one number and one number only cos I'm a lazy bastard!
0:08:27 > 0:08:30This Is No Fun.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Hampered by internal problems, the Pistols did not begin
0:08:33 > 0:08:36to have the same impact in America as in England.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41The final gig in San Francisco would be their last ever performance.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48The Sex Pistols in the United Stated were kind of treated as a joke.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49You know, the name was funny.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52It was treated in very sensational terms,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55to the degree that they got any coverage at all.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58# No fun, my babe
0:08:58 > 0:09:01# No fu-u-un
0:09:01 > 0:09:04# You're no fun, my babe
0:09:04 > 0:09:08# You're no fu-u-un... #
0:09:08 > 0:09:13A lot of British punk seemed, to Americans, to be...
0:09:13 > 0:09:14Well, kind of too English.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16It was very difficult, I think,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19for most Americans to penetrate what those issues were.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23You know, there's a kind of pretence in America that there are
0:09:23 > 0:09:25no class issues here.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28So all of that insurgent energy that punk represented,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32it was difficult for Americans often to hear it.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38First of all, your country was
0:09:38 > 0:09:40a lot hungrier.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44Here, every kid had a TV set, if not two.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49You know, Mommy's Cadillac on the weekends and probably 100 bucks,
0:09:49 > 0:09:54you know, every now and again or whatever for allowance and stuff.
0:09:54 > 0:09:55In your country, it was harder.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58# It is no fun at all
0:09:58 > 0:09:59# No fu-u-un... #
0:09:59 > 0:10:02But the Pistols did have a profound impact.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07They were the Trojan horse for a British new wave in America,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10future seers who condescended to the corporate American music biz.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15In short they were the first British band who knew better.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Oh, yes. The last Sex Pistols gig in San Francisco.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22Yeah. Funny how these things just,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25you know, trip off the end of your tongue.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31Aha-ha(!) Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night.
0:10:33 > 0:10:34'I meant it.'
0:10:34 > 0:10:36I meant it.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40I was so fed-up with the idiocy of the management
0:10:40 > 0:10:44and the dissipation of the band and them just not wanting really
0:10:44 > 0:10:48to understand that, you know, I have feelings too.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Unlike most top rock groups, who prefer the opulence
0:10:54 > 0:10:57of luxury hotels and chartered airplanes,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Elvis Costello And The Attractions
0:11:00 > 0:11:03travel in an old chartered bus and they stay along the way
0:11:03 > 0:11:05in Howard Johnson Motor lodges.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08A tribute perhaps to their continuing efforts
0:11:08 > 0:11:11to remain curiously working class,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14in their musical image as well as their lives.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Next to wage war were Elvis and his comrades in 1978.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28I never did break the mould. I just went over there and played.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33I played three or four tours in America in quick succession
0:11:33 > 0:11:35and then we didn't play there for a while.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38I got myself in a load of trouble. Then I went back
0:11:38 > 0:11:41after a couple of years and we played again
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and just kept going. That's what I've done for the last 34 years.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51Everybody had that sort of angry,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55frustrated sort of English thing, you know,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57which they don't really...
0:11:57 > 0:12:00They don't do that so well in America.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02MUSIC: "Crawlin' To The USA" by Elvis Costello And The Attractions
0:12:09 > 0:12:12There's something about English bands.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14There's that seething anger
0:12:14 > 0:12:18I guess Americans find attractive, you know.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20We definitely all had that.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28I never did have any hit records over there.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30A couple of minor hit singles,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33but it was just a question of being relentless, I suppose.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36So who are you?
0:12:36 > 0:12:40- Who are the other guys in here? - I beg your pardon?
0:12:40 > 0:12:42- I don't know who you are? - I'm not sure I know who I am.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46- You don't know who you are?- No. - His name's Elvis Costello.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48- He's a famous musician.- Oh, great!
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Mainstream radio's obsession with long-haired rock
0:12:51 > 0:12:53and its indifference to new music
0:12:53 > 0:12:56consigned Elvis to niche recognition in America.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00For many, the Attractions' finest moment came
0:13:00 > 0:13:04when Elvis sabotaged the TV show Saturday Night Live
0:13:04 > 0:13:07with a sudden stab at the state of American radio.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10The Sex Pistols were supposed to be on it
0:13:10 > 0:13:13and then they blew it out for some reason.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15So we got it
0:13:15 > 0:13:19and then Elvis came up with this idea of not playing
0:13:19 > 0:13:21what they thought we were going to play.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Stop!
0:13:24 > 0:13:25I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27There's no reason to do this song here.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29One, two, three, four.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33MUSIC: "Radio Radio" by Elvis Costello And The Attractions
0:13:35 > 0:13:37They all freaked out. They said
0:13:37 > 0:13:40"You'll never be on television again." It was perfect.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45# I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
0:13:45 > 0:13:48# Doing anything my radio advised
0:13:48 > 0:13:50# With every one of those late night stations
0:13:50 > 0:13:53# Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
0:13:53 > 0:13:57# I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
0:13:57 > 0:14:01# When the switch broke cos it's old
0:14:01 > 0:14:03# They're saying things that I can hardly believe
0:14:03 > 0:14:06# They really think we're getting out of control
0:14:06 > 0:14:09# Radio is a sound salvation
0:14:09 > 0:14:11# Radio is cleaning up the nation
0:14:11 > 0:14:16# They say you better listen to the voice of reason
0:14:16 > 0:14:22# But they don't give you any choice cos they think that it's treason. #
0:14:22 > 0:14:24- Are you one of The Boomtown Rats? - That's right.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26My name is Sidney Popkin.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30I have a grocery store in Holly Ridge, North Carolina,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32that I've had for 33 years.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34It's called The Boomtown Grocery.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38(LAUGHS) Oh, Jesus! Where'd you get that name?
0:14:38 > 0:14:41We came in on the back of five hit singles and our first number one
0:14:41 > 0:14:44thinking that we were clearly geniuses
0:14:44 > 0:14:48and America was going to fall, you know, prostrate at our feet.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Well, America didn't give a fuck about us.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Next to vent seething punk anger on deaf ears
0:14:59 > 0:15:03were these Irish ideologues, also on a mission to tear down the walls
0:15:03 > 0:15:06of American radio from within in 1979.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14So I pitch up in this atmosphere at a convention of DJs,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17the most important convention.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24And we're driven to the gig with a big hot-shot DJ.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28The guy says, "I'm very important for your career." Don't say that to me.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Don't say somebody is very important for my career.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33I will react entirely against that.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35# It's a rat trap, Judy
0:15:35 > 0:15:37# And we've been conned... #
0:15:37 > 0:15:38Gig's going on fine.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43I decide to make a bid for, you know,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46getting down with the kids and punk's real identification.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49I asked for the lights to come up and pointed out that
0:15:49 > 0:15:52a quarter of this lot over here in the auditorium were the people
0:15:52 > 0:15:56who determined what all the kids in the hall hear daily.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58What do they think?
0:15:58 > 0:16:00SHOUTING AND BOOING
0:16:00 > 0:16:02They crowded around this glowing array of jocks,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06going, "You suck, man! Your station sucks!"
0:16:06 > 0:16:09At which point I say something scabrous
0:16:09 > 0:16:11and they all get up and leave.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15He just went on a rant about the idiot programme directors
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and their black satin jackets,
0:16:18 > 0:16:21"You're the problem! Scum of the earth!"
0:16:21 > 0:16:23A few people just went, "Ha-ha! Oh, yeah!"
0:16:23 > 0:16:27But a lot of them were like, "What?! How dare you!"
0:16:30 > 0:16:34The rats went home, tails firmly between their legs.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39We were taken off 60 of the most important stations that night.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Not a good move.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44While the rats were barred from radio,
0:16:44 > 0:16:50it was still long-haired rock that ruled the airwaves.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55# Cold as ice
0:16:55 > 0:16:57# You know that you are
0:16:57 > 0:17:02# Cold as ice... #
0:17:02 > 0:17:04Foreigner were an Anglo-American band
0:17:04 > 0:17:08who were superstars on one side of the Atlantic.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11They fitted in perfectly with American radio.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16But our new generation of bands didn't want to be arena rock stars.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21Instead, they were malcontents
0:17:21 > 0:17:24presenting pearls before very few swine.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28This is Magazine, who first toured in '79
0:17:28 > 0:17:31with diary recollections from Howard Devoto.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33MUSIC: "Permafrost" by Magazine
0:17:33 > 0:17:37# Thunder shook loose on the outhouse again
0:17:41 > 0:17:47# Today I bumped into you again
0:17:50 > 0:17:56# I have no idea what you want... #
0:17:58 > 0:18:00"New York.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04"Two grey Lincoln Continentals to pick us up.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08"I don't like this kind of gesture, but I wallow in it a bit.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14"Mal, our roadie, has a tape of our last John Peel session
0:18:14 > 0:18:17"which we play on the cassette recorder.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21"And so, over the bridge, for the first glimpse of Manhattan
0:18:21 > 0:18:24"to the strain and grind of Permafrost."
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It sounds great.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32# I will drug you and fuck you
0:18:32 > 0:18:38# On the permafrost... #
0:18:38 > 0:18:41"I'd like to sum up what I feel about this tour.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43"I want it to go well.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47"I want us to recoup significant amounts for Virgin.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49"I want to see America.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53"But I'm not interested in working like hell over here
0:18:53 > 0:18:55"to make that happen."
0:18:55 > 0:18:57# There's not much that I miss... #
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Even if you were prepared to work, the task was daunting,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08especially when what lay behind the cosy New York scene
0:19:08 > 0:19:11was a vast, impenetrable hinterland.
0:19:13 > 0:19:21This is Simple Minds' first American appearance in 1979 in New York City.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23MUSIC: "Reel to Real" by Simple Minds
0:19:32 > 0:19:38It's like walking into a cliched dream of New York.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44We played that night and, in the audience,
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Iggy Pop was heckling us.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Lou Reed was being moody over in the corner.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53It was exciting beyond belief. It was also very intimidating.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57# Real to real
0:19:57 > 0:20:01# Fact to fact
0:20:01 > 0:20:04# Nothing moving happening
0:20:04 > 0:20:09# Artefact
0:20:09 > 0:20:12# The waiting room waits. #
0:20:12 > 0:20:13Then came the reality.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18You drive an hour and a half to Buffalo
0:20:18 > 0:20:24and there's two men and a dog. I thought we were stars last night,
0:20:24 > 0:20:26I thought Lou Reed and Iggy pop were here
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and Debbie Harry was there.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Why would they need us?
0:20:34 > 0:20:39Why would they need some movement from the UK?
0:20:39 > 0:20:41But of course, like anywhere, there were teenagers
0:20:41 > 0:20:45who were hungry for something that was different and exotic.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51# Come down heartbeat
0:20:52 > 0:20:54# On my head. #
0:20:54 > 0:20:58This rare footage of Simple Minds was filmed at Hurrah,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00a new wave joint that was the point of entry
0:21:00 > 0:21:02for the cool new British bands.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06# Out of control. #
0:21:06 > 0:21:08I remember, when we arrived in New York,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10our first show was at Hurrah's
0:21:10 > 0:21:12which was a very hip and happening club.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16We were doing our sound check and somebody came up and said,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18"Debbie Harry's over there at the bar."
0:21:18 > 0:21:20I remember we had a Sounds journalist with us
0:21:20 > 0:21:22trying to take pictures of us together.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24I refused to stand anywhere near them.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29They represented something that was too pop and too ephemeral. Little did I know.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37We went to America
0:21:37 > 0:21:40with the intention of not being seduced by it.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44We went there with a hardened English punk mentality
0:21:44 > 0:21:46when we first went.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49# I would say I'm sorry
0:21:49 > 0:21:52# If I thought that it would change your mind
0:21:52 > 0:21:55# But I know that this time
0:21:55 > 0:21:56# I have said too much
0:21:56 > 0:21:59# Been too unkind
0:21:59 > 0:22:02# I try to laugh about it. #
0:22:02 > 0:22:04It served us well. It was the right attitude to have.
0:22:04 > 0:22:10Had we gone there thinking, we can do this, boys, we can win them over,
0:22:10 > 0:22:15we would've come home defeated, like many others have before and since.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20# Boys don't cry
0:22:21 > 0:22:24# I would break down at your feet
0:22:24 > 0:22:25# And beg forgiveness
0:22:25 > 0:22:27# Plead with you
0:22:27 > 0:22:30# But I know that it's too late
0:22:30 > 0:22:33# And now there's nothing I can do. #
0:22:33 > 0:22:35We were fighting a different battle.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39We weren't trying to crack a mike, we were trying to...
0:22:39 > 0:22:41I don't know, I suppose be cool.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44But we... It was a self-conscious kind of cool.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49# I'll practise my fall for practice makes perfect
0:22:49 > 0:22:52# Chained to the wall for maximum hold. #
0:22:52 > 0:22:55We didn't want to be seen when we went back to Liverpool,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58to have kind of, in any way, sold out.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01# You knew about this
0:23:01 > 0:23:04# With your head in your hands
0:23:04 > 0:23:06# All along
0:23:06 > 0:23:10# I was the puppet I was the puppet. #
0:23:10 > 0:23:13I remember some record company following Chicago.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It was an after show after some big gig we'd done.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22He said, "You've got to see this fellow from WXYZ radio station."
0:23:22 > 0:23:27I remember saying, "I'm trying to get a tequila and orange here,
0:23:27 > 0:23:31"and if you don't piss off, I'll headbutt you."
0:23:31 > 0:23:35It's probably not the greatest thing to do to a record company bloke.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38# All along
0:23:38 > 0:23:41# I was the puppet I was the puppet. #
0:23:41 > 0:23:46Of all these pioneers, only a handful would enjoy later success.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48But at the turn of the decade,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52it was clear that if you actually wanted to break America,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55you had to play the game.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Since the sex pistols went there and failed to ignite,
0:23:58 > 0:24:00it didn't work for them in America
0:24:00 > 0:24:02the way that they captured the nation in England.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05It just didn't strike a fire there,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08but the hunger for something was very much there.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10So, The Police, the Mercenaries, went over there
0:24:10 > 0:24:12and we went from city to city
0:24:12 > 0:24:15fulfilling that need for this revolutionary thing.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17We weren't revolutionary at all.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21We were capitalism slick, but we had the right hairdo.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27OK, and some pretty good songs written by himself.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30I'd never been to America.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33I flew to America on Freddie Laker, 60 quid.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37I landed in New York.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45We played Seabee Jeebies, played three sets that night.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52Brought the house down, found myself in a hotel on 44th Street.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Pretty flea-bitten hotel, but very happy to be in America
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and the land of dreams, land of fantasy.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05We started touring there and eventually we made it there.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Unlike other bands, The Police were overt in their ambition.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13They wanted to make it and were happy to get embedded
0:25:13 > 0:25:16in the unglamorous underbelly of America.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21The secret of The Police was
0:25:21 > 0:25:24that it was affordable. With only three guys and a roadie,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27we could say, you know what, we don't need the radio,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29we don't need that big support system,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31we don't need the tour support of the record company
0:25:31 > 0:25:32and all that stuff.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34We don't need the touring bus.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36We can get in a station wagon
0:25:36 > 0:25:41and we can go play a 300-seat club and with two hotel rooms,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44because we'd have one roadie and the guys would double up,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47we'd get a rollaway bed and actually go out on the market.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49We could get back to the people.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52In the end, it's the fans that make an act happen or not.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57We did plan Poughkeepsie on that tour and it has become legendary.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02We had this place called The Last Chance Saloon, aptly named.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04There were only four people there and it was like,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06it isn't worth bothering about.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09We had the spirit at the time and thought,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11we have paying customers, all four of them.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18We did the show and everybody absolutely loved it,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22all four of them. They all came back to the dressing room.
0:26:30 > 0:26:31Unlike many of their peers,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34The Police were happy to schmooze American radio.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43All right, we're out in the woods here in Virginia,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46down in the great dismal swamp and The Police are raiding the station.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51We've been invaded by The Police, and Sting, Andy and...
0:26:51 > 0:26:56In my day, we'd show up in Boston and the long-hairs would say,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59"Who are these punks with their short hair?
0:26:59 > 0:27:03"Who do they think they are pissing on legends of long-hair music?"
0:27:03 > 0:27:06It was our job to get on the radio station.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09The Grateful Dead suck! Ohh!
0:27:10 > 0:27:14# I want my MTV. #
0:27:14 > 0:27:19The Police became the first new wave act to break through in America.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21The tide was beginning to turn in our favour
0:27:21 > 0:27:26and what happened next would open the flood gates.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29To this day, when I meet people in the right demographic,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34who might have been somewhere between 12 and 25 back in 1981,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37I say to them, "I bet you remember exactly what you were doing
0:27:37 > 0:27:39"the first time you ever saw MTV."
0:27:52 > 0:27:55Unlike the regional nature of radio,
0:27:55 > 0:28:00MTV was America's first truly nationwide music network.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Its reach promised to be massive,
0:28:02 > 0:28:04but in 1981, there was one problem.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Nobody was making videos,
0:28:09 > 0:28:11apart from the Brits.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Take you back in time and the early days of MTV in the early '80s,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19we'd probably get no more than three to five videos a week.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24That was it, that was the maximum output of music companies combined.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27There really weren't that many videos being made.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30MTV is not financially successful at this point,
0:28:30 > 0:28:31but, you have to understand,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35it cost millions and millions of dollars to launch this channel
0:28:35 > 0:28:36back in August 1981.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39The financial outlay, day one, was over 20 million.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Imagine, we're sitting in a music meeting one day,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45we're playing and checking out all this new music,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47and one of the music people says,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51"We have this video by this band called the Flock Of Seagulls."
0:28:51 > 0:28:52"The what?"
0:28:55 > 0:28:58You put it in and that riff hits and it's really hard
0:28:58 > 0:29:02and here comes this guy with the craziest haircut you've ever seen.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05We're like, "Yeah, yeah!"
0:29:07 > 0:29:11In the UK, Flock Of Seagulls were one of many foppish bands
0:29:11 > 0:29:13with outlandish hairstyles.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17But mainstream America, still in thrall to long-hair bands,
0:29:17 > 0:29:19just hadn't seen the like.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23The video for I Ran made them the first living room stars of MTV.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27# I walk along the avenue
0:29:27 > 0:29:31# I never thought I'd meet a girl like you
0:29:31 > 0:29:34# Meet a girl like you. #
0:29:34 > 0:29:36I remember the record company saying to us,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40"you're going to make a promo clip, a video for this new company
0:29:40 > 0:29:44"and they're going to play it every couple of hours."
0:29:47 > 0:29:52I think it was probably 99.99% important for us
0:29:52 > 0:29:54as a breaking band at the time.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58I think we got one of the first four or five videos to be on there.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02# I ran all night and day
0:30:02 > 0:30:04# I couldn't get away. #
0:30:04 > 0:30:08You know, bands in those days, especially bands like us,
0:30:08 > 0:30:10were so image laden
0:30:10 > 0:30:13because we'd listened to David Bowie and stuff like that.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16We wanted an image that was as big as that.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Our heroes were big images, so we wanted to have big images.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24It doesn't show on radio, but on TV, it's right in your face.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28You are about to participate in a cable adventure,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32which reaches from the outer limits to your inner sanctum.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37A lot of British bands got tremendous exposure on MTV.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41Music television.
0:30:41 > 0:30:42"Video killed the radio star."
0:30:42 > 0:30:48There was a sense in which MTV really broke the monopoly
0:30:48 > 0:30:50of what radio was.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52It made it possible for bands
0:30:52 > 0:30:55that might not have gotten on the radio in the US,
0:30:55 > 0:31:00because of the way they looked, the way they acted or sounded.
0:31:00 > 0:31:01It gave them a route in.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05There were many of them, but probably Duran Duran is most synonymous
0:31:05 > 0:31:07with MTV in its early days.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10# In touch with the ground
0:31:10 > 0:31:14# I'm on the hunt, I'm after you
0:31:14 > 0:31:15# A scent and a sound
0:31:15 > 0:31:17# I'm lost and I'm found
0:31:17 > 0:31:22# And I'm hungry like the wolf
0:31:22 > 0:31:23# Strut on a line
0:31:23 > 0:31:25# It's discord and rhyme
0:31:25 > 0:31:28# I howl and I whine I'm after you... #
0:31:28 > 0:31:34With scenes reminiscent of the Beatles' arrival in New York in '64,
0:31:34 > 0:31:38Duran Duran led a second British Invasion in 1982.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41Once again, the British had the look and America was agog.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Unlike their punk predecessors,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50Duran Duran were naked in their ambition.
0:31:54 > 0:31:5816 magazine, which was like this really popular teen magazine,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02they ran this story saying, "Journey, or Duran Duran."
0:32:02 > 0:32:04Are you going to stay with Neil and the boys,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07who we've loved for so long?
0:32:07 > 0:32:09Or there's these new weird-looking Brits.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Who are you going to go with?
0:32:11 > 0:32:13Are you going to stay with what you know and love
0:32:13 > 0:32:16or are you going to go over to the dark side?
0:32:16 > 0:32:17We won.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27Duran Duran was one of the first guest VJs ever on MTV.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29They came into the studio that day and I'm floored
0:32:29 > 0:32:35because Nick has full-on make-up, like ladies kind of make-up.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39I was like, whoa! OK, he's going on like this.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41And he did!
0:32:41 > 0:32:42I'm Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran
0:32:42 > 0:32:47and you're watching and listening in stereo to MTV music television.
0:32:47 > 0:32:48You'll never look at...
0:32:48 > 0:32:50Some people think we're reading this from cue cards.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Let me tell you something...
0:32:56 > 0:33:00We happened round about the same time as MTV was happening.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04I remember very early days being asked to do one of those,
0:33:04 > 0:33:06I want my MTV commercials.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09Little did we know what a monster it would become.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14- 24 hours a day on cable TV. - I want my MTV, MTV, MTV!
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Too much is never enough.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21# Don't put your head on my shoulder
0:33:21 > 0:33:26# Sink me in a river of tears
0:33:26 > 0:33:30# This could be the best place yet
0:33:30 > 0:33:32# But you must overcome your fears. #
0:33:35 > 0:33:38In the UK, Boy George meant pantomime.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40In Reagan's puritanical America,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44his X factor not only outraged the right,
0:33:44 > 0:33:48but also helped make Culture Club the best charting singles band
0:33:48 > 0:33:50since the Beatles.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54What video did was it sent a colourful postcard
0:33:54 > 0:33:59to every corner of the world, particularly in America.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01And from a social point of view,
0:34:01 > 0:34:06if you were some gay kid in Arkansas or middle America,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08or in Texas,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11it was a very powerful medium because it was like...
0:34:11 > 0:34:13it was like, "I'm not alone."
0:34:16 > 0:34:17Culture club?
0:34:17 > 0:34:21If you would've told me two years ago that I would dig Boy George
0:34:21 > 0:34:23and I'd really want to come and see the show,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26I would've said, "Shove it!" you know?
0:34:26 > 0:34:29But, hey, I'm really up for it.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34I had death threats, I went on stage in a bullet-proof vest one Halloween
0:34:34 > 0:34:38because people had called to say they were going to shoot me.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43We used to have all the Christians with the, "Boy George is the devil."
0:34:43 > 0:34:45And "If sex is a sin, what's Boy George?"
0:34:46 > 0:34:48British rock star, Boy George,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51is on a US tour and he's already wowed them in Dallas.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53But in Baton Rouge at Louisiana State University,
0:34:53 > 0:34:58150 protesters, led by the Reverend David Diamond, showed up.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01The reverend says Boy George is perverse
0:35:01 > 0:35:05and said as much to the member of one of the singer's entourage.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10I used to deliberately open the top of the limo roof
0:35:10 > 0:35:12and wave at them. Hi!
0:35:12 > 0:35:14But the concert went on, Bill.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18# Hey, little sister Who's the only one. #
0:35:21 > 0:35:24It was a Goddamn British freak show.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26But unlike their punk forebears,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30these new pop stars wanted to make it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32Even former punk, Billy Idol.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36# It's a nice day to start again. #
0:35:36 > 0:35:38We made a video for White Wedding
0:35:38 > 0:35:40which, I don't know,
0:35:40 > 0:35:45it had me smashing through a stained-glass window of Jesus on a motorcycle.
0:35:45 > 0:35:51# Nice day to start again. #
0:35:52 > 0:35:56I think when you do things like that, people sit up and notice.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01We had a lot of fun making this sick Gothic video.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04We never thought anybody was really going to see it.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Billy was good because he was smart. He said, "Fuck this."
0:36:10 > 0:36:13Went to America and there he was.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16He just banged away and he got the cover of Rolling Stone.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18He looked that up. I didn't.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20I was supposed to get the cover of Rolling Stone
0:36:20 > 0:36:22but someone decided I was a Nazi.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27However, while MTV proclaimed a second British invasion,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31the real musical revolution would not be televised.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Emerging from the underground was the nascent sound of hip-hop.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39One of its founding fathers was the Bronx's Afrika Bambaataa.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44And in the true spirit of trans-Atlantic exchange,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48British music would play a crucial role at the heart of hip-hop.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53One minute you'd hear rock music at my party, you'd hear funk,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55you could hear soul, disco.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59You might hear some salsa or Latin type music.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04I could take you into some of the early techno pop records
0:37:04 > 0:37:09of Yellow Magic Orchestra, of Gary Numan.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14People thought I was crazy playing Gary Numan at a hip-hop party.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22I got to New York City and I wanted to see some art so I went to MoMA.
0:37:22 > 0:37:27Outside there were these black kids breakdancing on a board,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31spinning on their head and they were dancing to Gary Numan.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36I think people should remember that.
0:37:44 > 0:37:50Gary Numan was a pioneer and they loved it.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52They did beat box with Gary Numan
0:37:52 > 0:37:55and that pretty much, I think, speaks for itself.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59They had no idea what Gary Numan looked like.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08When all that was going on, I had no idea that it was going on.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10I'd have been really proud of that if I'd known.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13I didn't find out until relatively recently
0:38:13 > 0:38:16when Bambaataa explained it all to me
0:38:16 > 0:38:20and described certain scenes that he remembered
0:38:20 > 0:38:23in these derelict building sites.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26You'd work your way through and eventually you'd find a little area,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30where thousands were dancing to white electronic music
0:38:30 > 0:38:32and people rapping over the top of it.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35I'd have loved to have been there and seen some of that.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37It must have been great.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47In 1982, Bambaataa released Planet Rock,
0:38:47 > 0:38:49one of the first hip-hop records to chart.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58It caught the imagination of another British new wave act,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01who promptly set out to collaborate with him.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04But there was one problem.
0:39:04 > 0:39:10We just got a record and it had Afrika Bambaataa on it.
0:39:10 > 0:39:11It's a bit of a made-up name.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Obviously nobody's really called Afrika Bambaataa.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19It's is a bit of a jokey name.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22The only name that made any sense on the record was Arthur Baker.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Arthur Baker, was Bambaataa's producer,
0:39:28 > 0:39:30so New Order went to New York.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36He thought we'd have ideas and we thought he'd have ideas.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39None of us did, so we went into the studio
0:39:39 > 0:39:42and went through the presets on a synthesiser
0:39:42 > 0:39:46for three or four days and recorded them all.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48He turned up and said,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51"No, let's just go in the studio and do something."
0:39:54 > 0:39:56We still hadn't got any ideas
0:39:56 > 0:40:00and by the time we got into the studio, Confusion came out of it.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03# Confusion, confusion... #
0:40:03 > 0:40:05We went in with Arthur, and he just went,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08"Right, let's get something together!" We were like,
0:40:08 > 0:40:10"Oh my God! What the hell?"
0:40:10 > 0:40:13We just didn't know what was happening - even though
0:40:13 > 0:40:16we loved the music, we had no idea how he created it.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22# Why can't you see?
0:40:22 > 0:40:24# Why can't you see?
0:40:24 > 0:40:27# What you mean to me? #
0:40:27 > 0:40:32To my mind, it perfectly melded white indie
0:40:32 > 0:40:36with what was considered to be black hip-hop.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40By 1984, staunchly hetero American rock
0:40:40 > 0:40:45was also taking its cue from the British New Wave.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Here was Bruce Springsteen with a music video and a synthesizer.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52# I get up in the evening
0:40:53 > 0:40:56# And I ain't got nothin' to say... #
0:40:56 > 0:40:58America was, up to that point,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00very slow to change its ideas on rock'n'roll.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02# Feelin' the same way
0:41:02 > 0:41:04# I ain't nothin' but tired... #
0:41:04 > 0:41:07MTV, and bands like us,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09and bands that weren't afraid to sound different,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12to lead instead of follow,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15I think that made them change their minds, and it influenced them.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17# You can't start a fire
0:41:17 > 0:41:22# You can't start a fire without a spark
0:41:22 > 0:41:24# This gun's for hire
0:41:25 > 0:41:28# Even if we're just dancing in the dark. #
0:41:32 > 0:41:33A lot of American groups
0:41:33 > 0:41:36learnt from what the British groups were doing with video,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38and the way they presented themselves.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43And so you have, after Duran Duran and Eurythmics and groups like that,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47you get a wave of American groups who have taken it on,
0:41:47 > 0:41:53so you have ZZ Top, with these very funny, stylish videos.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55# She's got legs
0:41:56 > 0:41:58# She knows how to use them... #
0:42:00 > 0:42:04I guess ZZ Top were the main of that - they were from Texas,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07multimillionaires or whatever, huge band,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11and never broke out for 25 years until they put a sequencer in one of their songs.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13# All of the time... #
0:42:16 > 0:42:22And there was one American artist who would use video and synths to devastating effect.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25I will never, ever,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27and don't want to ever forget
0:42:27 > 0:42:29when I saw Billie Jean the first time.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35The music video came over to the office, I rallied everybody,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38I said "Here we go." We hit the start button, and it was Billie Jean.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43# She told my baby we'd danced till 3 and she looked at me
0:42:43 > 0:42:46# Then showed a photo of a baby crying
0:42:46 > 0:42:48# His eyes looked like mine... #
0:42:50 > 0:42:54That was the one that set the standard at that time.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57# People always told me
0:42:57 > 0:43:00# Be careful what you do
0:43:00 > 0:43:03# Don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
0:43:04 > 0:43:06# But she came and stood right by me
0:43:06 > 0:43:08# Just the smell of sweet perfume... #
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Billie Jean owed more than a debt of influence to the synth and videos
0:43:12 > 0:43:17of the New Wave, whilst simultaneously knocking the Brits into a cocked hat.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21And MJ wasn't finished there.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25Perhaps he'd seen a Billy Idol video from 1981.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32We dressed up these breakdancers as zombies.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35And they were supposedly coming up this tower
0:43:35 > 0:43:37to kind of attack me,
0:43:37 > 0:43:42and then with some wild force, I was able to expel them.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47But they were almost zomboid...breakdancing zombies,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50and I really thought, well, a couple of years later,
0:43:50 > 0:43:54Michael Jackson really ripped off the idea for Thriller.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08The pinnacle of it all at that time was Thriller.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11I can tell you, there probably is not a bigger artist
0:44:11 > 0:44:14in the history of MTV than Michael Jackson.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23We ended up with Thriller, which was a 10-minute short film, really.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27Some people might call it a music video, we looked at it more like a short film.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33This was destination television.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42Michael Jackson exposed us for the amateur interlopers that we really were,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45but whilst the King of Pop would reign from now on,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49there would still be plenty of room in his court.
0:44:49 > 0:44:541983 would see the Police at the height of their game with a gig that resonated down the ages.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57# Every game you play
0:44:57 > 0:44:59# Every night you stay
0:44:59 > 0:45:01# I'll be watching you... #
0:45:02 > 0:45:05The pinnacle of it all, and towards the end of the band's career
0:45:05 > 0:45:08was of course when we played at Shea Stadium.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12I think historically, we were the first band back in there after the Beatles.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15# How my poor heart aches
0:45:15 > 0:45:18# With every step you take... #
0:45:18 > 0:45:21Because the Beatles had played there, of course,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23it was a legendary venue.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26# Every vow you break
0:45:27 > 0:45:29# Every smile you fake
0:45:29 > 0:45:31# Every claim you stake
0:45:31 > 0:45:33# I'll be watching you... #
0:45:37 > 0:45:40We had the number one single, Every Breath You Take,
0:45:40 > 0:45:42and we also had the number one album,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46which was number one for four months. Actually kept Michael Jackson out of the number one slot!
0:45:46 > 0:45:50# I look around but it's you I can't replace
0:45:50 > 0:45:54# I feel so cold and I long for your embrace... #
0:45:54 > 0:45:57About six months after that, it was the end of the band.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00So we got off at an extremely high point!
0:46:05 > 0:46:07By 1984, any remaining post-punk ideology
0:46:07 > 0:46:13seemed to have been sublimated to naked pop ambition.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17The biggest British New Wave act in America were Duran Duran,
0:46:17 > 0:46:19who embarked on their first stadium tour.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24The '84 American tour was really the end of the cycle
0:46:24 > 0:46:28that I always think started at Brighton in the summer of '81,
0:46:28 > 0:46:32and it was just the whole teen chapter of the band,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35it just reached its apotheosis.
0:46:35 > 0:46:36Apotheosis?
0:46:40 > 0:46:41We opened in Seattle,
0:46:41 > 0:46:47and we'd been pretty used to some of the crazy hysteria in the UK,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51and Australia, and some other places we'd been to.
0:46:51 > 0:46:57But when we got on stage in Seattle, and there was 20,000 people,
0:46:57 > 0:46:58it was a whole new scale.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01We literally couldn't hear anything.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05We were all looking at each other laughing for the first few minutes,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08thinking, "They're going to stop, though, right?"
0:47:08 > 0:47:09It didn't stop.
0:47:09 > 0:47:14It went through the entire show, and then it happened on the second show and the third show,
0:47:14 > 0:47:16and we thought, "I guess this is our world for a while."
0:47:16 > 0:47:22# Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand
0:47:22 > 0:47:28# Just like that river twisting through the dusty land... #
0:47:28 > 0:47:32There was an awful lot of other bands that were doing very well
0:47:32 > 0:47:36that we despised. They were the enemy. Duran Duran.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40It was just that one video they did, on a boat, with lots of women in bikinis.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45That was our touchstone of all that's wrong with modern music
0:47:45 > 0:47:47for about four or five years in the '80s.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50That was the image we had of what we had to defeat.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52That's who we were at war with.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05One post-punk band still carried on the war.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10In the mid-'80s The Cure would cheer up to enjoy a Beatle-esque glut of singles success
0:48:10 > 0:48:13that remained subversive.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20# We move like cagey tigers
0:48:20 > 0:48:22# Oh, we couldn't get closer than this... #
0:48:22 > 0:48:25It was a kind of difficult transition for me,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29because I really had enjoyed - not playing the outsider - but we actually were.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33And what I didn't realise at the time, with hindsight,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36was that we remained outside of that cultural mainstream to a degree,
0:48:36 > 0:48:42even though we ended up playing huge places and selling a lot of records.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44You couldn't really take us home.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47# I'll show you in spring It's a treacherous thing
0:48:47 > 0:48:49# We missed you hissed
0:48:49 > 0:48:51# The lovecats
0:48:52 > 0:48:54# We missed, you hissed
0:48:54 > 0:48:55# The lovecats... #
0:48:55 > 0:48:59When we made that transition, people were saying, you're selling out.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04I was thinking, "We're not, what we're doing is reaching more people." And there's a difference.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09It sounds disingenuous, but there is a difference. If you continue to make the music you like,
0:49:09 > 0:49:12but you're reaching more people, primarily because of the media,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16and suddenly people are saying, "They're a bit weird, but it's OK to like them,"
0:49:16 > 0:49:19suddenly your audience starts to get bigger and bigger.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21# It's the perfect dream... #
0:49:21 > 0:49:27The Cure would become prime exporters of a British melancholia to a massive US market.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30They enjoy a privileged position in America
0:49:30 > 0:49:31which continues to this day,
0:49:31 > 0:49:35perhaps rivalled only by Depeche Mode.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51There were a lot of similarities in our career,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55particularly in America - I don't so much anywhere else, probably only in America,
0:49:55 > 0:50:00because we were perceived as English bands, and so the distinction's kind of blurred.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04For the mainstream American media, there are no distinctions.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07You know, we're just two lots of weirdos!
0:50:14 > 0:50:17# Sweet little girl
0:50:18 > 0:50:20# I prefer
0:50:21 > 0:50:24# You behind the wheel
0:50:26 > 0:50:29# And me the passenger
0:50:30 > 0:50:32# Drive... #
0:50:32 > 0:50:36Of all the British bands loosely associated with post-punk music in America,
0:50:36 > 0:50:41none would enjoy the enduring success of the Cure and Depeche Mode.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47But if the scope is extended
0:50:47 > 0:50:51to include the British Isles as a whole,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54there was one band who would trump them all.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58# I have held the hand of the devil
0:50:58 > 0:51:01# It was warm in the night
0:51:02 > 0:51:05# I was cold as a stone... #
0:51:05 > 0:51:10Key to U2's meteoric rise was a different special relationship -
0:51:10 > 0:51:14the Irish love of America and the American love of the Irish.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22# I wanna feel
0:51:23 > 0:51:26# Sunlight on my face
0:51:27 > 0:51:31# I see the dust cloud disappear
0:51:31 > 0:51:34# Without a trace... #
0:51:36 > 0:51:40Americans like to be liked, so Bono coming over here
0:51:40 > 0:51:45and being everybody's great Irish buddy - people responded to it.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50There was a sense in which, "He's not sneering at us, he's not condescending to us,
0:51:50 > 0:51:52"and he doesn't think we're philistines,"
0:51:52 > 0:51:55or any of the other stuff that a variety of other British bands
0:51:55 > 0:51:58made no bones about communicating here.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01U2 was not about that.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05There was something about America that they loved.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08# And when I go there
0:52:08 > 0:52:12# I go there with you
0:52:13 > 0:52:16# It's all I can do... #
0:52:16 > 0:52:20Here was a band that truly embraced America and created a new stadium sound.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28The post-punk argument with the USA was running out of steam,
0:52:28 > 0:52:33and now the Americans themselves were about to recapture the zeitgeist.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35There was a time when we English bands
0:52:35 > 0:52:40were constantly touring in America, and it seemed really...
0:52:40 > 0:52:42like a war, really.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45# Follow me, don't follow me
0:52:45 > 0:52:50# I've got my spine I've got my orange crush... #
0:52:50 > 0:52:54But there did come a time when suddenly there was a whole gang of American artists
0:52:54 > 0:52:56who started to come up, like REM,
0:52:56 > 0:52:58who supported us on a few of our shows.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01# We are agents of the free
0:53:01 > 0:53:05# I've had my fun and now it's time... #
0:53:05 > 0:53:09And then it seemed like, "We don't really need you guys,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11"we've got our own music to listen to now."
0:53:11 > 0:53:16And there seemed to be an uprising of young American artists
0:53:16 > 0:53:18and bands that seem to come along
0:53:18 > 0:53:21and quell the fire that was coming from the UK.
0:53:22 > 0:53:28Since the '60s, Britain had grown fat by exporting black American music back to white Americans,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32but from 1989 onwards, that was no longer necessary.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35The age of empire ended when hip-hop went overground,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38driving the colonists out.
0:53:38 > 0:53:39# 1989
0:53:39 > 0:53:42- # The number, another summer - Get down!
0:53:42 > 0:53:44# Sound of the funky drummer
0:53:44 > 0:53:46# Music hittin' ya hard cos I know you got soul
0:53:46 > 0:53:48# Brothers and sisters... #
0:53:48 > 0:53:54A couple of things happened in the '90s to really marginalise
0:53:54 > 0:53:57British music in the United States.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59The first one is hip-hop.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03That becomes really the dominant form of popular music.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07And...you know, it seemed very American
0:54:07 > 0:54:09and very home-grown.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Obviously, you want it to be from some ghetto, you know,
0:54:13 > 0:54:15in New York or Los Angeles.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18# Straight outta Compton is a crazy brother named Ice Cube
0:54:18 > 0:54:20# From the stupid dope gang with a attitude
0:54:20 > 0:54:22# When I'm called off I got a sawed-off
0:54:22 > 0:54:25# Kick knowledge and bodies are hauled off
0:54:25 > 0:54:27# You too, boy, if you get with me
0:54:27 > 0:54:29# The police are gonna have to come and get me... #
0:54:29 > 0:54:34And so that somehow, coming from anywhere else, I think,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37didn't seem meaningful.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41I think the other element was grunge,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44which also had a very American feel to it.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46# Yeah, yeah
0:54:48 > 0:54:52# Yeah, yeah
0:54:52 > 0:54:54# Yeah... #
0:54:54 > 0:54:58Even as British punk, I think, was one of the big influences
0:54:58 > 0:55:00on Kurt Cobain and on Eddie Vedder,
0:55:00 > 0:55:05you know, the flannel shirts and the dressing down and the North West,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07and all this other business,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10you had a very American feel.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13# I like it, I'm not gonna crack
0:55:13 > 0:55:17# I miss you I'm not gonna crack... #
0:55:17 > 0:55:21Grunge was one facet of a burgeoning alternative rock scene
0:55:21 > 0:55:25that also included the likes of the Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28American music now had market saturation,
0:55:28 > 0:55:34making it difficult for new British bands to make meaningful impact in the '90s.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38It's an interesting question,
0:55:38 > 0:55:42when you look at the tail end of the bands that came through in the '80s,
0:55:42 > 0:55:44right up until the early '90s,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Outside of the Cure and Depeche Mode,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50who are still doing really well...
0:55:50 > 0:55:54I guess the sort of so-called Britpop bands -
0:55:54 > 0:55:59Blur couldn't travel outside of the UK, I don't think.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02And Oasis had a good stab at it.
0:56:03 > 0:56:08The record companies were determined that someone was going to break America,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11so they were just hurling Britpop bands at America,
0:56:11 > 0:56:16and America didn't really want to know, because it had its own culture, it had grown up, in a way.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19A lot of the bands that had come out of the grunge period
0:56:19 > 0:56:23had filled up all those gaps, there was no space for anyone else to go over there.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33The main reason why we did well in America was the songs.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36That's what people who have tried to conquer America,
0:56:36 > 0:56:40sort of forget that bit. That's the key part!
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Without the songs, none of it's going to work anyway.
0:56:52 > 0:56:54In the 21st century,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58America no longer asks the same questions about British music.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03That's not to say we're no longer successful.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Coldplay and Adele are our current ambassadors.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09But the world is a smaller place.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13Thanks to the internet, we're all so much more connected.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17A band emerges, and within moments everybody knows about them -
0:57:17 > 0:57:19on both sides of the pond.
0:57:20 > 0:57:26Today, the very idea of a British invasion of America seems old-fashioned.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37For nearly 50 years, there has been an ongoing musical dialogue between Britain and America.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43We have gone west in search of the land of our dreams,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46to find out who we are, and if we're any good.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53And America has looked to us as a place of radical chic.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58We have enchanted them, shocked them and shown them the future.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05It's been a very special relationship.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16I love its vastness, I love its history,
0:58:16 > 0:58:18I love its musical history.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21I love the people.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26There's a lot of really cool, good people, who are quite positive,
0:58:26 > 0:58:30and quite free, quite liberal thinking, and I like that.
0:58:31 > 0:58:35Having said that, I like our kind of awkwardness,
0:58:35 > 0:58:38the British, you know...
0:58:38 > 0:58:42That's OK, too, because we're not just won over by any little thing.
0:58:42 > 0:58:46We kind of question everything - it's not a bad thing.
0:58:46 > 0:58:49And the great thing is, for our kind of music, they love it.
0:58:51 > 0:58:53And they love it just like we loved Elvis.
0:58:53 > 0:58:56We loved Elvis because he was American.
0:58:56 > 0:59:00They love us cos we're British. There's a bit of that going on.
0:59:00 > 0:59:01Special relationship.
0:59:01 > 0:59:03Special relationship.
0:59:05 > 0:59:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd