Early Roots

EARLY ROOTS

I cannot remember the first record I ever bought but I know it was on the London Label. It was either by Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy,The Everly Brothers or Johnny and the Hurricane's. All those were my favourite Rock 'n Rollers. It was the tail end of the 50's and my teenage years were about to hit me with sounds that I still play today.
Rock and Roll was teenage music that your parents had no idea about. In England it was a breath of fresh air in a county that was still suffering the depression of the second world war. While nothing changed much when the men came home from fighting, unlike America, Britain still had to rebuild the bombed out sites inflicted by the Luftwaffe. Rationing and national service was all that you grew up with in the 50's until Bill Haley got that clock rocking. To me, growing up in the fifties was living in the shadow of my elders brothers who were in their teens and going out every night. While they were getting ready they would play their music, mainly modern jazz,which gave me the opportunity to listen to Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Stan Kenton, Milt Jackson and the Modern Jazz Quartet. Then along came Elvis and I had my own music that I could identify with. I never bought an Elvis record as I thought Eddie Cochran was better,due to the fact that he could play a mean guitar. He was also one of the first rockers to get into over dubbing and I still find it amazing that the drum sound on "Come on Everybody" was a cardboard box!

As I have mentioned on another page, Duane Eddy and The Everly Brothers were the other artists who's records I bought and they were all on the best record label around, The London Label.
This was run by Decca Records in the UK and it was a label that distributed some of the classic Rock and Roll sounds of the day. With groups like Duane Eddy's rebels and Johnny and the Hurricanes the driving force was the sax playing of Jim Horn and Johnny Paris. It was the saxophone, mainly the tenor, that made a lot of these records and the love of the instrument would continue right through the mod era and beyond.
Other than playing over the woods or kicking a football at every opportunity the only other form of entertainment up to my teenage years was the radio. Arthur Askey, Billy Cotton on a Sunday before the roast dinner,Sing something simple and a ventriloquist with Archie Andrews were popular programs on the BBC, until The Goons came along and blew the cobwebs off Broadcasting House. Modern and Trad jazz fans were united with Goon humour throughout the 50's
The Goons: Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers
With Rock and Roll becoming the music of the teenager things were about to change, but not with the BBC who took until the seventies to change its name to Radio One and start playing the music that the kids wanted to hear. When I left school, at the age of 15 years and three months in the Christmas of 1961 I wanted to work in music but with the advice of a Father I took an apprenticeship with a local electricians. First job at a girls grammar school was great but after that a few weeks working on a building site made me realise that an electricians life was not for me.
I bought the New Musical Express every week to read up on the music scene and unlike the Melody Maker, which manly catered for Jazz, the NME kept me up to date with the American Scene.
When I saw the advert for an office boy for the paper I wanted it so bad that I applied. The offices were based in Denmark Street which was known as Tin Pan Alley and was full of music publishers.
I must have been keen and I got the job, which meant travelling into the West End and getting to know my way about London.
I spent a year there and during that time I learnt so much that they put me in charge of the photo and biography section. Every week I had to ring up a list of certain music shops across the country to ask them what their best sellers were. From this list was made the NME charts that were used by the radio stations and the national papers. One week a couple of shops had a couple of records missing from their lists and said to me "put in what you like" So I did. Eddie Cochran's "My Way" which I had bought recently. Imaging my surprise when it entered at no 28 in the top thirty when the charts came out. Thought someone would rumble it but to my surprise when I rang up the shops the following week "My Way" was on all their lists and it went up to number 14!   No payola here!!!
And then in 1962 along came the four boys from Liverpool who were to change the face of Music. The Beatles were coming and as I worked for the best selling music paper in the world we got all the press releases and promo records. I heard them and I was hooked. At last a band from Britain who could rock better than any of the others that the DJs of this country were playing. I bought the first album which was full covers which meant I found and listened to the originals,. The Cookies, Shirelles and Motown were now being played on my Dansette as American music continued to be my main source of enjoyment.
The Dansette was THE record player of the time.
It could take up to ten singles or a few albums that would drop down automatically. Great for parties and playing while you were getting dressed.

I diverse from the main topic which is the music of the mods, but to me the importance of getting into that music was the knowledge I picked up from my early years. The NME use to put on an award show at Wembley every year with the top artists from the UK and America appearing and I saw them all including the Beatles but the event I remember the most was held al Battersea park where an unknown band entertained the guests. They were The Rolling Stones and in 1963 this band and the mods were about to emerge.
TO BE CONTINUED


EARLY ROOTS	HERE COMES THE MODS	ATLANTIC RECORDS	BLUEBEAT RECORDS	LONDON RECORDS	ISLAND RECORDS	MOTOWN RECORDS	PYE INT RECORDS	STATESIDE RECORDS	SUE RECORDS	HOME