1962-1967: The British Invasion!

Intro - [Play:"Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks]. This wistful track nodded towards the US trend for writing bittersweet lyrics about American home towns; it was to start a new, British, and more quietly patriotic genre of pop song lyricism. Rather than singing about cotton fields in Alabama and car-production lines in Detroit, singer/songwriter Ray Davies introduced poetic lyrics about a place in London, by the Thames which marvelled at the beautiful sunset which glowed through the city's soot encrusted chimneys stacks, and of the warm feelings of home and familiarity that this vision produced.

Whilst all this music was being forged in the States and imported over to Britain, we had become a more colourful and Americanised nation, but in terms of making our own music to compete with the new rock 'n' roll sound, we weren't exactly competition. There was, of course, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, along with a handful of inferior acts with Americanised names who were nowhere near as exciting as the US acts - but basically by the end of the 50s, and the beginning of the 60s, the British music scene wasn't in particularly good shape.

Elvis himself had been drafted into the US army in 1958, only to release "'It's Now or Never" when he was eventually released from his military duties, this marked his departure from rock "n" roll. He was to get much wider appeal by going into the newly emerging pop market. Artisitically, this song was not on a parallel with his earlier work. In fact rock 'n' roll itself was undergoing a bit of a transformation, and of course this left room for a different kind of "act". Individual headliners were to become seen as "old hat" and started being replaced by groups (of guys). The way was led by four young Brits with matching suits and bowl haircuts who said "yeah!" quite a lot.

This next development in the story of British music was to come from a place entirely unexpected by the vast populace of the British Isles (and probably the world) - although with hindsight it entirely makes sense. Liverpool at this time was an industrial city which had one of the biggest working ports in Britain. In amongst the daily influx of people and goods travelled the record collections of commercial sailors and other workers that traversed the Atlantic sea; they were known locally as the Cunard Yanks. The underground black RnB sound was to have a massive effect on British music in a direct way for the first time via these Cunard Yanks; instead of being watered down via white American rock "n" roll acts, this music followed an ocean passage to end up in many a record collection at the Liverpool docks. The Beatles were in the right place at the right time, they were also extremely determined and, of course, they had the a manager who was quick to respond to the gap created by rock n roll going a bit more mainstream. Teenage rebels were on the lookout for something else that was super exciting.

The Svengali model of promoting bands from a "stable of artists" continued into the 60's, but a new Svengali was about to hit the music scene - although he hardly knew how successful he would become at it himself, and it was this certain Mr Brian Epstein that took the charm, talent and dedicated work ethics of the fab four and transformed them into something which would transcend the boundaries of Liverpool, and even the UK music scene. The Beatles were Britain's first really credible response to rock "n" roll and Elvis, and they dominated the music scene all over the world for nearly a decade. They've smashed so many records, and their popularity on a global scale is still unmatched to this day.

The Beatles formed in 1957, when George Harrison was only 14. They spent many years getting their live routine to a place whereby they really stood out. This was done mainly by playing at Liverpool clubs such as the famous Cavern Club, and also a ferocious stint play for difficult audiences in the seedy districts of Hamburg in Germany. Sadly one of the orignal members, Stuart Sutcliffe, died prematurely, at the age of 21. It was later revealed that a brain tumour was responsible. His girlfriend in Hamburg, Astrid Kirchherr, was to take some wonderful early photographs of the band, and was partially responsible for their "look", encouraging the "mop-top" haircuts, and, most probably the matching high collared suits. This was something of a departure from the usual rock "n" roll look which consisted of greased quiffs, jeans and leather jacket.

Their first release came out in 1962 - "Love Me Do", with their new drummer Ringo Starr, who replaced the earlier drummer Pete Best. This record went to number 17. But it was their second single "Please, Please Me", which was to make the number one slot for the first time in the UK in 1963. And this number 1 was replicated in the US in 1964, after a publicity stunt at an American airport with screaming girl fans, and a successful performance on the American TV program, the Ed Sullivan Show. 

There's a really good clip on the Pathe website of the Beatles arriving in America in the midst of female fans in America.

The Ed Sullivan show was a big factor in helping many British acts crossover to the States. The first British act to become popular after appearing on this program was Dusty Springfield, who later went on to score a massive stateside hit with her single "I only wanna be with you". Female singers such as Dusty, Cilla Black (an ex-cloakroom attendant at the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles had first performed), Petula Clark, Sandie Shaw, Helen Shapiro and Lulu were all really popular British female acts in the 60s. In the States in the early to mid 60s, female singers were more often tan not part of girl groups.

In the very early 60's in particular there were a string of US girl groups who sang very melodramatic songs about rebellious young men on motorbikes who died young. These groups, such as the Shangra-Las, had a big impact on recent British singers that have a bit of a vintage vibe such as Amy Winehouse and Adele. There were also Motown acts such as The Supremes and The Ronettes. They were often black singers but the RnB element was very toned down, and the pop elements of them very heightened.

In the UK there was a huge scene that had sprung up around the hometown of the Beatles, and eventually this spread to other nearby locations. Quite a few of these acts were also managed by the Beatles' Manger, Brian Epstein. These bands opted for a sound that was really a fusion of RnB and skiffle. It was called "merseybeat", "beat music" or "mersey sound", and it survived for a brief time before becoming slightly out-moded by the harder edged blues acts of the mid 60s onwards. The "beat" in the title came from the "backbeat" of this new type of music, which was a slightly different rythmn to the earlier rock n roll one. The Bealtes used the term"beat" in their name, rather than choosing the correct spelling of "beetles" for the insect. There also may have been a bit of a nod towards American "Beat" writers such as Jack Kouruac, whose followers were usually intellectuals and called "beatniks"; they were an easy tribe to recognise as they couldn't resist a good polo-necked jumper and said "cool" rather a lot.

The Rolling Stones

Brighton Rocks (maybe a quote or clipping from the recent Brighton Rock film which is along the lines of Quadraphenia.

It was around this time that a new British youth-counter culture movement was about to spring up, and hasn't really ever gone away since - the mods. Like the teds and rock "n" roll types previously, the mods were working class, although slightly less "blue collar". They were more likely to work in the post room or as a tea boy in an office than the factoryor steel mills.

They dressed very differently in that they almost looked "respectable", wearing tailored three button suits to look sharp (in an Italian style) with a long green jacket over the top for when they were riding their beloved scooters. The Kinks, The Small Faces and the Who were the bands of choice for the mods. They also liked a bit of motown and more soul orientated black music. Their main interests were clothes, scooters, the opposite sex, music, and staying out all night partying - in no particular order! They were also partial to the odd scooter rally, and went to places such as Brighton (catch up with the 1980s film "Quadraphenia" to get an idea what it was really like). Sometimes there would be the odd scrap between the mods and rockers, the violence was real enough, but again the press probably hyped it up somewhat. 

The mods and the rockers, like the Teds before them, were seen as a public menace, and the ever expanding new popular press couldn't get enough with reports about the "mods versus the rockers". The rockers were what the Teds had evolved into by the 60's. They were obsessed with their motorbikes, they were rough, they were tough, and still wore their hair greased, but usually wore a black leather jacket rather than the drapes of the Teds. They liked the traditional rock n roll.

The Small Faces.

The Kinks

The Who

NME bit of a history, and also Fab magazine for the pop end of the market. Life's Swinging London Edition.A bit about Motown and the Mod scene. Motown influencing, and being influenced by the British pop sound.

At this point popular music was in full swing, and there was an increasing amount of different music styles that were beginning to occur in the UK and the States. There was still rock 'n' roll, and of course Motown was emerging in the States, then you had easy listening music and crooners still for the oldies, blues driven rock n roll was forging, and then there was the Beatles who were almost a genre in themselves they were so untouchable.

After the Beatles made a film about their lives called "A Hard Day's night", London was declared the official capital of cool, and consequently rebranded as "Swinging London" by America's famous "Time" Magazine. Carnaby Street - a mods shopping dream, was the hot central core of this hip new 60's universe. Young music and film stars, and their fans alike, headed towards this pop mecca. It was a period of incredible cultural activity from very young talent. Mary Quant invented the mini dress, Twiggy was the model du jour, and Vidal Sassoon cut everyone's hair into cool and groovy bob cuts for the first time ever. And to top it off, David Bailey took very cool photographs of everyone who was anyone, and there were a lot of people who weren't just anyone in London in the 1960s. London was the force around which the orbiting worlds of photography, film, fashion, but above all else music travelled.

The British Blues