Post by paulclarkson on Feb 5, 2006 13:01:43 GMT
I have one complaint about the Sixties and it is that I was only 2 years old when Big Ben sounded the chimes to welcome in 1960. I’ve always wondered what it must have been like to have been a teenager at the onset of what was arguably the best era of British Pop music.
This was the decade that started in black and white and ended in colour, it also started in mono but ended in stereo. My Nan bought our first record player as a present for the family. It was a grey Dansette with four controls on the front, on/off; volume; treble and bass. I remember my Nan buying a selection of records from a store called ‘Bellman’s’ in the local High Street. They each cost 4s and 9d which is about 24p today. I can even re-call some of the titles ‘Stranger on the Shore’ by Acker Bilk, ‘The Young Ones’ by Cliff Richard, an EP called ‘Party Pops’ by Russ Conway and ‘Dominique’ by The Singing Nun. We played them endlessly until they became very worn and scratchy.
Things are a bit different today for teenagers, there are more leisure activities than there were back then, all we had was the television, the record player and the radio or ‘wireless’ as it was affectionately called. Programmes on the TV did not liven up for young people until about 1964 when we had ‘Ready Steady Go’ ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ and of course ‘Top of the Pops’. The radio was similar but we had to wait until 1967 when Tony Blackburn played ‘Flowers in the Rain’ by the Move to launch the new ‘Radio 1’station. Before then it was a choice between the BBC Light Programme and the Home Service channel. A few of us who were lucky enough to have transistor radios used to try and tune in to Radio Luxembourg, which was on the Medium Wave 208. I say try and tune in because it was a terrible reception and it always got worse when your favourite record came on. Later in the decade there was a magazine of the same name called ‘FAB 208’.
Top of the Pops was a family affair in the 60’s. There was something in the Hit Parade for every generation. For my sister and me there were the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, for my Mum, Des O’Connor, my Dad, Kathy Kirby and my Nan absolutely adored Malcolm Roberts.
My sister is 6 years older than myself so I was very aware of the fashion of the era. When my sister first wore a ‘mini skirt’, it brought howls of laughter from me and looks of derision from my parents. I think my Nan took to her bed. When my sister backcombed her hair to form what was known as ‘the bee-hive’ this brought further objections ranging from ‘you’ll ruin your hair for life’ to ‘you won’t be able to do a thing with it tomorrow’. Of course what we were all witnessing was the birth of the modern teenager. Apart from the Teddy Boys in the late 50’s, this generation was going to make its mark on the 60’s with the Mods and Rockers and of course later in the decade came the Hippies.
It was on the 13th October 1963 that the 60’s made its first big impression on me, as a 6 year old I watched ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ along with 15 million others and that was it, I was a Beatle fan for life. At school the next day, everyone was talking about it, even the teachers asked us if we had seen them. Everyone knew they were special which is why they are still the greatest act in music today. Their main rivals were the Rolling Stones who were the opposite of the Beatles. I think one of the quotes of the era was ‘The Beatles want to hold your hand but the Stones want to burn your town’. Of course it wasn’t meant literally, I think most fans of the Beatles liked the Stones as well and vice-versa. When you look at old film of the Stones now they look very tame although at the time they were considered to be a bad influence. Their music of course has stood the test of time just like the Fab Four.
Musically things started to change about 1965, when I first heard ‘For Your Love’ by the Yardbirds, I noticed a big difference in style, it was becoming louder and heavier. The equipment was getting better, the amplifiers bigger. Bands like the Doors, Fleetwood Mac and artists like Jimi Hendrix were showing us another dimension to music. The 60’s was going out with a bang, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath were all waiting in the wings to blast their way into the 70’s and as a 13 year old in 1970 I was ready and waiting to buy their records.
Paul Clarkson
This was the decade that started in black and white and ended in colour, it also started in mono but ended in stereo. My Nan bought our first record player as a present for the family. It was a grey Dansette with four controls on the front, on/off; volume; treble and bass. I remember my Nan buying a selection of records from a store called ‘Bellman’s’ in the local High Street. They each cost 4s and 9d which is about 24p today. I can even re-call some of the titles ‘Stranger on the Shore’ by Acker Bilk, ‘The Young Ones’ by Cliff Richard, an EP called ‘Party Pops’ by Russ Conway and ‘Dominique’ by The Singing Nun. We played them endlessly until they became very worn and scratchy.
Things are a bit different today for teenagers, there are more leisure activities than there were back then, all we had was the television, the record player and the radio or ‘wireless’ as it was affectionately called. Programmes on the TV did not liven up for young people until about 1964 when we had ‘Ready Steady Go’ ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ and of course ‘Top of the Pops’. The radio was similar but we had to wait until 1967 when Tony Blackburn played ‘Flowers in the Rain’ by the Move to launch the new ‘Radio 1’station. Before then it was a choice between the BBC Light Programme and the Home Service channel. A few of us who were lucky enough to have transistor radios used to try and tune in to Radio Luxembourg, which was on the Medium Wave 208. I say try and tune in because it was a terrible reception and it always got worse when your favourite record came on. Later in the decade there was a magazine of the same name called ‘FAB 208’.
Top of the Pops was a family affair in the 60’s. There was something in the Hit Parade for every generation. For my sister and me there were the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, for my Mum, Des O’Connor, my Dad, Kathy Kirby and my Nan absolutely adored Malcolm Roberts.
My sister is 6 years older than myself so I was very aware of the fashion of the era. When my sister first wore a ‘mini skirt’, it brought howls of laughter from me and looks of derision from my parents. I think my Nan took to her bed. When my sister backcombed her hair to form what was known as ‘the bee-hive’ this brought further objections ranging from ‘you’ll ruin your hair for life’ to ‘you won’t be able to do a thing with it tomorrow’. Of course what we were all witnessing was the birth of the modern teenager. Apart from the Teddy Boys in the late 50’s, this generation was going to make its mark on the 60’s with the Mods and Rockers and of course later in the decade came the Hippies.
It was on the 13th October 1963 that the 60’s made its first big impression on me, as a 6 year old I watched ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ along with 15 million others and that was it, I was a Beatle fan for life. At school the next day, everyone was talking about it, even the teachers asked us if we had seen them. Everyone knew they were special which is why they are still the greatest act in music today. Their main rivals were the Rolling Stones who were the opposite of the Beatles. I think one of the quotes of the era was ‘The Beatles want to hold your hand but the Stones want to burn your town’. Of course it wasn’t meant literally, I think most fans of the Beatles liked the Stones as well and vice-versa. When you look at old film of the Stones now they look very tame although at the time they were considered to be a bad influence. Their music of course has stood the test of time just like the Fab Four.
Musically things started to change about 1965, when I first heard ‘For Your Love’ by the Yardbirds, I noticed a big difference in style, it was becoming louder and heavier. The equipment was getting better, the amplifiers bigger. Bands like the Doors, Fleetwood Mac and artists like Jimi Hendrix were showing us another dimension to music. The 60’s was going out with a bang, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath were all waiting in the wings to blast their way into the 70’s and as a 13 year old in 1970 I was ready and waiting to buy their records.
Paul Clarkson