21St Century Rockers

ORHORST GLORY A. FRIEDRICHS 21ST CENTURY ROCKERS PRESTEL MUNICH BERLIN LONDON NEW YORK RZ_BU_Rockers_Inhalt_rl.indd 1 18.06.10 08:20 Sounds and Attitude Q&A with Rock’n’Roll DJs Cosmic Keith and Sean Peschiera Question: Some people say that the Rocker life is all about bikes, birds and Brylcreem, where does music fit in? Cosmic Keith: Rock’n’Roll music is all about attitude. The Rockers had a tough image and the music which went with it was as mean as their look. It was a breakaway from post-war Great Britain, back in the day. Nothing has changed fifty years on, Rockers are stuck firmly to the look and sound of their roots and it’s a totally British thing, like the Mods of the sixties. Sean Peschiera: Music forms the backdrop, the atmosphere to it all, the soundtrack, take any youth cult, it has its sound, and it matters. The period between 1958 and 1965 saw England place itself firmly on the Rock’n’Roll map of the world, eventually to eclipse the American music scene with the arrival of The Beatles and others. Q: Everyone knows proto-rocker rebels Gene Vincent, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. How does the British Rocker sound differ from American Rock’n’Roll? CK: Many British artists were heavily influenced by the sound of Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and so on. Guys like Vince Taylor and Johnny Kidd got very close to the distinctive ‘Yank’ sound with their raw, up-tempo songs. Taylor’s Brand New Cadillac is a fine example, which was later covered by the well-known punk band The Clash. The Rockers loved the hard-edged Rock’n’Roll sound which went with their hard image. You couldn’t be riding a Café Racer while listening to the likes of Pat Boone. Gene Vincent was an idol with his infectious Hold Me, Hug Me, Rock Me and Bluejean Bop. Vince Taylor was flying the flag for the British, clad in leather, holding chains. SP: Production and culture probably has the main influence on that distinctive British sound. Most studios were well equipped with professional sound engineers and attached to large record labels such as Decca, HMV and Parlophone. This was a radical difference from the countless thousands of small independent and subsidiary labels which made up the American recording business of the fifties and sixties, enabling a wider regional flavour and character there. Q: Who were the great British Rock’n’Roll bands of the fifties and sixties? CK: Some of the best British artists included early Cliff Richard, Vince Taylor and The Playboys, Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, Casey Jones and The Governors, Danny Rivers, The Outlaws, Billy Fury, etc. SP: My personal favourites would be: The Shadows (with or without Cliff Richard), Vince Taylor and The Playboys, Tony Dangerfield and The Thrills, Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes, The Out-laws, Tommy Steele and the Steelmen, Duffy Power, Ray Anton and The Peppermint Men, The Snobs, The Hunters, The Undertakers, The Bobby Patrick Big Six, The Scorpions, Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers, Billy Fury (The Tornadoes), Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages, John Leyton, Glenda Collins and The Outlaws, Chris Farlowe and The Thunderbirds, Grazina Frame, Bern Elliot and The Fenmen. The list is endless… RZ_BU_Rockers_Inhalt_rl.indd 2 18.06.10 08:20 Q: Who is keeping it alive today? CK: Few artists are still playing today. Marty Wilde is still going strong but many have sadly passed on. SP: Sadly, very few – these days it seems like a lost sound. Apart from some original artists, The Rapiers, The Flames and The Diamonds (recently split up) are all who come to mind. Q: Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard vs. Tommy Steele, Wee Willie Harris and Cliff Richard! Erm... CK: The Americans invented the look and sound of Rock’n’Roll and were miles ahead of us musically. With artists such as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, they pretty much shaped the sound of the British music scene in the late fifties and early sixties. SP: American artists were the originators and greatly respected and emulated by those in England. Q: Why are The Animals, The Who and The Small Faces in the Mod camp, when their sound is full- on Rock? CK: Many British bands were heavily influenced by American R&B and Blues sounds. Listening to the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Bo Diddley, they created something with the raw energy of Rock’n’Roll, yet with its own unique sound, some ten years down the line. These were white European men who were translating their own brand of blues. SP: It has much to do with the march of time that this perception might occur. Many seminal Mod bands cut their teeth on Rock’n’Roll and R&B standards of the 1950s. I feel it is just that they all developed a musical style that moved away from the Rock’n’Roll formula and ultimately this change in sound forged a stronger identity with an emerging modernist movement. Q: Has technology changed anything or has it got to be vinyl and valve amps? CK: The beauty of vinyl is it’s so fresh and pure like the artist wanted it to be. Nothing has been tampered with down the line or digitally remastered in any way. There is an instant connection to the person who recorded it. SP: Technology has brought about greater access to the music, but I would quote the author (and original Ton-Up Boy) Chester Dowling in that there is nothing like the original – vinyl is best. Q: Does the music still wind cats up to slash seats with their flick-knives or are they bashing each other up with Zimmer frames? CK: There is still fresh blood on the music scene coming through all the time. New acts who find this music as exciting as the original Rockers did many years ago. Long gone are the days of youth cults fist fighting for supremacy on Brighton Beach but the passion is still there in abundance with young and old fans alike. SP: Rock’n’Roll keeps you young. Q: Favourite hangouts? Stores? Books? Movies? Dives? CK: There are many cool joints to hang out at like the Ace Cafe, The Boston Arms, Dingwalls in Camden Town, London. Sounds That Swing in London is a very cool vinyl emporium. SP: Hangouts – Cafés and A-Roads. Stores – Hi-Star Classics stall, Auto Jumbles and Lewis Leathers, London. Books – Café Racers: Rockers, Rock’n’Roll and the Coffee-bar Cult by Mike Clay, Rockers! Kings of the Road by Johnny Stuart and Just for Kicks by Chester Dowling. Movies – The Leather Boys, Some People,These Are The Damned and Pyschomania. Q: Rock’n’Roll DJ Tips? CK: A good DJ is a happy DJ. If he or she is doing their thing, riding high on Planet Bop, then the crowd will be a very happy one too. Never settle for second best, always give your all. SP: Love your music and play from the heart. Research your sound. PLAY VINYL wherever possible! RZ_BU_Rockers_Inhalt_rl.indd 3 18.06.10 16:07 Bikes and Clobber Mark Wilsmore, Ace Cafe London, in conversation with Sarah Bradley My interest in Rock’n’Roll music and motorcycles came about because of the sounds and vehicles I discovered as a kid. I remember growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, going on holidays to the coast – it would be bikes at the fairground, bikes at the seaside and the Rockers. I wanted to have a motorcycle and I wanted to go fast! When I was 17, I got my first bike and it gave me the ability to go to places that I’d started to hear about, in particular a club called The Royalty in Southgate, London. It was Rock’n’Roll every Thursday night, and Bill Haley and others came over from the States. I’d found my own little form of heaven once a week, along with a generation and peer group who were the same as me. I think I was 21 when I bought my first Brit bike: a Triumph TR65 Thunderbird – an aesthetically glorious British product. Just prior to World War II, a new network of arterial roads was established across the UK. One of these was the North Circular in London, and it was alongside this, in Stonebridge Park, that in 1938 an enormous premises was opened to cater for motorists, containing a café-restaurant called The Ace Cafe, petrol station, motor workshops and showrooms. It was entirely destroyed by an air raid in November 1940 and then rebuilt after the war. In the 1950s, people began to be able to get credit, which transformed their purchasing power. A youngster could go out and buy the fastest vehicle he could afford – and in this country, that was a motorbike. These kids flocked to fast stretches of new road that had cafes and restaurants with jukeboxes playing new music which had been imported from America – music that came to be called Rock’n’Roll. The Ace Cafe was on a fast stretch of road, with a jukebox, plus a great big car park and a brand new neon sign: it was a veritable oasis. The Ace finally closed in 1969, and 25 years later, in 1994, I realised that organising a reunion would be the key to getting the place reopened. The event turned out to be huge: on the day, police estimated that there were some 12,000 people in attendance.

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