Morality in the Music Press, 1967-1983 by Patrick Michael John
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Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White: Morality in the Music Press, 1967-1983 by Patrick Michael John Glen A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History November 2012 Abstract Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White: Morality in the Music Press, 1967- 1983 This thesis argues that between 1967 and 1983 the music press became increasingly embroiled in extra-musical, social and cultural issues. The music press provided an arena for editors, journalists, musicians and readers to debate social mores. This has gone unnoticed in the existing historiography. The music press – which was conventionally assumed to favour ‘permissiveness’ – hosted a variety of different moral viewpoints that challenge our understanding of conversations on social mores from 1967-1983. Bringing the music press to the fore of historical analysis in this period illustrates that British moral discourse was complex, fragmented and drew from a variety of narratives from the conservative to the radical. The thesis examines how moral debates emerged in the late-1960s’ music press and then investigates the most salient themes that elicited discussions. These themes include youthful rebellion and generational divisions, sex, sexuality, drug use, gender, anti-racism, violent transgression, urban decay and alienation. The thesis analyses how these themes were narrated in the music press and identifies multiple viewpoints were articulated in reference to other tensions that affected moral conversations, such as the music press’s commercial concerns and journalistic styles. It recognises that the music press gave journalists, musicians and readers considerable scope to express their views. Thus the music press is a unique source for gauging the sentiments and proclivities of youth, music subcultures, the press and music industry. Word count: 80,693. Acknowledgements First I must thank Adrian Bingham for his advice, expert guidance and unflappable calmness in supervising this thesis. Without Adrian this thesis would be much poorer. I have also been helped by the academic staff at Sheffield and I am extremely grateful to Dan Scroop, Mike Foley, Clare Griffiths, Karen Harvey, Gary Rivett, Mary Vincent and Charles West for their friendliness, incisive criticism and support. Also the academic support staff: thank you Beky Hasnip, Rebecca Phipps and Nicola Donahoe. My colleagues in the Sheffield post-graduate community have been top notch too, Helen Smith, Laura King and Lucy Brown especially, but also Jack Rhoden, Dave Patrick, Kate Law, Matt Graham, Suzannah Rockett, Thom Keep and Adam Ross. In the wider academic, writing and music community, thank you Paul Gallagher, Tim Jones, Matthew Worley, Ine De Jonge, Dan Dylan Wray, Jen Wallis and David Kerekes for your interest and help. Thank you Keith Altham, Ian Birch, Chris Charlesworth, Caroline Coon, Mick Farren, Paul Rambali, Penny Reel, Jon Savage, John Sinclair and Richard Williams for you time and for indulging my questions. I can’t express how thrilled I was to speak to such an extraordinarily talented group of people. Also thank you to the other journalists have offered help but I have been unable to meet. Thanks to my friends who helped in many ways: Mike Geraghty, Dan Green, Edwin Davies, Caroline Nightingale, Mal MacLean, Emma Thomas, Sam Markham, Naree Jones, Pete Barnes, Tom Wood, Nikhil Kalghatghi, Jim Calver, Matthew Woollven, Joe Allsop, Dan Conway, Emanuel Asamere, Andy Walker, Emma Hamshare, Siobhan Maguire, Kev Winter, Andy Holmes, Guru, Ross Heavyside, Luke Kearney, Caroline Ingvarsson, Glen Baghurst, Zak Boumediane, Sarah McGlinn, Eva Andersson, Thomas Holm, David Flamholc and last but not least, the members of the five time Haggerston Park 5-a-side Premiership champions Deathstar United F.C. Sorry if I missed anyone. This thesis could not have been completed without the emotional, intellectual and financial support of my parents Alison and John Glen. There is no way I can ever repay them for this help and I am extremely grateful. My sisters Kate and Isobel have been brilliant as always. My grandparents Austin Smith, John and Tory Glen have also been great, as have been my extended family. Sara Garcia Andersson has been understanding and supportive well beyond the call of duty. Finally, in a 2003 A/S level sociology lesson I was told that there is usually an underlying reason why a researcher picks a certain subject. I thought this was fanciful until the realisation that this thesis is indebted to my uncle, Mike, who passed away in 1983 when backpacking around Europe with his guitar. I doubt that I would have picked this subject if it was not for his legacy. He was an avid music fan who played, listened to and read about music – I later inherited his immense and varied record collection. He has become a byword for tolerance, good character and humour in our family. This work has helped me get an impression of a man who I would have loved to meet and is sorely missed by those who knew him. This thesis is dedicated to Mike as well as my grandmother, Pat Contents Abbreviations and Figures 4 Introduction: Conduits for Sale! 6 1. Cheap Thrills: The Music Press and its Readers 30 2. Questioning the Basic Immoralities? 55 3. Fortunate Sons?: the British Music Press and the Vietnam War 75 4. Ziggy Stardust: Negotiating Transgressive Male Sexuality 92 5. Oh Bondage! Up Yours!: Representations of Women 109 6. Banned from the Roxy: Punk Violence 137 7. You Can Get it if You Really Want?: Racial Unity 164 8. Poison Ivy: Debunking Rock’s Chemical Mythology 190 9. Vertical Slum: Alienation, Fragmentation, Dissent and Fame 216 Conclusion 243 Appendix 253 Bibliography 257 1 2 3 Abbreviations and Figures Abbreviations ABC The Audit Bureau of Circulation BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation EMAP East Midlands Allied Press LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (or acid) LSE The London School of Economics MC5 The Motor City 5 MTV Music Television NME The New Musical Express NRS The National Readership Survey NWOBHM The New Wave of British Heavy Metal PiL Public Image Limited RB Rock’s Backpages IPC The International Publishing Company, from 1968 IPC Magazines UCL University College London U.S. United States of America YOP The Youth Opportunities Programme List of Figures Chapter One Figure 1.1 The Average Circulation of a Selection of Music Papers. 33 Figure 1.2 Music Press Readers Per Copy. 33 Figure 1.3 NME, 28 June 1967, p. 1. 36 Figure 1.4 NME, 12 January 1972, p. 1. 37 Figure 1.5 Melody Maker, 20 December 1971, p. 1. 38 Figure 1.6 Sounds, 18 March 1972, p. 1. 39 Figure 1.7 NME, 28 July 1973, p. 1 40 Figure 1.8 Smash Hits, 15 October 1981, p. 1. 41 4 Figure 1.9 Class Composition of Readership (by Percentage). 50 Figure 1.10 Regional Distribution of Readership (by Percentage). 51 Chapter Three Figure 3.1 Oz 10, August 1967, p. 1. 81 Chapter Five Figure 5.1 The Face, August 1981, p. 1. 133 Figure 5.2 The Face, May 1982, p. 1. 134 Chapter Nine Figure 9.1 Smash Hits, 27 May 1982, p. 1. 222 Figure 9.2 Kerrang!, June 1982, p. 1. 223 5 Introduction Conduits for Sale! In the first few months of 1967 there was a distinctive change in the content of the music press that would shape music papers like NME and Melody Maker for the following decades. Previously, mainstream music papers had indulged popular musicians through safe, uncontroversial articles intended to protect the public image of artistes and promote their music. Musicians were expected to entertain and reap the material rewards, and while some musicians were more opinionated, this was about pop music not politics. During the late-1960s and 1970s, however, music papers became increasingly littered with outspoken statements. Musicians, journalists and readers self-consciously became conduits for discourses on socio-political matters and morality was a vital element of this discussion. Through the music press these narratives connected the cultural practices of popular music with a wider social, economic and political context that could rarely be communicated in a song or even an album. Musicians were not politicians though, so rather than coherent ideological doctrines they offered a variety of opinions and moral intuitions; they could be impassioned, irreverent or sardonic, even uninformed, but they were always vocal. To use a much abused cliché, those writing for or featured by the music press were presented as spokespeople for their generation who were able to escape the predispositions of their elders; some even encouraged youth to speak and think for themselves. Young people in this period followed the popular music world’s developments with intense interest. Music papers reached an extraordinary number of readers. Britain’s most prominent papers Melody Maker and New Musical Express (NME) frequently sold over 200,000 copies per week and sometimes even 300,000 copies.1 According to the National Readership Survey (NRS) the papers were normally read by around six to ten people per copy.2 Thus several million people read the two main music press titles each week. This thesis argues that the music press was a widely read discursive space for predominantly young people to discuss British morality.3 A varied debate emerged encompassing the morality of war and protest, race, sexuality, gender roles, consumerism, rowdy behaviour, politics, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Accordingly the music press provided statements that could be appropriated by 1 This is according to Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures provided by IPC Media (2010). 2 This figure is based on data from the National Readership Survey (NRS). For instance NRS (London, January-June 1972), p. 3; NRS (London, January-June 1978), p.