I’ve been trying to show that – or at least to find out how long – ted and rock’n’roll fashion styles subsisted amongst young men into 1960s Britain, in the ‘provinces’ if not in south-eastern England, the London hinterland. But, frankly, if you weren’t there, it can be impossible to grasp what was going on […]
1960 ‘Living for Kicks’
1960 ‘Living for kicks’ documentary (see link below) Journalist Daniel Farson broke into television in 1957 when he hosted an interview with Cecil Beaton for AR-TV’s This Week. The company rewarded his charm and quick-witted interview technique by giving him his own series ‘People in Trouble’ (1958) and ‘Out of Step’ (1959), but it is […]
1960 Royston Ellis, beatnik disparager of teds
In the 1960 documentary ‘Living for kicks’ (see blog 1960 ‘Living for Kicks’) in the piece filmed in Brighton’s ‘teenage town’, Whiskey-a-gogo coffee-bar known as ‘The Club’ we come across “one of the main characters there” a poet named Royston Ellis. Royston Ellis ‘rock’n’roll poet’ 1959 3:46– Farson interviews Royston (4:54 “No teenager will marry a […]
Book reviews: Sun records & Sonny Burgess
Around Christmas time I like to treat myself to some books on rock’n’roll and this year was no exception, the two books I bought were: The Next Elvis: Searching for Stardom at Sun Records (2004) by Barbara Barnes Sims who worked there as a publicist between the summer of 1957 and 1960. It’s a nicely wrought […]
Iwan Wmffre (1964-), West Wales ted
As initiator of this website, you might as well want to know a little about me. Nothing extraordinary, just one individual’s journey into becoming a ted. What to say about myself? Well, first my surname will probably flummox anybody who’s not Welsh although a seller at Brown’s of Chester said to his perplexed colleague “It’s […]
Existential teddy-boy rock’n’roll angst
‘The ‘I got the I can’t quite work out what being a ted is all about’ blues’ Of course, rock’n’roll is not known for its intellectualism, or even – come to think of it – for simply thinking about things: it’s simply the spirit, you gotta dash, the blood is boiling, go man go! But […]