New York three-piece rockabilly band the Stray Cats famously made it big in Europe where there was a rock’n’roll scene revival. Things were not so rosy in America at the time for the music and style we love, so it’s interesting to see the Stray Cats interviewed by an American pop music show and see […]
The Colourful Era
1965 Cheltenham Rockers
Rumbles between Mods and Rockers in Cheltenham in 1965. This short pre-edited television documentary has a long introduction with a police chief and some old biddies before we get to hear from Rockers first and then Mods. The first one interviewed is a self-styled Rocker with quiff and (real ?) leather-jacket, whilst the second interviewee […]
1969 Walton-on-Thames rockers
Scotch Jim talks for the Rockers (here called Greasers) regarding their enmity with the Skinheads. Xccccc cc ccccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc ccccccccc ccccc cccccc cccccc ccc cc cccc c cccc cc cccccccc cccccc ccccccccccccccccccccc ccccccc cccccc ccccccc ccc cccc cc cc cccccccc c cccc’cc cccc ccccc
1980s Brest teds
Brest, major naval seaport of western France, situated at the western end of Brittany, the Celtic part of France, was one of the hotspots of the rock’n’roll revival in France in the 1970s and 1980s and for a few years it was – rockingly speaking – a wonderful place to be ! The kernel of […]
1972-87 Au Bonheur des Dames
The earliest bands of the 1970s rock’n’roll revival didn’t always have a dress code that chimed with the 1950s (think Sha-na-na in America, Memphis Bend and Showaddywaddy in Britain). In France a group called Au Bonheur des Dames (‘At the Ladies Pleasure’, the title of a novel by Émile Zola on a department store, go […]
1974 Cambridge teds
A 1974 Granada TV documentary ‘This is Cambridge’ investigating student life happily decided to devote a 3-minute section of the documentary to local teds. Little wonder, the presenter and codirector was Ray Gosling, old-time friend to the teddy boys. To the sounds of ‘tutti frutti’ at a dance hall played by the Bluebirds, Ray gushes […]
