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 […]
The Colourful Era
1978 Saint Helier Arms, Carshalton
The Saint Helier Arms was the Mecca of rock’n’roll life in Sarf Lannan during the late 1970s. Here’s an 8-minute clip from 1978 aired on the BBC in 1979 showing us a good tranche of the teds from 1978 before the advent of the hepcats (it features a performance by the Flying Saucers of ‘keep […]
1990 Teencats
Here are the 1980s Norwegian rock’n’rollers Teencats singing ‘teddy boy stomp’ on NRK channel. It doesn’t get any better than this! (Not to be confused with the French Teen Kats, another good group from the same period). The Teencats from Hernes near Elversum started off in 1984. Teencats er et norsk Teddy Boy Rock’n’Roll-/rockabillyband fra […]
1982 Les Teddy Bears & 1981 Les Old Timers
Here is the Norman group les Teddy Bears performing on the regional tv programme ‘Dialogues’ in Caen. Three songs are ‘skinny Jim’, their own ‘they slapped James’ and ‘Ubangi stomp’. Good unpretentious rock’n’roll … Now the Old Timers sing ‘tock’n’roll boogie’ and ‘I’m loving you, baby’ (Blois 1981)
1977-79 ‘Elvis’ the musical
1979-83 ‘Oh Boy!’ tv series
The revival of ‘Oh Boy!’ in 1979 (fully ‘Jack Good’s Oh Boy!’) was a recognition by British television in the last year of the 1970s of the pure entertainment value of 1950s rock’n’roll. followed ‘Elvis’ also at the Astoria theatre. 4 acts are standout from a teds point-of-view (Shakin’ Stevens, Freddie Fingers Lee, the (‘Rockin’) […]
