As a follow-up to my recent post about Andy Neill’s book about the 1960s British music programme Ready Steady Go!, I’m posting links to some video collections currently up on youtube.
The first three are compilations of several artist including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and a host of others. The last two are RSG! specials featuring Motown artists and Otis Redding.
(Apologies in advance if any of these links go dead.)
Enjoy!
As the 1960s dawned and the era of post-World War II austerity was fading away in Britain, many things in society started to change. One of those areas of change was manifested in the culture of the youth. Rock and pop music had started to blossom and teenagers would spend their pocket money on the latest records.
While there had already been programmes featuring music on TV, there seemed to be a need for something better. And in 1963, Associated-Rediffusion (the commercial competition to the state-owned BBC) decided to test the waters with something new.
The brainchild of Elkan Allan, the music programme Ready Steady Go! was prepared to start broadcasting in August of 1963. This was certainly good timing as it coincided with the pop music phenomenon of The Beatles.
Initially, the artists featured on the show would mime to their most recent release. As time went on, the bands played to backing tracks with live vocals. Eventually, the music was totally live.
The show started in a tiny, cramped studio space located in Rediffusion’s headquarters building in London. The bands were positioned in the space on tiny stages surrounded by an audience of enthusiastic young dancing teens. The space was crowded and the massive TV cameras would weave among the crowd.
What was unique about the programming of the show was that it did not just feature artists that were already well known. It was a springboard for new and exciting acts which the production staff (like Vicki Wickham) would often spot at clubs.
The show helped to launch the careers of The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Animals, The Kinks and a host of others. One regular performer on the show was Dusty Springfield. It was through her knowledge of the American R&B and soul scene that RSG soon started to feature the likes of Otis Redding, The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and James Brown. In fact, an entire episode was devoted to Motown groups.
While a number of hosts went in front of the cameras, the person who became synonymous with RSG was Cathy McGowan. Although not the most professional of hosts, her personality and sense of style won over the teenage audience. Initially paired with the older and more professional Keith Fordyce, this team is the most remembered.
In this book, Andy Neill has created an exhaustive document which put the reader straight into the vortex of a programme which was destined to change the face of how popular music was presented on television.
First-hand accounts of the action have been provided by almost every surviving person associated with the show including the most of the people responsible for getting the show on the air each week to the performers and members of the audience.
Fascinating insights are provided from the likes of the show’s creator Elkan Allan to Michael Lindsay-Hogg who directed many of the episodes.
Through its run, the series had its ups and downs. It eventually moved to a large stage housed at Wembley in order to accommodate live performances by the groups as well as a larger crowd. But, by December 1966 with the show still very popular, it ended its run.
The book ends with updates about many people who were associated with the programme over the years as well as a comprehensive list of the artists featured on each show.
As with many TV programmes of the era, most of the shows were not archived and just a smattering of shows survive. What did manage to remain was purchased by Dave Clark (yes, he of the Dave Clark Five). In the 1980s, a few compilations of surviving material were issued on home video. In those pre-youtube days, that is where I finally got to see this legendary programme.
Ready Steady Go! is a massive tome in a 12 x 12″ format weighing in at nearly six pounds. It is packed from cover to cover with incredibly detailed information and hundreds of wonderful photographs. If this era of music is of interest to you, it is well worth the investment.
In 2019, the BBC put together a documentary about the programme. Thanks to the power of youtube, here it is…
Rob Chapman – Psychedelia and Other Colours (Faber)
From the appearance of the cover, one might think that this is going to be a fab book with all kinds of wonderfully groovy colourful photos of bands performing with a backdrop of psychedelic lights projected behind them. Well, you know the old expression about a book and its cover. In fact, there is not one single photo contained in the over 600 pages of this tome.
What you do get in this book is a hefty amount of information relating to the progress of the drug culture and its impact on the music scene in the latter half of the 1960s. It’s a book that fits in right between two other recent volumes – 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded by Jon Savage and Never a Dull Moment: 1971 – The Year That Rock Exploded by David Hepworth.
No mention of things exploding in the sub-title of this book but, the text inside certainly does relate a lot of heads exploding as psychedelic drugs (more specifically LSD) began to make inroads into the counterculture movement of the sixties.
Jon Savage’s book goes into great detail about the social and cultural times leading up to the year 1966. There’s a bit of a sense of deja vu when reading Chapman’s book but, that is what I was expecting. So, not much of a disappointment there.
After a general introduction, Chapman divides his time towards firstly concentrating on the scene in the USA and then on the UK. This shows both the parallels and differences in the way in which psychedelia took shape in the midst of both (counter)cultural situations.
While you’ll see familiar names from this era appear – such as Timothy Leary – there are also many more people discussed who may not have been as vibrant on the radar (at the time or since).
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Throughout the book, Chapman does an enviable job of connecting the dots which relate to musical events in both the live performance realm and the release of specific recordings. Of course, a fair amount of time is spent on such artists as The Beatles and their turning (on) into the direction of pot and LSD and Pink Floyd’s areas of cerebral and sonic explorations.
But, as you’d expect in such and exhaustive cultural and musical survey, it’s the efforts of the countless minor figures that accounts for a great deal of the story. Some of the here today, gone tomorrow artists mentioned include The Drivin’ Stupid, Fe-Fi-Four Plus Two, The Factory, Jason Crest, Tintern Abbey etc… Of course, there are a lot of the more familiar bands like, Love, Moby Grape, The Incredible String Band, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and other usual suspects.
To conclude the volume, the final section – Afterglow (Which Dreamed It?) – attempts to tie up some loose ends and reflects on the aftereffects.
For anyone with a keen interest in this era and specifically psychedelic music, this book stands as a well-researched and extremely detailed survey. It sent me scrambling to my music collection to find out if I had recordings of many of the songs mentioned on my various psych LP and CD collections. That’s usually the sign of a good book for me.
For hit latest tome, British music writer Jon Savage has chosen to zoom in on the year 1966. The reason for this is revealed in the subtitle – The Year the Decade Exploded. That’s a pretty bold statement. So, the question is – Does he have the evidence to back it up?
The book is presented in a series of twelve chapters which each represent a month as it progresses through the year. If you were expecting a book about music, you will get that plus a great deal more.
Savage deconstructs events leading up to the year 1966 in order to put things into proper perspective. He divides his views over events happening on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the relationships in both the UK and the US can have a different effect, this approach works well as a way to compare and contrast the social, political and cultural developments.
As with many British writers, he spends some time relating the changes in the UK since the end of the Second World War. This was a touchstone for many areas of social progress for the last half of the twentieth century. By the 1960s, its atmosphere was seeming more distant to the current day youth and they had their own issues and problems to deal with.
In the area of music, many of the usual suspects are sited including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Bob Dylan etc… He also includes Dusty Springfield, The Velvet Underground, The Grateful Dead, Motown, Stax plus a host of references to quite obscure groups like The Ugly’s.
Each chapter reveals more events which would influence the direction of music and possibly vice versa. There are stories about the CND movement in the UK as well as race demonstrations and riots in the US. The war in Vietnam was also a large factor in the ideologies of many people. The feelings about these and many other subjects managed to inform the music of the youth culture of the day.
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Of course, there is also quite a bit of discussion about the widening pervasiveness of drugs within the youth culture. This spans the use of amphetamines to pot to LSD. In fact, at the beginning of 1966, LSD was not an illegal substance in either the UK or US. However, this did change before the end of the year.
The juxtaposition of social and political events analysed alongside the music that was happening in the radio charts and in the clubs shows in interesting cultural correlation. At times it may seem difficult to distinguish which is having an influence on which.
In the end, Savage’s case is well stated. Through a vivid word painting of the times, he succeeds in creating a portrait of a year which hold a special place within an era.
Producer George Martin began his career at EMI Records in 1950 as the assistant to the boss of the Parlophone Records imprint. Initially, he recorded classical and soundtrack music. Towards the end of the 1950s, he worked on a number of novelty records which included people like Peter Sellers and Flanders & Swann. He would also work with the likes of British crooner Matt Munro.
Of course, Martin will always be remembered foremost as the producer of The Beatles. It was his work in the studio which helped the group to attain a crisp, clear vision of their sound… and to make it a hit.
As the ideas of the group began to blossom in the coming years, Martin was also able to help the group realize a much larger vision. This was a vision which regarded the studio itself as an instrument.
This was the concept that created the other-worldly sounds first heard on The Beatles’ 1966 LP Revolver is the shape of the song Tomorrow Never Knows. This hypnotic Indian influenced track featured backwards sounds along with tape loops of manipulated recordings. It marked a time when an abstract sound in the heads of the group could become a reality.
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As a producer, George Martin was a part of a musical revolution that began in the mid-’60s. After the break-up of The Beatles, Martin continued to work with some of the group members as well as other new groups on the music scene such as America.
George Martin will ultimately go down in history as one of the most successful producers of all time but, he should also be remembered as a sonic innovator, as well.
