A SHORT HISTORY OF BRITAINS GREATEST CONQUEST

John Stenner

everything that came after is a reection of what went before

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BANDS The Beatles The Rolling Stones Hermans Hermits The Kinks The Animals The Hollies The Who Led Zeppelin The Small Faces The Troggs Donovan Cream The Yardbirds Them Gerry and the Pacemakers The Searchers Procol Harum The Mindbenders Manfred Mann Freddie and the Dreamers Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mitck and Titch Dave Clark Five The Zombies Peter and Gordon Chad and Jeremy Brian Poole and the Tremloes The Moody Blues SOLO ARTISTS Dusty Springeld Cilla Black Petula Clark Tom Jones

This is a condensed history of the above as a full and complete history of each would be a book in itself.

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In the mid to late fties America gave the world rock n roll, which had its roots rmly planted in rhythm and blues. Artists such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Soul/R&B artists such as Sam Cooke gave the teenage generation something they had been searching for - a musical voice of their own. However by the early sixties things had changed - and denitely for the worse. Elvis had gone into the army as a rock n roll rebel and emerged as a sugary boy next door - Jerry Lee Lewis was in all sorts of moral trouble Little Richard had found religion - Buddy Holly was dead. Chuck Berry and some others kept rockin - but it was a losing battle. Corporations had realised the enormity of the teenage market and had taken over, and they were feeding the kids what they felt they should be fed - sanitised music sung by sanitised singers - high school love songs and pop performed by the likes of Pat Boone, Fabian, Paul Anka and more. Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, A Teenager In Love, this was all there was - and the moms and dads loved it - a little rebellion, but not too much. Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon ruled and the kids were in danger of turning into their parents before they turned sixteen. Something had to change. Meanwhile ..... On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain was still in the throes of post war austerity and while the U.S.A. was the major source of music on the airwaves, British kids were also making the own kind of music. Simple, easy to play, folk music based rock called Skife. A couple of acoustic guitars, a washboard and a string base on a tea chest - skife meant that anyone could be a performer and through skife Britain was developing its own brand of rock music - guitar based with a backbeat. But they were keeping it to themselves. Bands honed their skills playing small dances and parties, some were imported by the dance halls and strip clubs of Germany, where they played long hours and really got to understand their audience. They played what the kids wanted, not what the corporations told them to play. British record companies were reluctant to record this music as they followed the lead of the American companies - but the groundswell was becoming too great to ignore. In early 1963 George Martin went into the studio with a young band from Liverpool to record a single - not with any great support from the record company (they were put on Parlophone, a small label of the parent company EMI). The song Love Me Do was recorded in a couple of takes and went to number seventeen on the British charts and the follow up single would change the world forever. The Beatles The Beatles evolved out of skife - Paul McCartney met John Lennon at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete. Lennon was playing with his skife group The Quarrymen and was impressed by McCartneys guitar playing (and the fact that he knew all the words to Twenty Flight Rock). McCartney introduced his friend George Harrison to Lennon and they each recognised in the others a kindred spirit. Playing mainly as a trio with an occasional, casual drummer, they played small gigs and talent quests/auditions without much success. They were joined by John Lennons art college friend Stu Sutcliffe (who they convinced to buy a bass guitar with his winnings from an art competition) and after a few name changes they became the Beatles (a name Lennon said was given to him by a man on a aming pie). Still without a drummer (Paul McCartney played drums occasionally), they were developing a rebellious irreverent style and after a short tour of Scotland as Long John and the Silver Beetles they were offered a gig in Hamburg, Germany but the club owner wanted a ve piece band so they asked Mersyside drummer Pete Best to join the band and literally the next day left for Hamburg. They played in a strip club, the Indra Club, and slept in a porn theatre. The sets were long and tiring and the Beatles were introduced to drugs, pills that helped them make it through the six hour sessions they played they also learned to put on a show for the audience, who demanded that the Beatles mak schau. Stu Sutcliffe often played with his back to the audience so they couldnt see how little he could play the bass. After the Indra was closed due to noise complaints, the Beatles moved to another club , the Kaiserkeller, owned by the same promoter. Their following and popularity was growing and they were about to move to a bigger, better club, The Top Ten, when George Harrison was deported for being underage (he was seventeen at the time) and Pete Best and

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Paul McCartney were deported soon after for setting re to a condom pinned to the Kaiserkellers dressing room wall. John Lennon returned to England a few days later. Stu Sutcliffe stayed in Hamburg to be with his German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr who along with fellow art students Klaus Vormann and Jrgen Vollmer, inuenced the way the Beatles dressed and introduced them to what would become known as the beatles haircut. Astrid also took the famous photographs of the Beatles in Hamburg. Stu Sutcliffe returned to Liverpool a little later (after borrowing money from his mother to retrieve the groups equipment).

Initially disheartened and on the verge of breaking up, the Beatles regrouped and continued playing. They were offered another residency in Hamburg at the Top Ten Club *George Harrison had now turned 18) and began their second Hamburg gig on the 27th of March 1961. Shortly after Stu Sutcliffe left the band to concentrate on his art studies and to be with his girlfriend Astrid and Paul McCartney took over the bass. During this trip to Hamburg the Beatles made their rst recording, as back up band for Tony Sheridan, produced by German musician/producer Bert Kaempfert. On this record The Beatles performed My Bonnie After their return from Hamburg the Beatles played bigger and better venues and were often billed as direct from Germany and they were the resident band at the Cavern in Liverpool. One day a teenager walked into the N.E.M.S. music store run by Brian Epstein asking for My Bonnie by the Beatles, it wasnt in stock so Epstein ordered in three copies. Over the next few days more requests were made for the record and Epstein was surprised to learn that the Beatles werent a German band but a local Liverpool band and were playing in a club not far from his shop. He made a point of checking them out and decided that he wanted to manage them and as the band didnt seem to be going anywhere they were happy for him to do so. Brian Epstein got the Beatles better paying gigs, took them out of their leather outts and put them in suits, he also got them an audition with Decca Records. After the Decca session he was told by a company executive Sorry Mr. Epstein I dont like their sound and guitar bands are on the way out. The one thing to come out of this was that he now had a tape of the bands audition that he was able to hawk around to other labels - albeit without much success. Nothing was happening until the tape was heard by a young E.M.I. producer George Martin (who had had some success with comedy records such as The Goons). Martin liked what he heard and felt he could do something with the band. E.M.I. wasnt convinced so they put them on a small subsidiary label Parlophone. This was a steep learning experience for both the band and producer. One of Brian Epsteins jobs at this time was to inform Pete Best that he was out of the band, being replaced by Ringo Starr, the drummer from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Ringo had become a close friend of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison whilst in Hamburg. On the 10th of July 1963 the Beatles went into the studio to record their rst single Love Me Do. George Martin, who wasnt impressed with Pete Bests playing and didnt know Ringo, wanted a professional

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drummer on the recording and used session drummer Andy White - Ringo was left to play the tambourine. Ringo did play drums on the album version. Love Me Do went to number 17 on the charts and George Martin sourced a follow up single How Do You Do It, written by Mitch Murray condent that it would be a number 1. The Beatles werent that impressed with it so George Martin said if they could write something as good they could record that. They came up with a John Lennon composition Please Please Me. After recording it George Martin gave them a thumbs up saying Boys, youve got your rst number 1. He was right, the song went to number 1 all over the country. In the winter of 1963 the Beatles embarked on a national tour, with Helen Shapiro as the headline act, but when Please Please Me went to number one the pecking order changed and the Beatles became the headline act. The success of Please Please Me pressed the need for a follow up album. On the 22nd of March 1963 the Beatles released Please Please Me the album. The album was recorded in one day and was a rough duplication of the Beatles Cavern act and contained eight Lennon/McCartney originals and six covers. The last track on the album, a throat shredding performance by John Lennon of Twist and Shout was recorded last. The album went to number 1 in May 1963 and stayed there for thirty weeks. It was replaced at number 1 by the Beatles second album With The Beatles. The Beatles follow up singles From Me To You, She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand all went to number 1 in the UK and in many other countries but they had no real success in the U.S.A. Capitol Records (the U.S. subsidiary of E.M.I. had refused to release The Beatles singles but smaller companies such as Swan Records had, initially with limited success, but each new release saw The Beatles popularity rise until Capitol were forced to rethink their position and released I Want To Hold Your Hand. With this release, The Beatles achieved what no other British artist had been able to do, a number 1 hit in the U.S.A. This was very timely as the band was booked for a U.S. tour and they landed to a number 1 hit and mass hysteria, the likes of which had never been seen. Their U.S. tour was a huge success and their two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show (Americas number 1 night time variety show) drew the largest ever U.S. TV audiences. The Beatles were now an unstoppable avalanche and on their return to England they were greeted by another enormous, hysterical crowd and the word beatlemania was coined. Chart success was now almost taken for granted. Cant Buy Me Love went straight to number 1 and The Beatles made their rst foray into the movies with the quasi documentary A Hard Days Night (a phrase taken from one of Ringos malapropisms). The movie was a great success, as was the album of the same name and single releases. The next album Beatles For Sale had the success that was now expected and more number 1 singles followed - If I Fell, I Feel Fine and Eight Days a Week. The Beatles second movie Help was released in 1965, again a great success and more number 1 singles followed Help, Ticket To Ride and Yesterday. Also a number 1 album Help. Through 1965 and 66 The Beatles scored ve number 1 hits We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper, Nowhere Man

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Paperback Writer and Yellow Submarine, and two successful albums Rubber Soul and Revolver. Their schedule was taking its toll, The Beatles were tiring of constant touring and disenchanted that the fans couldnt hear them at live shows, partly due to the primitive equipment that was available at the time but mainly due to the sheer noise the fans made. They decided to stop touring and concentrate on studio recording - their music was becoming far more complex and difcult to reproduce on stage - their nal concert was on the 29th of August 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The world was opening up and The Beatles were asked to take part in the UKs contribution to the rst global, live TV broadcast on 25th of June 1967. The world watched The Beatles recording All You Need Is Love live. This single followed up on the success of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever. By now there wasnt a day without some Beatles story in the papers or on the TV news, such was their worldwide popularity, this was despite that on the 26th July 1966 John Lennon was quoted in an American journal as saying that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. This quote was taken out of context but it caused an uproar in Americas bible belt, leading to condemnation and mass burning of Beatle records. Lennon aplogised, explaining that in context it had meant something quite different and after a short while the furore died down. 1967 brought the so called summer of love and The Beatles released what has been called the most inuential album ever, Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Originally meant to be a concept album with each song owing into the next and all connected by a theme, the band got sick of that idea and according to Paul McCartney said sod it, lets just make an album. No singles were released from the album but it opened up the eyes of the music industry and musicians to seemingly endless possibilities. The Beatles became interested in transcendental meditation and journeyed to Bangor in Wales to attend a seminar given by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While they were there they received the news that their manager Brian Epstein had died. The cause of death was listed as an accidental overdose. This left the band somewhat in a state of limbo as Epstein had guided their careers right from the start. They took Alan Klien as business advisor/manager and started their own company Apple Corps. Subsequent albums were released under the Apple label. but with George Martin still as their producer - as he had been since the rst record release. Everything The Beatles had touched turned to gold, but they suffered their rst perceived failure with their self made lm Magical Mystery Tour. Prophets of doom were saying that this spelt the end for the band - but loyal fans forgave this lapse and the end of 1967 saw Hello, Goodbye/I Am The Walrus and Lady Madonna top the charts. By this time John Lennon had left his wife Cynthia and was linked to Japanese performance artist Yoko Ono. HeyJude/Revolution were The Beatles big singles in 1968, coupled with the release of the self titled, double album affectionately known as the white album. Get Back, Something and The Ballad of John and Yoko were chart toppers in 1969, the latter being about John Lennons wedding to Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. George and Ringo were married, leaving Paul McCartney as the only single Beatle. This changed shortly after when he married Linda Eastman.

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1969 saw the last ofcial Beatle album released, Abbey Road. The band put aside their differences and according to all the surviving Beatles the recording was an enjoyable experience - just like the early days. Fittingly, the last song on the album was called The End. The Beatles documentary lm Let It Be, showing them rehearsing in 1969 clearly showed the cracks developing. Let It Be album was released in 1970 and some argue that this is the last Beatle album, but as all the songs were recorded before Abbey Road, this album could be considered The Beatles second last album, either way there were some hits from the album, Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road. The album was mixed by Phil Spector and many believe that he ruined it (a version was released in 2003 titled Let It Be Naked where all of Spectors excesses were stripped). The Beatles played together in public for the last time in January 1969 in an impromptu concert on the roof of Apple headquarters. Apple Corps was facing a myriad of problems, some of the band wanted to continue with Alan Klien while Paul McCartney wanted to bring in his in-laws the Eastmans as nancial advisors. Paul McCartney ofcially left the band in April 1970, spelling the end of the most inuential band ever - but The Beatles legacy lives on and will continue to do so. Footnotes: All four Beatles went on to have successful solo careers (Paul McCartney also with his band Wings). John Lennon was murdered by a mentally unstable fan o the 8th of December 1980 As part of The Beatles Anthology, released in 1995, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, working with a home made tape of two unrecorded John Lennon songs, released a new single Free as a Bird and Real Love. George Harrison died of cancer on the 29th of November 2001. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still touring individually.

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones were a blues inuenced, London band formed in 1962. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were childhood friends at Wentworth Primary school in the 1950s but lost touch when their families moved but they met up again in 1960 and discovered a mutual interest in blues music and a mutual friend Dick Taylor. Mick Jagger and Taylor played, or rather jammed together as Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Brian Jones, after a rather checkered past came to London playing with Alexis Korner's Blues Inc but was looking to start his own band. He began jamming with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The trio and drummer Tony Chapman recorded a demo for E.M.I. which was rejected. Chapman left the band, now called The Rolling Stones and was replaced by Bill Wyman on bass and Charlie watts on drums. The Stones were booked for a few months at the Crawdaddy Club and their success there attracted Andrew Loog Oldman who signed as their manager and marketed them as The Beatles evil opposites. Oldman saw a recording opportunity with Decca who were still reeling after rejecting The Beatles and signed them to a very favourable deal which included artistic autonomy.

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The Rolling Stones released their rst single on the 7th of July 1963, a cover of the Chuck Berry song Come On and it went to number 21 on the UK singles chart. Towards the end of 1963 the Rolling Stones embarked on their rst national tour, supporting American artists Bo Diddley, Little Richard and the Everley Brothers and in November 1963 they released their second single, the John Lennon and Paul McCartney penned I Wanna Be Your Man, which reached number 12 on the UK charts. Their follow up single in February 1964, Buddy Hollys Not Fade Away, reached number 3. Andrew Loog Oldman saw it as a failing that the Rolling Stones were giving away song royalties and encouraged Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to develop their song writing. The Rolling Stones released their rst album on the 16th of April 1964 with Andrew Loog Oldman reinforcing their bad boy image by having all the band unsmiling on the cover. The album went to number 1 in the UK. The Rolling made their rst US tour in June 1964 which, in Bill Wymans words, was a disaster. During this tour they recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago and out of these sessions came their rst UK number 1, the Womacks Its All Over Now.

(lots more to go in here)

I believe that the Rolling Stones were a band of the 60s and anything they have done through the 70s and onwards is really only a pale imitation of the inventiveness and originality they showed early on - especially that diabolical disco song Emotional Rescue, with Mick Jaggers annoying falsetto (Keith Richards refused to play on it).

Hermans Hermits Herman and the Hermits came out of Manchester