November 16 – You Can’t Spell British Rock Without 2i’s

A night of significance that would a few years to recognize. That was this day in 1956, when according to On This Day, the BBC broadcast it’s very first pop radio program – The Six Five Special. It would soon spawn their first pop music TV show too, which had the same name.

The BBC, or British Broadcasting System, had been around for over thirty years by then. The first radio programs began in 1922 and in ’27 they were given a royal charter to be the monopoly radio-provider for Britain. But most of their programming it would seem was classical music, perhaps some big bands, and news, speeches from royalty, that sort of thing. The proper “Beeb” had no time for the silliness of youth and their music. But by ’56, Elvis was catching on worldwide, and at home “skiffle”, an odd sort of mix of jazz, folk, rock & roll and other elements was becoming popular. And a great place to find it was on Old Compton Road in London, near Chinatown at the 2I’s Coffee house.

2I’s was one of many cafes in the city, described by Medium.com as “dingy places, reeking of tobacco.” But they were popular, espresso had been discovered by the Brits, and not being licensed for alcohol they could stay open late and serve teens. 2I’s had been run by brothers Freddy and Sammy Irani (hence the “2 I’s”) but by ’56 sold to a couple of ex-wrestlers, Rebel Ray Hunter and Paul Lincoln. They saw the potential to cash in on the skiffle fad and decided to have live music on the stage in the cramped basement, which was supposed to hold upto 80 people (but often had far more.) Among the early names to appear and be “discovered” there were Cliff Richard and Petula Clark. So, the BBC decided it was the place to be for their pop radio show.

Apparently it was a hit for the BBC and the cafe. Soon it was being described as “the place to be” for up and coming musicians and “a magnet for pop singers, agents and music entrepreneurs.” An official historical plaque placed there by the government describes it as “the birthplace of British rock & roll.” Among the people one might have found there were future star producer Mickie Most, waiting tables, and Peter Grant, working as a bouncer before he hooked up with Led Zeppelin and became their manager.

The TV show only ran a year and a half, and it would take until 1964 for BBC TV to get back into pop music, with Top of the Pops. The 2I’s itself began to lose steam in the ’60s and closed in 1970. But they’d both played their role. It brought new rock music to eager British ears and likely kick-started many a musical dream and career. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the same month the radio began airing the Six Five Special, up north in the land one John Lennon started a band, the Quarrymen whom after a few personnel changes became a little better known… as the Beatles.

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October 25 – Cliffs Notes On Sir Cliff

It’s often been mentioned, while some (Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran etc) British acts translate very well across the ocean, others just don’t seem more a local taste there and don’t hit it very big in North America despite being huge at home (T Rex, Slade etc). Perhaps there’s no better example of that than Cliff Richard…who had a big day in 1995. In fact, it was a significant day in British history, as Cliff became “Sir Cliff”, becoming the first pop or rock musician to be honored with official knighthood in the UK.

Richard was sometimes referred to as the “British Elvis”, and with good reason. His career started around the same time as Presley’s and like “The King”, his early persona was something of a rebel. Like Presley, he had a bit of a career in film as well during the early-’60s. And like Presley, he was massively popular in his homeland. By 1970, he’d racked up three dozen top 10 hits in the UK, seven of them #1s (some with his early bands the Drifters and the Shadows); he’d go on to add 29 more to that including five #1s and a total of 30 gold or platinum albums. His first big hit, “Move It” was in 1958; his last “Thank You For a Lifetime”, a #3 hit in 2008. Over here however, he only scored occasionally in the ’70s and beginning of the ’80s, with just three top 10 hits, “We Don’t Talk Anymore”, “Dreamin’” and his first and biggest, “Devil Woman”, his only gold single on this side of the Atlantic.

However, for all his popularity on the radio, his knighthood was based on his charitable work, not his music. The crown cited his “contributions to charity” for the reason they bestowed the honor on him. Early on in his career, Richard had decided to “tithe” or give away at least a tenth of his income to charity. He says he’s guided by the principle “to be a good and responsible steward of what has been entrusted to us.” He set up his own charitable foundation, has been a big supporter of Alzheimer’s research and of an organization called Tearfund, which helps alleviate poverty in the Third World. And, as a tennis buff, he also set up a charity to build courts and teach British kids the sport.

So with his three sisters there to witness it, Queen Elizabeth made Cliff “Sir Cliff.” It started a trend. While he was the first rocker to get the official title (earlier she had given an honorary title to Bob Geldof for his Live Aid work, but as an Irish person, he wasn’t eligible for official knighthood) since then she’s similarly decorated a number of other rock stars for their charitable work. They include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey, Tom Jones and Elton John. In 2011 she made Annie Lennox a member of the order as well, which makes her “Dame Annie.” George Martin was awarded knighthood, but unlike the others, his was for his musical work and “contribution to popular culture.”

Of course, there always has to be a renegade. She wanted to award David Bowie with knighthood in 2000, but he turned her down. “I seriously don’t know what it’s for,” he told the press. “It’s not what I spent my life working for.”

August 29 – The Day Britain Learned To Rock

It was a pivotal day in British rock history in 1958. In Liverpool, a 15 year-old George Harrison joined a group called the Quarrymen… a group that already featured John Lennon and Paul McCartney. As we know, before long they’d change their name and change the face of popular music for the rest of the century. Meanwhile, closer to London, Columbia Records would put out what Lennon called “the first British rock’n’roll record” . That was “Move It” by Cliff Richard and the Drifters.

Richard wasn’t an old-timer himself then; in fact he was only 18 and had just ditched his real name (Harry Webb) in favor of the new one the record company suggested. “Cliff” was to them representative of “rock”, for the type of music, and “Richard” was a tip of the cap to his personal idol, Little Richard.

Cliff had started the band the Drifters (which, it should be noted are not the same as the American group of the same name) and aimed to create a British version of the rock music that was starting to sweep America. He loved the energy of Little Richard but, as the video shows, fashioned himself a little as a “rebel rocker” in the image of Elvis.

“Move It” was written by Ian Samwell of the Drifters, apparently while on a bus one day going to visit Richard. Although Columbia liked the song well enough, they weren’t fully confident in the Drifters, so while a couple of them did play on it, they brought in a couple of session musicians including guitarist Ernie Shears to fill in the sound. And they had it picked as the B-side to Richard’s debut single, with a cover of Bobby Helms song “Schoolboy Crush” as the A-side that was going to be noticed. That changed quickly though when BBC teen-oriented show Oh Boy offered to have him on…but only if he played “Move It.” Columbia quickly flipped the labeling and “Move It” was on its way. Although appearing confident and almost arrogant on stage, the young Cliff recalled feeling “it’s wonderful to be on TV for the first time, but I feel so nervous I don’t know what to do…I shaved off my sideburns last night, Jack Good said it would make me look more original.”

The song took off, as apparently many people felt the same as Lennon at the time. He said “before Cliff…there had been nothing worth listening to in British music.” The song got to #2 there, and also was a hit in Norway though it seemed to be ignored elsewhere. However, the next year he’d have a bit of a breakthrough with a #1 hit at home, “Living Doll” that even made North American charts.

Richard of course went on to be massively popular for decades in Britain, although primarily only remembered for a trio of soft rock songs from the ’70s and early-’80s over here – “Devil Woman”, “Dreaming” and “We Don’t Talk Anymore.” He calls “Move It” “my one outstanding rock classic” and to whit, has recorded it several times on live records and once in 2006 with Queen’s Brian May on an album of duets. And he might be right calling it a rock classic. Not only did Lennon applaud it, but so did Led Zeppelin who included it on a compilation album they released called The Music That Rocked Us. m

December 28 – Special Was One Word For Reddy’s Angie

If the early-’60s were obsessed with songs about teens dying young, often in cars, the early-’70s obsession seemed to be songs about slightly off-kilter, creepy women. Among many such tunes, there was Cher’s “Dark Lady”, the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman”, Cliff Richard’s “Devil Woman,” the protagonist in Vickie Lawrence’s “Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”… and Helen Reddy‘s “Angie Baby” which rose to #1 on Billboard on this day in 1974, giving Australian Reddy her third American chart-topper in as many years. She’d previously been on top with “I Am Woman” and “Delta Dawn”.

Her parents were likely proud; both were actors and they instilled “you are going to be a star” into the little girl Helen. After winning an American Idol-like TV show Down Under in 1966, she moved to the U.S. and by 1968 had a record deal with Fontana Records. Her big break was when Canadian radio began playing the B-side to a 1971 single and made a hit out of “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”, garnering her attention world-wide and opening the door for her feminist anthem “I am Woman” the next year. Of that, she said she wanted a song about a strong, proud woman but “I realized that the song I was looking for didn’t exist. I was going to have to write it”.

“Angie Baby” seemed a less strong and admirable lass, but of the record, Reddy says it was “the one song I never had to push radio stations into playing.” The song about the mentally-disturbed young woman who lived in a dream world (and appeared to be responsible for the disappearance of a “neighbor boy” who dropped by to see her) was written by Alan O’Day. O’Day would have a major chart hit himself with a song about an unusual girl – “Undercover Angel.” He says “Angie Baby” was loosely inspired, lyrically, by the Beatles “Lady Madonna”, about a girl living in her own “reality” but he made her a bit creepy and “the intent was to show that the Angie character had more power than (the boy who disappeared) or the listener expected.

The song, which hit the top 5 in both the UK and Canada as well, would be Helen’s last #1 hit, and helped push her Free & Easy album into the American top 10 – one of three for her. By the mid-’70s, Helen had put out six hit albums and even briefly had her own network variety show. Sadly she passed away of unknown causes at age 79 last year.

October 25 – Cliff Rebel Rock’s First Knight, Sir

It’s often been mentioned, while some (Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran etc) British acts translate very well across the ocean, others just don’t seem more a local taste there and don’t hit it very big in North America despite being huge at home (T Rex, Slade etc). Perhaps there’s no better example of that than Cliff Richard…who had a big day in 1995. In fact, it was a significant day in British history, as Cliff became “Sir Cliff”, becoming the first pop or rock musician to be honored with official knighthood in the UK.

Richard was sometimes referred to as the “British Elvis”, and with good reason. His career started around the same time as Presley’s and like “The King”, his early persona was something of a rebel. Like Presley, he had a bit of a career in film as well during the early-’60s. And like Presley, he was massively popular in his homeland. By 1970, he’d racked up three dozen top 10 hits in the UK, seven of them #1s (some with his early bands the Drifters and the Shadows); he’d go on to add 29 more to that including five #1s and a total of 30 gold or platinum albums. His first big hit, “Move It” was in 1958; his last “Thank You For a Lifetime”, a #3 hit in 2008. Over here however, he only scored occasionally in the ’70s and beginning of the ’80s, with just three top 10 hits, “We Don’t Talk Anymore”, “Dreamin’” and his first and biggest, “Devil Woman”, his only gold single on this side of the Atlantic.

However, for all his popularity on the radio, his knighthood was based on his charitable work, not his music. The crown cited his “contributions to charity” for the reason they bestowed the honor on him. Early on in his career, Richard had decided to “tithe” or give away at least a tenth of his income to charity. He says he’s guided by the principle “to be a good and responsible steward of what has been entrusted to us.” He set up his own charitable foundation, has been a big supporter of Alzheimer’s research and of an organization called Tearfund, which helps alleviate poverty in the Third World. And, as a tennis buff, he also set up a charity to build courts and teach British kids the sport.

So with his three sisters there to witness it, Queen Elizabeth made Cliff “Sir Cliff.” It started a trend. While he was the first rocker to get the official title (earlier she had given an honorary title to Bob Geldof for his Live Aid work, but as an Irish person, he wasn’t eligible for official knighthood) since then she’s similarly decorated a number of other rock stars for their charitable work. They include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey, Tom Jones and Elton John. In 2011 she made Annie Lennox a member of the order as well, which makes her “Dame Annie.” George Martin was awarded knighthood, but unlike the others, his was for his musical work and “contribution to popular culture.”

Of course, there always has to be a renegade. She wanted to award David Bowie with knighthood in 2000, but he turned her down. “I seriously don’t know what it’s for,” he told the press. “It’s not what I spent my life working for.”