The 1961 Landscape

[Limehouse]

Greenwich Village in the 60s? Wow - how lucky are you!

I think you have to be out of your head to play really good Jazz!

Have you ever seen the film Next Stop Greenwich Village? It's reputed to be based on the experience of playwrite Neil Simon. One of my very favourite films.

[Natalie Severn]

I actually saw Gene Krupa playing the drums in a Greenwich Village dive in the sixties!
He was out of his head and fantastic--a genius jazz musician!

[Limehouse]

Musically, Chubby Checker was the main man back then. In the lull between the death of 1950s Rock and Roll around 1960 and the emergence of the British beat groups in 1963 he almost single handedly kept the Black Rhythm and Blues tradition ticking over.

Hi Stephen - yes - I can hardly remember a family party back then when dear Chubby and The Twist didn't feature highly. Of course - I was too young to go out to discos and clubs in those days but a full ten years later - in the early to mid 19070s - a few twist records were always played at dances and discos I attended. Also - at almost every party among my friends the record that really got everyone on the floor was Danny and the Juniors 'At the Hop' - even though we loved Bowie and Neil Young and other contemporary stuff.

One of the music genres that also emerged in the early to mid 60s was modern Jazz. I really love the music from this period such as Booker T and Dave Brubeck and the folk music that took off at that time too. I really think I was born before my time!

I wonder if the Rehearsal Club ever saw any action cerncerning the Jazz revival?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o

[Stephen Thomas]

Musically, Chubby Checker was the main man back then. In the lull between the death of 1950s Rock and Roll around 1960 and the emergence of the British beat groups in 1963 he almost single handedly kept the Black Rhythm and Blues tradition ticking over.

[Limehouse]

Earlier - the possibility of how the war may have affected Hanratty and Alphon was discussed.

A few years before his smash hit Oliver! hit the stage and scene - Lional Bart wrote a very good stage play called Blitz - based on his experiences as a child of the blitz in London.

The play opened in 1962 - just a few weeks after Hanratty was hanged and one of the hits from it is posted below.

Even though I was small at the time - I well remember this song being played on the radio. Years later - as a 12 year old - I sang the very same song as a chorus girl in our school production of Blitz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXsVn0FAyLk

[jimarilyn]

Nats, wasn't that Paul McCartney's brother or cousin who was in the Scaffold? Jane Asher did have a brother in pop music but he was in Peter and Gordon.

It was Paul's younger brother, Mike McGear [McCartney] who was lead singer in the Scaffold, Robert. Interestingly enough both brothers used their middle names professionally.

Peter Asher, as you say was one half of Peter and Gordon. He later became a much respected music producer and produced many of James Taylor's and Linda Ronstadt's albums.

[The Grave Maurice]

OK, I'm drifting from the point of the thread, but so what? Sue me.

I remember attending the taping of a very popular Canadian TV show called Nightcap in the mid-60s at the old CBC studio on Yonge Street in Toronto. The host was Al Hamel (later known only for being the husband of Suzanne Somers) and he was interviewing Jane Asher, who was in town performing in a play at the Royal Alex. Anyway, at the time she was still going out with McCartney, but Hamel didn't once ask her about that aspect of her life. I still think that he showed a lot of class.

And I still think that Sir Paul missed a good bet by losing Jane.

[Robert]

Nats, wasn't that Paul McCartney's brother or cousin who was in the Scaffold? Jane Asher did have a brother in pop music but he was in Peter and Gordon.

[Natalie Severn]

Hey Julie,I met Roger McGough some years back.He ran a week long "Poetry Course" in Grasse in the South of France and I was there to get ideas on how to get pupils to write poetry.It was OK ----lovely place etc but he talked about his time with The Scaffold[and Jane Asher"s brother was one of them I think] .I remembered them vaguely jumping about as though they were all on pogo sticks.

[Limehouse]

Oh boy how I remember that winter! Snow a foot deep for three to four months and only one fire in the house! No central heating - just a coal fire in the back parlour.

Yes indeed - and I remember those long slides across the playground as well! No softy health & safety rules then.

Tow very strange records spring to mind from those days:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZw7lWd1btQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TAwx8VtQI0

If it was not for You Tube I would think I had imagined them both! They kind of explain my slight eccentricity - but I can't be alone surely - to have stood transfixed near to the radio when these peculiar renditions were played?

[jimarilyn]

Thanks Jim. Some very wacky memories coming back! A few yars ago - when I worked in a different team within the college - a few of us were talking about songs that we remember from our childhood - the sort they played on Housewife's Choice. Cheryl (a bit younger than me) started to describe 'a Scottish bloke going on about a soldier' and both Anne and I started to laugh.' "That's Andy Stewart!" we told her. I located the track uing You Tube and we pumped up the volume a bit. Seconds later our line manager was astonished to enter the room and find three middle-aged women marching around the room singing along to 'Scottish Soldier'. He was much more into 'Talking Heads!'.

Good post Julie. Andy Stewart used to have a BBCTV series which aired in the early/mid sixties. I remember it very well especially that lovely song you mention "A Scottish Soldier". I've always loved that song and if you'd been a fly on the wall of our living room over the years you would have been treated [or not] to a passionate rendition of the song. Sung by an Englishman impersonating a fanciful Scots accent that nobody in Scotland speaks with. I still sing it around the house occasionally. See you here Jimma !

That article about the Berlin Wall is so interesting. The journalistic standards of the day were very high - although I suppose the Daily Sketch would have filled the gap The Sun fills today. Those days may have seemed carefree in a lot of ways (the rise of Brit Pop - Brit fashion and Brit Art) but bubbling away beneath the surface was the real fear that a war like no other was possible and maybe only the flick of a switch away....

Yes indeed. Just over a year later in the October we had the Cuban Missile Crisis between the Russians and the Yanks. At the time it was thought we were on the verge of a nuclear war. Although only 10 at the time [and in the last year of Primary School] I remember it very well. There was great tension around for a couple of weeks and all my school-mates thought 'blimey, this is it'.
The crisis passed after what seemed an eternity and a couple of short months later the big freeze of 1962-63 started. Not seen anything like that winter since, it was great for us kids. We made some enormous slides. The snow was deep and crisp and even ( no sign of King Wenceslas though) and stuck to the ground for a full three months, I remember loads of footie matches being postponed. Times seemed a lot more innocent then than they do now, nostalgia ain't what it used to be ! The times certainly were a-changing.

[Robert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnfX-mOPFjw

[Limehouse]

Helen Shapiro's song "You don't know" was the number 1 single at the time of the A6 Murder. For all those interested here are the top 40 singles for August 1961. Some absolute gems in there........

http://www.everyhit.com/retros/index.php?page=rchart&y1=1961&m1=08&y2=1961&m2=08&sent=1&day1=1&day2=3

Great site incidentally. Curiously enough (or perhaps not) three of those hits have very similar sounding titles, "You don't know", "You'll never know" and "Don't you know it". Gary (US) Bonds was at No.15 with "Quarter to three". Strange title for a song. That was approximately the time that Michael Gregsten was murdered.........Perhaps there's a few clues in there Watson.

Thanks Jim. Some very wacky memories coming back! A few yars ago - when I worked in a different team within the college - a few of us were talking about songs that we remember from our childhood - the sort they played on Housewife's Choice. Cheryl (a bit younger than me) started to describe 'a Scottish bloke going on about a soldier' and both Anne and I started to laugh.' "That's Andy Stewart!" we told her. I located the track uing You Tube and we pumped up the volume a bit. Seconds later our line manager was astonished to enter the room and find three middle-aged women marching around the room singing along to 'Scottish Soldier'. He was much more into 'Talking Heads!'.

The two Clarence Frogman Henry songs stand out from that list. I was a bit of a singer when small and was often called upon to deliver my own three/four year old rendition of 'You Always Hurt The One You Love'. Precocious doesn't even begin to describe it!

'You Don't Know' takes on a whole new atmosphere when set against the events of that August doesn't it?

That article about the Berlin Wall is so interesting. The journalistic standards of the day were very high - although I suppose the Daily Sketch would have filled the gap The Sun fills today. Those days may have seemed carefree in a lot of ways (the rise of Brit Pop - Brit fashion and Brit Art) but bubbling away beneath the surface was the real fear that a war like no other was possible and maybe only the flick of a switch away....

[Limehouse]

Many thanks for that. Very greatly appreciated. You were pointed out to me at the Conference and I regret not having introduced myself as I enjoy all your posts and, may I say, you are one good looking lady.

Hi Stephen

I don't know who the lady at the conference was but she was an imposter! I was not there! I might try to make the conference next year though and would be glad to meet you. (Sorry - but I'm not at all good looking!).

Thanks for your kind words about my posts though and have a lovely day.

Julie

[Phil Carter]

Hello all,

Benny Hill, he of comedy fame, had a hit record (one of quite a few infact) in Feb/March 1961 with Gather in the Mushrooms. Additionally, Tommy Cooper, another British Comedian, had a hit record in June/July1961 as well, called "Don't jump off the roof Dad".

Those notwithstanding, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen's classic "Midnight in Moscow" is from 1961. Great stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5tnux7xxY8

best wishes

Phil