BBC4's Rock 'n' Roll Britannia on Friday May 17th

[Alan Taylor]

From the Radio Times:
"A look back at the beginnings of British rock 'n' roll when acts such as The Shadows and Johnny Kidd & The Pirates helped to lay the foundations of an enduring musical culture. Featuring contributions by Sir Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown and Bruce Welch."

They've even printed a small picture of The Shadows, albeit with their mid-'60s line-up.

Part 1 (of 2) is on from 9 to 10pm next Friday, May 17th.

Alan

[drakula63]

Just bought the very last copy of the Radio Times in my local Sainsbury's. Nice to see the Shads so prominently featured advertising a programme about rock 'n roll. I shall be watching...

[MartcasterJunior]

This'll be an example of the BBC's "anti-Shadows bias" that people were on about a couple of weeks ago...

[JimN]

There is no anti-Shadows bias at the BBC.

There is, however, a strong bias against everything that happened before a date in 1963 (my best estimate of that date being after the release of She Loves You and before the Royal Variety Performance).

JN

[ash]

I think there is a wider perception (beyond the BBC) that there was little of quality before The Beatles at least as far as British music is concerned. The lack of decent (or any) footage of many pre-Fab acts makes this a difficult problem for a television organisation to address. Remember there is not even very much footage of The Beatles before October 1963. The cost of obtaining clips is often enough to put the BBC off making a documentary of true value. Didn't Bruce Welch find this a problem too when he was considering a long over-due Shadows retrospective ?
It is a great shame that the only way we are likely to get a really good Cliff/Drifters video is through illegal means. This stuff is over 50 years old. It makes me mad.
I wish Paul Rumbol could get his Oh Boy era documentary taken on. That would be a start.

[drakula63]

Whilst I agree that there is almost certainly no anti-Shadows bias at the BBC, there does seem to be a very pro-Beatles bias, which is evident when one looks at the number of times they'll show documentaries on the subjects of The Beatles, solo Beatles, spin-off groups and even documentaries based around Beatles songs! Having said that, I do recognise the fact that the Beatles were the biggest and most successful pop group of all time. They were not, however, the only one. Or the first.

The best piece of writing I have ever read on this phenomenon is this superlative piece which forms the introduction to the book 'A Pocket Guide to Shadow Music':

http://www.malcolmcampbell.me.uk/book5/ ... file01.pdf