OR GLORY 21ST CENTURY ROCKERS

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MUNICH BERLIN LONDON NEW YORK

OR GLORY 21ST CENTURY ROCKERS

H O R ST A . F R I E D R I C H S

RZ_BU_Rockers_Inhalt_rl.indd 1 18.06.10 08:20

Sounds and Attitude

Q&A with Rock’n’Roll DJs Cosmic Keith and Sean Peschiera

Question: Some people say that the Rocker life is all about bikes, birds and Brylcreem, where does

music fit in?

Cosmic Keith: Rock’n’Roll music is all about attitude. The Rockers had a tough image and the music

which went with it was as mean as their look. It was a breakaway from post-war Great Britain, back in the day.

Nothing has changed fifty years on, Rockers are stuck firmly to the look and sound of their roots and it’s a

totally British thing, like the Mods of the sixties.

Sean Peschiera: Music forms the backdrop, the atmosphere to it all, the soundtrack, take any youth cult,

it has its sound, and it matters. The period between 1958 and 1965 saw England place itself firmly on the

Rock’n’Roll map of the world, eventually to eclipse the American music scene with the arrival of The Beatles

and others.

Q: Everyone knows proto-rocker rebels Gene Vincent, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. How does

the British Rocker sound differ from American Rock’n’Roll?

CK: Many British artists were heavily influenced by the sound of Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Eddie

Cochran, Buddy Holly and so on. Guys like Vince Taylor and Johnny Kidd got very close to the distinctive

‘Yank’ sound with their raw, up-tempo songs. Taylor’s Brand New Cadillac is a fine example, which was later

covered by the well-known punk band The Clash. The Rockers loved the hard-edged Rock’n’Roll sound

which went with their hard image. You couldn’t be riding a Café Racer while listening to the likes of Pat Boone.

Gene Vincent was an idol with his infectious Hold Me, Hug Me, Rock Me and Bluejean Bop. Vince Taylor was

flying the flag for the British, clad in leather, holding chains.

SP: Production and culture probably has the main influence on that distinctive British sound. Most studios

were well equipped with professional sound engineers and attached to large record labels such as Decca,

HMV and Parlophone. This was a radical difference from the countless thousands of small independent and

subsidiary labels which made up the American recording business of the fifties and sixties, enabling a wider

regional flavour and character there.

Q: Who were the great British Rock’n’Roll bands of the fifties and sixties?

CK: Some of the best British artists included early Cliff Richard, Vince Taylor and The Playboys, Johnny

Kidd and The Pirates, Casey Jones and The Governors, Danny Rivers, The Outlaws, Billy Fury, etc.

SP: My personal favourites would be: The Shadows (with or without Cliff Richard), Vince Taylor and

The Playboys, Tony Dangerfield and The Thrills, Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes, The Out-laws, Tommy

Steele and the Steelmen, Duffy Power, Ray Anton and The Peppermint Men, The Snobs, The Hunters, The

Undertakers, The Bobby Patrick Big Six, The Scorpions, Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers, Billy Fury (The

Tornadoes), Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages, John Leyton, Glenda

Collins and The Outlaws, Chris Farlowe and The Thunderbirds, Grazina Frame, Bern Elliot and The Fenmen.

The list is endless…


Q: Who is keeping it alive today?

CK: Few artists are still playing today. Marty Wilde is still going strong but many have sadly passed on.

SP: Sadly, very few – these days it seems like a lost sound. Apart from some original artists, The Rapiers,

The Flames and The Diamonds (recently split up) are all who come to mind.

Q: Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard vs. Tommy Steele, Wee Willie Harris and Cliff

Richard! Erm...

CK: The Americans invented the look and sound of Rock’n’Roll and were miles ahead of us musically. With

artists such as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, they pretty much shaped the sound of the British music scene in

the late fifties and early sixties.

SP: American artists were the originators and greatly respected and emulated by those in England.

Q: Why are The Animals, The Who and The Small Faces in the Mod camp, when their sound is full-

on Rock?

CK: Many British bands were heavily influenced by American R&B and Blues sounds. Listening to the

likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, Bo Diddley, they created something with the raw energy of

Rock’n’Roll, yet with its own unique sound, some ten years down the line. These were white European men

who were translating their own brand of blues.

SP: It has much to do with the march of time that this perception might occur. Many seminal Mod bands

cut their teeth on Rock’n’Roll and R&B standards of the 1950s. I feel it is just that they all developed a musical

style that moved away from the Rock’n’Roll formula and ultimately this change in sound forged a stronger

identity with an emerging modernist movement.

Q: Has technology changed anything or has it got to be vinyl and valve amps?

CK: The beauty of vinyl is it’s so fresh and pure like the artist wanted it to be. Nothing has been tampered

with down the line or digitally remastered in any way. There is an instant connection to the person who

recorded it.

SP: Technology has brought about greater access to the music, but I would quote the author (and original

Ton-Up Boy) Chester Dowling in that there is nothing like the original – vinyl is best.

Q: Does the music still wind cats up to slash seats with their flick-knives or are they bashing each

other up with Zimmer frames?

CK: There is still fresh blood on the music scene coming through all the time. New acts who find this music

as exciting as the original Rockers did many years ago. Long gone are the days of youth cults fist fighting for

supremacy on Brighton Beach but the passion is still there in abundance with young and old fans alike.

SP: Rock’n’Roll keeps you young.

Q: Favourite hangouts? Stores? Books? Movies? Dives?

CK: There are many cool joints to hang out at like the Ace Cafe, The Boston Arms, Dingwalls in Camden

Town, London. Sounds That Swing in London is a very cool vinyl emporium.

SP: Hangouts – Cafés and A-Roads. Stores – Hi-Star Classics stall, Auto Jumbles and Lewis Leathers,

London. Books – Café Racers: Rockers, Rock’n’Roll and the Coffee-bar Cult by Mike Clay, Rockers! Kings of the

Road by Johnny Stuart and Just for Kicks by Chester Dowling. Movies – The Leather Boys, Some People,These

Are The Damned and Pyschomania.

Q: Rock’n’Roll DJ Tips?

CK: A good DJ is a happy DJ. If he or she is doing their thing, riding high on Planet Bop, then the crowd will

be a very happy one too. Never settle for second best, always give your all.

SP: Love your music and play from the heart. Research your sound. PLAY VINYL wherever possible!


Bikes and Clobber

Mark Wilsmore, Ace Cafe London, in conversation with Sarah Bradley

My interest in Rock’n’Roll music and motorcycles came about because of the sounds and vehicles I

discovered as a kid. I remember growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, going on holidays to the coast – it would

be bikes at the fairground, bikes at the seaside and the Rockers. I wanted to have a motorcycle and I wanted

to go fast! When I was 17, I got my first bike and it gave me the ability to go to places that I’d started to hear

about, in particular a club called The Royalty in Southgate, London. It was Rock’n’Roll every Thursday night,

and Bill Haley and others came over from the States. I’d found my own little form of heaven once a week, along

with a generation and peer group who were the same as me. I think I was 21 when I bought my first Brit bike:

a Triumph TR65 Thunderbird – an aesthetically glorious British product.

Just prior to World War II, a new network of arterial roads was established across the UK. One of these

was the North Circular in London, and it was alongside this, in Stonebridge Park, that in 1938 an enormous

premises was opened to cater for motorists, containing a café-restaurant called The Ace Cafe, petrol station,

motor workshops and showrooms. It was entirely destroyed by an air raid in November 1940 and then

rebuilt after the war. In the 1950s, people began to be able to get credit, which transformed their purchasing

power. A youngster could go out and buy the fastest vehicle he could afford – and in this country, that was

a motorbike. These kids flocked to fast stretches of new road that had cafes and restaurants with jukeboxes

playing new music which had been imported from America – music that came to be called Rock’n’Roll. The

Ace Cafe was on a fast stretch of road, with a jukebox, plus a great big car park and a brand new neon sign: it

was a veritable oasis.

The Ace finally closed in 1969, and 25 years later, in 1994, I realised that organising a reunion would be the

key to getting the place reopened. The event turned out to be huge: on the day, police estimated that there

were some 12,000 people in attendance. The Ace Cafe London fully reopened in August 2001, and we still

host an annual reunion every September, plus motorcycle and car meets and events all year round.

There’s definitely an ever-increasing interest around the world in the history that is captured in The Ace

Cafe, the Rockers, the ton-up … an arguably British phenomenon. The Ace’s heritage is the ton-up Rocker –

it’s the linking of emotions to clothes, to sound, to what one loves doing. Emotions don’t change through time,

they’re constant. All that changes is the sounds that people are listening to, the clothes that they’re wearing

and the vehicles that they’re using. People enjoy riding their bikes – it has a history that dates back to the

Mods and Rockers. They want to share their passions and emotions – whether it be the achievement of having

finished building the most beautiful bike or even the consequences of a crash. I want to ensure that this little

aspect of a small island out in the North Sea is not lost into a future that could either be where we’re all clones,

or where there are myriad niche interests and it’s lost in a great swarm. The Ace is about fun, enjoying it while

you can and sharing it.


Bikes and Clobber

Derek Harris, Lewis Leathers, in conversation with Sarah Bradley

The motorcycle initially became popular as a means of privately owned transport as you could get many

more miles per gallon out of a bike than you could out of a car, and with this new popularity came the need

to clothe the riders. At the same time, D Lewis Ltd was making aviation and motoring attire. Essentially you’ve

got aviators with no cockpits, motorcyclists and drivers of open-top cars: the main thing they’ve got in

common is the need to keep warm and dry, and leather was obviously a good medium.

By the mid-1950s there was a clear generational look between motorcyclists. With bikes it’s always been

about young tearaways, even in the 1920s and ’30s. In the 1950s we had kids who’d heard about the banned

Marlon Brando movie The Wild One, for example, seen the photographs and, by this time, had probably got

fed-up wearing ex-RAF clothing which was cheap to purchase after World War II. What was now known as

Lewis Leathers came up with the idea of making the Bronx jacket, which sounded American and very exotic

to youngsters living a grey British existence. I think the Bronx is one of the greatest pieces the company has

ever made, and it’s a collector’s dream to get a very early version of it.

I’ve always had a big interest in British youth cultures, and that really goes back to my days of being a

Punk Rocker. Punk was clearly deeply influenced by all the things that had gone before it – it wasn’t just

something that had popped up out of nowhere, it had a lineage which went all the way back through the youth

cultures: Mods, Skinheads, Rockers and Teddy Boys. I don’t really remember the original Ted movement,

but we used to see them about in the 1960s – I lived on a big council estate where we had our own Mods and

Rockers, and it was the Rockers who made the biggest impression on me because of their bikes and the

fantastic jackets that they wore.

The Rock’n’Roll aspect of Lewis Leathers re-emerged in the mid-’70s. When the Punk thing started I

remember seeing The Clash and The Sex Pistols, and noticing immediately that they were all wearing Lewis

Leathers jackets. Similarly, Rockers didn’t just buy any old rubbish, they bought proper motorcycle jackets

like Lewis. That’s something I thought was cool, that the Punk bands did their research properly. Nowadays a

new generation of Rock’n’Rollers and motorcyclists wear our jackets – the classic styles are still incredibly

popular today.

Sarah Bradley is a British automotive

writer and editor who has a long-time

love of classic motorcycles and the retro lifestyle.




















UNVERKÄUFLICHE LESEPROBE

Or Glory21st Century Rockers

Gebundenes Buch, Pappband, 176 Seiten, 19,3x27100 farbige Abbildungen, 60 s/w AbbildungenISBN: 978-3-7913-4469-0

Prestel

Erscheinungstermin: August 2010

Bikes, Birds und Brylcreem – Englands Rockerszene im Portrait Das Phänomen der Rocker geht in Amerika bis in die Zeit vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zurückund wurde später durch Elvis Presley, James Dean und Marlon Brando popularisiert. Das Herzder europäischen Rockerszene liegt in England, wo das traditionsreiche Ace Café in Londonoder Brighton Beach zu beliebten Szenetreffs avancierten. Sie bilden die Kulisse für dieses Buchvoller spannender Momentaufnahmen britischer Rocker in der Welt des Rock’n’Roll, geprägt vonihrer charakteristischen Kleidung, ihren Motorrädern und natürlich ihrer Musik.

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OR GLORY 21ST CENTURY ROCKERS