The History of Live Music in Britain, Volume I: 1950-1967: From Dance Hall to the 100 Club

236 Pages·2016·2.841 MB·English

by  Simon Frith, Matt Brennan, Martin Cloonan, Emma Webster

An Ashgate Book
The hisTory of Live Music in BriTain,
voLuMe i: 1950–1967
This volume is dedicated to Jenny McKay
The history of Live Music in
Britain, volume i: 1950–1967
from Dance hall to the 100 club
siMon friTh
University of Edinburgh, UK
MaTT Brennan
University of Edinburgh, UK
MarTin cLoonan
University of Glasgow, UK
eMMa WeBsTer
University of Glasgow, UK
First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2013 simon frith, Matt Brennan, Martin cloonan and emma Webster
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
simon frith, Matt Brennan, Martin cloonan and emma Webster have asserted their right
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this
work.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The history of live music in Britain. from dance hall to
the 100 club.
volume i, 1950-1967 : – (ashgate popular and folk music
series)
1.concerts–Great Britain–history–20th century.
2.Popular music–Great Britain–1951-1960. 3. Popular
music–Great Britain–1961-1970. 4. Music–social
aspects–Great Britain–history–20th century.
i. series ii. frith, simon, 1946-
780.7'8'41’09045-dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The history of live music in Britain / by simon frith ... [et al.].
p.cm. – (ashgate popular and folk music series)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4094-2280-8 (hardback) – isBn 978-1-3155-5718-2 (ebook)
1. Popular music–Performances–Great Britain. 2. Great Britain–social life and customs–
20th century. 3. Great Britain–social life and customs–21st century. i. frith, simon, 1946-
ML3492.h57 2013
781.630941–dc23
isBn 9781409422808 (hbk)
isBn 9781315557182 (ebk)
Contents
General Editor’s Preface vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Getting Back to Business 1
2 Live Music and the State 29
A Snapshot of Bristol in October–November 1962 55
3 Being a Musician 59
4 Do-it-Yourself! 89
A Snapshot of Glasgow in October–November 1962 117
5 Youth 121
6 The Recording Industry 139
A Snapshot of Sheffield in October–November 1962 165
7 Venues, Audiences and Promoters 169
The Rolling Stones: Richmond 1963 197
Bibliography 201
Index 215
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General Editor’s Preface
The upheaval that occurred in musicology during the last two decades of the
twentieth century has created a new urgency for the study of popular music
alongside the development of new critical and theoretical models. A relativistic
outlook has replaced the universal perspective of modernism (the international
ambitions of the 12-note style); the grand narrative of the evolution and dissolution
of tonality has been challenged, and emphasis has shifted to cultural context,
reception and subject position. Together, these have conspired to eat away at the
status of canonical composers and categories of high and low in music. A need has
arisen, also, to recognize and address the emergence of crossovers, mixed and new
genres, to engage in debates concerning the vexed problem of what constitutes
authenticity in music and to offer a critique of musical practice as the product of
free, individual expression.
Popular musicology is now a vital and exciting area of scholarship, and the
Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series presents some of the best research in
the field. Authors are concerned with locating musical practices, values and
meanings in cultural context, and draw upon methodologies and theories developed
in cultural studies, semiotics, poststructuralism, psychology and sociology.
The series focuses on popular musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
It is designed to embrace the world’s popular musics from Acid Jazz to Zydeco,
whether high tech or low tech, commercial or non-commercial, contemporary
or traditional.
Professor Derek B. Scott
Professor of Critical Musicology
University of Leeds
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Preface
This is the first volume in a projected series of three. Our aim is to provide a social
history of music in Britain since 1950. The books are designed to fill an obvious
gap in the academic (and non-academic) literature – there is presently no general
history of British music in this period. But in writing this history, we will adopt
a particular focus: we are interested in the role which live music has played in
British cultural life since 1950. There are several reasons for taking this approach.
First of all, we want to shift attention in socio-economic studies of popular
music from the recording industry to the business of live music. Our starting point
here is that most present accounts of ‘the music industry’ (which are often derived
from Adorno’s analysis in the 1940s of ‘the culture industry’) over-privilege the
recording sector at the expense of the sector in which most musicians in all genres
have been located historically: the live arena. These books will chart the changing
symbiotic relationship between the recording and live sectors in the last 60 years,
a relationship that is neglected in popular music histories organised around record
releases and sales charts. Among other things, this means that we will examine
the key role of the promoter in musical life: the three volumes chart three eras
of promotional activity. We believe that a proper understanding of the live music
business is necessary for a proper understanding of the recorded music business.
The second advantage of a music history written from the perspective of live
musical activity is that it draws attention to the importance of place. Live music,
by its nature, must happen in a particular locality, and our second concern in these
books is to look at the changing sites and venues of musical performance, from the
post-war dance hall to the contemporary rock club circuit, from the state-run arts
centre to the pub back room, from the coffee bar to the stadium, from the original
jazz and folk festivals to Glastonbury and T in the Park. The history of live music
is also a history of leisure and the night-time economy, of city geographies and
holiday destinations, of fans’ movements around towns and musicians’ movements
around and between countries. Throughout these volumes we will draw material
from three cities in particular: Bristol, Glasgow and Sheffield.
Third, live music involves the state – and thus politics – much more directly
than recorded music. On the one hand, live musical events of all kinds are subject
to regulatory frameworks, to national laws concerning public performance, health
and safety, the sale of alcohol, noise nuisance and so forth, and to the decisions of
local licensing authorities. On the other hand, both national and local authorities
have been active in promoting live music, building and funding venues and,
through arts councils, directly supporting musical groups and organisations, and
sponsoring tours and performances. A history of live music is necessarily also