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How the arrival of ‘primitive and barbaric’ rock’n’roll tore up 1950s Britain
- Seventy years ago, Bill Haley’s barnstorming cover of Big Joe Turner’s US R&B hit, Shake, Rattle and Roll, crash-landed amongst the familiar litany of reassuring middle-of-the-road ballads in the UK Top 20. The first example of a genuine American rock’n’roll record to successfully cross the Atlantic, it opened the floodgates to a type of music which would soon swamp those charts and inspire generations of British musicians. With its amplified electric guitars, a solid backbeat on the drums, and
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Museum renovation, book re-release honor late author Haley
The life and legacy of late author and former Tennessee resident Alex Haley is being honored 100 years after he was born
- CelebrityThe Guardian
The show must go on: can a band continue without its lead singer?
The show must go on: can a band continue without its lead singer?From Queen to the Doors, many bands have attempted to keep going after the departure of the singer – with very mixed results
- EntertainmentThe Independent
‘A wop bop alu-bop, a wop-bam-boom!’ Little Richard, the man who ignited the fires of rock’n’roll
For over 60 years, the jury has been out on the precise point where boogie woogie and rhythm and blues tipped the cultural radio dial into the red, and rock’n’roll was born. Forties blues, skiffle and jazz singles by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Arthur Crudup, Fats Domino and Jimmy Preston laid a formative bedrock. Chuck Berry’s spotlighting of the electric guitar lit the long fuse. Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock” politely popularised the term.But in terms of encapsulating its exuberance and atti
- EntertainmentThe Independent
DJ Fontana: Drummer who was the driving beat behind Elvis Presley
Ask how rock’n’roll began and you can become mired in intractable debates about “race music”, country boogie or jump blues, Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley. It was October 1954 and Fontana, having served in the US Army during the Korean War, was the staff drummer on the Louisiana Hayride, a country music programme which went out on TV and radio to 28 states from his home city of Shreveport. Presley, 19, came to play the Hayride, with himself on rhythm guitar, Scotty Moore on lead gu
