The Restless Generation: How Rock Music Changed the Face of 1950s Britain

by Pete Frame

It was our version of a Hollywood epic, shot in black and white over a ten year period, with no script and a cast of thousands who had to make it up as they went along. Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, Lonnie Donegan, Terry Dene, Marty Wilde, Mickie Most, Lionel Bart, Tony Sheridan, Billy Fury, Joe Brown, Wee Willie Harris, Adam Faith, John Barry, Larry Page, Vince Eager, Johnny Gentle, Jim Dale, Duffy Power, Dickie Pride, Georgie Fame and Johnny Kidd were just a few of those hoping to see their name in lights.

From the widescreen perspective of one who watched the story unfold, Pete Frame traces the emergence of rock music in Britain, from the first stirrings of skiffle in suburban pubs and jazz clubs, through the primitive experimentation of teenage revolutionaries in the coffee bars of Soho, to the moulding and marketing of the first generation of television idols, and the eventual breakthrough of such global stars as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Castic and irreverent, but authoritative and honest, this is the definitive story.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

512 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Tommy Steele's autobiography "Bermondsey Boy: Memories Of A Forgotten World" I realised how much I'd like to read a book about British rock 'n' roll. After a bit of online searching I came upon this very book, The Restless Generation.

I'd only known author Pete Frame through his wonderful Rock Family Trees, and his association with the late lamented Zigzag magazine.

This book is a revelation - it met all my expectations and then some.

I am a fairly knowledgeable music obsessive albeit one born in the early 1960s and I had never really bothered to think about, let alone investigate, the world of British popular music before the Beatles. Like all great books this inspired me to go away and listen to all manner of interesting music. It also provides a wonderful evocation of Britain in 1950s, and that moment when post-war British kids started to define the period before adulthood as something else, something different...something "teenage".

Pete starts with the first stirrings of jazz, which in turn incorporated skiffle and the subsequent skiffle boom, and then onto rock 'n' roll, and mavericks like Larry Parnes and Jack Good.

Despite the muddle headed intentions of the BBC, and British record companies, finally British rock 'n' roll emerged (and then sort of died again) before The Beatles, Stones etc. finally conquered the world. However, without the many pioneers detailed here including Tommy Steele, Chris Barber, Ken Colyer, The Vipers, Billy Fury, Adam Faith, Mickie Most, Johnny Kidd, Lionel Bart and a host of others, the musical flowering of the 1960s could not have happened.

Pete Frame's book is lucid, compelling, opinionated and inspirational - what more could a reader wish for?

My only complaint is the lack of photos. I had to keep going online to find photos of Wee Willie Harris, Hylda Sims, Mike Pratt, Vince Eager, Terry Dene, Johnny Gentle, Dickie Pride and the many other memorable characters than inhabit this fascinating tale.

Read it.

EDIT: Since reading this book I have come across a budget priced, 70 track CD compilation called "Tab Collars, Slim Jim Ties, Drainpipes & Winklepickers" which contains many of the artists discussed in the book and it's a revelation, I am frenziedly running about in this unlikely Goldmine of Groove. If you like the book then I recommend the CD too.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pete Frame really did a remarkable job in documenting an era that most people don't care about -especially in the U.S. But to me it's ground zero where things ten years down the line- the swinging London 60") first had it's first burp and went on to make beautiful voices.

The book starts off in the early 50's and ends in 1959. Here we get Tommy Steele (the first British rock artist), Cliff Richard (UK's version of Elvis plus more), Vince Taylor, The Vipers, Lonnie Donegan, the semi-tragic Terry Dene, Marty Wilde, Micky Most, Lionel Bart, Johnny Gentle, Duffy Power, Dickie Pride, Johnny Kidd (Pre-Adam Ant), and the incredible and underrated (at least in the States) Billy Fury.

It started off with the boho sounds of skiffle (almost punk like) to mass-produced pop, engineered by the gay genius manager Larry Parnes, who pretty much thought up all the names above (well almost) and TV producer Jack Good, who made the first rock n' roll tv show. It's was a fascinating era where hustlers made the 'pop' market in the U.K.

Pete Frame, who is famous for his rock family trees, is a good writer and often funny. Distant at times, but also respectful to the artists, hacks, hustlers, and rock lunatics who made up a culture that is still with us today. Really an essential book.










I am almost finished with this book and it's really interesting. I am totally fascinated with London culture right before the Beatles hit the big time. It was a time when one couldn't get the latest U.S. vinyl by a blues artist without a great deal of bother. I believe that is how Mick Jagger and Keith Richard bonded, by seeing one carrying a record under their arm. That aspect of discovery is sort of quaint now. But it must have been great to receive that package from a record store somewhere in the U.S.

& London was also suffering from the after-affects of the war - even up to the early 60's - so that is an interesting juxposition of fashion, pop music, and cinema that took place among the ruins of certain neighborhoods in London. The Roxy Music book "Re-Make, Re-Model" sort of deals with that aspect of London or the U.K. in physical ruin, but due to that misery it produced a fantastic pop culture. I will write a review of this book right after finishing it....