Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2022 i Vintage Rock

Chuck Berry was arguably the ultimate rock’n’roll package. An extraordinarily accomplished songwriter and lyricist who essentially invented the vocabulary of the genre – both lyrically and melodically – he also exuded the kind of charisma that few of his generation could touch. For me, Berry’s talent for storytelling and earworm riffs make him the quintessential rockin’ tunesmith. With a whip-smart gift for evocative wordplay, he could capture the spirit of young America in less than three minutes flat. As Slim Jim Phantom tells us in our cover feature this issue: “Every one of Chuck’s songs is a complete vignette and has never been duplicated or improved upon.” And to mark five years since Chuck’s passing, Slim Jim joins a whole host of Vintage Rock’s famous friends to pay tribute to…

A lot of my schooling in rock’n’roll came from my brother’s record collection where I got to learn about the likes of Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, as well as Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. I was mesmerised by Gene in particular and wanted to know as much about his life as possible, unbeknownst to me that one day I’d get to meet, and even work, with him. My older brother Ken was also massively into music and was keen to follow our parents’ footsteps into the world of showbusiness. In his mid-teens all he wanted for his birthday was an Edwardian Teddy Boy suit but my parents were rather reluctant to grant his wish. Teds in the 50s had a rather notorious reputation –…

“In the late 50s I’d go with a friend to this little trucker cafe in Hatfield that had a jukebox. We would order a tea or coffee and make it last for as long as possible so we could listen to songs on that jukebox. There was no rock on the radio then, so it was quite hard to hear this new kind of music. It was a very exciting sound, and I was fascinated by it. Chuck was one of the guys who introduced me to rock’n’roll, along with Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Those three guys made me want to get a guitar when I was about 12 years old. He was an incredible performer, and his duck walk was mesmerising. I got to see him do it…

“I started out in the mid-60s learning the same songs that all the other bands were doing and Chuck Berry was obviously among those numbers, particularly Johnny B Goode. I kind of learned to play that without knowing much about Chuck himself. I saw he was appearing live at the Odeon Southend on a package tour, so I bought a ticket, and it was that night I found out about the duck walk. As soon as he started to play, and did the duck walk across the stage, I jumped up out of my seat and ran down the aisle to the front. I remember he turned around and our eyes met. At school the next morning, I told everyone: ‘He looked at me, he saw me!’ “The next time…

“Growing up, listening to the oldies radio station in New York, you would hear the classics and Chuck Berry was always on your radar. You always knew that he was the beginning of everything. I’m sure he was influenced by T-Bone Walker, but Chuck invented a lot of the moves and I think everyone tries to borrow it, but Chuck wrote the book on performing. One of the first times I saw him was on a US talk show, maybe The Mike Douglas Show, and John Lennon was a guest host. Him, being Lennon, could do whatever he wanted so he brought Chuck onto the show, and they performed together. I caught him live a few times, but never met him. He just turned up, played, and didn’t talk to…

“I remember watching Chuck on TV and he had those enormous fingers that could span six frets. He could play a chord in a weird-ass way that I never understood. His influence on me came via Buddy Holly, who was my guy – Buddy covered Brown Eyed Handsome Man and was directly influenced by Chuck. Everybody was influenced by Chuck. In the early 60s you had The Beach Boys who came on the scene with Surfin’ USA, which used Sweet Little Sixteen, and, of course, at the same time you had The Rolling Stones who stole everything. No wonder Chuck wanted to smack Keith Richards during Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll! There was a lot of anger… and rightfully so with those guys [laughs]. “I saw Chuck at Carnegie Hall with Jerry…

“They noticed each other’s record collection and it was, ‘Hey, you’ve got Muddy Waters. You must be a good guy, let’s form a band.’” As Ronnie Wood succinctly put in the liner notes for The Rolling Stones’ curated compilation Confessin’ The Blues, the creation of the legendary band really was as simple as that. The ‘baby’ of the group was, of course, referring to the chance reunion between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in October 1961 at the distinctly un-rock’n’roll location of Dartford train station platform two. The future hellraisers had previously been in the same Wentworth Primary School class but lost touch when the former moved five miles away. By the time they reconnected in their further education years, both had developed an obsession with a sound completely alien…

Gruelling recording sessions for major label debut Watch This Space cost them a founding member, but The Stargazers’ first studio album has stood the test of time… Among the many fine British rock’n’roll revival bands of the 70s and early 80s, few adhered more faithfully to the sounds and visuals of the 50s than The Stargazers. Gifted musicians, they also wrote much of their own material. Largely ignored by the wider music press, as were most of the revivalists, they showed that aligning your sound with that of a bygone era wasn’t the creative backwater critics who valued novelty over true musical talent claimed it to be. They were also wacky enough personalities to fit in with the larky spirit of the early 80s, personified by bands like Madness and…

In late 1973, John Lennon, former Beatle and sometime peacenik, was enjoying a second adolescence in Los Angeles. Interviewed by Melody Maker’s Chris Charlesworth, a relaxed Lennon was sanguine about his public separation from wife and muse Yoko Ono and move to the West Coast with new girlfriend May Pang. Talking up the new project he’s about to start with Wall of Sound super-producer Phil Spector, an album of rock’n’roll classics from his youth, he tells Charlesworth: “Phil and I have been threatening to do this for years. I hope people won’t think I’ve run out of songs, but sod it, I just want to do it.” In truth, Lennon was in delicate shape when he began cutting Rock’n’Roll in October ’73. His ‘temporary’ separation from Ono lasted 18 months.…

Link Wray sounded like Duane Eddy’s psychotic brother on Rumble, the only instrumental ever to be banned on the grounds that it might create a riot by sounding so damn menacing! The toughest of all guitar instrumentals was born at a record hop in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Wray and his brothers Doug and Ray – The Ray Men – were the opening act for vocal group The Diamonds. They were playing Chuck Berry covers to a disinterested crowd when the organiser, a DJ called Milt Grant, suggested they play a stroll. “I said, ‘I don’t know a stroll,’” Wray recalled. “Doug said, ‘I know the beat behind one.’” Doug began drumming the slow dance rhythm and Wray improvised chords over it. Ray, the group’s singer, pointed his microphone into the…

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A hit single with a double life, Bruce Channel’s Hey! Baby first secured the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 on 10 March 1962. A quarter of a century later, it found fame once again when it was selected for inclusion on the multi-millionselling soundtrack to the movie Dirty Dancing. Channel’s first glimpse of stardom, though, happened in 1958 when he guested on the Louisiana Hayride. In his audition, he sang Marty Robbins’ A White Sport Coat and Ain’t I the Lucky One, and was hired on the spot. Afterwards, the Hayride’s manager Tillman Franks recommended that he change his name from McMeans because it didn’t have any “marquee value”. For his stage moniker, Channel took his mother’s maiden name, but Franks decided it should be pronounced the rather…

Sixty years ago in July 1962, The Beach Boys inked their major record label deal. However, as significant as they were in the overall scheme of things, the infectious sound of surf music didn’t begin with Brian Wilson and co. It all began with a book. The 1957 novel – originally titled Gidget: The Little Girl With Big Ideas by East European émigré to Californian writer Frederick Kohner – was based on the surf adventures of his daughter Kathy, nicknamed ‘Gidget’, which was his splicing of ‘girl’ and ‘midget’. Petite or not, she was determined to learn the then minor boys-only sport of surfing out on Malibu Point. Frederick’s chronicle of her summer frolics was turned into Columbia Pictures’ hit 1959 movie Gidget starring Sandra Dee, followed by Gidget Goes…

In what is certain to be the rock’n’roll highlight of the summer, Hollywood director Baz Luhrmann has finally given fans their first glimpse of his upcoming movie, Elvis. With a cast led by Oscar winner Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’s Austin Butler as Presley, the film has been the subject of several Covid-related delays. First announced in 2019, Elvis has been in development for almost a decade. Filming on the project was halted when Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for Covid in March 2020, with production only restarted six months later. Release dates have also shifted sporadically throughout the pandemic and at the time of going to press is now slated for 24 June in the UK and US.…

The McCurdy Brothers are an East Anglian two-piece combo who began busking on the streets of Norwich in 2018. Their debut six-track CD Moonshine Medicine Men was almost entirely “fuelled by gin and whiskey” and its 2021 follow-up, Moonshine Martian Men, contained even more clout. With a new album, Moonshine Maverick Men, out this Spring – drummer Adam ‘Sticks’ McCurdy and guitarist/vocalist Jerry-Lee McCurdy took time out to ponder over their fairly rapid rise on the rockin’ scene and discuss some of the ingredients which feature in the rich gumbo that is The McCurdy Brothers’ sound. Do people pester you to find out if you are real brothers? Almost every gig! We’re really uncle and nephew. The name actually comes from a true life outlaw by the name of Elmer…

Don Wilson, the co-founder of the world’s best-selling instrumental group The Ventures, has passed away aged 88. Wilson’s family confirmed that he had died in his sleep of natural causes at his home in Tacoma, Washington, on 22 January. Don formed The Ventures in 1958 alongside bass player Bob Bogle and the band went on to sell in excess of 100 million albums across a back catalogue that stretched to more than 250 LPs. Inducted into the coveted Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2008 by Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, Wilson played live with The Ventures until retiring from gigging in 2015 but continued to record with them in the studio. Speaking to the New York Times, former bandmate Bob Spalding said: “In the early days, Don had…

“Being in this band is just no holds barred. I can do whatever I please and so can Kris,” says James Walbourne. The guitarist and singer, probably best known as a member of The Pretenders, met Danish drummer Kristoffer Sonne when they worked on Chrissie Hynde’s solo album Stockholm. They clicked immediately and formed a trio called Mother’s Little Helper which evolved into their rabble-rousing two-piece His Lordship. Blasting out a mix of classic rock’n’roll tunes and their own original creations, the duo has already earned a reputation as a ferocious, flying-by-the-seat of-their-pants live act. “It’s a battlefield up there,” says Walbourne, “it can go horribly wrong or really right.” Can you tell us what the inspiration is behind His Lordship? WALBOURNE: Rock’n’roll is what I grew up on. My…

“It was probably towards the end of 1955, or early ’56, when I first heard Chuck Berry and the song was Maybellene. I was a budding young musician myself at the time, playing nightclubs and making records out in New York and Philadelphia. “We always kept an ear on the Black radio stations, which played the likes of Chuck, Big Joe Turner, Bill Doggett and LaVern Baker. We, of the younger set, revelled in that music. For me, Chuck was the great poet of rock’n’roll. He put into words the feelings and sentiments of that new teenage generation. “I only met Chuck once, at a grand show hosted by the popular Mid-Western disc jockey Howard Miller, in June 1957. It took place at the Chicago Opera House and about 5,000…

“I met Eric Burdon in 1956 and it was the same year that the movie Rock Around The Clock was released. It was swiftly followed by a whole slew of films cashing in on the rock’n’roll phenomenon. We saw them all and it must have been one of those that first introduced us to Chuck Berry. Early in 1957 we formed our first trad jazz band, but Eric quickly decided it was a dead end and we switched to rock’n’roll. Chuck was a huge influence on that change of direction. His music was great to jive to and that was the only dance I was ever any good at. “I was privileged to be able to watch Chuck perform twice a night for three weeks, when The Animals played support…

“I didn’t even know what Chuck Berry looked like when I first heard Roll Over Beethoven, but it was exciting. His lyrics described what you thought 50s America was like. You put any of his records on, close your eyes, and you’re transported there. “I was with a band called The Houseshakers at the beginning of the 70s and we’d backed one of my heroes, Gene Vincent. After he sadly died, we were asked to play Gene’s part at the Wembley London Rock & Roll Show in 1972. All the greats were there: Jerry Lee, Little Richard, Bill Haley, and we were asked to back Bo Diddley in the afternoon and close the evening with Chuck Berry. His rehearsal with us lasted about five minutes and he was like, ‘Well…

We know the date (12 July 1962) and the venue (London’s Marquee Jazz Club) yet there still appears to be some confusion over who took on drumming duties for The Rolling Stones’ first ever gig. According to Richards’ autobiography, future Kinks sticksman Mick Avory was behind the kit, but several others who were there insist that it was casual member Tony Chapman who’d joined the guitarist, Jagger, Jones, Dick Taylor and Ian Stewart on stage. Whoever was providing the rhythms, the fact that the show went ahead at all was an achievement in itself. Venue owner Harold Pendleton apparently took some convincing to give the fledgling band an opportunity to cover for Blues Incorporated, the club’s usual Thursday evening performers who were busy taping a BBC show at the time.…

The date is 21 March 1952 and outside Cleveland’s imposing 9,950-seater Arena a crowd has formed. The Moondog Coronation Ball has been hyped at “the most terrible ball of them all!”, but, due to a printing error, more people have turned up than its organisers planned for. Thousands of teenagers have pulled up outside Cleveland Arena, eager to bop’n’jive to the R&B bands they’ve only ever heard on the radio. But with just under a thousand hepcats already inside, the remaining fans are getting angry. “Let us in, let us in!” the mob chant as they slam and bang on the doors of 3717 Euclid Avenue. Eventually, the glass is smashed and a cheer erupts as the horde storm the building. The police, headed up by Captain William Zimmerman, are…

One of the most entertaining instrumental bands was Johnny And The Hurricanes, who broke internationally in 1959 with Red River Rock and became especially popular in Britain. The group was formed as The Orbits by John Pocisk and some fellow students at Rossford Catholic High in Toledo, Ohio. Covering tunes like Ramrod and Honky Tonk, they also played on some early recordings by Mack Vickery, who went on to write the Jerry Lee Lewis classics Meat Man and Rockin’ My Life Away. In 1958, the teenagers went to Detroit and were signed to a management and recording deal by Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik of Twirl Records who had a current instrumental hit with Poor Boy by The Royaltones. Balk renamed the group Johnny And The Hurricanes and changed Pocisk’s…

The Hondells: Little Honda – Brian Wilson-co-written car song, spent 12 weeks on the US Top 100. Bruce & Terry: Hawaii; Summer Means Fun – As in Johnson and Melcher: beach music collabs from the later Beach Boy and the late son of Doris Day. The Astronauts: Baja; Surf Party – Revved-up, riff-rich, ride the tide rhythms. The Surfaris: Wipeout; Surfer Joe; Point Panic – A red-hot hat-trick. The Trashmen: Surfin’ Bird; King Of The Surf – Brilliantly bonkers protopunk A-side, with Johnny B Goodesounding flip. Dick Dale & His Del-Tones: Secret Surfin’ Spot; Surfin’ And A-Swingin’ (both from Beach Party); Let’s Go Trippin’; Misirlou – Just some of the maestro’s surf-perfect platters. The Lively Ones: Surf Rider – Like Dick Dale, reinterpreted as per Pulp Fiction. The Revels: Comanche – Low-down, sax-sleazy; another Tarantino fave.…

“All of our favourite bands that are families all hate each other now and they don’t play together,” says Trevor Lake.“We’re like, should we continue to do this? But so far so good.” Music has always been a family affair for brothers Trevor, Brendan and Austin. Their dad is a jazz drummer, and the three boys grew up jamming in the garage of their home in Rochester, New York, where they started blasting out punk rock before discovering surf music, 60s power pop and classic rock’n’roll. It’s easy to hear those influences in Televisionaries, from the surf instrumentals of their Ram-A-Lam-A EP to the hairraising rock’n’roll of Go Getter and the brothers’ blood harmonies on the Spit On My Rubber EP with Bloodshot Bill. Now a quartet with the arrival…

Viva Las Vegas 14-17 April FEATURING The Blasters, The Jets, Marti Brom, The Go Getters, Marc & The Wild Ones, Marcel Bontempi LOCATION 4500 West Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, Nevada BOOKING vivalasvegas.net/tickets Vintage Mania 6-8 May FEATURING Si Cranstoun, The Jets, The Neutronz, The Kingcats, The Revolutionaires, The Outsiders, The Draglinks, McCurdy Brothers LOCATION Crystal Lakes, Fenstanton, Huntingdon BOOKING vintagemania.co.uk Wildest Cats In Town 1-4 July FEATURING Marty Wilde, Robert Gordon, Billy Burnette, Darrel Higham & The Enforcers, Graham Fenton’s Matchbox, Furious, The Spunyboys, Dylan Kirk And The Killers LOCATION Pontins Pakefield Seaside Village, Lowestoft BOOKING tennesseeclub.net Night Of Elvis: Lee ‘Memphis’ King Running until 15 September LOCATIONS INCLUDE Liverpool, Birmingham and York BOOKING atgtickets.com Marty Wilde Dates confirmed to 1 December LOCATIONS INCLUDE Birmingham, Halifax, Bournemouth, London and Blackpool…

On 18 March 2017, the world lost one of the last original leading lights of rock’n’roll, Charles Edward Anderson Berry. A poet with the pen and a groundbreaker on the guitar, Berry set the standard for the generations of artists who followed. Breaking down barriers at the dawning of a new era, the ascent of Berry and rock’n’roll music’s popularity in the 50s reflected the growth of the teen as both a consumer and cultural phenomenon. Distinctly removed from their parents, who’d been brought up with a backdrop of the Depression and Second World War, a modern youth had emerged with money in their pockets and radios in their cars. Yes, the cult of the teenager was a whole new happening and Berry was in the driving seat. Brought up…

“I had an older uncle who gave me his old 78s (Chantilly Lace, Great Balls Of Fire and Teddy Bear), and I’d play them on our radiogram. Chuck always stood out because every song was like a mini opera. His music was a travelogue of American culture, taking you there and you’d realise there was a whole world beyond your bedroom. I was sat in an English class and the teacher was going on about the eloquence of Shakespeare’s adjectives and descriptive writing: ‘The fringed curtains of thine eye’… and I just thought he was overdoing it, especially when Chuck hit you with: ‘With hurry-home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye’ – that’s finer than any Shakespeare. “Chuck was edgy and innovative with his guitar-playing. Years later…

“I was very little when Chuck Berry came on the scene, but my older brother Leslie had a Dansette record player, and he’d send us to the shops to get the latest records. So I first heard Chuck with my brother. As a performer, he was terrific and had the full package with the guitar and the moves. I would’ve loved to have seen him in his prime. I did get to see him perform live later in his career and he was still incredibly charismatic. You never knew what he was going to do next. When I was with The Sunsets we appeared on the same bill as Chuck, alongside The Pretty Things I believe. We were sitting in our dressing room and who should walk in the door……

“The first time I heard Chuck was at a friend’s house in Muswell Hill. His name was Johnny Burnett – not related to the Johnny Burnette [laughs] – and he was Canadian. His mother would import all the latest American records and he had a great collection. I went round to his house one day and he was excited because his auntie had sent him a record of Sweet Little Sixteen – we were in raptures while we listened to it. “Chuck was the all-round rocker: a great guitar player, great singer, great lyricist and his songs reflected a wicked sense of humour… he was a poet with a unique way with words like no other. Totally different to his contemporaries. “I was a big fan of Jerry Lee Lewis,…

“We didn’t really hear rock’n’roll in the 50s here in the UK, but my sister had an EP with Roll Over Beethoven on it, and that’s the first track I remember hearing, probably in 1962. Like a lot of groups in London, my school band played covers of Chuck, Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. The music was so exciting and I’m sure we had no clue about the culture behind it but it was fun to play our pale, suburban imitation of it. Chuck was an amazing performer – to the point where he would sacrifice guitar skill to get some dance moves across to the audience. I saw him many times, starting in 1964 I believe, where he was all-round brilliant. Every show after that saw a steady decline.…

Chuck Berry may have told Beethoven to roll over, but B. Bumble And The Stingers invited Ludvig’s mate Tchaikovsky to the party and rocked up his March Of The Wooden Soldiers from the Nutcracker Suite, turning it into the piano-pounding rock’n’roll instrumental Nut Rocker. The record was the brainchild of novelty specialist Kim Fowley who had previously co-produced The Hollywood Argyles No.1, Alley Oop in 1960. It was recorded in an improvised studio in the o_ ce of Rendezvous Records boss Rod Pierce, where pianist Al Hazan played the single take with such gusto that he cut his finger, sweeping it up the keys in a final flourish. “Every time I listen to Nut Rocker, I wince at that final moment of the record, remembering the pain of my bleeding…

The Ventures: Walk, Don’t Run; Hawaii Five-O – Their classic earworm debut and 1969 TV theme tune hit. Jack Nitzsche: The Lonely Surfer – A sumptuous pearl. PJ & The Galaxies: Andele – Catchy, guitar-picking curio. The TakeOffs: Colin’s Wave; Pressure; Blue Avalanche – A fresh take from Kauai’s finest. The Pyramids: Bikini Drag; Record Run; Penetration – The cool shaven-headed outfit’s great guitar wrangling. The Sandals: School’s Out – Upbeat cut from LP Wild As The Sea: Complete Sandals 1964-1969. John Barry: Dr No, James Bond Theme – Listen for Vic Flick’s ingenious surf-lick for 007’s first outing. One-hit Wonders: GTO (Ronny & The Daytonas); Hey Little Cobra (The Rip Chords), California Sun (The Rivieras); Pipeline (The Chantays); The One You Can’t Have (The Honeys, written/produced by Brian Wilson).…

Lonnie Donegan scored his first UK No.1 single with a trademark frantic skiffle take on old Appalachian folk song Cumberland Gap. Dating back to the latter part of the 19th century, the song was first recorded in 1924. Donegan’s rocked-up version 33 years later clocks in at less than two minutes and finally saw him at the summit of the UK’s chart after four previous Top 10 singles including iconic breakout hit Rock Island Line. Cumberland Gap was typical of the Glasgow-born Donegan – dubbed ‘The King Of Skiffle’ – and his desire to bring traditional music to a new generation of fans. Speaking to the NME in 1956 he explained: “I’m trying to sing acceptable folk music. I want to widen the audience beyond the artsy-craftsy crowd and the…