Greetings Pop Pickers!
If you tuned into the BBC Light programme in September 1961, a new voice was presenting Pick of The Pops. Booming out across the airwaves, delivering this now legendary announcement - Alan 'Fluff' Freeman. The call to teenagers up and down this sceptred isle that sent exciting shockwaves to all who heard it. The Hit parade was here!
As the the 1950s had taken leave of the post-war austerity and beckoned in the new decade, 1960 invited in, well, the future.
But as the first NME chart of that year was published, there was a lingering feeling of that had been.
Crooners, transatlantic heartthrobs and the general sounds of safety were topping the sales positions (often tied too!). British stars like Adam Faith and Anthony Newley were definitely bringing a British sensibility and voice to the radio, but still didn't greatly appeal to the youth of the day.
But things were changing - and quickly.
Coffee bars crowded with teenagers poured over jukeboxes rather than frothy coffee, and - amongst others - a group of working class lads from the North of England were about to send shockwaves through popular music culture, and change everything.
But those shockwaves weren't from Liverpool. Not yet.
The Shadows trailblazer their way into the charts with cinematic, instrumental escapism that captured the new found optimism of post war Britain in a blaze of colour. Hotly pursued by the likes of The Tornados, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde and of course Cliff Richard, a touch paper towards the rock and pop world we know today was well and truly lit.
And in the 21st century world of variously compiled pop, who better to take us back to rediscover an often lost world of pop pioneers than the team at NOW. The NOW Yearbook presents the 1960s: Volume 1 revisits three years of transformation, awakenings and pop perfection. From Roy Orbison to Frankie Valli, The Everley Brothers to Elvis. The brill building's, er, brilliance of Neil Sedaka and Carole King to the breathless teenage excitement of The Crystals. Pop music would never be the same again.
And the perfect guest to step back in time on this voyage back to the 1960s? Award-winning, critically acclaimed writer, pop culture historian, compiler and bonafide pop star in his own right, Bob Stanley.
Join us as we not only explore this amazing Yearbook and the legacy of those early pop foundations, but also find out about the final Saint Etienne tour, as well as his new book, The Shadows: The Definitive Story.
Along the way we discuss classic compilations, the first saint Etienne gig, why The Shadows are as important as The Beatles and Sex Pistols and generally revel in a plethora of pop memories from a golden period of the last century.
To look forward, you have to first look back.
Who said that? Hey, kids some crazy cat for sure, Yeah!
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