portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

GREAT BRITISH ROCK 'N' ROLL Vol. 1: Just About As Good As It Gets - disc 1 & 2 - TWILIGHTZONE

A great post from TwilightZone again lately in the double disc set of early EARLY British Rock n Roll including Winifred Attwell, Tommy Steele, Bert Weedon and George Chisholm et al! All slightly early for me but on the cusp of what we were listening toned certainly what my brother Steve was well aware of. This is great fun and superbly done

TWILIGHTZONE Says

Many would argue that there was no such thing as Great British Rock 'n' Roll in the 1950s, or at least not until 1958 when Cliff Richard's "Move It" offered a rather more convincing home-grown hit than all of its predecessors. However, apart from the Skiffle explosion, there was another quirky musical scene happening in Britain during the late '40s and 1950s. As far as we are aware, this compilation is the first authoritative musical documentation of that scene.

Perhaps it should better be classed as NOSTALGIA rather than Rock 'n' Roll but there is a lot of fascinating stuff here, such as the Deep River Boys (from Virginia, USA, recording in Britain during their many UK tours), Ray Ellington (a British-based black bandleader of American & Russian descent) and Winifred Atwell, a classically trained pianist from Trinidad who would go to 'her other piano' to belt out some rockin' boogies. Elsewhere there are numerous talented British jazzers seeing which way the wind was blowing and jumping that jive, and some up 'n' coming UK popsters swaying their hips to the transatlantic rhythm. And of course Tommy Steele, who was acclaimed as Britain's first Rock 'n' Roll star (long before he started serenading little white bulls).

This goes to show that swing rock 'n' roll was being recorded and performed on Britain in the early 50's far more than most realized

Great British Rock n Roll Vol I Disc 1 here


as the legend would have it here 'just about as good as it gets'! Hah ha ha . . . have at it!

Great British Rock n Roll Vol I Disc 2 here

Winifred Atwell - Black & White Rag / 12th Street Rag

Cliff who?

Tommy Steele - Elevator Rock

and then there was always Bert  . . . . . . . where many a guitar hero learned his chops!

Bert Weedon

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