GoldenStreet wrote:Just viewing Ray's video of the plaque unveiling event again reminded me of how male-dominated the music scene was back in the heyday of the 2i's. Bill
'Dominated' is perhaps too strong a word. There were no British role models for teenage girls in the late fifties. The female singers on offer, Anne Shelton, Marion Ryan, etc were from an older generation and didn't sing rock'n'roll. Wanda Jackson never got into the charts over here and the only chance to hear
Let's Have a Party was on Luxembourg as it faded in and out across the airwaves. The BBC wouldn't play her. Too raucous. Unladylike.
Boys had plenty of rock'n'role models (sorry). Playing a guitar or sitting behind a drum kit was something that boys did. In the sixties it changed but all those old men in my video were teenagers in the fifties (even Wee Willie Harris) and they'd heard Haley and Elvis and Buddy and Eddy and Little Richard. Paul was allowed into The Quarrymen in July 1957 because he could sing
and play
Twenty Flight Rock.. He'd seen Eddy Cochran on film. He knew what rock'n'rollers did.
The girls were in the audience. The boys were on stage.