Rock & Roll - A Short Australian History (1959-1960)

[Jitterbug]

A short history of rock & roll in Australia interspersed with some historic moments in the rise of rock & roll music. Later, I will add a second part of the history covering the emergence of rock music and revival of rockabilly & neo swing music from 1970 -1980's.

1952 - Established in Sydney in 1952, Festival Records was quick to realise its potential by obtaining licensing rights to overseas recordings and developing its own local artists

21 Mar, 1952 - In Cleveland, Alan “Moondog” Freed organized the first rock & roll concert - "The Moondog Coronation Ball". The audience and the performers were mixed in race and the evening ended after one song in a near riot as thousands of fans tried to get into the sold-out venue. By the end of the decade, rock & roll has spread throughout the world. In Australia, Johnny O'Keefe became perhaps its first rock & roll star

1953 - The popularity of rock & roll in Australia was also influenced by American Lee Gordon, who came here 1953. His “Big Shows” promoted and brought many leading American acts with his tour, including Eddie Cochrane, Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis.

July 1954 – Elvis “accidentally” recorded “That’s All Right (Mama)” with Suns Records and the rest is history. The King of rock & roll also labelled at that time “The King of Western Bop” and “The Hillbilly Cat” and the “The Memphis Flash”

1955 – Bill Halley’s “Rock Around the Clock” released in the market. Australian teenagers now introduced to rock & roll and accepted it as a new and unique music. Australian bands started to play the new music.

1956 - Australian television was only a few months old. TV and rock & roll had both coincidentally hit Australia in 1956. While radio was slow to recognise the commercial potential of rock & roll, television embraced it. As a new medium, television was more flexible and innovative than radio and TV shows with a direct appeal to young people began to appear around the country, with names like 'TV Disc Jockey', 'Your Hit Parade', 'Teenage Mailbag', 'Teen Time', 'The Youth Show', 'Teen Beat', and 'Cool Cats'

1956 – Queenslander James Dalgleish (a 4MBS Classic FM radio presenter) founded the All Australian Rock & Roll Fan Club

1956 - Sydney's independent record label, Festival Records, was the first to get on the bandwagon in Australia, releasing Bill Haley & the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" in 1956. It became the biggest-selling Australian single ever.

Sept 1956 – Elvis first appearance on the Ed Sullivan’s TV show drawing 60 million viewers

19 Sep, 1956 – reported in the Age newspaper today that a song called “Rock Around the Clock” has caused rock & roll fans in London to behave badly dancing in the aisles and on the streets, smash light globes, throw lighted cigarettes from cinema balconies

11 Oct, 1956 – The Age newspaper reported that a Victorian state parliamentarian wanted to ban rock & roll and that “writhing and ranting” Elvis Pressley from visiting Australia. However, it was also reported that if Australia can't take rock & roll without disintegrating its society, there's something wrong with us that no ban will cure. It questioned why so many people always want to suppress the other fellow's activities including about 30 years ago when certain well meaning persons wished to ban that lively dance called the Charleston

1957 – Buddy Holly was only 20 when he became a rock & roll’s superstar overnight with the release of his debut album “The Chirping Crickets” in 1957

Jan 1957 - Lee Gordon brought the biggest rock & roll band to Australia - Bill Haley and the Comets

9 Feb, 1957 – A Mrs Lorna Matthews wrote a letter to the Age newspaper warning that the Australian authorities must learn from the incredible mob hysteria of rock & roll teenagers in London in their astonishing, riotous welcome to the American rock & roll king, Bill Haley, at Waterloo station. She complained that such conduct among human beings in a civilised capital city of the world (London) makes the most backward native Africans appear educated and culture

Feb 1957 – Lonnie Lee won the “Australia’s own Elvis Presley” singing contest and later recorded his first hit record “Ain’t It So” which he wrote with Johnny O’Keefe

1957 – Lonnie Lee (sometimes called the father of Australian rockabilly) formed his first rockabilly trio and later released his first album with his band, Lonnie Lee & the Leemen

29 Aug, 1957 – Melbourne’s rock & roll band, the Thunderbirds, played their first gig in Ascot Vale. The band later appeared with Johnny O’Keefe in 1959, and in the TV show “Bandstand” in 1962.

Oct 1957 - In October 1957 Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent performed a series of rock & roll shows in Australia. Despite being only minimally promoted, Lee Gordon’s 'Big Shows' drew many tens of thousands of young people to various ramshackle halls

Oct 1957 – Johnny O’Keefe and the Dee Jays were the first local Australian acts included in Lee Gordon’s “Big Shows”

27 Oct, 1957 - An Australian factory worker with two adolescent children was reported in the Age as saying, "There is too much primitive dancing like rock & roll, calypso, and jitterbugging - they are aping American films which give a false outlook on life."

1958 – Bill Halley & the Comets recorded a version with new lyrics entitled "Rockin' Matilda," about a beautiful Australian girl named Matilda. The melody is used in Harold Baum's "Waltz Round the Cycle" in The Biochemists' Songbook.

1958 - Johnny O'Keefe was named 'the Wild One' of Australian rock & roll, after his first hit song, "Wild One", in 1958. O'Keefe was Australia's first major rock & roll star, with a raw voice and an energetic stage presence to match. Over the next 15 years, he had 35 hit records in Australia and hosted two popular TV shows: Six o' Clock Rock and The Johnny O'Keefe Show. However, despite an ambitious tour of America, he was unable to emulate his success in Australia

Nov 1958 – Local Australian rock & roll band, the Delltones, was formed

1959 - Col Joye was the first Australian rock & roll singer to have number one records in Australia and the first Australian to reach the American Billboard charts, with “Bye Bye Baby”, “Stagger Lee”, and “Oh Yeah, Uh Huh”, with his brothers Kevin and Keith, recording as "Col Joye and the Joyboys", and as a solo artist. He was an original member of Brian Henderson's "Bandstand" television program

Feb 28, 1959 - The invitation to join Australia's first 'live' rock & roll show was broadcast on the ABC at 6pm on Saturday 28 February 1959. With that, rock & roll converged upon Australian television and captured a whole generation. Social conservatives feared that rock & roll could ruin the fibre of the nation. The ABC's weekly Six O' Clock Rock was hosted by the legendary 'wild one' Johnny O'Keefe, King of Australian rock & roll. Dame Enid Lyons raised the matter in Federal Parliament

Sep 12, 1959 - On the 12 September 1959, Johnny Rebb had 'Pathway to Paradise', Col Joye had 'Bye Bye Baby', Johnny O'keefe had 'Why Do They Doubt Our Love', Frank Ifield had 'True', Allan Dale had 'Crackin' Up' and Dig Richards was there singing 'I Wanna Love You'. These artists were true pioneers for the Australian rock & roll scene along with others such as, Roland Storm, Vicky Forest, Barry Stanton, Lonnie Lee, The Delltones and Laurel Lee

Oct 19, 1959 - A crowd of some 2000 screaming teenagers in Melbourne mobbed US rock & roll singer Fabian Forte on his arrival here Sunday and forced him to make his getaway from Melbourne airport on the raised platform of a forklift truck.

1963 - Barry Stanton career ended, along with those of many other artists, upon the arrival of The Beatles and other British acts in 1963. Stanton never achieved overseas success, making him one of the many Australian rock & roll artists to only have a career in Australia

1964 – Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs dominated the Australian Top 10 charts with the Beatles. The Aztecs drew 60,000 people to a concert in Melbourne. In comparison, the Beatles only drew 50,000. Thorpe's music took on a decidedly harder edge in the late 1960s but he became as important to the rock music that was to follow as Johnny O'Keefe had been a decade earlier

19 Jun, 1964 – The Beatles’ Paul Mccartney celebrated his 22nd birthday in a Sydney hotel with a lesson in dancing the Australian stomp

22 Jan, 1965 – The Rolling Stones starts its first Australian tour in Sydney

1967 - The Easybeats hit No. 16 on the US pop charts with the psychedelic pop gem "Friday on My Mind". Decades later, their signature hit (which inspired a David Bowie cover in the '70s) was named the best Australian song of all time. By that point, it’s guitarist George Young had gone on to co-produce hit records for his little brothers, named Malcolm and Angus, who'd started their own rock & roll group - AC/DC

Feb 1968 – Normie Rowe – Australia’s most popular solo performer conscripted into the Army and, like Elvis, broke the hearts of thousands of his adoring female fans

1969 – Johnny Farnham became Australia’s new “King of Pop” as voted by Pop music magazine, “Go-Set” taking over the crown from Normie Rowe

[tezza]

great reveiw!jitterbug on australias history of rocknroll.right at the end you mentioned the word pop!(music)johnny farnham,who incidently is planning a comeback now,i remember,sadie!the cleaning lady,from new zealand,i can only remember,ray columbus and the invaders(more,mod)and larrys rebels?as we were five years behind the times there,i really cant remember any rocknroll pioneers?from the land of the long white cloud,our elders just bought albums and 45s and went loud n hard...at parties.

[Jitterbug]

I think Max Merritt was a Kiwi that made it big in Aussie rock music back in the 1960-70's. Also Dragon and Split Enz ......

[tezza]

thanks jitter,and to be fair to your post on original,australian rocknroll pioneers,i googled new zealand rocknroll pioneers,and johnny delvin!was the man,who covered bill hayley and elvis presley hits,in a nutshell,the rocknroll was known back then as?pie cart rocknroll!pubs closed at six in the evening in those days,so most patrons simply stepped out the door,and lined up at various pie carts(mobile caravans)parked in the main streets for?fishnchips,as,snacks or dinner...bands like dragon,split enz,etc came into there own as,modern rock,not original rocknroll,and we woud class most oz bands like acdc,cold chisel,etc.as the same,classic or modern rock bands.and like most countries post,world war two,kiwis formed various rocknroll clubs,arranged country hall saturday night hops!and?fought the law,the mods,(sixties)and,any remaining american servicemen swooning?there woman!http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/ph...zealands-elvis