Having had a glimpse through the pages on this site I am a bit shocked at some of the stuff I see on what is a Rock 'n' Roll site!
Sure is different to my experiences growing up with Rock 'n' Roll and being as I still am, a Teddy Boy!
I can only put this down to some sort of time warp!
I see 60's rock n roll mentioned so many times and a difference made in describing rock n roll and rockabilly?
For starters there was very little that could be called rock n roll in the 60's, unless you count the clean cut plastic images that white red necked America put out in the form of people like Pat Boone, Bobby Vee etc, who were just being groomed by record labels who ripped of the material theywere given, changed it into something mundane after ripping off the original artist who made it.
Please don't be so misguided as to call the 60's pop scene rock n roll, it sure as hell ain't!
Then its the description or in this case differences in Rock 'n' Roll and Rockabilly, which is wrong as used here!
Rockabilly is a sub genre of Rock 'n' Roll as is Doo Wop, Western Swing, Rhythm n Blues and even Rockin' Blues, plus others that in my opinion are borderline!
Here it is used to define the types of people, OK, but what you appear to do is differentiate dance styles which are actually probably best defined as Rock 'n' Roll which you call Rockabilly, and Ballroom Dancing which you call Rock 'n' Roll.
Unfortunately Ballroom Dancing sure ain't Rock 'n' Roll, people dancin' around to set moves with broom sticks stuck up their a***es and taught in dance classes to middle of the road music is nothin' like the freedom that Rock 'n' Roll should bring to the dance floor!
Rock 'n' Roll is about freedom of expression and total enjoyment being expressed in any way that the music takes the individual!
Please please don't bastardize the name anymore than it already has been by the media and people who are more interested in competition and money than the real music itself!
Do I know what I'm talkin' about, oh yes, I lived through the era's!
I may be an ol' Git but I'm still Rockin'!
I agree...you've definitely made some valid points there Belfast Tede.
Rockabilly is not a lifestyle, a person or dance.....it's a form or 'offshoot' of a music genre. Mostly known to come from the early combination of traditional Hillbilly (or what some know and call nowadays, 'Country') and Rhythm & Blues/Rock'n'Roll. Some people need to understand that.
Enjoy your music people, there is plenty of it out there. (Some good, some bad)
Rone
Tyron (Rone) - The ReChords
www myspace com/therechordsmusic
Just come back from speaking at a conference in Adelaide otherwise I would have answered you sooner.
Look, I agree with most of what you say. I use the broom stick analogy myself. But, mate, the way you express your opinions has got right up my nose.
In Melbourne we are blessed with a huge choice of venues and bands; everything from corny Top 40 pop rock to the cutting edge of roots music. But do understand it is all played by highly skilled musicians.
Melbourne rock dancers can choose whichever stream they want to follow.
So don't make sweeping judgements from a shortage of information.
As I see it we are an international family of enthusiasts keeping the Rock'n'Roll flame alive.
I am real keen to come over there to retrace my Scottish heritage so I would love to learn more about the choices for enjoying the Rock culture in Scotland and other parts of the UK.
You appear to have missed the fact that I am a Teddyboy and what opinions I express come from the heart and my love of the real stuff so I cant account for what you put up your nose :rolleyes
The heading of my post should also give you a clue to the fact that there are some analogies and similarities to what has happened in the UK!
The Jive Bunnie, as most Teds and Billys call these people, have infiltrated and gained an amount of control of a lot of local gigs and venues to a point that Real Rockin' music and the social scene we used to have has been vandalized!
The people in question cant do what they do to a Real Rockin' beat and tune so they dictate to a large degree what the DJ's and Bands are allowed to play, which is extremely boring middle of the road, repetitive and boring again!
They have come from a background of Mojive Leroc and scirock where they even slow down the music they play if it doesn't suit the style, if you can call it style!
They also try to disguise themselves by an attempt to copy our dress style which is a sight to behold, white shoes red baggy trousers and blue drapes for instance, , not a pretty sight, then look down their noses at the real thing!
Not the best thing to do in front of Teds but we have mellowed a bit with age, fortunately!
Its also about value for money as the so called promoters, some of whom are from business backgrounds, not the street like the ordinary guys, hike up the costs and put on mediocre bands, crap that is!
The crowd that follow are also not social at all to the rockin' guys, most of whom have been following the scene for 30, 40, 50 years, and they are also not very good customers for the venues as most of them bring their own bottle of water, food and alcohol, if they can get away with it, much as what I've seen on one of your threads!
I cant agree with these attitudes at all particularly as it is ruining local Rockin' to a point that my sort of person, who are not in great proliferation anyway, is not prepared to pay good money to be sneered at, listen to crap music, unable to dance to what they like and have a poor social event!
As for judgments these are based on my experience and what I see and the fact that I thought we all lived in democratic countries where an opinion is entitled to be voiced, same as it is for you to disagree, but if you as an a moderator dont like this its your choice on what you do, but the Ted in me says, dilligaf!!!!
Your right that people have the choice to do whatever they want, but, do it where they don't affect what others have followed for many years because they only want what they want and cant integrate?????
I wont comment on the highly skilled musicians quote as I dont know who you mean, although I am aware of some of the bands from Oz, however we do also have some highly skilled musicians and quite a few who think they are!!!!
Another matter of opinion!
I hope that the international community that Rocks not only keeps the flame alive but also stokes it a little, and also that you enjoy your UK experience in the real Rockin' community over here!
First of all - welcome to Vicrock, Belfast Tede. A diversity of well considered opinions and the willingness to share knowledge & information about our beloved 1950's style rock & roll scene, especially from overseas based contributors, are most valued here. We already have "Rockin' Bones" contributing from the UK. I enjoy reading Rockin' Bones' observations about the UK music scene & sharing of music videos. We look forward to seeing more of your “Teddy” perspective & contribution on Vicrock so that we too can benefit & share from your enjoyment of the UK’s rock & roll scene.
Like what RobE said, we in Melbourne are blessed with a diversity of bands, music and venues. Punters can choose how they wish to participate and be entertained. Some in the scene just want to dance, others simply love their music and yet others enjoy indulging in the culture, fashions and clothing to re-create the 1950's era. And of course, we have those who cross over into the various categories.
Here on Vicrock, we have previously discussed & debated on several occasions varying threads on what is “rock & roll” music, bands, venues, culture & clothings and dancing. Fair to say, there is no shortage of opinions on these subjects.
I believe promotion, choice, lifestyle & economics all play a big part in determining the success & future survival of any particular social activity, including 1950's rock & roll. Tribal rivalry is as old as civilization itself. But human existence & society unfortunately have a tendency to consign losers to history. If we want to see 1950’s style rock & roll flame burning brightly forever and not just something that future generations read about in history books, it's up to us (and getting future generations) to support, promote & build the scene that we love. There won't be a shortage of competing interests for our hard earned dollars & leisure time. Fact is - no one owes 1950’s style rock & roll a living.
Your second paragraph sums it all up perfectly, Jitterbug. I was a war baby and also lived through the fifties as Tede did, but I did it in Melbourne. Not sure when the Teddy Boys were around but I think it was well after Rock and Roll hit Australia and now in my twilight years I live from week to week waiting to dance my crazy old head off doing what I remember as Rock and Roll and wearing stuff from the era. I'm enjoying life and I'm too old to care whether it's 'real' or not.
Thanks Lisanne, I don't remember them at all. I was a 'bodgie' during the 50's and all I can remember seeing Bill Haley and his Comets, Freddy Bell and the Bell Boys and Little Richard performing at the West Melbourne Stadium at various times in the very early 50's. I'm now in my early seventies and the memory isn't so great but we're still rockin.
I asked the question
'Who brought Rock and Roll to Australia?'
& this was one of the links
A Good Dance is worth the time it takes to get there.
"Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!"
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
You know? I can't remember seeing anyone dressed like that, but do remember them on newsreels. We wore more the US style in the crowd - tee shirt/jeans, and some sort of jacket I believe
Hairstyles were very similar but it seemed to me that we had more emphasis on having a deep duck's bum than what was on the video. I'm talking mid 50's.
Staying on topic though, I suppose that Rock and Roll/Rockabilly has changed over the last fifty years thankfully. I for one, couldn't keep up the pace all night if it was now, as it was fifty years back.
All interesting stuff.
Last edited by cirrus; 23-09-2010 at 08:00 PM.
Reason: spelling correction
Wow Ted you are missing the real point this site is a place to make and meet friends of course its a Rock n Roll site but you are out of your depth my girlfriends dance to many 60s songs so the issue here is a Pom Whinging. Who care if a little info is outside the parameter its all about a Site that brings people together for the love of Rock n Roll. Maybe Nth Ireland is the place for you go criticize elsewhere try Rock n Roll site in Moscow TEDDY
I totally Agree with Robe's Comments you get up Aussie noses BYES
Didn't like the fact I didn't like the band link you sent me then stray cat eh
Whingin' Pom eh, seem you always have that hangup over there, maybe there IS something to whinge about, maybe its the welcoming ways you have?
You don't do so bad yerself!!!!!!!!!!
The site I ain't got a problem with at all, lots of members and plenty of info, just some of the definitions used on it are not correct, in my opinion!
Gettin up yer nose, dilligaf, your choice what you put up there, maybe your using too much
By the way Russia is experience its own Rockabilly scene in a big way so good on em, psycho too but that ain't Rock n Roll but punks still seem to get everywhere!!!
SOoooooooooo it ain't me that need s to get out more??????
Thanks, RobE, I think
A little light hearted banter doesnt do anyone any harm, seem cats don't have a sense of humour tho
Oh yes by the way full blown Teddyboy and Rocker, not as active as I used to be but age gets yer body in the end, waiting fer it to get to me mind like it has some
PS I hear that you found a new way of using sheep over there>>>
Having read all your opinions closely I have come to the conclusion that you all like rock n roll in whatever form you wish to label it as.
I happen to love old time Rockabilly/Hillbilly but that's just me but it does not stop me from listening to other types of our music otherwise I would be limited to the places I could go to see or hear bands of my choice.
At the weekenders most of the bands now are modern but they still draw a crowd ... why? ... because they play the music we like to hear.
I'm of the opinion that if you like the music in whatever form well good on you ... but to argue over whether a song in the 60's is not rock n roll in my opinion is childish.
hi all i'm a Teddy Boy - Hairy a**ed Rocker be 51 soon been a Ted for o.m.g. 37 years now
ok Rock 'n' Roll is a tree the branches of the tree are Hillbilly / Rockabilly / Blues / Rhythm & Blues / Bop / Jive / Jutterbug / Roots /Swing and a lot more that i can't remember
i call it 50's style rock 'n' roll i like it fast and boppin' but thats just me and long with the many styles of doo wop slow and fast
So guys how ever you like it just enjoy it it is a life style as well as a form of music
just keep on a ROCKIN'
The tedboy1959
Im 62 full blown Rocker and Bikie. Not Biker.
Televion is what brought rock and roll to Melbourne in 1956.
I learnt rock and roll in 1956. Elvis had 2 records and was banned world wide,
I lived through it all. so I do know,
I still dance the same now, Tho younger people call it all sorts of names now,
Swing and black and white shoes came out of the big band era in the forties.
Teddy boys were the English version of Melbourne Rockers, and a lot of them were Bikies.
If you didnt live through it. you have no idea, and can only guess what it was like.
It was a grouse time in my life. thoroughly enjoyed it, we changed the the way it was. we did not want to live like our parents did,
I am one of the real baby boomers.
Long live the real rock and roll, 1956 style. It was a blast then, it still is now.
Your right on there Belfast Tede, tell it like it was,
Last edited by Briancanrock; 25-09-2010 at 07:42 PM.
Reason: more info
If ya not boppin, ya in ya coffin.
Rock and Roll will soothe your soul.
Interesting stuff, my mum taught me to dance.. when she was a kid there was rockers and jazzers.. I was dancing with my partner during a break at a gig i was playing recently and some of the dance crowd commented on my rockabilly dancing,, far as i can recall it was called pub rock n roll ??
At the end of the day a lot of bands mix eras to meet the needs of the punters, the music we are playing is getting in its late 50 years old anyway. A young friend of mine some 15 years old commented the other day that he was listening to 80's music, i said in the 80's i was listening to 50's music so go figure.
Melbourne is the most multi cultural city in the world, its the diversity and varied influences that make it what it is. Our music scene is the same through all the genres, and im proud to be a part of it, define it all you want but if it gets peoples feet tapping and hearts racing then it works for me.
OK, this may hurt some of ya but has to be said and is what happened in the UK!
Brian, like you say, it needs to be told like it was, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that counts for very little IF YOU WEREN'T THERE!!!
I was, and grew up through the 50's and heres a point that need to be remembered for later, yes the youth started to be a bit rebellious after years of hardship having just come through a war but there was still respect for most moral values!
We had by way of music, the big band years, the likes of Ted Heath and Victor Sylvestor and this spawned the crooners that were popular like Dickie Valentine, Frankie Vaughn, and the dance style was from the left overs of the Yanks Jitterbug but most of the action was in ballroom and ballroom dancing went side by side with it, but was predominant.
There was also the Boogie Woogie made popular by Winnie Atwell, and Trad Jazz with the likes of Kenny Ball.
Then came Rock n Roll which was refreshingly different and the Jitterbug became adapted to Rock N Roll style jiving which was mostly self taught or adapted from the films and the Yanks!
When this happened bands started sprouting up and Rock n Roll really took hold and there was no longer an association with the ballroom stuff which pretty much stayed as it was and is pretty much still the same today!
And Oh yeh, should add that I even got me gold medal for Ballroom dancing, but no form of ballroom jiving as it was really frowned upon as not a PROPER dance!
Rock n Roll music then had it drastic changes in the early 60's, 1st because we lost some of the greats and secondly because the record labels had by now turned form rejecting the devils music into seeing it as cash in the bank!
But, they still didn't want the devils who did that devils music so they manufactured their own clean cut, holier than thou, booted n suited or cardiganed, smart tidy haired imitations, as I said before the likes of Bobby Vee and lots more, which became the teen sound!
It masqueraded as Rock n Roll but sure as hell weren't as hot!!!!!!!
Then came a bunch of long haired, drugged up, cocky, lefty communist anarchists from uni's out of the beat and jazz clubs and POP was born!
Now this is where you have to remember the war and attitudes of the 50's because what was being sung and spouted about, by this new youth, sure as hell didn't go down well, even with a lot of the rebellious youth, who had suffered the hardships of their parent fighting and losing family members to get rid of the sorts of people the Pop beat crowd were treating as idols!
It was also nothing like Rock n Roll!!!
Not only that but the youth who caught on to this scene were totally intolerant of any other, and had the attitude that everyone should follow what they said should be followed.
The abuse, taunting and bullying, because there were more of them, that went on is glorified in what was portrayed in the media, BUT the other side never has been?????
The fact is that those of us who were subjected to their actions, and it has to be said were not necessarily anti Pop, because they were loyal to Rock n Roll didn't suffer the bullying for long because like most bullies they were only brave in a crowd!
I will tell of my own experience and "friends", "cough", who for the most part did as I have said, and berated me and seriously verbally bullied and taunted me as being old fashioned, dirty, greasy and all the rest that you may expect, in groups, and at work, until I eventually got pissed off at work one day and grabbed one by the collars, shoved him up against a wall and let him know "please don't do it or you will find yourself outside of the window the quick way"!!!
Surprisingly they weren't as brave as they thought they were, or maybe they hadn't taken any purple heart that day, and backed totally out of the property followed by the one I grabbed, who went a bit quicker!!!
Now this didn't stop them, but they never came too close again, or since, and as people do I found others as like minded as myself!!
Of course and even though these M**'s, as they called themselves, were in greater numbers, but still they never really came close locally, probably because bikes were faster than the wasps they rode, and like the Rockers, more stable!
There was of course the media hyped exception when thousands of these brave boys would attack a dozen Rockers, [who did what they had done for years in going out for a ride to cafe's in other towns], and the Police, and the towns, and anyone else who got in their way????
So now we fast forward to recent years and as I call them the Jive Bunnies?
[ I will try to find a bio I saw recently which explains the intervening years and how Rock n Roll revived itself in the 70's and post it]
Now a lot of these people are the very same people who in the 60's were the crowds that mocked those who stayed true to Rock n Roll, and have now decided they may have missed something, or lets take up where we left off before?
The problem is they still want to control and alter what they discarded and some of us were true too, as I have said in this and other posts!
My opinion, which matters because it is fact based, is that they have the "CHILDISH", self centered, bratish, bare faced fkin cheek to think that they are going to do it all again, I DON'T THINK SO, not if I have anything to do about it.
If they want to do what they do and enjoy it I don't have a problem, but go do it on your own, don't try to infiltrate something that you rejected once and try to change, dictate, or take over again, IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!
NOT WHILE I'M STILL AROUND AND CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT
Re: Culture Shock or just misguided
but we have mellowed a bit with age, fortunately!
Re: Culture Shock or just misguided
Re: Culture Shock or just misguided
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