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Getting On Or Getting Off?
It's all in the perception
With the sounds of Don Lang and the Frantic Five, playing us in, welcome to the Six
- Five Special, or as one of the presenters,
Pet Murray put it on the very first programme,
'Welcome aboard the Six-Five Special. We've got almost a hundred cats jumping here, some real cool characters to give
us the gas, so just get on with it and have a ball.'
Looking back, now, it all seemed just a wee bit too contrived, but at the time,
it was revolutionary. The barriers came down and rock and roll hit the airwaves in a big way, and parents began to wonder,
to put it mildly, just what their children had become, or what they, the parents, perceived they had become. Freedom,
that was the word, that was the deed, that was the action. The up and the down sides there were, to be sure, but to the teens
it was all fun, fun, fun, rockin' the night away, jive to stay alive, no matter what you called it, and some of it wasn't
polite, at least on the parents side, it was the expression of the beginnings of the throwing off of the last remains
of the post-Second World War restraints
Six-Five Special
16th February 1957-27th December 1958
Presenters: Pete Murray, Jo Douglas, Freddie Mills, Jim Dale
Vickie
Smith, Leila Williams
Producers: Jack Good, Jo Douglas, Dennis Main Wilson
Russell Turner
Theme Music written by: Johnny Johnson
Over the points, over the points, over the points, over the points. over the points, over the points, over the points,
over the points....
The Six-Five Special steamin' down the line,
The Six-Five Special right on time.
Coal in the boiler burnin' up bright,
Rollin'
and a-rockin' through the night,
And my heart's a-beatin' 'cos I'll be meetin'
The Six-Five Special at the station tonight.
Hear the whistle blowing twelve-to-the-bar... whah — whah
See the lights a-glowing bright as a star..... whah
— whah
Now the wheels are slowing — it can't be far....
Over the points, over the points, over the points,
over the points.
It's time to jive on the old Six-Five
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the BBC's first attempt at a rock'n'roll
programme, a very great innovation
at the time and subsequently much
imitated, even today.
1931 - 2002
not the first but probably
the most well known of
the skiffle musicians
1928 - 1988
Many who are familiar with his
work have long regretted that
his talent, versatility and sheer
energy have rarely earned him
the level of attention and appreciation
that he so richly deserves.
1940 - 2003
one of Britain's most significant
early pop stars. His first hit
1959 and hit number one on
subsequent songs like Poor Me
(another chart topper),
Someone Else's Baby (a UK #2)
and Don't That Beat All he
established himself as a serious
rival to Cliff Richard in British pop music
1925-1992
a trombone player
who led the band
Don Lang and his Frantic Five
English
singer and songwriter.
He was among the first
generationof
British pop
stars to imitate
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