UK CULTURE (32631) Clive Bellis

UNIT 3: THE SWINGING SIXTIES

Prof. Clive Bellis

INDEX

3.1 Social and Political Developments (1960s)

3.2 Cultural Developments (1960s)

3.2.1 Youth Culture

3.2.2 Trends in British Film

3.2.3 Trends in British Popular Music

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3.1 Social and Political Developments

• The decade opened with growing dissent and

disillusionment with the government and ruling
class, despite the material improvements of 1950s.

• Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963

had remarked in 1957 that “most of our people have
never had it so good”, yet his Edwardian appearance
made him look out of touch with a rapidly changing
society.

• Labour ran a successful advertising campaign

through national newspapers and won the 1964
general election, albeit by a very narrow margin.

MACMILLAN AND KENNEDY HAD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP, DESPITE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THEM.

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• Growing demands for political and personal
rights, expressed through campaigns and
demonstrations, prompted Labour to promote
progressive legislation:

– Capital punishment was abolished in 1965.

– The voting age was lowered to 18 in 1969.

– Reforms in areas of criminal law affecting

private morality: obscenity, homosexuality,
abortion and gambling.

• The Women’s movement campaigned for new

rights, reflecting changing attitudes towards sex,
marriage, child-rearing and work:

– The 1967 Abortion Act legalised terminations for

social and health reasons.

– The 1967 Family Planning Act provided for new

clinics and made oral contraceptives available
through the NHS.

– The 1969 Divorce Reform Act simplified the

procedure. Crucially, neither party had to prove
that fault lay with their partner. A minimum period
of 2 years’ separation with mutual consent was
established.

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• Immigration became a controversial issue as
economic growth slowed down:
– The 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act set a
limit on the number of immigrants allowed into
Britain, and the 1967 Act reduced this to a small
annual quota.

– The Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 1968

outlawed discrimination in public places,
employment and housing.

– Conservative politician Enoch Powell painted a

bleak picture of the possible effect of continued
immigration in his infamous 1968 speech.

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• Education: comprehensive schools were
introduced in 1965, replacing the existing tripartite
secondary system in most counties:

– The General Certificate of Education (GCE) at

Ordinary (age 16) and Advanced (age 18) levels
had been established in 1951 for academically
gifted pupils.

– The Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE)

was introduced in 1965 as an alternative
qualification to the GCE O-Level, with a wider range
of subjects, many of which were vocational courses
(i.e. car maintenance).

• Government reports on Higher Education in the

early 1960s highlighted the impressive staff/student
ratios and public grant system in Britain, but
recommended further expansion of universities,
including the creation of techological universities
and postgraduate business schools, if Britain was
to maintain its place in the modern world.

• The number of universities rose from 20 to 43

with the creation of the so-called ‘plate glass’
universities, and university places also doubled to
218,000 during the 1960s.

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3.2 Cultural Developments (1960s)

3.2.1 Youth Culture

• A time of excitement, liberation and

experimentation: British youth explored music,
fashion, politics, religion, sexuality and drugs.

• Tribalism: the media associated the new youth

subcultures - mods and rockers - with social
issues such as teenage pregnancy, drug taking and
violence.

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• The mod subculture was centred on scooters,
fashion (parkas, suits, and short hairstyles), and
various musical genres (ska, soul, R&B and British
groups like The Who and The Small Faces).

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• The rocker subculture centred on motorcyles,
fashion (black leather jackets, jeans, boots or brothel
creepers, and relatively long hairstyles), and 1950s
Rock and Roll music.

• Fashion: moved towards ready-to-wear clothes in

radical new styles, with bold colours and graphic
prints.

• Mary Quant was the leading British designer of

the decade and is credited with inventing the
miniskirt in 1964.

• Models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton promoted a

new look for women, with heavy eyeliner and
lashes.

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9
• British counterculture was an anti-establishment
phenomenon that advocated alternative ways of living,
including modern forms of Bohemianism.

• The Angry Brigade was a British anarchist group that

carried out a bombing campaign between 1970 and
1972.

• Inspired by Spanish anarchists like Octavio Alberola,

they were against all forms of personal and
institutional authority, and targeted banks,
embassies, politicians and the BBC.

Hippies at a Hyde Park ‘love-in’, 1967

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 AN ANGRY BRIGADE DEMONSTRATION.

3.2.2 Trends in British Film

The British New Wave (1959-63):

• Film adaptations of social realist novels and plays

from the 1950s provided fresh portrayals of the British
working classes and their concerns.

• These films were mostly shot in black and white in

the pseudo-documentary style characteristic of the
French Nouvelle Vague (F. Truffaut, J-L Godard, etc).

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• New Wave adaptations sought to convey the
authenticity of working-class life, which meant that
actors had to use the regional vernacular.

• Tony Richardson directed 2 films based on John

Osborne’s plays:
– Look Back in Anger (1959), starring Richard
Burton as disaffected graduate Jimmy Porter,
involved in a fiery love triangle with his wife Alison
(Mary Ure) and her best friend Helena Charles
(Claire Bloom).
– The Entertainer (1960), featuring Laurence Olivier
as Archie Rice, a failing music-hall performer, for
which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best
Actor.

Look Back In Anger (Mary Ure, Richard Burton, Claire Bloom)

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• Richardson also directed:
– A Taste of Honey (1961), based on a play by
Shelagh Delaney, in which Jo (Rita Tushingham),
a 17-year-old schoolgirl, becomes pregnant by a
black sailor, after which her relationship with her
alcoholic mother Helen (Dora Bryan) becomes
strained to breaking point.
– The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
(1962), based on a short story by Alan Sillitoe,
starring Tom Courtenay as Colin Smith, a juvenile
offender who is sentenced to a reformatory
institution, but refuses to submit to the authority of
the Governor (Michael Redgrave), who believes in
running as a means of rehabilitation.

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• Karel Reisz made Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning (1960), adapted from the novel by Alan
Sillitoe, and starring Albert Finney as cynical rebel
Arthur Seaton, and Rachel Roberts (Brenda) and
Shirley Ann Field (Doreen) as his love interests.

• Lindsay Anderson directed This Sporting Life

(1963), starring Richard Harris as Frank Machin, a
coal miner who becomes a rugby league footballer.

• Basil Dearden’s Victim (1961), starring Dirk

Bogarde, dealt with a previously taboo theme, the
blackmail of homosexuals.

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Spy Films:

• Screen adaptations of the 13 James Bond

novels written by Ian Fleming in the 1950s began
with Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962), starring Sean
Connery in the lead role.

• The Bond series soon became a huge global

success, with its attractive combination of glamour,
gadgetry, humour, thrills and exotic locations. There
have been 25 films to date, with 7 different actors
playing Bond.

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• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Martin Ritt,
1965) was the first of 10 film adaptations of John Le
Carré’s novels, providing a more realistic portrayal of
Cold War espionage.

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Historical films:

• Most successful films of the decade about events and

figures from British history benefitted from American
investment:

– Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) is widely

regarded as a masterpiece, winning 7 Oscars
including Best Picture and Best Director. The film
depicts the traumatic involvement of T.E. Lawrence
(Peter O’Toole) and the British in the Arabian
Peninsula during the First World War. It also stars
Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif.

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– Becket (Peter Glenville, 1964), based on the play
by Jean Anouilh, stars Richard Burton as Thomas
Becket, Peter O’Toole as King Henry II and John
Gielgud as King Louis VII.

– A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966),

based on Robert Bolt’s play about Sir Thomas
More, won 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best
Director and Best Actor (Paul Scofield in the lead
role).

– The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tony

Richardson, 1968), depicting events of the Crimean
War, was based on an original script by John
Osborne and featured a host of British stars.

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Other critically acclaimed films:

• The Servant (1963), a masterpiece directed by

American exile Joseph Losey, was the first of his 3 film
collaborations with Harold Pinter, who worked on the
screenplay. It is a psychological drama which addresses
issues of power, control and social class and in a subtle,
indirect way. James Fox plays the aristocratic Tony and
Dirk Bogarde his sinister servant, Barrett.

• Another American exile, Richard Lester, directed the

hit Beatles films A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help!
(1965), both comic adventures inspired by the humour of
the Marx Brothers and the Goon Show.

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• Lester also directed The Knack…and How to Get It
(1965), a stylish comedy dealing with changing
attitudes and the sexual revolution.

• If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968) is a partly surreal

drama in which pupil Mick Travers (Malcolm
MacDowell) heads a violent student rebellion at an
elite public school.

• Kes (Ken Loach, 1969) is a bleak drama about a

young boy from a coal-mining community in Yorkshire,
mistreated both at home and at school, whose only
positive relationship is with his pet bird, a kestrel.

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3.2.3 Trends in British Popular Music

The Beat Revolution:

• Beat music was a new genre of pop that first

emerged as Merseybeat in the Liverpool area in the
early 1960s.

• It was a novel mixture of Rock and Roll, Rhythm

and Blues, and soul music influences, with a
distinctive backbeat.

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• Beat groups were typically guitar-dominated
ensembles, who sang in doo-wop-influenced
harmony, with catchy tunes and lyrics that reflected
the way ordinary young people spoke.

• THE BEATLES began as skiffle band The

Quarrymen, founded by 16-year-old John Lennon in
1957. Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined
the band in 1958.

• After changing their name to The Beatles in 1960, they

performed in various musical venues in Liverpool and
Hamburg, before meeting manager Brian Epstein in
late 1961.

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• Epstein negotiated a contract with EMI-Parlophone in
1962, after which producer George Martin insisted
that the group replace drummer Pete Best with Ringo
Starr.

• The Fab Four had their first chart success with the
single Love Me Do, which reached number 17 in
October 1962. Their next single, Please Please Me,
released in January 1963, was the first of a run of 17
UK and 21 US number 1 singles over the following 7
years.

• Their debut LP Please Please Me was also the first of

13 UK and 15 US number 1 albums.

• The early Beatles sang short, sentimental songs, most

of which were written by Lennon and McCartney.
• The intense hysteria surrounding the band –
Beatlemania – which was even more fanatical in the
USA, led them to stop touring in 1966.

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• As the band matured, their music became more
eclectic, as evidenced in their nostalgic song
Yesterday (from the Help! album, 1965) and the
haunting Eleanor Rigby (Revolver, 1966), with their
classical string arrangements.

• The influence of Indian classical music is evident in

Norweigen Wood (Rubber Soul, 1965) and Love
You To (Revolver, 1966).

• The album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club

Band (1967), with its varied musical styles and
innovative use of recording technology, was widely
acclaimed as a masterpiece of popular music. With
each song flowing into the next, the album contained a
number of psychedelic tracks, including Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds.

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• Sgt. Pepper’s famous cover, designed by pop-artist
Peter Blake, attracted critical interest, as did Richard
Hamilton’s minimalist cover for The Beatles (1968),
also known as The White Album.

• The Beatles broke up shortly after the release of their

final album, Let it Be (1970) – with the notable
participation of Billy Preston on the Hammond organ -
by which time all four had made solo albums.

• McCartney (particularly with his group Wings) and

Lennon, until his untimely death in 1980, had the most
successful solo careers.

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26
• Following the success of Please Please Me in 1963,
a number of Liverpool beat bands made it into the
charts, including:

– GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS, whose first 3

singles reached number 1, the third of which,
You’ll Never Walk Alone, became Liverpool
Football Club’s anthem; other memorable hits
include Ferry Cross the Mersey and Don’t Let
the Sun Catch You Crying, their biggest US hit.

– THE SEARCHERS had number 1 hits with Sweets

for My Sweet in 1963, and Needles and Pins and
Don’t Throw Your Love Away in 1964.

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British Rhythm and Blues:

• British R&B developed mainly in London in the

early 1960s, with many bands achieving chart
success in the wake of the Merseybeat craze of
1963-4.

• A key moment in the development of British R&B

was the 1958 visit of Muddy Waters to the UK, which
prompted Alexis Korner to form the world’s first
noted white blues group, BLUES INCORPORATED,
in 1961.

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• Blues Incorporated’s fluid line-up included a number
of influential musicians at different times, with a
shared passion for electric blues and American R&B
music.

• Many budding London-based musicians

occasionally performed with the group, including
future members of the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds,
and the Kinks.

• By 1964, the fast-growing R&B scene had expanded

from London to the provinces, as many jazz clubs
adopted the style.

• THE ROLLING STONES became the most

successful of the British R&B groups. The band was
formed by childhood friends and ex-members of
Blues Incorporated, Mick Jagger (lead vocals,
harmonica) and Keith Richard(s) (guitar) in 1962.
Brian Jones (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums) and
occasional member Ian Stewart (piano), also left
Blues Incorporated to join the group in 1962, and Bill
Wyman (bass) completed the line-up.

• Signed up by Decca, their early singles in 1963-4

were mostly cover-versions, but with a rawer, more
energetic sound than the originals:
– Their first single, a version of Chuck Berry’s Come On,
reached number 21 in the UK in June 1963.
– Their version of Bobby Womack’s It’s All Over Now gave
them their first UK number 1.

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• Their first album, The Rolling Stones (1964), went to
the top of the UK charts, despite containing only 3
original tracks.

• The Stones’ first manager, Andrew Oldham,

encouraged the band to wear long hair and exotic
clothes in contrast to the clean-cut image of most
other popular groups like The Beatles.

• Oldham also urged Jagger (lyrics) and Richards

(music) to write more original songs, a gradual
process that culminated in their first original UK
number 1 singles in 1965, The Last Time and (I
Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (also their first US
number 1).

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• The Stones’ third album, Out of Our Heads (1965),
containing 7 original songs, also reached number 1
in the US, which helped to establish their international
reputation.

• Their 1966 album Aftermath (UK number 1/ US

number 2) was the first to contain entirely original
work, with Brian Jones playing unusual instruments
like the marimbas on Under My Thumb, the sitar on
Paint It Black, and the dulcimer on Lady Jane.

• A wild reputation: Jagger, Richards and Jones were

each sentenced for possession of drugs in 1967.
Increasingly troubled by his drug addiction, Jones
was found dead in his swimming pool in 1969.

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• The band went on to incorporate various musical
styles into their collective sound, and 50 years later
continue to hold record-breaking concerts around
the world.
• The Stones have had over 30 top ten singles in the
UK and the US, including (besides those already
mentioned): Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1968); Brown
Sugar (1971); Miss You (1978); Start Me Up (1981);
The Harlem Shuffle (1986)

• They have had more hit albums in the UK and the

US than any other group, notably: Their Satanic
Majesties Request (1968); Sticky Fingers (1971);
Emotional Rescue (1980); Tattoo You (1981);
Voodoo Lounge (1994)

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• THE YARDBIRDS, who, like The Stones, started as
an R&B band on the London club scene in 1963,
have come to be regarded as one of the greatest
guitar groups in the history of rock music.

• Their line-up featured (at different times) three of the

world’s most legendary rock guitarists: Eric
Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

• After achieving only modest success with a series of

R&B cover versions, such as their debut single, a
cover of Billy Boy Arnold’s I Wish You Would (1964),
they achieved a breakthrough in the UK and US with
the more pop-oriented hit For Your Love (1965).

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• The move towards a more commercial sound
prompted lead guitarist Clapton to leave the band to
form Cream, before going on to pursue a successful
solo career.

• Clapton was replaced by Jeff Beck, who famously

experimented with guitar effects such as feedback
and distortion on hits like Heart Full of Soul and the
cover of Bo Diddley’s I’m a Man (both 1965).

• In 1966, Beck was joined by fellow guitarist Jimmy

Page, as the band recorded tracks like The Train
Kept A-Rollin’, featured in the film Blowup. Pioneers
of the psychedelic rock sound, the band broke up
in 1968, with Page going on to form the hard rock
group Led Zeppelin.

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• THE ANIMALS came from Newcastle, although they
moved to London in 1964. Their sound was
dominated by the powerful vocals of Eric Burdon and
the keyboards of Alan Price.

• Most of their early songs were R&B covers, including

their hugely successful second single, House of the
Rising Sun (1964). The band went on to have further
chart success with their pop-oriented covers of Sam
Cooke’s Bring It On Home To Me and Nina Simone’s
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (both 1964).

• They toured the USA in 1964-65 as part of the

British Invasion, but broke up in 1966, soon after
releasing their last hit single Don’t Bring me Down.

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The Mod Sound:

• While some British R&B groups like the Rolling Stones

and The Yardbirds had a mod following, other
specifically mod bands emerged in the mid-1960s,
producing fast, energetic songs with lyrics that
reflected the mod lifestyle.

• THE WHO were formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey

(vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar) and John
Entwistle (bass), who had grown up together in
Acton, London. Keith Moon was recruited as
drummer later in 1964.

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• The Who began to gain in popularity on the London
club scene, developing aspects of their impressive
live act, which included Daltrey jumping into the
crowd, Moon hurling his drumsticks into the air mid-
beat, and Townshend’s ‘arm-windmilling’ and
‘machine-gunning’ guitar playing, with its innovative
feedback effects.
• The band also pioneered auto-destructive art in
popular music, with Townshend regularly smashing
his guitar on stage, and Moon destroying his drum kit.

• Their debut single, I Can’t Explain, reached UK

number 8 in early 1965, benefitting from exposure on
the pirate radio station Radio Caroline, as well the
band’s appearance on the TV music show Ready
Steady Go.

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• The Who’s next single, My Generation, famous for its
challenging lyrics and Daltrey’s vocal stutter, peaked
at number 2 at the end of 1965.

• Their debut album, My Generation, which featured a

mixture of Townshend-penned tracks and covers of
James Brown songs, reached number 5 in the UK.

• In 1967, they made their first US appearance at the

Monterey Pop Festival alongside Jimi Hendrix, which
they followed with a major US tour. They continued to
grow in stature, embarking on several international
tours and playing the two biggest musical events of
the decade: the Woodstock and Isle of Wight
Festivals.

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• By 1968-9, having gained a reputation for drug-
taking and unpredictable behaviour, they started to
take an interest in the teachings of the Indian guru
Meher Baba, which they incorporated into the
acclaimed concept album Tommy (1969).
• Tommy is a rock opera about a deaf, dumb and
blind boy who becomes a ‘pinball wizard’, before
recovering his senses only to a become a
controversial spiritual leader. The album’s success led
to a world tour with shows held at several major
opera houses, a star-studded film adaptation (Ken
Russell, 1975) and an award-winning stage musical
(Broadway, 1993; West End, 1996).

• Their hit album Live At Leeds (1970), recorded at

Leeds University, is widely regarded as one of the
best live albums of all time.

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• The Who’s next album, Who’s Next (1971), featuring
pioneering synthesizer use on the hits Won’t Get
Fooled Again and Baba O’Riley, reached number 1
in both the UK and the US.

• The Who ‘semi-retired’ from live performances in

1976, after playing the world’s loudest concert (120
dB) at Charlton Athletic’s stadium in London.

• They continued to produce sporadic albums and film

soundtracks, despite the deaths of Keith Moon in 1978
and John Entwistle in 2002, both due to drug-related
causes. Their last studio album, Endless Wire,
reached the top ten in both the UK and the US in
2006, and their farewell tour was planned for 2015-16.

40
• THE KINKS were formed in 1963 by Ray Davies
(songwriter, lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and his brother
Dave (lead guitar, vocals), plus Ray’s former
classmate Peter Quaife (bass).

• The band’s debut single, a cover of Little Richard’s

Long Tall Sally (1964), was a flop, but their original
third single, You Really Got Me (1964), described by
Dave Davies as “the first heavy guitar riff rock
record”, shot to number 1 in the UK and made the US
top ten.

• Their fourth single, All Day and All of the Night

(1964), also containing a power chord riff and guitar
solo, was similarly successful.

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• After their breakthrough, The Kinks toured the USA,
Asia and Oceania, but were subsequently banned
from playing concerts in the USA for the next 4 years
following reports of violent on-stage behaviour.

• Although their music was influenced mainly by R&B

and folk, and Davies’ lyrics tended to reflect the
idiosyncrasies of English culture, the single See My
Friends, released in 1965, is often credited as the
first Western pop song to be influenced by traditional
Indian music.

• Moving away from their early hard rock sound, The

Kinks released a series of critically acclaimed
singles full of witty social observation:

 Dedicated Follower of Fashion (1965, UK 4), a song which

satirised the British fashion scene, centred around Carnaby
Street in London.
 Sunny Afternoon (1966, UK 1), another satirical song
whose upbeat melody contrasts with the mocking tone of the
lyrics, about a moneyed aristocrat who has fallen on hard
times.
 Dead End Street (1966, UK 5), a social commentary about
poverty among the British working classes, accompanied by
one of the first music videos.
 Waterloo Sunset (1967, UK 2), an atmospheric piece which
describes a solitary observer watching two lovers crossing a
bridge over the River Thames near Waterloo Station.
 Lola (1970, UK 2), a humorous, possibly autobiographical
account of a romantic encounter with a transvestite. The
BBC refused to play the song until the word “Coca-Cola”
was changed to “cherry cola”.

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43
• In 1973, Ray Davies narrowly survived a drugs
overdose, after which the band experimented with
various theatrical concept albums and tours with a
greatly increased line-up, but these were poorly
received.

• In 1977, they were reborn as a 5–man rock band,

releasing a series of successful albums and singles in
a revival which lasted until 1983. During this period,
they were more successful in the US than the UK, and
played numerous sell-out concerts around the world.

• After 1983, the band’s popularity declined and they

finally split up in 1996, although the Davies brothers
have since held sporadic solo concerts, and a musical,
Sunny Afternoon, opened in London’s West End in
2014.

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