By Vickie L. Holt
“He was the wildest thing imaginable in those days.” - Trevor Peacock, script writer for the UK’s very first American Bandstand-style teen music show, the “6.5 Special”.
The memory is from England, 1956. The subject of the sentiment is a casually-clad, tousle-haired, Cockney whirlwind with an electric guitar and a million-watt smile. This rock ‘n’ roll dynamo was not only the wildest thing Mr. Peacock had seen in those days, but was also the inspiration for the creation of the “6.5 Special”. If you still don’t know who Mr. Peacock was talking about, don’t feel bad. You’re in the majority.
Before the Beatles stormed our shores in February of 1964, England had already been producing her own rock ‘n’ roll artists for nearly nine years. Much of this British rock history is all but unknown in the United States, and nearly forgotten by much of the UK. Still, it played a very important part in the overall history of rock, for it was these artists who paved the way for bands like the Beatles, The Who and the Rolling Stones. It was these early rockers who primed their own country for the invasion that would change the course of rock ‘n’ roll in America; and the man who started it all was an unassuming, Cockney merchant seaman named Tommy Steele.
In the mid-fifties, British popular music charts contained the country’s favorite songs in the genres of jazz, orchestra, novelty, calypso, Latin, and a new British style of music called “skiffle”. Skiffle was a form of black folk music, sung by white artists, with a sound very similar to Bluegrass, complete with washboard. It created its own stable of top name stars, such as the famed Lonnie Donegan, but never crossed the Atlantic to become popular in the US.
British charts of the mid-fifties also included hits from top popular music crooners (the style of music which served as a precursor to the popularity of rock) such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lewis, Nat King Cole and Harry Belafonte. Even at this early stage in the development of popular music, it was clear that the UK public preferred American artists to their own. British crooner, Dickie Valentine, made a brief splash on the charts with a #1 hit in 1955, but his musical career faded that same year in the light of his dominating American counterparts.
By 1956, a new kind of music from America began finding its way onto British radio stations, into British record shops, and onto British popular music charts. The new sound was catching on among the teen population, but not at such a rate that the charts became inundated. Rock ‘n’ roll was very much a minority genre in the music business, and as such, even top stars like Elvis Presley found it difficult to generate the same kind of sales and popularity in England as they did in the States. Even so, the new-music artists appearing on the British charts were still mainly American. As late as the latter half of 1956, England preferred the likes of Bill Haley and His Comets, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Guy Mitchell, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis to any native-born rock act that had crept onto the local stages.
In America, the first musicians to play the new sound were former Country & Western artists conforming to the new technique of placing the accent on the fourth beat of the music. The first of these converts was former C&W artist/DJ, Bill Haley. In England, however, the first musicians to try the new sound were former jazz artists, such as Art Baxter, Ronnie Scott and Tony Crombie. These men created the first British rock ‘n’ roll bands, joining the ranks of other home grown rock acts that had begun popping up all over London’s skiffle/coffee bar scene. These bands played a common repertoire of songs by their favorite American artists, rarely offering anything original. Because of this, these artists never appeared on popular music charts. They existed only for the purpose of offering the new sound in live performance to UK audiences. Bands such as Rory Blackwell’s Rock ‘n’ Rollers, Tony Crombie and His Rockets, The House Rockers, Leon Bell’s Bellcats, Oscar’s Hot Iceburgs and the Rockin’ Sinners gained minimal popularity, but were considered, on the whole – even in their own country – a pale comparison to the Americans.
Very soon after British bands began playing live shows, the rock scene in England turned ugly. The new musicians, more so than the jazz converts, were crude, abusive and violent. They played loud and condescendingly to their audiences. These artists, together with their equally crude and violent fans, became known as “Teddy Boys”, and the whole of British rock ‘n’ roll fell into a serious state of ill repute.
By mid-1956, interested parties in the UK music industry began trying to find a rock ‘n’ roll act that could not only rival the likes of the Americans, but could also lift England’s rock ‘n’ roll scene out of the unwanted Teddy Boy rut. They wanted to find someone who was genuinely talented, but who also had a more socially acceptable persona. They were also on the lookout for an act that could capitalize on the elements of youthfulness and good looks. In the States as well as in the UK, the first rock ‘n’ roll musicians had been older, average-looking men. The new, young and handsome Elvis Presley had begun attracting attention away from these original artists. The UK industry wanted to avoid him usurping attention from any potential British rocker by getting a handsome young lad of their own.
On September 19, 1956, music manager/photographer, John Kennedy saw a young merchant seaman performing in London’s famed 2I’s coffee bar. This kid was performing Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”, backed by popular skiffle group, The Vipers. With only two songs, this skinny, blond sailor was able to get the place on its toes, then bring it to its knees with his energetic and personality-driven performance. To Kennedy, this was in every respect, the answer the British industry had been looking for.
Tommy Hicks had quit school in 1952 at the age of fifteen to get a job as a merchant seaman on a Cunard ocean liner headed to New York. During his four and a half years at sea, he traveled often to America, as well as into the tropics of Bermuda. While in the States, he made a point of listening to as much music as he could, since many of the songs had still not made it across the Atlantic to his native home of England. Though rock ‘n’ roll was emerging as the new sound in America, Hicks’ musical interest at the time was the country & western styles he was hearing from the likes of Hank Williams.
During a voyage, Hicks fell ill and spent nine months in Guy’s Hospital. While convalescing, he became interested in the guitar, and used his recovery time to learn to play. Very soon, he was playing and singing for his friends on board, as well as using his natural comedic skills to do comedy turns during the ship’s concerts. By late 1954, he was good enough to play and sing on a semi-professional level with Canadian Jack Fallon and his C&W band, Sons of the Saddle. Hicks would perform with Fallon’s band while on leave from the Navy, playing mainly to American service men stationed at air force bases in England. Fallon would pass him off as having come directly from the Grand Ole Opry, and would warn him to keep his mouth shut unless he was singing, for Tommy’s Cockney accent was unmistakable. By 1955, Hicks also began playing on-leave shows with Josh White’s country & western band.
In spring of 1956, Hicks met two fellow music enthusiasts, Lionel Bart (later famed as the author/composer of the musical “Oliver”) and Michael Pratt. Together, the three of them formed a skiffle band called The Cavemen, having met in a club called The Cave. The three of them had similar musical interests and ideas, and began immediately composing original skiffle tunes.
When not playing country & western with Fallon or White, or teaming up with The Cavemen, Hicks would add a little rock ‘n’ roll to his act and cruise the coffee bars and clubs of London, picking up a little cash and having a lot of fun, playing and singing solo. Sometimes, he’d even sit in with bands who’d already taken the stage. This was the scene the night John Kennedy saw him at the 2I’s.
Hicks was due to return to sea in two weeks, but agreed to Kennedy’s plan to try and make him a star in that time. He told Kennedy, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’m going back to sea in a fortnight. I’ll do what you tell me until then. If we get anywhere, I’ll stay on.” Kennedy was as good as his word.
Kennedy had seen Hicks in the 2I’s on September 19. On September 22, he was auditioned by the recording manager for the Decca Record Company (the same record company that had signedAmerica’s first rock star, Bill Haley), and on September 24, he recorded his first single. It was a tune he’d written with Bart and Pratt, called “Rock With The Caveman”. Though it had been one of their skiffle tunes, the studio musicians (all top jazz musicians, including famed sax man, Ronnie Scott) made up the backing arrangement on the spot, and the track was recorded as a rock-a-billy style rock ‘n’ roll tune. Tommy Hicks became Tommy Steele, and the studio musicians became his back-up band, The Steelmen. Within ten days, the disc was on record store shelves. In less than a month, that same single was in the top ten on British popular music charts.
In the weeks that followed the recording, Kennedy invented a few stories for the press in order to win public interest for his new star. The stories were designed mostly to draw interest from the upper classes, since the Teddy Boy faction seemed dominated by the lower classes. By appealing to the aristocracy, Kennedy hoped to gain an element of credibility for British rock ‘n’ roll. His plan began to work as he won a two-week engagement for Steele at the very posh Stork Club. Because of the huge media machine behind his early success, however, many latter-day critics have referred to Steele as a “manufactured star”. If there was ever a gesture to prove that statement inaccurate, it would be the public reaction to Steele’s first television appearance. It happened less than a month after Kennedy had found him at the 2I’s.
Kennedy’s media efforts, as well as the success of the Stork Club engagement, had won Steele his three minutes on Jack Payne’s Off The Record; a television show that often featured popular artists. Until the night of October 15, 1956, however, the show had never featured a rock ‘n’ roller. Though Kennedy’s aristocracy-aimed press had won him the chance, it was Tommy Steele’s own talent and charisma that generated the thousands of letters that poured into the Off The Recordoffices, requesting the show to have Steele back on. That unmitigated success prompted Ian Bevan to write these words for the liner notes of Steele’s first multi-track album: “Luck, publicity and timing have all played a part in the story which transformed Tommy from backstreet obscurity into a national figure within the few minutes occupied by his television debut. But neither luck nor publicity can make a star out of someone lacking personality and talent. Tommy Steele has a superabundance of both.” Bevan went on to say, “Tommy’s personality registers the moment he bounces onto the stage, the moment the tv or film camera picks him up, the moment the recording studio’s microphone catches his first note.” Because of Steele’s natural talent and appeal, Kennedy’s plan had both backfired and succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. Steele was not the toast of the aristocracy as he had planned. Everyone loved him, upper and lower class alike.
With co-management and financial backing from music impresario, Larry Parnes, Steele’s rock ‘n’ roll career took off and reached heights rivaled only by the biggest names in America. His tours were sell-out spectaculars, creating riots among fans fighting amongst themselves for a chance to see him. Such was the chaotic adoration among his fans that he was mobbed onstage at Caird Hall, Dundee, in 1958. He was sent to the hospital with his injuries, and had to cancel two month’s work while he recuperated.
Tommy Steele was a rock ‘n’ roller for two and a half years, before leaving the business to pursue interests in many other areas of entertainment. For so little time devoted to that portion of his career, however, he can be credited with enough firsts and innovations to fill a lifetime’s worth of rock ‘n’ roll effort. First and foremost, of course, would be the fact that he was not only England’s first mega-rock star, but also her first teen idol. He was the first British rock performer ever to turn the collective ears of his own country toward the voices of her native rock artists. These three achievements alone should have been enough to secure his place in rock ‘n’ roll history, but it didn’t stop there.
Tommy Steele either wrote, or co-wrote with Bart and Pratt, much of his own music. Not only had this talent never manifested in British rock ‘n’ roll musicians before Steele’s time, but was also a rarity among top stars in the States. Also a rarity among that group of high-profile rock artists was guitar skill. Tommy’s talent was on par with the likes of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly, the only nationally-known rock stars who were also accomplished guitarists. Berry, however, played heavy guitar that was mostly comprised of rhythm-driven riffs; a style also adopted by Bill Haley. Steele’s playing involved intricate and complex chording, as well as single-string work.
Bo Diddly was also a single-string player, carrying his skills from the sounds of jazz and blues over to mainstream rock in summer of 1956. Diddly was rock’s first lead-singer/lead-guitarist, but Steele was on his heels within a few months, running a close second on that title, and taking firm grip on the honor of being the first in England. This role had never existed before Diddly and Steele, but became a wide spread staple for rock bands in all the years that have followed. For such a guitarist, it is only fitting that Steele was also first to take the electric guitar amplifier onto the stages of England.
Less than six months after recording his first single, Anglo Amalgamated Film Distributors produced “The Tommy Steele Story”, in which Steele played the role of himself. This was a full-length film that told the story of his rise to rock ‘n’ roll fame. As such, and being dated in early 1957, “The Tommy Steele Story” was the world’s first “rock-umentary”.
Though his music followed very much the same rock-a-billy formula that was currently being produced in America, Steele threw all other conventions of performance out the window. In England, as well as in America, even rock ‘n’ roll performers followed the unspoken show business protocol of being well groomed and well dressed when on stage. Tommy Steele baffled entertainment critics with his tendency to do stage shows, as well as television appearances, dressed casually. They couldn’t understand the public appeal of a performer dressed in a crew shirt and trousers, and sometimes just a plain T-shirt and dungarees. Even the three invasion bands, The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones, started out performing in suits for much of their early careers. Steele’s hair was another point of interest, as it was constantly described by the press as being “unkempt”.
Steele’s casual approach to performance didn’t just stop at his appearance. In America, every top name in the business had a physical stage performance that could be described as either “overly-animated” (becoming caricature material in later years), or “non-existent”. When Steele took the stage, he was definitely guilty of being highly energetic, but he couldn’t be described as being overly animated. The physical performance he chose had never been seen before, but has become very familiar, since. He’d let smaller motions of his upper body emphasize the music while incorporating a guitarist’s bounce with the beat. He’d even fall to his knees for the guitar solos. Steele was also the first performer to use the simple small hop, incorporated into the acts of so many rock stars today. It was a very casual, and fun-inspired way of performing, and because it wasn’t a pre-determined “act”, Steele was always relaxed and at ease, as opposed to the seemingly planned and prepared stage performances of others. In this, Steele was years ahead of his time.
Steele also refrained from using “sexual suggestiveness” in his physical performance. Though widely used by American artists, and even by many British acts in the years that followed, it simply wasn’t a part of Tommy Steele. Though his female fans definitely had their own ideas about his looks, Steele’s performance offered nothing more suggestive than energy and enthusiasm. His personality and talent alone elicited the screams and produced the rioting crowds that fought to see him.
Steele’s vocals were another area in which he applied his ideals of “casual and fun”. Until Tommy Steele began making records, every rock ‘n’ roll artist followed the time-honored standards of the recording business. Though their arrangements may have been more upbeat, their studio recordings were still time, tone and pitch-perfect. Songs were recorded with very exacting vocals, and with much deference to the craft of singing. Even when on stage, performers would be true to that craft, though they appeared to be out of control with their overly animated physical performances. Some critics have stated that, though Steele’s voice was quite pleasant, his vocals were not “true”. Perhaps for some songs, they weren’t. But, they were rock.
Most other top name rock artists of the day, and even for a few years afterward, kept their vocals like a dog on a short and firmly controlled leash. Steele, however, kept just as firm a grip, but let the leash out a little so the dog could frolic a bit. Many of his vocal effects eventually became some of the elements we love most about rock ‘n’ roll, today. Other artists, such as Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, would incorporate shouts and high-pitched effects into their songs, but in an over-the-top sort of way. Again, Steele’s approach was casual. Even in studio recordings, Steele would scream lyrics, not just scream between lyrics. He’d also let his voice go rough and guttural, just to make certain other sections of lyrics sound more fun. In his song, “Butter Wouldn’t Melt In Your Mouth”, Steele even ended the song with a growl. Not a menacing growl, or even a sexual one, but a growl for gusto. Rock ‘n’ roll songs didn’t include growls of any kind again for many years to come.
When he wasn’t screaming or shouting, Steele’s approach to many of his lyrics was still a more carefree affair than that of his peers in the business. In some songs, such as “The Trial”, it even seemed as though he was mischievously toying with the idea of letting go of that leash and letting the dog run free. The vocals seemed open ended, rather than firmly and deliberately placed. To illustrate, however, that his vocal approach was intentional and not just the product of a sloppy vocalist, Steele did deliver many songs with beautifully arranged and incredibly executed vocals. Among these were “Butterfingers”, “Will It Be You”, and “A Handful of Songs”.
From 1956 to 1957, Steele displayed many aspects of a rock ‘n’ roll performer that the business had never seen before, and wouldn’t see again for years. It could be arguably stated that though rock ‘n’ roll casualized the world of music, it was Tommy Steele who casualized rock ‘n’ roll. The appearance, the physical performance and the casual vocal effects belied an extremely talented and dedicated musician, singer and performer. Though his personality was fun loving and carefree, it was backed by a genuine desire to do his best at anything he tried. He simply approached his music the same way he approached many other things; with an eye for fun, and not too much fuss.
Steele was not only ahead of his time as a rock ‘n’ roller, but as a public figure, as well. In spring of 1958, he was sent on tour to South Africa. Though it had not yet become a political or social issue in England, Steele insisted that for every white show he played, he would also play a black one. Even though there were small exhibitions of protest at the white shows, he held his ground on the issue. In August of 1959, England sent Steele as a representative of British Youth to Moscow for a World Youth Conference. It would be many years before any other top name rock ‘n’ roller would step into such political and socially conscious shoes.
In December of 1959, the single, “Little White Bull”, was released from the soundtrack of Steele’s third film, “Tommy The Toreador”. At the age of twenty-four, Steele decided to donate his royalties from the sale of this single to Children’s Cancer Research. Today, it’s a popular practice among music stars to donate to charities using proceeds from the sale of musical efforts, but having done it in 1959 makes Steele the first popular music artist to have done so.
In the mid-to-late fifties, rock ‘n’ roll was still a new type of music in England, and still in the minority on the popular charts. As such, the industry men, as well as many performers who’d followed in the wake of Steele’s British breakthrough (including rock star Cliff Richard), considered it a temporary fad. Many artists had goals of becoming all-around entertainers after finishing with rock, and Tommy Steele was no exception. Though he considered his time in rock ‘n’ roll as great fun, he’d had his eye ultimately on musical comedy and theatre from the very beginning. Within a few months of his rock ‘n’ roll television debut in October of 1956, he was performing in pantomime. For the following two years, he’d made a simultaneous business of being both a rock star and a rising theatre performer.
In 1959, Steele told his managers that their time with him would be coming to an end. He wanted very much to get on with his theatrical ambitions, as well as to marry his fiancée, Ann Donoghue – a step that had been discouraged by his management for over a year. They feared it would damage Steele’s large female fan following. That same year, he began intentionally recording fewer and fewer rock ‘n’ roll tunes, replacing them instead with novelty songs and large-band, stage-show tunes. This shift in musical output, together with fan attention being divided between any number of new rockers to emerge after him, Steele’s name began to fade from popular music charts.
That next summer, while on tour in Australia, Steele made the final decision to cut ties completely with his rock ‘n’ roll management team. He was still at the top of his game. His shows were still sell-outs, and his fans were still rioting hordes of screaming teenagers, but he felt it was time to move on. Which he did. On the heels of his departure from rock ‘n’ roll, he married Ann, then created a variety stage show and took it to the Blackpool Opera House where he had a record-breaking season. What followed has been, thus far, 45 years of incredible continuing award-winning, record-breaking and Royally honored success in theatre, film, stage, television, and even the art world.
In addition to already being a singer/musician, Steele also became a dancer, actor, comedian, director, media writer, composer, poet, author of fiction, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and even a squash athlete. Still, Tommy Steele’s contributions to the history and development of rock ‘n’ roll cannot be denied by any who listen to his songs, or who are lucky enough to see archive footage of his incredible performances. He was truly a pioneer ahead of his time.