Author: Rock History UK

  • Hank, Bruce, Bert, Joe, Big Jim & More

    Hank, Bruce, Bert, Joe, Big Jim & More

    The UK Instro Scene 1956-61 The “Golden Age” of the UK R&R/Beat Instrumental occurred very roughly between the late 50s and the very early 60s, peaking in 1961 on the back of The Shadows’ monumental breakthrough the previous year with the chart-topping ‘Apache’ (which spent five or six weeks at No.1, depending on which weekly…

  • Gone now

    Gone now

    Just to mark the passing of Colin Brown, a man who we have worked with for probably over twenty years now. I first met him when he was at Decca Records and we were licencing music for our See For Miles Records label. He was an absolute font of knowledge and a huge fan of…

  • Once a mod, always a mod ?

    Once a mod, always a mod ?
  • software nightmares

    software nightmares

    If you are wondering where some of the older clips have gone – sorry !! We updated our operating system and one of the by-products was that all our clips changed shape. So we are having to re-export them all over again. Still its nice to be busy

  • Why Roland signed Jimi Hendrix to Polydor

    Why Roland signed Jimi Hendrix to Polydor
  • June washes in

    June washes in

    More weather surviving fun this week as we splashed our way through some delightful interviews. Two ex-journalists in the form of Patrick Humphries and Chris Welch relived their experiences at the non-stop 52 days a week life in those ’60s and ’70s top selling weekly music papers. A relentless publishing machine creating and reporting all…

  • Why Marc Bolan exited Blackhill

    Why Marc Bolan exited Blackhill
  • countdown to a quick pic

    countdown to a quick pic

    A nice post interview memory of an interview with a really fine legend. L to R – Michael McDonagh, Marcel Stellman, Mark Rye

  • On the road again

    On the road again

    Onwards and upwards is the moto. Met up with Mike Berry who made a series broadcast on Capital Radio a few years ago about record labels as well as having worked everywhere himself, it seems. Then went down to film another ex-Pye and Pinnacle person in the shape of Trevor Eyles. It certainly was a…

  • Tony Hall – early days of plugging

    Tony Hall – early days of plugging
  • The Harvest Years

    The Harvest Years

    Just completed another interview with Peter Jenner covering the early Harvest Records years. Starting in 1969, nine of the first dozen album released by the label were Blackhill artists which says it all. For many years the label grew with musical integrity and vision until becoming sucked down in the morass that North America offered…

  • Somebody Help Me

    Somebody Help Me

    The latest joy has been an excellent interview with Muff Winwood covering his life and times in music. From playing bass in the Spencer Davis group to the very start of Island Records with Chris Blackwell. Eventually he moved on to head up the A&R department at CBS / Sony Records where the first two…