Jeff Evans: Rock & Pop On British TV
When rock 'n' roll arrived, all Britain had were two black and white TV channels popularly characterised as staid Auntie BBC and the slightly racier ITV. Unsurprisingly, it was the latter that dived in first, hiring Kent Walton, an Englishman with an adopted transatlantic accent, to front Cool For Cats in 1956. The BBC responded with Six-Five Special and the race was on. Cheap black and white studio-bound miming gave way to epic prog-rock live performances as the programme controllers' initial grudging acknowledgment gradually thawed and they accepted the inevitable. Eventually, mammoth rock festivals would be enjoyed on multi-channel high-definition TV, delivering more coverage than any one person attending the actual event could ever experience. Jeff Evans tells the whole story in this entertaining book whose incidental pleasures lie in tracing some of the lesser-known shows like Discs A Gogo, All Systems Freeman!, Revolver, Lift Off With Ayshea and Popworld. In a world where music is available on demand, 24/7, The Story Of Rock & Pop On British TV takes you back to your youth - whenever that was - and the days when pop on TV was an eagerly anticipated, greedily consumed and thrilling part of growing up in Britain.
