Bulimia or drugs or both … her health had started to decline … Boyfriend Blake walked out on her. ibid.
Back to Black: But it was impossible to imagine the scale of the album’s success and the colossal impact it would have on Amy’s life. ibid.
Amy herself was becoming the story. ibid.
Her relationship with Blake grew ever more insular, co-dependant and drug-reliant. ibid.
2.05 p.m. 16 August 1977: The lifeless body of Elvis Presley lying on the floor. At just 42 the King of Rock n Roll was dead. Elvis: The Final Hours, Sky Arts 2019
Memphis Tennessee: the home of the legendary Elvis Presley. Here, Elvis’s closest friends and confidants, known as the Memphis Mafia, reveal the heartbreaking story of the King’s final moments on Earth. ibid.
Elvis took the world by storm. ibid.
Elvis did everything to excess. ibid.
Elvis’s only income came from his tours … He was on the very edge of financial collapse … 50% of the income went to Tom Parker. ibid.
The drugs and ensuing health problems had changed Elvis mentally and physically. ibid.
‘His mood swings were more frequent.’ ibid. confidant
‘A slowly slide.’ ibid.
‘The seeds for what we take for granted – this multicultural society that we live in now – they were really formed on the dancefloor back in the day in the late ’60s and early ’70s.’ Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records, Sky Arts 2019
Chapter 1: The Trojan: Let’s go to Jamaica: one of the bigger islands … ‘Kingston was, was fun, ya know, much lovin’ in Jamaica. Then till them start migrating to England, here.’ ibid.
Between 1955 and 1963 over 100,000 people emigrated from Jamaica to Great Britain. ibid. caption
David Betteridge: Island & Trojan Records: ‘We were a Jamaican music company.’ ibid.
Millie: My Boy Lollipop … Dandy: Rudy, A Message to You … The Maytals: 54-46 Was My Number … Derek Morgan: Seven Letters … Desmond Decker and the Aces: 007 … The Harry J All Stars: Liquidator … Untouchables: Tighten Up … Lee Perry … ibid.
In 1968 the same year Trojan Records is founded, MP Enoch Powell reacts to rising levels of Immigration and addresses the nation. ibid.
A new vibration is emerging in Jamaica and Trojan begins importing records to sell to a growing market in the UK. ibid.
While mainstream radio will not play Trojan records, pirate radio begins broadcasting Jamaican music. ibid.
Trojan skinhead culture is sweeping through the UK and a new market for Jamaican music is emerging. ibid.
Between March and June 1969 Desmond Decker’s The Israelites sells over a million records. ibid.
I had ambitions to er set out and find like an odyssey, going home somewhere and set up to find this home that I’d left awhile back … Bob Dylan, No Direction Home I, 2005
We didn’t have the clothes that we have now … There really wasn’t any philosophy or … ideology to go against. ibid.
He’s changed from what he was. He’s not the same as he was at first. ibid. British fan post-concert
Woody Guthie: he had a particular sound. And he said something to go along with his sound. That was highly unusual to my ears. ibid. Dylan
Fantastic. Very good. ibid. British fan post-concert
Hey, her, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song, about a funny old world that’s moving along.’ ibid. song lyric
It was very much the spirit of the time. ibid. fan
The land that I live in has God on its side … Oh the country was young with God on its side. ibid. song lyric
The process was new to me. I felt like I’d discovered something no-one else had ever discovered, and I was in a certain arena artistically that no-one else had ever been in before. Ever. Although, I might have been wrong about that. ibid. Dylan
Fan: What happened to Woody Guthrie, Bob? ibid.
Bob: These are all protest songs. Now come on. Bob Dylan, No Direction Home II
All my sons are protest songs. ibid.
No-one had heard anything like this before. ibid. fan
‘She’s a very bad naughty girl.’ There’s Only One Madonna, Jenny Eclair, BBC 2020
The nation’s tempestuous affair with Madonna began way back in the last century when Britain was at war with Argentina and the Iron Lady was on the throne. ibid.
In January 1984 Madonna made her debut appearance on Top of the Pops. ibid.
‘She was a white girl who could sing that fabulous black R & B music. And it crossed over.’ Definitely Dusty ***** Lulu, BBC 2020
‘Dusty does sum up a kind of fabness of the 60s.’ ibid. Neil Tennant
Since the death of Dusty Springfield in March 1999, just short of her sixtieth birthday, fans and musicians continue to celebrate one of Britain’s greatest ever singers. ibid.
A gay icon. A diva. Over a career spanning four decades, Dusty’s glamorous image was to be as much her hallmark as her voice. But it masked the deeply private person. ibid.
Dusty the solo singer burst on to thee screen in 1963 and was an immediate success. But her rise to stardom was not without its difficulties. ibid.
Dusty would have a string of hits throughout the sixties and host her own television star. She seemed to be able to sing anything while remaining distinctly Dusty. ibid.
‘The look of love …’ [Dusty] … ‘It was smoky, it was sexy, it was restrained, it was held in check but underneath it was smouldering. It was just on fire.’ ibid. Burt Bacharach
‘She was a tireless promoter of black music.’ ibid.
Dusty was cast as a hero of the Apartheid movement when her 1964 tour of South Africa provoked a political storm. ibid.
Dusty left England at the start of the ’70s. He sales were dropping. She had a horror of ending up on the nostalgia circuit. And she wanted to escape the prying into her sexuality. ibid.
#2 in America: Dusty Springfield & the Pet Shop Boys. ibid.
It was the freedom I was looking for coming out of The Jam. Long Hot Summers: The Story of the Style Council ***** Paul, Sky Arts 2020
One of the best combinations of music and look in a pop group ever. ibid. Martin Freeman
He had the chops to do it, and the vision to do it. ibid. Billy Bragg
Long Hot Summer: The one that really made me prick my ears up. ibid. Boy George
A pop band with substance. ibid. critic
At the same time they said er, Prince Charles & Diana are turning up and you can meet them, and we just went, we’ll just do the sound check, shall we? ibid. Mick Talbot of Live Aid
‘Before Elvis there was nothing.’ Elvis: The Man that Rocked the World, Lennon, Channel 5 2020
He was the man who started it all and nearly 45 years after he left us he’s still the one true king of rock-n-roll. Much more than an uncontrollable pelvis and smouldering good looks he became an icon of the 20th century. And tonight we’re going to count down the Top 30 moments that made up his amazing life. ibid.
January 8th 1935: Elvis Aaron Presley entered the world. ibid.
Memphis was then home to one of the biggest jazz and blues music scenes in the US. ibid.
Elvis had the family he had always yearned for, but for Priscilla the dream was turning sour. ibid.
Ed Sullivan had earlier refused to have Elvis on his show but as he was now the biggest star in the country he had no choice. ibid.
All Shook Up was to be the first of his twenty-one top stops, even more than a young group from Liverpool. ibid.
After the huge success of the Comeback Special there was only one place for Elvis to go – Vegas. ibid.
By the summer of 1955 Elvis’s extraordinary success in the American south was starting to attract national attention. One man in particular could see Elvis’s money-making potential. Elvis: The Man Who Shook Up the World, Channel 5 2020
‘Colonel Parker was this kind of blustery, cigar-chewing, massively overweight, sweaty, untidy, ill-mannered larger than life character.’ ibid. Bethan Roberts, author Graceland
The energetic way Elvis sings and dances in this appearance was shocking to a fifties’ audience. ibid.