Rock ’n roll hits Europe
Two years after ‘Rock around the Clock’ had exploded onto the music scene, Bill Haley gave Britain its first experience of a live rock ’n roll show.
SIXTY years ago, on February 5, 1957, Bill Haley and the Comets disembarked from the Queen Elizabeth at Southampton and prepared to launch the first European tour ever by a major American rock ’n roll act.
They might have been ‘yesterday’s sound’ on their native side of the pond – with Elvis scooping the youth market and heading rapidly towards his royal title – but Britain had never seen anything like this and audiences went mad.
When Haley and his band reached London’s Waterloo Station later that same day, mayhem ensued. Thousands of fans formed a crush at the station to greet the group in a raucous display the press dubbed ‘the Second Battle of Waterloo’.
For the generation of war babies just becoming teenagers in Great Britain, Haley’s tour offered the first chance to see a real, live rock ’n roll show.
Those shows made a particularly strong impression on certain members of that generation who would go on to change the course of music history.
“The first time I really ever felt a tingle up my spine was when I saw Bill Haley and the Comets on the telly,” said Paul McCartney. “Then I went to see them live. The ticket was 24 shillings, and I was the only one of my mates who could go as no one else had been able to save up that amount. But I was single-minded about it….I knew there was something going on here.”
“I’ve still got the ticket stub in my wallet from when I went to see Bill Haley and the Comets play in Manchester in February 1957 – my first-ever concert,” said Graham Nash. “Over the years I’ve lost houses…I’ve lost wives…but I’ve not lost that ticket stub. It’s that important to me.”
Bill Haley and the Comets may have aged out of rock ’n roll stardom back home, but they were greeted as heroes on this day in 1957 by a nation where rock ’n roll was just starting to explode.
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