nick manho

when the beatles came along in october 1962, part of the joy people felt was because a terrible period of english cultural history had just had its quietus made.

the three years from 1960 to love me do day was like some cultural void for english pop music. the 50s had given us coolish english rock and roll and skiffle but it had curdled by the time the 60s started. vince taylor had fucked off to the south of france, johnny kidd had lost his eyepatch, cliff had found god (or maybe god had found cliff), lonnie donegan's chewing gum had got stuck to the bedpost.

the brook brothers were about as cool as you got. this terrible three year period deserves its own epithet: the void? the sewer? trash party uk?

tv themes were big. check out this guy:

The Laurie Johnson Orchestra: Sucu Sucu

laurie wrote the theme music for a lot of tv programmes 50s thru 70s. his big moment came when he got the phone call from stanley for doctor strangelove. i guess stanley was looking for irony, or something.

laurie was ok, though. what i really wanted to talk about was nina and frederik:






this was the type of act you got during trash party uk. a dutch baron and a danish bint who specialised in calypso music. they were everywhere you looked on tv. here's their version of sucu sucu:

Nina & Frederik: Sucu Sucu

can you dig it? euro dullards were cleaning up in england. ok, i hear you saying, but that nina was a pretty cool chick:






and it was all in the way she said sucu sucu, and everything, and i agree, she was hot. but the dutch baron with the ginger beard? dutch fucking calypso?


in october 62 many english guys were on their knees. they were praying for someone bigger than jesus to come along.

sometimes god hears your prayers.