Listened last night to another of the very highly recommended
LENNONYC "Beyond Broadcast" podcasts discussed in
post 29, this time an interview with Colin Hall, curator of John Lennon's restored childhood home, Mendips
(above).
The Liverpool slant has meant that none of the material was ultimately useable in the forthcoming documentary, part of PBS's
American Masters series, which focuses on Lennon's reinvention as a New Yorker and is due to air in the US on November 22nd.
But as Hall speaks so illuminatingly about the significance of rock'n'roll for British teenagers like John in the fifties it's perfect for this point in the Gnome Thoughts ... series, so I have taken the liberty of transcribing a section below with a few edits.
You can download the complete podcast, which also features an interview with Quarryman Colin Hanton, at the American Masters site
here. Hall is the only interviewee so far not to have had any direct contact with Lennon, but he paints a vivid picture of the times, and seems to have been only slightly younger. Dedicated Beatle people will already know many of the details - American records brought into the port of Liverpool by US-infatuated merchant sailors dubbed "
Cunard Yanks," for example - but when Hall describes the spectacle of a friend's brother stepping off the boat in all-American gear then it really comes alive.
If you have read recent entries in this blog about the 1950s charts you will find much that is reinforced or confirmed by the interview, especially the comments about the moribund state of British society in Dennis Potter's 1956-set Lipstick On Your Collar quoted in
post 19. And it's good to see that he links The Goon Show to rock'n'roll, as at the end of
post 22.
New visitors to this blog, or incurious regulars who haven't explored its inner recesses, may also be interested in an earlier blog entry about Nowhere Boy,
here. It features quotes from UK reviews of the film, including that of Philip French, who praises its portrayal of a Britain still in the grip of postwar austerity.
The LENNONYC interviewer is Michael Epstein; his questions and comments are italicised throughout. He begins by asking Colin Hall about the initial response to rock'n'roll in Liverpool.