British Rock: The First Wave (Archive Music Productions, BBC, 1985)
by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2023 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved On Thursday, December 28 at 8:45 p.m. I ran an interesting documentary from the BBC in 1985 called British Rock: The First Wave ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htnD55VAbH4 ), about the so-called “British Invasion” that dominated first Britain’s and then the world’s popular music from 1962 to 1966. It was co-directed by Patrick Montgomery and Pamela Page, and narrated by Michael York. Of course it began with the Beatles – with a British TV clip of them performing “She Loves You” – though it deserves credit for acknowledging the importance of London-based as well as Liverpool-based groups. It’s basically a “print the legend” version of the history of rock ‘n’ roll in both Britain and the U.S., though I give Montgomery and Page a lot of credit for presenting the actual music, if not in note-complete performances of whole songs, at least in snippets long enough to give a good account of the overall ...