Brierly Hill 90210

If you've followed this series from the beginning, it started with 1977, the year I began high school and a year when music changed with the arrival of punk rock. So why jump back to 1953? As I recorded the earlier chronological episodes, I found myself thinking, both for the music and the major news stories, how did we get here? What's the back story of each news event and what are the inspirations and ground-breakers that blazed a trail for music through to today? Because, primarily, this is a series about music, I wanted to look back to just before rock n roll to get an understanding of the popular music before it was changed forever. I thought that would mean 1956, maybe 1955 when Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock first charted in the UK. But in keeping with the series theme of taking a view from both sides of the Atlantic, things started a little earlier in the US. There's still debate about what was the first rock n roll record or even which was the first rock n roll “hit”. But the one I went with was