Liverpool Late Teens
Liverpool Late Teens

Author: Bernard Fredericks

Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers

Published: 2024-11-08

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1035882787

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In this third book, set during the years 1950-1953 within the seaport of Liverpool, the main protagonist is finishing his apprenticeship as a Ruler/Bookbinder at Benson’s printers. The story picks up as he recovers from a cycling accident and reflects on the changes in his life. He encounters and becomes engaged in a mix of situations: some humorous, when reconnecting with an old school friend; workmates’ alleged ghostly apparitions; an alarming basement fire with a mysterious outcome; and a furtive co-worker assignation ending in angst. He becomes emotionally aware, too, of the regrettable side of life in uncalled-for workplace stances; the city’s aggressive populace minority intent on criminal ugliness revealed in vicious, narrow-minded bitterness, violence, and descending tragedy. Amidst all this, he begins to envision his future aspirations. As events unfold, he must make decisions that will shape his future while also considering the impact on his family. What choices will he make?

Other Voices: Hidden Histories of Liverpool's Popular Music Scenes, 1930s-1970s
Other Voices: Hidden Histories of Liverpool's Popular Music Scenes, 1930s-1970s

Author: Michael Brocken

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-05-23

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317084888

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At times it appears that a whole industry exists to perpetuate the myth of origin of the Beatles. There certainly exists a popular music (or perhaps 'rock') origin myth concerning this group and the city of Liverpool and this draws in devotees, as if on a pilgrimage, to Liverpool itself. Once 'within' the city, local businesses exist primarily to escort these pilgrims around several almost iconic spaces and places associated with the group. At times it all almost seems 'spiritual'. One might argue however that, like any function myth, the music history of the Liverpool in which the Beatles grew and then departed is not fully represented. Beatles historians and businessmen-alike have seized upon myriad musical experiences and reworked them into a discourse that homogenizes not only the diverse collective articulations that initially put them into place, but also the receptive practices of those travellers willing to listen to a somewhat linear, exclusive narrative. Other Voices therefore exists as a history of the disparate and now partially hidden musical strands that contributed to Liverpool's musical countenance. It is also a critique of Beatles-related institutionalized popular music mythology. Via a critical historical investigation of several thus far partially hidden popular music activities in pre- and post-Second World War Liverpool, Michael Brocken reveals different yet intrinsic musical and socio-cultural processes from within the city of Liverpool. By addressing such 'scenes' as those involving dance bands, traditional jazz, folk music, country and western, and rhythm and blues, together with a consideration of partially hidden key places and individuals, and Liverpool's first 'real' record label, an assemblage of 'other voices' bears witness to an 'other', seldom discussed, Liverpool. By doing so, Brocken - born and raised in Liverpool - asks questions about not only the historicity of the Beatles-Liverpool narrative, but also about the absence o

Liverpool Kids of WWII, Part 2
Liverpool Kids of WWII, Part 2

Author: Bernard Fredericks

Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers

Published: 2022-12-16

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1398423092

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The boy was growing into youth – not yet a teenager – but was bright enough to know his country was in a war that it mustn’t lose, that his brother and uncles were also part of this deadly struggle... Melodious harmonies and helmets were heard and seen at the impromptu Christmas party his mum and dad had arranged. He was as inquisitive as could be because it sounded like the Americans had arrived with Uncle Jim for the little house party he’d eavesdropped about over the last few days. “Gosh a’mighty!” he heard one over-the-pond voice exclaim. “You got gas lighting but no electricity in the house, huh?” The front room was alive with noise generated by adults, both seated and standing, in a happy conversation. Already, a smoky fuzz was forming from lit cigarettes, held firmly between thumbs and forefingers and used sometimes to emphasise a point or two in the friendly interchange of chit-chat. The first thing he noticed was one policeman’s helmet and two American army white military police garrison caps grouped together at one end of his mum’s upright piano top. Railway policeman, Uncle Jim was in boisterous good humour with the two Americans. Suddenly, his young eyes lit up as he spied a crumpled untidy mess of military equipment in the corner of the room, which drew him onto it immediately. He could see a US army belt with what looked like a brown wood baseball bat attached, as well as a set of handcuffs.

Liverpool's Children in the 1950s
Liverpool's Children in the 1950s

Author: Pamela Russell

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2012-01-31

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0752482416

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Full of the warmth and excitement of growing up in the 1950s, awakening nostalgia for times that seemed cosy and carefree with families at last enjoying peacetime, this book is packed with the experience of school days, playtime, holidays, toys, games, clubs and hobbies conjuring up the genuine atmosphere of a bygone era. As the decade progressed, rationing ended and children’s pocket money was spent on goodies like Chocstix, Spangles, Wagon Wheels and Fry’s Five Boys. Television brought Bill and Ben, The Adventures of Robin Hood and, for teenagers, The Six-Five Special, along with coffee bars and rock ‘n’ roll.This book opens a window on an exciting period of optimism, when anything seemed possible, described by the children and teenagers who experienced it. Liverpool’s traditional sense of community, strengthened by the war years, provided a secure background from which children and teenagers could welcome a second Elizabethan era.

Billy Wonderful
Billy Wonderful

Author: Nick Leather

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-12-04

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1408121476

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A programme text edition published to coincide with the world premiere at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, on 12 March 2009. Billy is in the squad and it's wonderful. He's down the wing and he's flying. He doesn't believe in much, but he believes in this ... in football. As the Blues and the Reds come out to play, it's D-Day for Billy ... Derby Day. But in the scramble for success, can Billy keep his head or will he fall foul of fame and fortune? Nick Leather, one of the North West's most prominent young playwrights, brings us a fast-paced coming of age story pulsing with all the excitement and physicality of Match Day.

The Forms of Youth
The Forms of Youth

Author: Stephen Burt

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0231141424

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"Early in the twentieth century, Americans and other English-speaking nations began to regard adolescence as a separate phase of life. Associated with uncertainty, inwardness, instability, and sexual energy, adolescence acquired its own tastes, habits, subcultures, slang, economic interests, and art forms." "The first comprehensive study of adolescence in twentieth-century poetry, The Forms of Youth recasts the history of how English-speaking cultures began to view this phase of life as a valuable state of consciousness, if not the very essence of a Western identity."--BOOK JACKET.

Standing in the Wings
Standing in the Wings

Author: Joe Flannery

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2013-05-01

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0752492934

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Joe Flannery has been described as the 'Secret Beatle', and as the business associate and partner of Brian Epstein, he became an integral part of The Beatles' management team during their rise to fame in the early 1960s. Standing in the Wings is Flannery's account of this fascinating era, which included the controversial dismissal of Pete Best from the group (nothing to do with London, but matters back in Liverpool), Brian Epstein's fragility, and the importance of the Star Club in Hamburg. This book is not simply a biography, as it also considers issues to do with sexuality in 1950s Liverpool, the vagaries of the music business at that time and the hazards of personal management in the 'swinging sixties'. At its heart, Standing in the Wings provides an in-depth look at Flannery's personal and professional relationship with Epstein and his close links with the Fab Four. Shortly before John Lennon's murder in 1980, it was Flannery who was one of the last people in the UK to talk to the great man. Indeed, Flannery remains one of the few 'Beatle people' in Liverpool to have the respect of the surviving Beatles, and this is reflected in this timely and revealing book.

Going to the Palais
Going to the Palais

Author: James Nott

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2015-09-03

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 0191662720

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From the mid-1920s, the dance hall occupied a pivotal place in the culture of working- and lower-middle-class communities in Britain - a place rivalled only by the cinema and eventually to eclipse even that institution in popularity. Going to the Palais examines the history of this vital social and cultural institution, exploring the dances, dancers, and dance venues that were at the heart of one of twentieth-century Britain's most significant leisure activities. Going to the Palais has several key focuses. First, it explores the expansion of the dance hall industry and the development of a 'mass audience' for dancing between 1918 and 1960. Second, the impact of these changes on individuals and communities is examined, with a particular concentration on working and lower-middle-class communities, and on young men and women. Third, the cultural impact of dancing and dance halls is explored. A key aspect of this debate is an examination of how Britain's dance culture held up against various standardizing processes (commercialization, Americanization, etc.) over the period, and whether we can see the emergence of a 'national' dance culture. Finally, the volume offers an assessment of wider reactions to dance halls and dancing in the period. Going to the Palais is concerned with the complex relationship between discourses of class, culture, gender, and national identity and how they overlap - how cultural change, itself a response to broader political, social, and economic developments, was helping to change notions of class, gender, and national identity.

Teenage Revolution
Teenage Revolution

Author: Alan Davies

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2010-09-09

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 0141964510

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When Alan Davies was growing up he seemed to drive his family mad. 'What are we going to do with you?' they would ask - as if he might know the answer. Perhaps it was because he came of age in the 1980s. That decade of big hair, greed, camp music, mass unemployment, social unrest and truly shameful trousers was confusing for teenagers. There was a lot to believe in - so much to stand for, or stand against - and Alan decided to join anything with the word 'anti' in it. He was looking for heroes to guide him (relatively) unscathed into adulthood. From his chronic kleptomania to the moving search for his mother's grave years after she died; from his obsession with joining (going so far as to become a member of Chickens Lib) to his first forays into making people laugh (not always intentionally); Teenage Revolution is a touching and funny return to the formative years that make us all.