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Fifty years ago, at the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, Royston Ellis
was a spokesman for Britain's teenage generation. Aged 16, he hung
around coffee bars and jazz clubs in Soho, chronicling in poetry
the life he saw around him. Gradually, he also became closely
associated with the emerging music scene. In 1959, he teamed up
with Cliff Richard's group, the Drifters, and appeared with them on
television and stage shows performing his unique brand of
'rocketry' (rock'n'roll poetry). In 1960, he was backed by the
Beetles (as they then were) in Liverpool, and by Jimmy Page at
London's Mermaid Theatre. Before leaving the UK in 1961 to explore
the world, Ellis penned the first-ever books on Cliff (Driftin'
with Cliff Richard) and the Shadows (The Shadows by Themselves), as
well as The Big Beat Scene, the first contemporary account of the
teenage music scene in Britain. Written before the emergence of the
Beatles and without the benefit of hindsight, this fascinating
document provides a unique, first-hand insight into the popularity
and relevance of jazz, skiffle and rock'n'roll at a time when Cliff
Richard & The Shadows were at the cutting edge of pop, and the
social attitudes of the time. A photographic portrait of the author
was taken in 1960 by Ida Kar, and is one of the portraits featuring
in a major exhibition of Kar's work at the National Portrait
Gallery. The exhibition, 'Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer', runs
from 10 March - 19 June 2011.
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