Elmer Twitch is dead

I had never heard of Larry Parnes before today.

His name was mentioned on one of those BBC 4 Extra quiz shows as the answer to a question in the "odd one out" round.

He was one of the great personalities of early British Rock and Pop in the 1950's and 1960's as manager of a very influential group of singer performers. His promotion of rock and rollers was based on catching the imagination of the young generation through slick marketing, hype and publicity and, above all, giving a sexual edge to those in his management.

It will have been quite a shock to the parents of teenagers and young adults, following on from the US invasion of the hip swinging Elvis, to realise that there was actually a home grown market for such crudity and impression of blatant promiscuity.

Parnes's stable of rock and rollers were the new idols of an increasingly affluent and youthful Britain.

Judge for yourself the impact on popular culture of the likes of Reginald Patterson, Roy Taylor, Richard Knellar, Chris Morris, Ray Howard, John Askew, Clive Powell and Malcolm Holland.

I can sense that there is now a rather frantic search of distant memories such as an old record collection of warped vinyl discs, recollections of a crackly radio broadcast or a flickering and oscillating black and white TV show of a live performance.

Today, such names do not immediately conjur up images of the rock and pop idols, more likely old time music hall performers, variety acts or folk singers.

These were the new celebrity class of their time and there was an emerging and affluent base of fans and enthusiasts of the scene keen to follow, idolise and spend money on them.

Larry Parnes knew what was required to manipulate and engineer the market for pop music and under his managerial guidance some of the rather plain and boring sounding people became overnight successes and household names. His was an all inclusive package of image, lifestyle and career advice which was the way to become established and ride the wave of hysteria in a very competitive market which had seen more than its fair share of one hit wonders and novelty acts.

Of principal importance was the re-naming of his charges and in the same order as above please give a warm welcome to;

Marty Wilde, Vince Eager, Dickie Pride, Lance Fortune, Duffy Power, Johnny Gentle, Georgie Fame and Nelson Keene.

There was definitely a bit of a theme going in the new images for the stars with the emphasis on strong and masculine traits and associations.

As for Elmer Twitch?

Well, he didn't make it to the billboards or neon lights over the theatre and studio doors to the venues of Great Britain. The individual intended to be launched and sustained in a life of pop stardom decided to keep his own name and I suppose that most of us with any interest in the history of rock and pop will have heard of Joe Brown.....really?