On this day, 20 Nov 1955, The song that changed popular music history 'Rock Around the Clock' by Bill Haley & His Comets went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The song was used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle.
In 1956, Bill Haley’s film Rock Around the Clock hit Britain. The film was released in England, Scotland and Wales, being shown in places like Newport, Cardiff and Swansea. It symbolised the beginnings of the phenomenon of teenage culture, as audiences vandalised cinemas and acted in other violent ways. These actions caught the attention of the media, which helped spread the outbreak in teenage violence from London to Cardiff and the rest of Britain.
Similar to the rest of Britain, Rock Around the Clock caused considerable controversy in Wales. When the film was shown in Newport, the audience carried out the same violent ‘ritualistic’ behaviour that was reported in The Times, slashing seats with pocket knives and tearing fire extinguishers off the walls. This extreme behaviour caused local authorities to ban the film elsewhere. This was backed up by a local paper who agreed that they had done the right thing.
There were reports of violent behaviour in Cardiff, similar to the London Evening News. A family doctor told the South Wales Echo about the violent behaviour that took place during the screening of the film. He detailed how the teenagers shouted during the film, and stood on the seats to jive to the music. The doctor said ‘this was symptomatic of youth the world over in a ‘neurotic age’, with its easy money, poor discipline, misguided education and lax morals.’
Despite this behaviour taking place in Newport and Cardiff, on 25 September 1956 the South Wales Evening Post reported that no riots took place in Swansea caused by the screening of Rock Around the Clock.
The fact that the South Wales Evening Post reported no violent behaviour in Swansea following the screening of the film shows that despite media hype, not all teenagers copied this ‘ritualistic behaviour’. However, the newspaper doesn’t detail anything else about the screening of Rock Around the Clock so it could be that teenagers were clapping, and hissing, as well as jiving on the seats and in the aisles. So whereas media attention had made a major impact on worrying older generations, the reality of the violent behaviour associated with this film was intermittent as opposed to a countrywide disturbance.
The song entered the charts a further six times until 1974 and was the inspiration for many a young aspiring musician and changed the musical landscape almost overnight.
Bill Haley and his Comets first visit to Cardiff was 22 Feb 1957 at the Capitol Theatre and attracted a sell out crowd eager to hear the ‘new’ sound coming from the States.
A few years had passed by the time he and the Comets made their return playing Sophia Gardens in September 1964, and again in May 1968 at the same venue, which was his final appearance in Wales.
