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It was reported that Bernstein has banned the version of his song America by The Nice.
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He is reported to have said
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that they'd turned it into an anti-American dirge.
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- We asked if this was true.
- The Nice?
- You haven't heard of them?
- No.
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This programme contains some strong language
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For British rock music in the '70s,
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America truly was the land of opportunity.
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The thing is about the size of America,
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if you can see that door opening slightly,
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you've got to kick it down, kick that door through and just go racing in.
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Between 1967 and 1976, British rock groups became lords
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and masters of a new stadium-based touring empire.
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Oh, my goodness, I hope the Beatles are on after us.
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Cos there's just too many people.
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They ain't come just to see us, have they?
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The radio stations would want to know,
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TV stations would want to know.
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A Lord Mayor would come and give you the key to the city and you'd go,
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"Oh. Thank you.
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"What does this open?"
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In a decade famed for its excess, this is how British rock,
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in all its varieties, came, saw and conquered America.
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It's always that sense of being on the freeway,
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of going west. It's the wagon trains, this pioneering spirit.
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"Oh, you just played the States?" Yeah, you know.
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"Oh, wow." We just went up in everybody's esteem.
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Once you've played the States, boy, you were there.
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Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. The chocolate room.
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In August 1965, the Beatles played at Shea Stadium
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on their second tour of America.
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It was a ground-breaking idea.
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No band had ever played such a large venue.
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With the Beatles we experienced a big thing at Shea Stadium.
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We were kind of the first band to play a really big sports stadium.
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No-one had done that before, and we played Shea Stadium
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and it was 56,000 people.
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It was a riot, it was crazy, we couldn't hear ourselves at all,
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but it started that kind of thing.
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The Beatles' amplification lacked the punch to cut through the screams,
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with the result that nobody could hear the music,
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including the band.
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CROWD SCREAM
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For the Beatles, Shea marked the beginning of a transition
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from the road to the studio.
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However, within a few years,
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stadium rock would become the golden ticket for British acts in America.
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But first, we needed to create a new sound.
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In 1967, Britain created rock.
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It was loud, heavy and serious.
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THE band leading the charge was Cream.
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Might fill spoons full of water
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They might fill spoons full of tea
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Just a little spoon of your precious love
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Is that enough for me...?
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Cream would become the first British rock band to conquer America,
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and they would find a new way to do it.
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Instead of relying on radio and television,
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they would knuckle down and take their music direct to a new audience.
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Everything's a-fighting about it...
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Up until then, you know, most of the British bands had been hit bands,
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you know, The Animals, The Hollies, The Beatles.
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And that was the way it was. It was happy, singalong big hits.
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The band that broke it all over there really was Cream.
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They are the ones that went there in mid-1967
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and played in every place there was.
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We didn't know how to do it,
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and it hadn't been established yet that you could do it.
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We would fly into the airport and rent a station wagon
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and go to the gig, do the gig, then drive back to the airport
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and go to the next place on the plane and rent another station wagon.
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Very hi-tech!
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Feel when I dance with you
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We move like the seas...
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Treating America like the A1
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and playing nearly 150 dates in less than two years,
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Cream did it the hard way,
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and created the template for the touring British rock band.
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I feel free...
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The gear went in a truck with our vast crew,
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which was two or maybe three guys.
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I can walk down the street There's no-one there...
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We had no PA, so that made it relatively easy.
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We just used to sing loud in those days.
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Anyone who'd seen the Shea Stadium concert from The Beatles
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will kind of get the idea of what our concerts were like.
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Little amplifiers, lots of noise and nobody really hearing very much.
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Especially the band.
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When they could hear, what captivated American audiences
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was a new, aggressive sound and attitude,
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a strange brew of transatlantic styles.
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We were kind of outsiders, interlopers, if you like.
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But very soon we discovered that they loved us.
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Strange brew
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Kills what's inside of you...
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We were taking blues music
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back to the country that had kind of shunned it.
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The blues was considered by young blacks to be old hat music
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and the whites hadn't really heard much of it, so in a strange way
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we were taking their own music back to them
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and reintroducing it to them.
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At one time when Cream was at its height,
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we were grossing more than the next five bands put together.
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That's how big we were as a money-making machine.
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Cream blazed the trail,
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and other British rock bands were quick to follow,
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such as The Who,
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who headlined their own 23-date coast-to-coast tour in 1968.
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A new frontier was opening up,
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and one particular British export would come to own it.
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On 2nd January 1969, Led Zeppelin arrived in California.
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I've been dazed and confused so long it's not true
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Wanted a woman
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Never bargained for you...
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We played at the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood
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and then we went on to San Francisco.
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Tongue wags so much when I send you to hell...
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It was really clear that we were just making waves from that point.
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To play in San Francisco, which we'd all respected the music
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so much that had come out of there.
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I said you hurt and abuse
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Telling all of your lies
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Sweet little baby, baby How you mesmerise
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I try to love you, baby But I know what you're seeing...
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They were accepting us and respecting the fact
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that we were really way out there, if you like.
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In the era of acid-drenched Californian sounds,
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this was a British attack on the senses.
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America had heard nothing like it.
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We definitely had an edge over some of the other bands
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that were around, no doubt about it.
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We had four musicians on the top of their game,
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but they could also play together as a band.
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I told you, baby, time and time and time again
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I would never leave you, woman
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God knows since when
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I'd tell you everything I could...
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Like Cream, Led Zep grew on American blues.
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..ever do to me, baby
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Baby, break down and I'd cry...
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Not only was their sound unique,
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but here was a band bringing stagecraft
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back to the home of showbiz.
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We'd worked out areas of real dramatic light and shade,
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so you could have volume at one minute
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and then it'd come down to a whisper.
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It could take you there and just keep your hanging, you know.
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It spread like wildfire, about the group and what it could do.
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It was a show not to be missed.
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In less than a year, Led Zeppelin stormed the USA.
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Their runaway success opened the floodgates for a generation
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of virtuoso prog and blues-based British rock musicians.
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Most had served their apprenticeship
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as fringe players in the '60s in the UK.
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And as a new decade beckoned, they would saddle up and go west.
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Let us be lovers
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We'll marry our fortunes together...
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We'd seen an awful lot of Birmingham Town Hall,
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as much as any one man can take of Birmingham Town Hall.
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Got some real estate in my bag...
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As soon as you've invented your thing and started to sell it,
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so you have to go very quickly to somewhere bigger - Europe,
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or in our day, America.
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Walked off
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Walked off
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Walked off to look for America...
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It was just so exciting.
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We rented a big station wagon, which I drove, cos I love driving.
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Our gear was travelling in a truck with two crew,
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cos that's all we could afford.
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I stayed in what I thought were wonderful hotels,
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cos I'd been used to B&Bs in the UK.
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To have a hotel room that actually had a bathroom,
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that was just absolutely unbelievable. I couldn't believe it.
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We went across the top and the bottom,
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we never went across the middle, but the bottom I really liked. That was good fun.
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Forgot my six-string razor
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Hit the sky
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Halfway to Memphis before I realised...
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We were flying most of the time,
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with two sets of gear and one roadie.
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My ex has called...
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We'd go out to the tarmac, slip the guy 20 quid
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he'd load it all up and he'd take it all off.
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Now it's a mighty long way down a dusty trail...
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And I wrote a song, All the Way From Memphis.
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That was a 20 quid job. All the gear, on the plane, 20 quid.
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All the way from Memphis...
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It wouldn't be luxurious yet.
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But for the pilgrim fathers of British rock,
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that first American foray would be both the adventure of their lives and hard work.
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During that first tour there was a lot of driving involved between gigs.
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That's for sure.
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I remember getting sort of caught up in the snow drifts
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and things like that where the freeway was closed.
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I think Richard Cole was driving at the time, and he just
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took on this freeway regardless of whether it was closed or not.
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I don't think he'd driven across the plains going towards the Rockies,
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and just suddenly seeing them rear up
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and then rear up and then rear up.
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You couldn't help but thinking what the pioneers must have thought.
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"How are we going to get across that?"
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The first gig was in Detroit at a place called the Grande Ballroom
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with Iggy and The Stooges.
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And then, from Detroit, which is one hell of a drive,
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we drove to Los Angeles on Route 66.
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We stayed one night and stopped in a motel in real redneck country.
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These cowboys started saying "Look at these freaks, guys."
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And we actually got into a fight with these cowboys. A proper fight.
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We had to jump in the car, and the tyres were screaming.
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These guys throwing stuff at us. There weren't any shots fired.
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It wasn't that bad.
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By 1970, American amplification had improved dramatically
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since the days of Shea Stadium,
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in stark contrast to what the bands were used to in Britain.
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It was all pretty low-tech still. PA systems weren't that great.
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Lights were pretty terrible. If you could hear the singer, you were lucky.
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It was very low-tech.
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And it was the Americans who upgraded the technology.
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We toured here with an American band called Iron Butterfly.
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They carried their own PA system. Couldn't believe it.
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The extravagance. You carry the PA system with you?
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And they had a thing called a monitor system.
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Which is those wedges at the front of the stage that everybody sees.
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That means you can hear everybody else in the band.
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That was fantastic.
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- RADIO:
- Have a good day, and thank you, Los Angeles.
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Another major technological development
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was the birth of FM radio.
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Overlooked by the all-powerful AM pop stations,
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stereo FM would build a new audience for the new music.
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In the country where the car was king,
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FM fanned the flames of rock far and wide.
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One of the great American experiences is rolling down the freeway,
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80mph, top down, cranked up to an amazing radio station.
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That's what it's all about.
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MUSIC: "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
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It was a great time in that all the stars were aligned,
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cos you had a musical and a cultural revolution.
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Part of FM radio then was not just the music, but the way was presented.
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Hiya, baby. Right on!
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If you could see what was coming out through the speakers,
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it would look like long hair and kind of cool.
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And if you could smell the speakers,
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it would probably smell like a joint, you know.
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It's a good record, man, outstanding record.
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I love it.
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I remember sitting in the back of this Cadillac,
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and there was speakers all the way round in the car
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and this incredible stereo sound, listening to FM radio.
250
00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:44,320
In England, you know, the Ford Cortina, one speaker, AM radio.
251
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,560
It seemed louder and more bassy
252
00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:50,760
and more exciting somehow than the sound of British radio at the time.
253
00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,760
They were starting to play full LPs.
254
00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,840
A whole side of an album, say 20 minutes.
255
00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:03,080
They'd put it on and you'd get a chance to really understand what these bands were doing.
256
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:11,120
There was almost a hunger on the part of the American audience
257
00:17:11,120 --> 00:17:14,200
to see what Britain coughed up next.
258
00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:17,840
Like a dose of bad phlegm.
259
00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:21,680
All sorts of weird and wacky things came out of the UK.
260
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,280
And even if it was sometimes rather complex
261
00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:27,120
and difficult to appreciate on first listening,
262
00:17:27,120 --> 00:17:29,160
American radio was quite inviting
263
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:33,240
and played what they called deep album cuts.
264
00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:36,520
MUSIC: "Us And Them" by Pink Floyd
265
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:38,440
Of all the new British bands,
266
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:42,040
Pink Floyd would come to own the airways.
267
00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:45,560
The cinematic soundscapes of Dark Side Of The Moon
268
00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:47,280
sounded so good in your cans
269
00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:51,320
that it became the biggest-selling British album in America,
270
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:52,960
and still is to this day.
271
00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:56,880
Us, us, us
272
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,840
And them, them, them, them...
273
00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:09,080
The American FM radio story was so geared to our sort of music,
274
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:13,960
to albums, and in terms of promotion it was brilliant,
275
00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:16,160
cos of course they'd play the whole record.
276
00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,440
It was a sort of golden age at one level.
277
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,120
In the previous decade,
278
00:18:28,120 --> 00:18:31,720
New York had been the portal through which Britain had invaded.
279
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,840
But in the '70s, Los Angeles became the hub of the rock world.
280
00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,640
Sun is shining in the sky...
281
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:43,680
For those hailing from Britain's rock city, Birmingham, LA was a paradise.
282
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:45,680
You get off the plane,
283
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:47,800
all the air smelt like orange blossom.
284
00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:53,320
It was just gorgeous. The sky was blue. The sun was belting down.
285
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:54,680
It was fantastic.
286
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:58,040
So it was like totally unlike anything we've ever experienced.
287
00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:02,080
So we get round the corner to the hotel, which was the Hyatt.
288
00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:05,760
On Sunset. And it was all, like, magical.
289
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:09,720
..here today Hey, hey, hey
290
00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:11,160
Mr Blue Sky
291
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:12,880
Please tell us why
292
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:15,760
You had to hide away for so long
293
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:18,080
So long...
294
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,760
We got in there and went for a walk in the afternoon,
295
00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:25,640
and in this open-top sports car came this car full of girls,
296
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,760
and as they came past they went "Woo-hoo,"
297
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,520
and we all went, "It's good here, isn't it?"
298
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,320
For a long-haired British rock musician in the '70s,
299
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,160
America was a stairway to heaven.
300
00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:44,080
We had the best of everything. We really did.
301
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:47,640
And we probably abused it in a lot of ways,
302
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:51,160
but we did have anything we wanted. I mean, anything.
303
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,840
Drugs, booze, women.
304
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:02,200
Anything you'd want was available then.
305
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,200
And that's the way it was. It was just like that, you know.
306
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,080
I'd always find it funny that we were searched
307
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,360
coming into the United States, and it's like,
308
00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:13,880
"You've gotta be kidding,
309
00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:18,120
"you're searching us for dope coming INTO the States?"
310
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,280
And anything really meant anything.
311
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:30,320
One tour we did, we stipulated on the rider that we wanted curries.
312
00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,320
And we'd have curries every night,
313
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:36,600
and they'd come from all sorts of places,
314
00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:40,320
because you might play in a town and they haven't got a curry restaurant,
315
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:44,640
so they might have to drive it 50 miles to bring it to you, this curry,
316
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:46,720
and of course it'd be awful.
317
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:50,680
You wouldn't always eat them, but they'd be there.
318
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,360
It was like getting married every day.
319
00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:56,760
So if you're getting married every day, you would have flowers,
320
00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,440
you would have a girl, you would have all kinds of booze.
321
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,760
Carry the news
322
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,960
Boogaloo dudes...
323
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:09,640
It does get boring after a while,
324
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,480
cos if you got married every day for a week, the same thing,
325
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,000
you'd want a day off, you know.
326
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,400
All the young dudes
327
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,280
Carry the news...
328
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:21,800
With their far-out name and image,
329
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,600
Mott The Hoople seemed like they were from another planet.
330
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,800
America wanted in on their secret.
331
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:31,320
They thought we were on something that they'd never heard of.
332
00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:33,400
They really wanted it bad, you know.
333
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:35,800
Boogaloo dudes...
334
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:39,000
I remember a girl sitting on a sofa backstage,
335
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:43,680
and she went through all these, LSD, BCF, 932.
336
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:45,480
I'd never heard any of this.
337
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,560
Meanwhile I said "I'll have half a lager," and got on with it.
338
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:51,440
Boogaloo dudes
339
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,520
Carry the news...
340
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:59,960
There was a kind of madcap quality to the English rock bands.
341
00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:04,760
There was an insouciance and a devil-may-care thing,
342
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,520
and although we were all serious about our music,
343
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:09,560
we weren't serious about our music.
344
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,080
We weren't navel-gazers, particularly.
345
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:19,120
The bacchanalian spirit of the British rock band threw
346
00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:22,640
the sensitive nature of the Californian singer-songwriter
347
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,400
into sharp relief.
348
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,640
These guys'll do anything for love!
349
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:37,120
Was there a brotherhood or a camaraderie between we British bands,
350
00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:41,120
a sort of Laurel Canyon feeling of London?
351
00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:42,920
No. I don't think so.
352
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,080
I think we were all insanely competitive.
353
00:23:07,360 --> 00:23:11,040
There was a kind of a very laid-back
354
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:13,160
American hippy way of being a musician
355
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,720
and a very much more straightforward,
356
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:22,040
quite incisive British way of being a rock musician.
357
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:24,880
And I think that attracted the American audience.
358
00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:29,920
America was in an era of social unrest,
359
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:33,400
but British fans weren't interested in getting with the revolution.
360
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,160
They wanted to put on show and please the crowd.
361
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:56,280
We played many college campuses
362
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,920
and felt that level of student dissidence.
363
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:05,400
We got questioned a lot by campus newspapers and so on, saying,
364
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:10,920
"Are you with the revolution? Are you with us against the pigs?"
365
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,520
"Against the pigs? I'm awfully sorry.
366
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:15,760
"What don't you like about pigs?"
367
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,960
For the first time, the special relationship was in danger,
368
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,120
as American critical opinion of British music
369
00:24:25,120 --> 00:24:27,560
differed from the public response.
370
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,800
The Beatles, everybody thinks The Beatles are great.
371
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:37,000
Bob Dylan, everyone thinks Bob Dylan is great.
372
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,040
The Rolling Stones, everybody thinks they're great.
373
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,760
But then you get a certain point where it's like,
374
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:48,480
"Well, is Deep Purple really great?"
375
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:53,560
You know, is that just kind of interesting music?
376
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:57,400
There was a moment, led certainly by The Beatles,
377
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:04,000
where there was this element of going to a kind of new world,
378
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,640
of really creating this new vision.
379
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,520
You know, subtly, it became about stadium shows
380
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:16,000
in which people were taking terrible barbiturates
381
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,120
and vomiting all over each other and getting terribly drunk.
382
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,680
It seemed like there were a lot of British bands
383
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,480
leading the charge on that.
384
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:35,680
Hard to believe now, but the entire output of Led Zeppelin
385
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:37,880
was dismissed by US critics.
386
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,480
They were hostile to the albums
387
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:52,760
because they couldn't understand them.
388
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:54,680
They couldn't understand what it was.
389
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,160
That might have been whatever, the press,
390
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,920
but it didn't bear any relation to what was going on in the real world,
391
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:14,520
or our real world which was the audiences and the record sales.
392
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:15,960
They were dynamic.
393
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:23,880
Suddenly these British bands were like marauders
394
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:29,400
and there wasn't a sense of large, social purpose.
395
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:35,400
It was like, "Let's just go make a lot of money,
396
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,400
"get laid as much as we can,
397
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,320
"get as high as we can and go back home."
398
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:45,560
But for the legions of American fans,
399
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,240
British rock was a great spectacle of virtuosity,
400
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:53,880
interspersed with buffoonery and occasional profundity.
401
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,360
Jethro Tull arrived in America
402
00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:14,800
like wise men bearing gifts from another universe.
403
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,080
HE SNORTS
404
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,040
I didn't do rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
405
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:27,200
I didn't do drugs, I didn't do all the groupie things and the excesses.
406
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,640
We were really, really boring people,
407
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,120
apart from an hour and a half on stage every night
408
00:27:36,120 --> 00:27:38,640
when we seemed vaguely interesting.
409
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,120
Ian Anderson brought a distinct British phantasmagoria
410
00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:48,000
to the US touring spectacle,
411
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:52,880
conflating Sherlock Holmes, a country squire and a court jester.
412
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,280
Tull were out there, and they took America by storm.
413
00:27:56,280 --> 00:28:01,840
I hear you calling in your sweet dream
414
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,960
Can't hear your daddy's warning cry.
415
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,200
It's always that sense of being on the freeway,
416
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:16,520
in a way you just let yourself slip into an idea of travel,
417
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:22,040
of going west. It's the wagon trains, this pioneering spirit.
418
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,560
The way that you share it with Americans, in America,
419
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,440
is the sense of mobility, the sense of independence,
420
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,600
hitting a different city every day
421
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,480
and leaving town early in the morning
422
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,320
before the newspaper reviews came out.
423
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,800
The station wagon era was long gone.
424
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,400
In going west, successful British rock bands like Jethro Tull
425
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:53,160
had renegotiated the terms of the rock 'n' roll contract.
426
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,480
Without the support of the press,
427
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:04,040
British rock was constructing its own highly profitable pleasure dome,
428
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,320
exclusively for the kids of America.
429
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:16,400
And one man in particular was the architect of this new Xanadu.
430
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,840
Peter Grant was an amazing manager.
431
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,920
He saw so many ways through things.
432
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:30,760
Of course, once he had the clout of the band to go with it,
433
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,960
he could realise these situations that he'd worked out,
434
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,520
his little plans and going to the promoters and saying,
435
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:42,440
"You're now getting 10% rather than the bands are getting 10%."
436
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:50,000
Woe betide anyone selling fake merchandise at a Zep gig.
437
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,560
Don't fucking talk to me, it's my bloody act.
438
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:54,160
I'll leave you any time.
439
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:56,360
You couldn't even get them a starting line.
440
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,280
You're going to tell me... It wouldn't happen in Europe.
441
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,400
I don't know how the guy got in the building,
442
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:03,240
this isn't Europe or England.
443
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:06,960
No, I can see that, because it's so inefficient.
444
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:10,480
It would be all this restructuring
445
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:16,880
and making real milestones within the business in various ways
446
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,960
that really changed the shape of business over there at the time,
447
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,400
which helped lots of other bands too.
448
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:28,600
He was an incredible visionary in that side of business.
449
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,080
Grant out-sharked the predatory American business
450
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:41,800
and put Zeppelin firmly in control of their own destiny.
451
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,120
The band travelled like royalty,
452
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:49,480
their limousine arrival facilitated by police escort.
453
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,480
It was something that was laid on. I guess there was a necessity for it.
454
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,320
We weren't doing it just for show,
455
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:03,520
there was a real necessity to be able to go through with these motorcades
456
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,800
and police escorts to get into these venues.
457
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:14,920
Grant also managed Bad Company,
458
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,120
another successful British rock export
459
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,440
for whom he had a similar level of ambition.
460
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,040
Bad company
461
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:31,000
I can't deny
462
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:35,040
Bad company
463
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:38,600
Till the day I die...
464
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:42,080
His idea was, "OK, we're just going to bypass all the clubs.
465
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,080
"I want to get you straight into arenas,
466
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:47,320
"but you've got to be ready for it." We had all the equipment ready,
467
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,560
we had a private plane to take us from each venue, so when we landed,
468
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:52,640
there was a limousine on the tarmac.
469
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,480
We all jumped in the limousine, and it was a really good idea
470
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,920
because it meant you could do more shows.
471
00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,880
You could work five or six nights a week
472
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:02,720
because your travel was so smooth.
473
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:06,320
Straight off the stage, into the limo, onto the plane,
474
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,600
to the next town, go to sleep, wake up, do the show, bam, bam, bam.
475
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,240
It was pretty evident how popular we were by the amount of people
476
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,720
that were coming to the shows.
477
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,360
We were always sold out and it got to a position,
478
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:34,560
very, very early on, where we couldn't supply the demand
479
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:37,080
of people coming, so we'd do multiple shows,
480
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,520
and we still couldn't supply the demand.
481
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,600
We were doing bigger venues and we still couldn't supply the demand.
482
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:50,360
We'd go there in '73
483
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:54,440
and we do Atlanta and there's 55,000 outside
484
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,800
and then we break The Beatles' record in Tampa
485
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,160
more or less the following day.
486
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:01,320
Good evening.
487
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:05,880
It really was the biggest crowd ever assembled for a single performance
488
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:10,440
in one place in the entire history of the world.
489
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,520
It was tonight and it was in Tampa. The name of the group, Led Zeppelin.
490
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,240
Tonight, they broke the world record set by The Beatles
491
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:18,960
in New York City in 1965.
492
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:24,360
55,000 people grossing 306,000 for the promoter.
493
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:28,840
Tonight in Tampa, there were 56,800 sold seats,
494
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:33,560
a gross of 309,000.
495
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,400
If you were at Tampa Stadium tonight, or anywhere nearby,
496
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,080
that's the sort of thing you saw and heard.
497
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,600
It was really a shock to the system.
498
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:45,840
I didn't realise things could get that big.
499
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:49,560
They were really football stadiums. These places were huge.
500
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,880
I remember some kind gentleman taking me to Madison Square Garden
501
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:56,240
or someone like that, took me up to the back row
502
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,960
to show me what the stage looked like before the show.
503
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,240
I just went, "Oh, my God!"
504
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:06,800
Madison Square Garden was, for the Americans, a big status.
505
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:10,920
When you've played Madison Square Garden,
506
00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:12,440
then you'd made it.
507
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:13,880
Ooh, yeah
508
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,200
It's been a long time since I rock and rolled
509
00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:25,080
It's been a long time since I did the stroll
510
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:26,560
Woo, baby
511
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,200
Let me get back, let me get back let me get back
512
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:32,640
Baby, where I come from
513
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:40,440
It's been a long time been a long time
514
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:43,400
Lonely, lonely, lonely lonely, lonely
515
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:46,560
Yes, it has...
516
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,360
British rock music in America started to have
517
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,000
this very big momentum,
518
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,480
and I guess a lot of people thought they could do no wrong.
519
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:59,040
And in a sense, for a few years, no-one could because bands like...
520
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,200
I mean, Elton John sold out I think...
521
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,920
..five nights at Madison Square Garden.
522
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:07,760
We could only sell three!
523
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:15,080
It's been a long time been a long time
524
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:19,040
Lonely, lonely, lonely lonely, lonely time...
525
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,400
In '73, Led Zeppelin were on top of the world,
526
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,920
finishing a 4 million tour with three sold-out nights
527
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:27,440
at Madison Square Garden.
528
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,640
Not since prior to the Boston Tea Party had we been
529
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,080
so popular in America.
530
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:40,080
But not all of our exports went down so well.
531
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:41,640
Notably, glam rock.
532
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,200
We had a couple of shows, I think, in Madison Square Garden,
533
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,600
and Roxy Music opened the show for us.
534
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:51,320
And we went backstage to their dressing room
535
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:55,480
and introduced ourselves. Said, "Hello, have a great time" and "Nice to have you here."
536
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,040
Got a bit of a stiff sort of response from them
537
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:02,560
cos they were definitely a bit showbizzy, a bit dressing up in silly clothes
538
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,880
and doing a lot of make-up and taking themselves rather seriously.
539
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,480
I tried but I could not find a way
540
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,560
Looking back all I did was look away...
541
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:18,520
They went on stage
542
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:20,920
and they just wanted it too much.
543
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:23,880
The audience just looked at them and thought,
544
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,400
"We don't like you. You look like you're trying too hard."
545
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:31,080
But if there is no next time where do I go...?
546
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,760
Too mannered, too art school, too dressy.
547
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:38,280
She's the sweetest queen I ever seen...
548
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,760
Roxy Music rather uncharitably sort of blamed us for their failure
549
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,920
and claimed that we'd pulled the plug on them or something,
550
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,400
which is not true at all.
551
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,920
It's just the audience flat didn't like them.
552
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,400
MUSIC: "Young Americans" by David Bowie
553
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:03,640
And whilst David Bowie's Spiders From Mars were hugely popular in the UK,
554
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:07,600
it wouldn't be Ziggy Stardust who would find fame in America.
555
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:11,560
I want what you want
556
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,120
And you want what I want
557
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:18,480
I want you I want, you want, I want...
558
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,960
Re-exporting another variant of black American music.
559
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,560
It was the blue-eyed white-boy soul of Young Americans
560
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,160
that made Bowie a household name in the USA.
561
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:31,840
All night I want the young America!
562
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:34,320
SCREAMING AND CHEERING
563
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:38,760
The man himself relocated to Los Angeles in 1974.
564
00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:45,600
There's an underlying unease here. Definitely. You can feel it in every...
565
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:48,680
..every avenue.
566
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,480
It's very calm and it's a kind of a superficial calmness
567
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,440
that they've developed to underplay the fact that it's...
568
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:59,160
That there's a lot of high pressure here as it's a very big entertainment industry area.
569
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,440
And you get this feeling of unease with everybody.
570
00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:13,600
The American rock business had grown from cottage industry
571
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:15,720
to cartel in barely a few years.
572
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,680
And 1974 witnessed its Californian pinnacle.
573
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:25,800
ANNOUNCER: On April 6th, 200,000 nice people assembled
574
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:28,640
at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Southern California
575
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:32,720
to enjoy each other and the music of eight fine rock bands.
576
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:34,440
CHEERING AND SCREAMING
577
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:38,880
Come on! Let's have a party! Yeah!
578
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,960
The California Jam was Woodstock without the mud or hippies.
579
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,160
It would be the biggest grossing gig in history,
580
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,920
and the three headlining acts
581
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:50,520
were all Brits.
582
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:01,440
Nobody knew exactly what it would be.
583
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,360
I think there was close to a million people there.
584
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,040
It was huge.
585
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,040
And we just looked around, we went, "Oh, my God," you know!
586
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:12,600
We saw everyone else was showing up and there was all these other bands,
587
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:13,680
a lot that we knew.
588
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,920
Revolution in their minds
589
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:20,160
The children start to march
590
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,800
Against the world in which they have to live
591
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,240
And all the hate that's in their hearts
592
00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:27,880
They're tired of being pushed around
593
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,360
And told just what to do
594
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,080
They'll fight the world until they've won
595
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:36,800
And love comes flowing through, yeah!
596
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,840
Gone were the days of peace, love and understanding,
597
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:45,800
as backstage, the Brits battled for top spot.
598
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:49,480
Somehow we managed to get a spot which, I think,
599
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:53,160
Deep Purple wanted and, uh,
600
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:56,360
Ritchie Blackmore ended up smashing one of the cameras
601
00:39:56,360 --> 00:40:00,600
with his guitar, which cost him all of the 30,000
602
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:02,680
that they were making for the gig,
603
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:05,080
and, of course, left us without a camera.
604
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:14,320
Now, the best time of the festival is to go on just before dusk,
605
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,960
so you go on as the sun's just setting,
606
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:19,880
but then you finish in the dark
607
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:24,840
and then you've got the fireworks, and boom.
608
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:28,440
There's not a lot of bands who can follow after that.
609
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:34,040
ELP won the battle and Keith Emerson pulled out all the stops.
610
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:38,320
I suppose the one thing that people now remember me of in America
611
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,320
is spinning round on a piano.
612
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:44,680
I say, "Yes, but what about my music?"
613
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,000
"Oh, yeah, well, that was good, too,
614
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,880
"but I liked the spinning round on the piano."
615
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:51,400
"OK. Good."
616
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,520
As the '70s progressed, so did the size and ambition
617
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,000
of the touring spectacle.
618
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,280
In a reversal of today's economics,
619
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:07,000
it was common for an American tour to be an extravagant loss leader,
620
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:10,320
with the big money being made on album sales.
621
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,880
1975 would herald the arrival of Rick Wakeman,
622
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,240
a British knight on the most ambitious of crusades.
623
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,560
- NARRATOR ON STAGE:
- Journey to the centre of the earth.
624
00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:27,760
CHEERING
625
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:33,240
I wanted to tour with an orchestra and choir
626
00:41:33,240 --> 00:41:36,040
and everybody said I was mad, and I probably was,
627
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,480
and I took the New York Symphony Orchestra and a choir
628
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:44,520
and I rented two Lockheed Electra planes to put everybody on.
629
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:46,000
Hotels everywhere.
630
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,400
And so the journey begins.
631
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:56,800
It was always going to lose money,
632
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,640
and I was constantly reminded,
633
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:02,920
"Oh, you're going to lose money on this."
634
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:08,120
We did 18 shows, sold out every single show in every single stadium,
635
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:11,040
but it was going to lose a quarter of a million dollars,
636
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:13,400
which was a lot of money in '74.
637
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:23,120
And so the journey continued
638
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,920
through a succession of arches appearing before them
639
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,800
as if they were the aisles of a gothic cathedral.
640
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:32,600
The walls were enhanced with impressions of rock weeds
641
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:37,080
and mosses from the Silurian epoch.
642
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,600
My argument was, when I started that tour,
643
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:42,760
I think Journey had sold about three million copies.
644
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:46,120
By the end of that year it had done about nine or ten million.
645
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:49,000
Their journey was completed
646
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,880
and they found themselves 3,000 miles
647
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,520
from their original starting point in Iceland.
648
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:59,480
They had entered by one volcano
649
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:01,440
and they had come out by another.
650
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:15,080
The mid-'70s really were excess all areas for British prog in America.
651
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,000
In that particular period in America,
652
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,080
radio was a complete art form.
653
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,920
You could hear prog rock music drive-time,
654
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:27,920
in the middle of the day, so it was absolutely sensational.
655
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:32,280
The radio itself was open to anything at any time,
656
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:34,760
unlike England which was beginning to close down
657
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:38,080
and get a bit conservative. America was an open book, radio-wise.
658
00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:40,560
MUSIC: "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" By King Crimson
659
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:42,880
American radio was kind to King Crimson
660
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,760
considering King Crimson was never kind to American radio.
661
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,360
We kept producing complicated bits of music
662
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:50,280
that didn't fit into anything...
663
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,280
..and I remembered clearly going down Santa Monica Boulevard
664
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,320
in a big limousine with an under-assistant, you know,
665
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,880
west coast, executive guy from Atlantic Records,
666
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:09,440
and the guy comes on the radio and says,
667
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:11,920
"We're going to play the new one by King Crimson,
668
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:15,640
"Larks' Tongues...In Aspic," he was having trouble saying that, even.
669
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,200
Larks' Tongues In Aspic. I thought, "This is it!"
670
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:21,600
You know, "This is out big moment, we're going to be on the radio."
671
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:36,760
And after about a minute of this,
672
00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,240
this guy's looking out of the window saying, you know, "Is this art?"
673
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,440
British prog triumphed in the home of razzmatazz.
674
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:49,640
It just kept getting bigger.
675
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:54,280
People are always blaming me for this, and that's saying,
676
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:56,520
"Let's go on tour with an orchestra."
677
00:44:59,960 --> 00:45:03,160
And we hand-picked all the members of the orchestra.
678
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:07,720
We got through about ten gigs
679
00:45:07,720 --> 00:45:12,240
and we were losing quite a lot of money.
680
00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:14,160
We almost went totally bankrupt.
681
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:25,320
I mean, at one point, we got to even carrying our own hairdressers,
682
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:27,800
Carl had his own karate teacher...
683
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:31,440
It was incredible. Catering, you name it.
684
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:33,080
You know...
685
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:35,880
..total excess.
686
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,640
In stark contrast to their station-wagon days,
687
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:49,440
comfort was now essential for touring rock royalty.
688
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:51,480
MUSIC: "Rocket Man" by Elton John
689
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:53,720
She packed my bags last night Pre-flight...
690
00:45:53,720 --> 00:45:55,360
The private jet was de rigueur,
691
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:58,680
and there was one particular plane that trumped them all.
692
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:01,040
The Starship was a former passenger jet
693
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:03,960
refurbished to the highest standards.
694
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:08,240
And I'm gonna be high
695
00:46:08,240 --> 00:46:10,640
As a kite by then...
696
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:15,960
It was a way to be able to go somewhere like LA or New York
697
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:20,320
and be able to, sort of, you know, unpack and then, sort of,
698
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:24,840
do day trips to fly to Philadelphia or Boston or whatever
699
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:27,080
and be based out of New York.
700
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:30,680
Yeah, you could set up your sounds and play music
701
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:34,840
and generally feel like you had a little home from home.
702
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:38,800
What they did when you rented it from this Starship company,
703
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,320
they painted your name on the side, of course.
704
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,040
Which was quite wonderful.
705
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:53,760
It was wonderful, of course, but it was stupid.
706
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:57,480
We were having to put extra gigs in to pay for getting to the gigs.
707
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:02,000
But, my goodness, it was fun.
708
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:08,920
It had about four bedrooms, a sitting room with a fireplace...
709
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:12,400
..a butler.
710
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:18,320
On one tour, we had a dance floor on the plane
711
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:21,440
and we actually hired a keyboard player on an organ.
712
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:25,560
So while we're playing... We're flying to the next gig going,
713
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:28,840
"Somebody should just play this music for us."
714
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:35,200
People used to say, they'd be in line waiting to take off
715
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:37,080
and the captain would come on and say,
716
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:38,920
"Ladies and gentlemen, we've got, uh,
717
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,280
"the Moody Blues are going to take off before us,
718
00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:42,960
"so we've just got to wait in line."
719
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:53,920
The Starship may have been the height of luxury,
720
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,440
but ELO could go one better.
721
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:02,280
The stage was basically a space ship. It was like a flying saucer.
722
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:05,840
And there's all this dry ice and lasers flashing,
723
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:08,960
and then the... It would open.
724
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:11,520
Very, very slowly.
725
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:15,600
The band would come up on, like, risers, on to the stage,
726
00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:18,040
and it was a spectacular opening to a show.
727
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:29,880
We did the last number and then it would all close down again.
728
00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:32,040
This incredibly loud music.
729
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,280
I used to go out into the audience and watch it at the end.
730
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:42,480
"I'm off," and I'd be off, down the...
731
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,560
To just round the front of it to have a look as it closed.
732
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:49,440
Cos it was this enormous crash, bang, wallop finale,
733
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:53,960
like machinery whirring and hissing and whooshing noises.
734
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:56,160
There was no question we were going to come out
735
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:57,600
and do an encore or something,
736
00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:00,840
and people just knew, that was the end, the space ship had taken off,
737
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,840
basically, it had gone again. It's like, people going, "Wow."
738
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,520
It used to go down better than us, most nights.
739
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,040
Cos I used to clap it myself.
740
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:16,120
1975 would see the emergence
741
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:20,400
of the biggest British band of the late '70s from left of field.
742
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:24,680
Nobody could have predicted the stellar rise of '60s R&B act
743
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:26,520
Fleetwood Mac.
744
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:32,760
Ironically, when Fleetwood Mac were a huge band over here,
745
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:35,720
and a blues band, with Peter Green playing guitar,
746
00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:37,880
they, like us, tried, at the same time,
747
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:40,920
to make it in America and really didn't do well at all.
748
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:46,960
Key to the victorious return of the Mac was a change in personnel.
749
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:50,160
The recruitment of Californian singer/songwriting duo
750
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:52,400
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham
751
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:55,840
gave the band a wildly successful transatlantic sound.
752
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:58,920
MUSIC: "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac
753
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,160
It was only, ironically, after they became something else,
754
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:06,680
rather a west coast, kind of, post-hippy,
755
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,680
easy-going band that they had this huge success.
756
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,280
Oh, now you know That your dreams unwind
757
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:14,200
Love's a state of mind...
758
00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:17,080
Almost sounding like an American band.
759
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,520
I mean, they sounded like a Californian band then,
760
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:21,080
and it was almost coincidental
761
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:24,560
that they happened to have their origins in the UK.
762
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:28,560
Dreams unwind It's still a state of mind
763
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:31,800
And your, and your
764
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:35,920
Dreams unwind And love is hard to find
765
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:43,680
Dreams unwind It's still a state of mind...
766
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:47,360
British rock music was now just a part of a broader church,
767
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:52,640
an international FM sound where it didn't matter where you came from.
768
00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:57,640
Take me like the wind, baby Take me with the sky
769
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:02,760
All the same, all the same
770
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:05,280
All the same, all the same...
771
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:08,160
Our rock bands had enjoyed a meteoric rise,
772
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:11,480
an amazing journey, but one that couldn't last.
773
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:14,200
For many, burn-out was inevitable.
774
00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:18,440
It did get to that point, yeah, when we were doing, just,
775
00:51:18,440 --> 00:51:21,640
too much of everything. We were staying up partying
776
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:25,320
and nobody was getting any sleep
777
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:29,240
and it just rolled on, it became a regular thing to do every night.
778
00:51:29,240 --> 00:51:31,440
"Oh, great. Whose room is it tonight?"
779
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:33,120
And they would go in, you know.
780
00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:37,000
I do remember once in San Antonio, Texas,
781
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:40,720
everyone had gone to the concert hall,
782
00:51:40,720 --> 00:51:44,600
Ritchie and I were coming out of our adjoining hotel rooms
783
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:48,440
to go down to the lobby to be put in the car to be taken...
784
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:52,880
And I was talking to him one minute and the next minute he wasn't there.
785
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:57,800
I turned around and he had stopped in the middle of the corridor
786
00:51:57,800 --> 00:52:02,160
and was weeping copiously,
787
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:05,520
just...had just burst into tears.
788
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,920
"What's the matter?" I said. He said, "I want to go home.
789
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:12,800
"I just want to go home."
790
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:17,680
This is about week 13 of the fourth tour of the year, you know.
791
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:24,520
We played the Hollywood Bowl and I actually collapsed from exhaustion.
792
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:29,960
They said, "That's it, you've got to take a break
793
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:31,480
"and have a bit of a rest,"
794
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:34,760
so we came back to England and we had a break.
795
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:36,800
But it did get to that point.
796
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:52,880
But this journey ends on a high note.
797
00:52:55,840 --> 00:53:00,520
In 1976, the man who had played the first stadium gig was back.
798
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:05,280
Paul McCartney returned to the US with his new band Wings.
799
00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:08,040
But would America be as keen this time around?
800
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:10,680
MUSIC: "Band On The Run" by Wings
801
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:19,200
We'd been working so hard to try and see
802
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:21,680
if there was any life after The Beatles.
803
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:26,120
It's a hard act to follow, you know? Um... And suddenly there was.
804
00:53:26,120 --> 00:53:28,960
Suddenly we had our identity as Wings.
805
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:32,040
And the rain exploded With a mighty crash
806
00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:35,160
As we fell into the sun
807
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:39,120
And the first one said to the second one there
808
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:42,440
I hope you're having fun
809
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:46,280
Band on the run
810
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:49,680
Band on the run
811
00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:53,240
And the jailer man and Sailor Sam
812
00:53:53,240 --> 00:53:57,000
Were searching everyone...
813
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:00,280
The Wings Over America tour
814
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:03,480
fulfilled The Beatles' interrupted American legacy,
815
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,240
as more than 600,000 flocked to see the band.
816
00:54:06,240 --> 00:54:11,240
It was only fitting that they broke the stadium attendance record
817
00:54:11,240 --> 00:54:15,680
that McCartney had originally set, playing to 67,000 in Seattle.
818
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:22,800
By then it was as big as The Beatles, but not as screamy,
819
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:26,000
and also, the thing is, what's happened through the years,
820
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:28,360
we can always get louder than the audience now.
821
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:31,280
So, you know, no matter how crazy they're going,
822
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:35,720
we can hear ourselves, and that kind of helped.
823
00:54:35,720 --> 00:54:39,440
Band on the run
824
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:42,920
And the county judge
825
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,720
Who held a grudge
826
00:54:46,720 --> 00:54:50,000
Will search forever more
827
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:54,160
For the band on the run...
828
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:57,720
In the '70s, a new generation of British rock bands
829
00:54:57,720 --> 00:55:00,560
came, saw and conquered.
830
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:05,760
They created both an industry and a wonderful spectacle.
831
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:08,880
They were royalty, giants who marauded across the land.
832
00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:12,560
They had enjoyed total market saturation.
833
00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:16,200
So what room was there for a new generation?
834
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:20,080
We went to America because it was a...
835
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:22,320
The fatal attraction.
836
00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:27,480
It was the big boil on the backside of the world, that one.
837
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:31,000
An absolute... That's a nuthouse.
838
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:35,360
Gots to get there, gots to see what that place is about.
839
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:38,920
MUSIC: "I'm So Bored With The USA" by The Clash
840
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,160
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
841
00:55:48,160 --> 00:55:51,200
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk
71266
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