IT was a strong desire to capture for posterity a very special period in Bradford’s musical history that led Derek A.J. Lister to write his first book, Bradford’s Rock and Roll, which was published in 1991.
Between 1959 and 1965, as disc jockey at the Gaumont and Majestic dance halls (working under the name of Dal Stevens), Derek had met national and international stars and many local would-be stars and had his own rock and roll group, The Four Dukes.
“The odd group did have some success nationally,” recalls Derek, “while myself and numerous others were ‘also rans’ who made up the local scene but who also had a wealth of talent. Cash rewards were almost non-existent and hardly covered expenses.” They did it mainly because they enjoyed it. And so did their audiences!”
Derek felt there was a need to record something of the lives, careers and times of these local groups, many of whom continued to perform as, nationally, the youth culture that had spawned them began to evolve.
“It was in 1965 when I decided my rock and roll world was being taken over by the beat boom, with Mod style and Beatle suits, and then the hippies,” he wrote in his later book, When Bradford Rocked. “Music tastes changed almost overnight. Now the songs and music that explored the ups and downs of teenage romance sung by the Tabs, Bobbies and Frankies were on the decline. It was at this time I decided to ‘pack up my tent and steal away’ from my rock and roll world.”
But as those of us who grew up through the rock and roll years know only to well, you can’t shake off the influence of that music and your love of it. It follows you forever. Those memories stayed with Derek over the decades and at the end of the 1980 he finally got down to writing about them.
Bradford’s Rock ‘n’ Roll began as a highly entertaining memoir of Derek’s years at the Gaumont and Majestic. This was a time when Bradford was still living through its glory days, and the book took readers on a nostalgic journey back to that optimistic time, recalling a still-sooty but vibrant city busy with shops and cafes, bars and ballrooms, most of which are now long gone. I also included many of Derek’s memories of his encounters with famous names such as Joe Brown, Johnny Kidd, Marty Wilde, Gene Vincent, Emile Ford and a host of others. Almost as an afterthought he decided to add a few local groups and celebrities, with brief details of their careers.
The book was published and proved popular, and led to a series of rock and roll reunion gigs featuring many of the local musicians from those late Fifties/early Sixties years who were still around and still finding ready audiences for their music.
Over the next few years Derek decided that these local groups and singers merited greater recognition and painstaking researched them, contacting as many as he could to find out where they were now and what they had been doing in the intervening years. The result was published in 2012 as When Bradford Rocked, a substantial and highly entertaining work of scholarship that encompassed everyone who was anyone during those years.
And now the spirit of that book has entered the digital age with a website created by Derek in collaboration with his friend Reuben Davison, who worked with him on the publication of the book and two other of Derek’s offerings, Bradford’s Own and Bradford Born and Bred.
Read Mike's previous article here: https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/23253915.bradford-rocked-new-website/
Reuben, who was born in 1960, missed the rock and roll boom, although he was in a Bradford band, Solstice, in the later 1970, performing covers, mainly of Lindisfarne songs. He has also written two Bradford-based books: In Loving Memory, about Undercliffe Cemetery, and An Edwardian Housewife’s Companion.
“As Bradford will become the City of Culture in 2025 we felt it would be worthwhile to make the book available in best way we could, and that’s why we’ve created this website,” they say.
And a splendid website it is too, commendably easy to find your way around and packed with information, music, images, videos and entertaining anecdotes - such as Derek’s account of the time he drove Millie Small, (chart-topping star of My Boy Lollipop fame) and her mother up to Cartwright Hall in his Mini, or the day when Screaming Lord Sutch, who was appearing at the Gaumont, invited him to lunch at the Allassio restaurant. They had a grand meal of steak and chips, at the end of which Sutch tossed the bill over to him, said “Thanks a lot” and walked out.
“That meal cost me 19s.6d,” recalled Derek.
www.whenbradfordrocked.co.uk
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