Six-Five Special

As a member of an up and coming group, the Eden Street Skiffle Group, I was in one of the earliest 6.5 Specials. We had made recordings and appeared many times on radio's regular Saturday Morning Skiffle Club. Live TV was a different matter though. Five minutes before we were "on", Jack Good bustled up to us and announced that we had to cut 45 seconds - or it may have been 90 seconds - from the number we were about to perform. This was the bluesy Easy Rider, and we had a frantic 5 minutes or so removing verses.

There being no video recording in 1957 we never got to see the performance although I do have a recording of the opening of the show introduced by Pete Murray and Josephine Douglas, who announces above the rather noisy background of the live (dancing) audience: "You have just come in by way of Laurie Gold and his Pieces of Eight with Rampart Street Parade, and the Eden Street Skiffle Group with Easy Rider". Great fun it all was too.

The six five special's coming down the line....the six five special's's right on time.......

Not only do I remember it but I also was an audience member for one show that came to the Kursaal in Southend. Circa 1958, me 14 with my brother, nearly 16. Yes I did love Denis Lotis but he didn't host that particular episode, sadly for me. Don Lang substituted which was for me rather disappointing. And as another IMDb poster pointed out, 'well-brought-up gels' didn't like Elvis. It's true. It was only 'common' girls who liked him in the very early days. What WERE we thinking?

My brother and I were lucky to get tickets (for 6-5 special), dunno how.......they were actually and unbelievably like gold-dust. But we spoiled it by having an argument on the dance-floor whilst jiving. Not a pretty sight in front of a live camera. I managed to follow it up years later by several more embarrassing appearances on *Live* TV........viz Golden Shot, Thursday Night Live, & others I forget. Well I'm a pensioner now, so I'm allowed selective memory. :) Besides Six Five Special, other defining moments in radio and early UK TV: Quatermass, (scary), Journey into Space, (eerie), The Goon Show, Round the Horn, (hilarious), Muffin the Mule, (yes really...ah bless him), Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, (flobbadob...joined by Weeeeeeed), In Town Tonight (STOP). And one I totally loathed but was forced to endure on the radio after Sunday lunch, to 'let the food go down'.: Sing Something Simple. Might have been part of the Black and White Minstrel Show. I hated it. Six Five Special was an also-ran with teenage music show 'Cool for Cats', and the precursor for Top of the Pops.

We were the first house in the street to have a telebox,and I seem to remember a train hurtling at me from the Television on the opening credits to 6.5 special which caused my siblings and I to dive behind the sofa.

My memories of the 50's were of a very dull time ,it never stopped raining, everyone had ducks flying up the wallpaper, with a mirror over the tiled mantlepiece and a rug made of old socks in front of the fire.

The music was just as Dull I recall. Rock and Roll was starting to make an impact though although it was thought as slightly downmarket.

An episode of 6.5 special was aired on BBC 4 the other night and now I remember it had something for everyone- an article on mountain climbing in Wales, a silly sketch featuring Spike Milligan as a deranged butcher and of course lots of music that Auntie Beeb deemed 'safe' for their young viewers.

I then realised that the music on offer was as dull as I remember it at the time. Thank god for the Beatles. Lots of Nostalgia though, I hope we can see more of these programmes in the future.