Pop Britannia – BBC’S Stalinist Airbrush Deletes Weller

Last night I watched all three hour long episodes of Pop Britannia on BBC 4. Now those of you who know me and those of you who have read my blog know the importance of British pop music to me. You’ll have heard me wax lyrical about The Who’s My Generation album, The Beatles’ Revolver, The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Creation, The Jam etc. so it was with great anticipation that I sat down to watch Pop Britannia.

The show started out with the origins of British pop and the “Tin Pan Alley” factory system where professional songwriters wrote novelty tunes and Big band numbers. When Rock N’ Roll broke out in the USA the British industry jumped on the bandwagon as Tin Pan Alley turned its attention to sanitised British versions of the American stars like Cliff Richard.

Next up we were given an insight into the skiffle origins of the Beatles which led on to the introduction of episode 2. The second installment began with Merseybeat before moving onto the R&B influenced southern bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones. Mods were mentioned as if they had sprung up from nowhere in 1963 with the sole reason for fighting Rockers. It was almost as if they had been invented by The Who. There was no mention of the movement’s origins in the Jazz, Soul, Blues and Ska clubs of London. Indeed there was little or no mention of the black origins of British R&B.

After dealing briefly with The Kinks and the Small faces, suddenly pyschedelia was upon us. We got a brief glimpse of The Pink Floyd performing Astronomy Domine at the UFO club before it was suggested that The Beatles and Procul Harum had invented the whole thing. No mention of the influence of American bands like the 13th Floor Elevators, The Electric Prunes, or the British underground scene spearheaded by the likes of the Floyd (Who John Lennon was watching when he experienced his first trip) and Soft Machine. I put down some of these omissions to time constraints though felt that if they wanted to do it properly they shows makers should have done it over five parts or more, not three.

It was part three however that really annoyed me. It began with the fanfare heralding punk as the antidote to silly old glam rock and stuffy old prog-rock. Great. The Sex Pistols were shown performing Anarchy in the UK and they spoke briefly to Malcolm McClaren. Just then the kettle boiled. I ran down to te kitchen and poured myself a cuppa but when I got back into the sitting room 30 seconds after leaving, Adam Ant was on the screen. What??? Where were The Jam? Where were The Clash? The Jam had nineteen top fourty hits including four number ones, were the first band to have import singles that charted in the UK, sold millions of albums and influenced a whole generation of bands. Why were one of the greatest bands of all time omitted. The Clash had sixteen top fourty hits including a number one and also influenced many bands. Then it hit me. 2-Tone was also left out. When 80’s pop was in the spotlight there was no Style Council. Was it that all these bands opposed Thatcher? Was there no room for political music in the BBC’s “history”? No one that was involved in Red Wedge was mentioned.

After this an inordinate amount of time was spent on Stock Aitken and Waterman and then Take That and even Boyzone, who are unfortunately Irish and not British. There was no mention of The Smiths or Joy Division. No New Order, No Primal Scream, no Stone Roses, no Happy mondays. In fact it was as if there had been no guitar music in the British charts from The Sex Pistols all the way up until 1992 when Blur released the Popscene EP. And even now when the Britpop revival was getting a mention through Blur and Oasis, Weller, who was cited by both as an influence was still not mentioned! He also enjoyed over sixty top fourty hits between, The Jam, The Style Council and his solo career. The show was a crime against British pop culture.

The BBC should hang their heads in shame.

~ by Marcas MacCaoimhín on January 22, 2008.