The Journey

The journey begins on a smoke filled night in London during late September. The year is 1940 and London has been under constant bombardment for many months. The sounds of Air raid sirens, anti-aircraft fire from the shore batteries up and down the Thames, together with the piercing whistle of falling bombs is heard, as search lights and flames rake the venue. Churchill is speaking from the cabinet war room in Whitehall and can be heard on the radio.... Unshaken by the danger, Glenn Miller and his band strike up and defy the might of the German Bombers overhead.

In 'The Mood' shakes up the dance floor and for those, less encouraged to dance, the band's plasma screens depict scenes of actual footage from the Blitz. Enter the Andrews Sisters, still dressed in their US army uniforms, who perform some of their hits; 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy From Company B,' 'Don't sit under The Apple Tree.' 'Chatanooga Choo Choo' and exit to the sound of the band as they play St. Louis Blues'

The decade of the Fifties gave birth to Rock and Roll. When Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock became popular in 1955, the nation learned to swing to a whole new sound.

But, Rock wasn't the only music of the Fifties. Other artists with other songs had folks hummin' for much of the decade.
The feel-good innocence of a lot of the Fifties music reflects on the post World War II optimism in Americaand England.. The young people of the time, an emerging force called teenagers, hadn't struggled through the war years. They were looking for something more exciting. They discovered that vitality in Rock and Roll.

During the Fifties both styles of music co-existed quite nicely.
Some of the music you associate with the Fifties was actually recorded in the Sixties. Blue Moon, by the Marcels, for example. And all of the "girl groups" are from the 60's. When you look at the dates, musically the styles tend to break off mid-decade. The tunes from '55-'64 are pretty much alike. Things don't change much until the British musical invasion of U.S. and the U.S. military invasion of Viet Nam, from around '64-'74.

Music at the beginning of the 60s was a sanitised commercial version of mid fifties American rock'n'roll. By then, Billy Haley was out of the picture and Elvis was as much a movie star as a rock'n'roll singer. In Britain, the melodic sounds of Cliff Richard and Adam Faith competed with the Everly Brothers from the US for the top spot in the music charts. There were young stars like Helen Shapiro, who started her career with four top 3 hits. The favourite dance, the Twist, was enjoyed by the middle aged as well as the young. The rebellious origins of rock'n'roll seemed to be no more than a passing fad. Pop music still played on the juke boxes in the coffee bars of the early 60s. However, many teenagers looked to jazz as a form of rebellion.

In October 1962, four lads from Liverpool, dressed in smart Italian style suits and with mop hairdos, had their first UK hit "Love Me Do"; it reached a modest number 17. A year later, their fourth chart hit "She Loves You" became the best selling single of the sixties in the UK. The Beatles had arrived. Thousands of screaming school girl fans and the rest of the country greeted a phenomenon as yet unknown on these shores.

The Beatles changed everything. They were not officially the first group from Liverpool to have a number one hit though, Gerry and the Pacemakers beat them to it by a month. The Beatles though, were far from just another group. They put pop music in the news and they heralded the British invasion of the US charts.

Motown Medley:
Reach out, I'll be there
Baby Love
Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch
Stop, In The Name Of Love

Soul Medley:
River Deep, Mountain High
Sweet Soul Music
We Are Family
I Will Survive
Mustang Sally
Bring It On Home To Me

Elvis Tribute:
2001 Intro/That's alright mamma
Suspicious Minds
Guitar Man
Too Much Monkey Business
It's Now Or Never
American Trilogy
Elvis Outro/CC Rider

Blues Brothers Tribute
SFX - Blue Brothers Entrance
Everybody Needs Somebody
Rubber Biscuit
Shake Your Tail Feather
Sweet Home Chicago

Seventies Ballads
I don't Wanna Talk about it
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Take A Look At Me Now
My Way

ABBA Tribute
Does Your Mother Know?
Dancing Queen
Mamma Mia
Vous Lez Vous
Thankyou For The Music

Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara

Shara
Jools
Girls
Girls
Phil
Dave

Dave & Band
Dave & Band
Dave & Band
Dave & Band
Dave & Band
Dave & Band
Dave & Band

Phil & Dave
Phil & Dave
Phil & Dave
Phil & Dave
Phil & Dave

Jools
Shara
Jools
Dave

Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara
Jools & Shara

By the 80s, pop music was part of the fabric of life. It was literally everywhere. On countless new radio stations, on movie soundtracks, in restaurants, in supermarkets and even in lifts . . .

The explosion of music found its way into the tabloid press as newspapers started covering the antics of pop stories as major news stories, and into an overwhelming number of new music and style magazines. And most importantly of all, it found its way on to television.

When MTV , the music video channel, was launched in the US in the summer of 1981 it changed our view of music overnight. Suddenly it was important what music looked like, as well as how it sounded