1965: Immigrants not welcome !

[Roburt]

From the start of the R&R era right through to 1964, the US just about had things all their own way; pop music wise. It was US artists that dominated record sales right around the world. At the time, UK acts experienced very little commercial success in the US and so were no opposition to American pop  / R&B acts. BUT after the Beatles broke thru in the States in December 63 & particularly after the group had been on the Ed Sullivan show, all things British became the new big thing there (music, fashion, cars, accent, films, etc.).

This caused massive problems for the US immigration service, who pressurised by the US music biz to help US singers / musicians, banned lots of UK acts from visiting the US for promotional purposes or to play live gigs. Not liking this situation, the UK government responded by banning many US acts from entering the UK. With countries all around the world now booking more & more UK acts and 45's by British acts topping the charts everywhere, US officials could see they were onto a big loser.

HOWEVER, before sense prevailed, some US music people stepped forward to back up the Brits (& so, give support to their acts who wanted to go to the UK to perform). In the end sense prevailed & a DEAL was arrived at. For each UK act allowed into the US, a US act had to be allowed to come to the UK.

This agreement worked well for UK R&B / soul fans as most insipid US pop acts were now dead in the water here. The answer for US record companies, who had UK acts on their books via licensing agreements, was to team one of their soul acts with one of their UK pop acts and thus meet the terms of the US / UK working agreement. So many American soul acts came over here to play British mod / soul clubs while acts such as the Hollies, Searchers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five went the other way.

I know it served their own ends, but it was nice to see that Motown was to the fore in trying to influence US government policy in 1965  ...        

[Roburt]

Lots of acts that we loved (via their live performances or their records) were immigrants into the UK. 

They arrived here from different countries & in different ways ....

The likes of Geno Washington, Sonny Childe (R B Greaves) & more were over here in the US military ...

P P Arnold, Jimmy Thomas, Rosetta Hightower & more jumped ship from American acts touring here & stayed. Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, Sheila Ferguson, the guys in the Fantastics & Drifters + the gals in the Flirtations liked the UK better than the US and so settled here. 

Jimmy James, Jimmy Cliff, Errol Dixon & more had started his music career in the Caribbean & relocated here to develop it further. Sharon Tandy had a similar route to the UK. Starting her singing / recording career in South Africa, she relocated to the UK to take her career to a higher level.  

Later entrants to the UK music scene were the children of Caribbean or African immigrants who entered the UK music biz here when they grew up. 

Are there any decent books that document the path any of the above took to find success in the UK music biz ? 

I'm listening to the audiobook 'Musical Truth' by Jeffrey Boakye at present. I also seem to recall buying a book on this subject a few years back (but still haven't gotten around to reading it).

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Roburt

[Mal C]

I can't help you with reading suggestions I'm afraid, but this is a very interesting subject, and the open Letter from Motown, I'd never seen that before, and of course they were a major player, so thats a normal industry level realease. Published here and there I assume? you dont mention the source?

Had to chuckle, I'm sure most of you who read this did as well, so we sent the Hollies, Searchers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five the other way... yep, you can have them...

[Hooker1951]

Good Post

I started to watch the big acts of the day in early 1964 there was various tours over the next 3 years or so usually at the local ABC cinemas, there might be 5 or 6 acts on usually 4 British and maybe 2 American acts , Even at the age of 13 I was aware that the American acts were better has a rule than most of ours , there were exceptions of course but not many, eg Charlie and Inez fox second from bottom on bill the acts that followed couldn’t really follow them and they were a n thing at the time , anther what comes to mind was Gene Pitney, everybody that followed him was on a loser, the class of the American artists shone through every time, 

ML

[Shinehead]

23 minutes ago, Mal C said:

 

Had to chuckle, I'm sure most of you who read this did as well, so we sent the Hollies, Searchers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five the other way... yep, you can have them...

Yes the U.S. got some dross there, but I saw a documentary on the Dave Clark Five and was surprised to find they were hugh over there with 17 Billboard top 40 hits and a Billboard #1.

No mean feat.

[Roburt]

1 hour ago, Mal C said:

I can't help you with reading suggestions I'm afraid, but this is a very interesting subject, and the open Letter from Motown, I'd never seen that before, and of course they were a major player, so thats a normal industry level realease. Published here and there I assume? you dont mention the source?

The letter was sent by Motown to the top US music mags & I copied it from an edition of RECORD WORLD as they published it.

[Hooker1951]

39 minutes ago, Shinehead said:

Yes the U.S. got some dross there, but I saw a documentary on the Dave Clark Five and was surprised to find they were hugh over there with 17 Billboard top 40 hits and a Billboard #1.

No mean feat.

Yes Dave Clarke Five were absolutely massive in America on par with the Beatles, they had a  bigger sound using the sax more and a bigger bass line which the American audience seemed to love and of Course Mike Smith on  Vocals was a strong presence

ML

[Happy Feet]

6 hours ago, Hooker1951 said:

Yes Dave Clarke Five were absolutely massive in America on par with the Beatles, they had a  bigger sound using the sax more and a bigger bass line which the American audience seemed to love and of Course Mike Smith on  Vocals was a strong presence

ML

Slightly off the music , but did see a documentary on Dave Clarke all about his successful career and his property portfolio in the states , a very popular guy following his musical achievements worth a watch .

[Roburt]

A small indication of the pulling power of UK acts in the US in the mid 60's ...

this booking agency was on the up & that was mainly coz it represented so many 'popular' UK acts (the UK acts getting 'top billing' above many local acts in their ad) ...