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MUSIC
The Velvet Mafia
Local author Darryl W. Bullock’s latest book celebrates the huge cultural contributions made by the gay men of the music industry during the Sixties pop boom
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ristol-based author Darryl W. Bullock has come a long way since penning his first piece for the Bath Chronicle more than 25 years ago. After a decade editing the LGBT section of much-missed local listings magazine Venue, followed by several years helming the West’s alternative lifestyles magazine the Spark, in 2015 he embarked on a career as an author. Since then he has written several internationally acclaimed books, including David Bowie Made Me Gay, a century-long look at LGBT recording artists. His latest, The Velvet Mafia, follows the stories of the gay men who ran the recording industry in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. Here he shares a little of the story.
Larry Parnes with Billy Fury
36 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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MARCH 2021
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No 196
Images, this page: Mirrorpix, used by permission
The search outside the capital for a new sound
The British pop music industry really began in 1956, and was very much centred on London. From the very beginning, the industry was run by gay men: many of the managers, booking agents, record company heads, producers and songwriters who directed the careers of such icons as Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, Bristol’s own Russ Conway and Pensford-born jazz star Acker Bilk were homosexual. They had to be careful, because prior to 1967 it was illegal for homosexual men to have sex or even to chat up or dance with other men, but without the knowledge of the rest of the country the biggest names behind the scenes were working together, supporting each other and, in some cases, having affairs with other high-profile industry professionals. London may have been the centre of the industry, but some people – including artist manager Larry Parnes and Gloucestershire-born producer Joe Meek – were looking outside of the capital for the next big thing. As the ’50s became the ’60s, the passion for American rock ’n’ roll was being replaced by a need for a homegrown sound: talent scouts were in and out of Bristol looking for bands, and although Bristol might not be the first place that people think about when looking at how rock and pop music has developed in the UK, it has played a significant role. We all know about the city’s musical heyday in the late ’80s and mid-1990s, with Smith and Mighty, Tricky, Massive Attack, Roni Size and Portishead, but you can trace the lineage right back to the birth of rock ’n’ roll, if not before. Acts like Knowle’s the Eagles and the Kestrels were really busy during the first half of the 1960s, with international tours, recording sessions and film and TV work. Since then, Bristol and the surrounding towns and cities have given us everyone from Adge Cutler and prog rock pioneers Stackridge, to The Pop Group, The Korgis, Tears for Fears, Bananarama, the Blue Aeroplanes, the Vice Squad, Robert Wyatt, hit songwriters Cook and Greenaway and so many more.
In a hurry to get to London, Cochran and Vincent rented a taxi, driven by George Martin from Hartcliffe, to take them
A turning point in pop history By macabre coincidence an event that took place around Bristol marks a major turning point in the story of pop music. Eddie Cochran died hours after appearing at the Bristol Hippodrome in 1960, as part of the Larry Parnes-produced Anglo-American rock ’n’ roll package tour. Two of the people who shared a stage with Cochran that night were Tony Sheridan and a Liverpudlian singer called Johnny Gentle. Both were under contract to Parnes and both would play a significant role in the history of the most influential British act of all time, the Beatles. Sheridan, the first British rock ’n’ roller to sing and play his own guitar live on British TV, would become best known for the recordings he made in Hamburg with the Beatles shortly before they found fame. Parnes was the first manager in Britain to become as famous as his artists – the Simon Cowell of his day – with a stable of singers including Tommy Steele, Britain’s first real rock ’n’ roll star, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Vince Eager and others. He was also homosexual, a dangerous thing to be at a time when gay men were routinely arrested, fined or even imprisoned. Their tour was due to take a break after a week of shows in Bristol, and Cochran and co-headliner Gene Vincent wanted to get home to America. Cochran was in a hurry to get to London, where he was going to meet up with Vince Eager before the pair flew to the States together, and Cochran and Vincent rented a private hire taxi, driven by
