It can certainly be safe to say that the 1960s produced some of the most dramatic changes in the world of popular music.

From the early days of rock and roll, through to the swinging beat scene, the British invasion, American surf music and right through to the San Francisco sound of the peace and love generation, there was a voice that was there from the beginning. That voice was still there at the end of the decade and beyond.

Sadly that voice is largely unknown to today’s generation. Some of today’s kids would probably only be vaguely familiar with it if they are fans of some of the biggest and most popular movies to come out of that decade.

Matt Monro was described as the UK’s answer to Frank Sinatra, a label he detested. For Matt Monro was not an answer to anything. Matt Monro was unique, he was his own entity, had his own marvellous style, and was possibly the finest male popular music singer the UK has ever produced.

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The story of James Bond on the big screen is a tale of highs and lows, ups and downs, twists and turns.  The story of the making of the movies themselves is worthy of an Ian Fleming novel in its own right.  It is the story has taken over sixty years to tell, and is still being told today.

As important to this story as Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig is the story of three other men.  The three men who between them managed to bring one of the most successful and well-loved movie franchises to the big screen.

No journey into the world of cinematic Bond can begin without a look of the importance of Messrs’ Fleming, Broccoli and Saltzman.

To many people, James Bond is only an entity that can be found on the big screen. This, of course, is not the case. Bond was born long before 1962 when Sean Connery first introduced himself to Sylvia Trench at the casino in Dr No.

Many have said that Ian Fleming himself was the basis for the character of Bond, but as you will soon hear, the inspiration for the world’s most famous spy came from a variety of sources and influences.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of Dr No and the birth of James Bond on the big screen

Rainbow Valley - Episode 013

1962 – A year of worldwide upheaval, the continuing space race and the death of Hollywood’s biggest sex symbol.

The year would witness one of the most devastating air disasters as an Air France Boeing 707 would crash in Paris, John Glen would become the first American to orbit the earth and Albert Sabin would develop the first oral polio vaccine.

Algeria Burundi and Jamaica would all gain their independence this year and the Telstar satellite would provide eth first live transatlantic television pictures.

Along with an escape from Alcatraz, the A6 murders and Cuban Missile Crisis bringing the world closer than it’s ever been to all out nuclear war, the soundtrack of the  year was provided by Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and The Tornadoes, oh and a certain group from Liverpool released their first major single this year as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of the hits and headlines of 1962.

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As we discovered in series one, the 1960s signified, for many, a decade of revolution, a decade of hope, a decade of immense change worldwide. We must not forget however that it was also a time of conflict, the cold war and racial tension.

Musically, the world moved from the rock and roll era and crooners into the British invasion, folk music and peace and love along with hippies, drugs and Woodstock.

If the sixties had ended on August  17th 1969 instead of the 31st December, Woodstock would be considered  a fitting finale to a turbulent decade but instead, just a few months later the sixties dream became its nightmare at another free concert, this time headlined by the Rolling Stones. With support from Santana, Jefferson Airplane and a host of other acts, events would unfold that led to the ugliest scenes in the history of rock music culminating in the deaths of four people. The sixties would end, not so much swinging but reeling towards one of the darkest of days in the world of entertainment in 1969 leaving a black shadow over the decade. Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of the Rolling Stones at Altamont.

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The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963, at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.

A robbery that took less than 30 minutes from start to finish, spread over a distance of 28 miles, and would net the gang involved the equivalent of over £38 million in today’s money.

The gang consisted of 15 members, four of which , still to this day, were never caught-their names not even known.

The robbery was immediately dubbed the crime of the century, and is still spoken about today  for not only the planning and the preciseness of the raid, but also the mistakes and the bungling of the gang that led to their arrest…for some of them that is. For in addition to this there is the story of those that evaded capture for nearly fifty years becoming celebrities halfway around the globe.

There is also the story of the police that were involved. The Flying Squad determined to capture those responsible at any cost. And the story of the families of the police officers, the gang and the victims.

The audacity and the scale of the robbery fascinated the country, sticking two fingers up to the establishment as details unfolded in the daily newspapers and tv reports. And even today there remains this almost romantic notion of the cheeky gang of South London crooks that wouldn’t hurt anyone being punished by harsh prison sentences- but as we will discover, people did get hurt. And as well as capturing the public’s imagination, it horrified them in equal measure.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of The Great Train Robbery.

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THE MAKING OF SERGEANT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

On June 1st 1967, The Beatles released what was and is still considered by many the greatest album of all time. It was an album of firsts. It featured the first gatefold sleeve, the first time lyrics had ever appeared on a record cover and it was the first album the band would release following their decision to stop touring. It was the most expensive sleeve design in record distribution history featuring a host of celebrities past and present and arguably it can be considered the first album by a musical artist to be discussed in terms of art.

Within hours of its release it went multi-platinum and topped the charts around the world. The album spent 27 weeks at the top of the UK album chart and 15 weeks at number one in the USA.

The album is regarded by some as an early concept album that advanced the use of extended form in popular music while continuing the artistic maturity seen on the Beatles previous two albums Rubber Soul and Revolver. One of the first art rock LPs it aided the development of progressive rock and is credited with marking the beginning of the album era

The Beatles heralded in what would become known as the summer of love with a soundtrack that featured songs influenced by music hall, circus western and Indian music. We were asked to turn on tune in and drop out in a year that proved be a remarkable watershed in the social history of western youth.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of the making of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

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THE MAKING OF BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS

The 1960s heralded in a new era in a variety of ways. Society and political events influenced the cultural and art world throughout the decade. The early sixties would begin to be seen as the start of the permissive age. Lady Chatterley and the pill would nudge open the door to  a new world of liberation that would reach out to people’s attitudes, the way they dressed, the music they listened to and the movies they would watch.

1960 brought us Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which whilst giving the world of celluloid its first flushing toilet; it would also foreshadow an age of more open-minded sensibilities. But just how much would the movie going public be prepared for an adaptation of a novella that told the story of a New York prostitute, her devoted gay best friend, Japanese landlord, and her cat. With Audrey Hepburn in what could potentially have been a career destroying, but eventually became the career defining role of Holly Golightly, the world was more than ready. Ladies and Gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s

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Rainbow Valley is a monthly podcast where your host, Scott takes a look at key events and personalities that shaped one the most influential, vibrant, tumultuous and swinging decades in history. Join us as we celebrate the 1960’s with the stories surrounding the music and news events of the decade that shook the world.

The 1960s was a decade that would prove itself to be one of the most culturally significant decades of all time. And now looking back, it’s probably quite safe to say that it was an important ten years from a worldwide political point of view with events that would shake the world almost to its very core. One year , particularly important to the story of the sixties was 1961. It was a year that would divide countries, events would take place that would lay the foundations for potential global nuclear destruction and see the first man escape the confines of the earth’s atmosphere. The so called  permissive society would poke its head further over the parapet , the space race would pick up speed and the cold war would begin to freeze to a previously unimaginable temperature. And amongst all of this, the soundtrack of 1961 would be presented to us by Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey and Helen Shapiro.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of the hits and headlines of 1961.

Rainbow Valley is a monthly podcast where your host, Scott takes a look at key events and personalities that shaped one the most influential, vibrant, tumultuous and swinging decades in history. Join us as we celebrate the 1960’s with the stories surrounding the music and news events of the decade that shook the world.

On October 14th 1964, African American civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice in America. At 35 years of age the Georgia born minister was the youngest person to receive the award.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta in 1929, the son of a Baptist minister. He received a doctorate degree in theology and in 1955 organized the first major protest of the civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. King adhered to Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence and promoted nonaggressive civil disobedience to racial segregation. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence, but King and his supporters persevered, and their nonviolent crusade gained momentum.

A powerful speechmaker, he appealed to Christian and American principles and won increasing backing from the federal government and northern whites. In 1963, he led an enormous March on Washington, and in front of a quarter of a million people , he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” address.

Just prior to Dr King accepting his Nobel Prize,  In 1964, the civil rights movement achieved two of its greatest successes: the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax, and the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race in the United States, but while legally black people were allowed the vote, some southern state officials obstructed their efforts to register. Local groups in Selma had already been agitating for change, but when Dr Martin Luther King chose it as the testing ground for his black voter registration campaign in early 1965, it drew national attention to the Alabama town.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of Selma to Montgomery – Martin Luther King and the March for Freedom

Rainbow Valley is a monthly podcast where your host, Scott takes a look at key events and personalities that shaped one the most influential, vibrant, tumultuous and swinging decades in history. Join us as we celebrate the 1960’s with the stories surrounding the music and news events of the decade that shook the world.

In the early part of the 1960’s, there was a challenge to country music’s Nashville sound. It came like a pincer movement, with the rival Bakersfield sound on one flank and the seemingly unstoppable British invasion on another. The world of country music would be robbed suddenly of the beloved talents that were Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves who would both die in airplane crashes. Nashville’s pop song structure became more distinct with the gradual adaptation in what became known as Countrypolitan music. This would be brought to the forefront by stars such as Glen Campbell, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson and Charley Pride and was characterized through the use of lavish string arrangements with a genuine orchestra and occasionally, backing vocals provided  by a choir. It was aimed at the middle-of-the-road market and sold well throughout the later 1960s and into the early seventies. The mid sixties would see Johnny cash take a different, more ambitious route releasing concept albums about the American West and the Indian a few years before rock bands would come up with the self-same idea. He would soon conceive of the ultimate concept album and an audacious idea that would propel his career.

When Johnny Cash walked into the gloomy Folsom Prison on January 13th 1968, he had no idea how it would change his life or the course of popular music.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.

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Scott