WHEN CLIFF WAS CONTROVERSIAL

Spencer Leigh celebrates Cliff Richard’s rock’n’roll year

When Cliff was controversial?

Whom am I kidding? Well, yes he was. 17-year-old Cliff Richard exploded onto the scene in 1958 and during his first year or so, he made Move It and several more uninhibited rock’n’roll tracks, appeared in two controversial films (Serious Charge, Expresso Bongo), and was criticised by the press for sexual exhibitionism on the ITV show, Oh Boy! Scarcely seems possible, does it, but this lad divided the nation. This is the story of those remarkable months when Cliff was working hard – he cut over 60 tracks, for starters - and was coping with management changes as well as resolving his backing group. It could have gone horribly wrong but it didn’t, although, I suppose, in a way it did.

Cliff Richard was born Harry Webb in Lucknow, India on 14 October 1940. Many families felt uncomfortable when India became independent in 1947 and so when Harry was eight, they moved to the UK, living in Carshalton and then Cheshunt. Harry attended Cheshunt Secondary Modern School and first sang in public at a youth club dance in 1954. As rock’n’roll and skiffle became popular, Harry performed locally as part of the Quintones and the Dick Teague Skiffle Group, whilst having a daytime job at the Atlas Lighting Company.

A local lad, Johnny Foster, who …

by Spencer Leigh
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