Philip Norman - John Lennon - The Life

With hindsight, ‘Rock Around the Clock’ looks like a kind of Phoney War—a warm-up for the cultural blitzkrieg soon to follow. Most of the excitement it generated was damped down by the sight of Bill Haley himself, a man already pushing 30, with a cherubic smile and query-shaped kiss curl on his too-high forehead, who looked little different from the parents who so condemned him.

To capitalize on sales of the ‘Rock Around the Clock’ recording, a film of the same name was rushed out, featuring Haley and the Comets with other emergent rock-’n’-roll celebrities like Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, the Platters, and ‘Moondog’ Alan Freed. John went to see it expecting a life-changing experience but came away disappointed. ‘I was very surprised’. he would recall. ‘Nobody was screaming and nobody was dancing in the aisles like I’d read. I was all set to tear up the seats, too, but nobody joined in.’

As if to prove the fad had done no serious harm, John’s school report for the 1955 summer term was considerably less of a disaster than usual. English : ‘He is capable of good work and has done quite well…a good knowledge of the books.’ History : ‘He has tried hard and worked well.’ Art : ‘Very satisfactory.’ Handwork : ‘Satisfactory progress.’ Physical training : ‘(height 5, 6 and a half, weight 9 st, 4 lbs) F[airly] satisfactory.’ Geography : ‘Undoubtedly trying harder.’ General science : ‘An encouraging result. His work has been satisfactory but his behaviour in class is not always so.’ The only wholly negative entries were for French (’disappointing’ through fondness for ‘obtaining a cheap laugh in class’) and Religious Knowledge (‘His work has been of a low standard’).

‘The best report he has had for a long time,’ noted a surprised Ernie Taylor in the space reserved for headmaster’s comment. ‘I hope this means that he has turned over a new leaf.’

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