Forum Topic

R.I.P. Richard Penniman

Just wanted to register the passing of Richard Penniman, a.k.a. Little Richard, one of rock'n'roll's true originals. Great songs, great moves and completely crazy, imbued with the true spirit of rock'n'roll at the precise time the teenager was being invented. R.I P. Richard.

Colin Jordan ● 2368d16 Comments

Julian Pavey ● 2368d

That takes me back to mad jivving dressed inappropiatly in long, strapless, very full skirted, wild silk ball gown with my partner in black tie!  (with trousers, shirt & jacket I hasten to add)  Oh those days of giddy joy.

Jennifer Selig ● 2368d

He always said he made "your bladder splatter, your liver quiver and your knees freeze".He didn't have that effect on my father, however. When dad first saw him perform he harrumphed that the poor bloke must be suffering from terrible piles, and switched the telly off.

Roger Talbot ● 2368d

What luxury, Roger! When he first appeared on the scene, we didn't have a telly.

Colin Jordan ● 2368d

Agreed Colin. Not many tellys around in the 50s... we used to just hear the sounds on the wireless...or see the rock and rollers at the Chiswick Empire (next to Catos!) where cheap seats on Mondays in the "Gods" were best for us youngsters. Don't think Little Richard appeared but certainly Wee Willy Harris!Yes RIP Little Richard...he cheered us up.

Jim Lawes ● 2368d

I didn't want to say that my brother, sisters and I went without shoes to pay for the telly rental. And had to climb up chimneys.

Roger Talbot ● 2368d

Ee, it wer'ard in them days, Roger, but at least we 'ad Little Richard to cheer us up. :o)

Colin Jordan ● 2368d

Too right it was hard,  Colin. We even kept the coal in the bath.

Roger Talbot ● 2368d

And had an outside privy. So we got chilblains on our bums in winter.But we did have that telly.

Roger Talbot ● 2368d

"coal in the bath"...luxury son..my mum 'ad no bath and no room for coal indoors..but they did keep chickens in the yard..xx

Stuart Kerr ● 2368d

Chickens? Bloomin' luxury.We used to have a new budgie every year and about the middle of November Dad used to give it a pair of chest expanders..

Keith Iddon ● 2368d

It was the Coronation which kickstarted TV viewing. A staggering 20 million people watched the BBC's coverage, The number of licences went up from 763,000 in 1951 to 2.14 million in 1953, i.e. from a bit over 5% of households in 1951 to 15% by the year of the Coronation. The trend continued for the rest of the decade, with an increase of more than a million licences year-on-year. I still remember our first  Philips TV, bought for the Coronation, which had an image that was projected on to a silk screen.

Robert Fish ● 2368d

A silk screen? Never heard of that in relation to TV screens before.We used to rent out telly from Rediffusion.

Keith Iddon ● 2368d

R.I.P. We love the early performers along with the 60s.

Janice Evans ● 2368d

What did you stuff it with, Keith?

Roger Talbot ● 2368d

We’re drifting of topic here but I remember my family had one of those  TVs  where the image was projected on to the back of a screen made of some sort of plastic. There is some info about this technology here:-https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/projection_television_sets.html

Michael David Rowe ● 2368d