Great to see that quality music from the past is still being danced to and enjoyed decades after it first hit the ether. Paradoxically, there is more 60s music readily available to today's affectionados than there was to the original target audience.
As for the emergence of 'celebrity' DJ's, here in the UK this was a cult which probably originated with the birth of pirate radio circa 1964/5, and really fledged when BBC Radio One appeared in 1967. All the club spinners began to see the possibility of becoming the next Tony Blackburn or Emperor Rosko. Prior to that, the chronicle of slick talking DJs this side of the Atlantic is pretty meagre reading as far as I remember. No George 'Hound Dog' Lorenz, Mad Mike of Murray The K over here.
Prior to the big Beatles break out in late 1962, records were played communally in Youth clubs and Church Halls. Often an old mono record player would be wired in to the hall's PA system and a dozen or so serious enthusiasts would shuffle around to whatever it was that they couldn't hear elsewhere. Not a place to advertise your cool or impress girls (if there where any). In those days, there were bands all over the UK, most of them heavy on commitment, but light on musical ability. No different to the US, I would imagine. Would-be Shadows clones everywhere; and far, far too much Trad Jazz which, despite it's sonic awfulness, did introduce some of us to cooler Jazz and the nocturnal lifestyle that went with it.
Then, in 1963, things too a major turn for the better. Clued-in teenagers realised that what the Fab 4 were peddling in those early days was mostly just a pale copy of black American music. Likewise The Stones and their imitators, although the Kinks made a career out of that 'Louie Louie' riff. Good as the tracks on the first Stones album are, with a couple of exceptions, the original versions hold the winning hand. So, in the absence of Slim Harpo, you had to content yourself with his Stateside 45s and find some place where they were played. And, of course, you heard not only Slim Harpo, but a host of other fresh sounds that hinted at just how big - and astonishing - was the musical universe outside your own narrow orbit.
My favourite all-nighter from those days was at a little venue in Leicester called, if I remember correctly, 'The Keyhole'. It was two rooms of a derelict retail premises, scheduled for demolition. The character who ran it (illegally, I suspect) had a couple of Garrard decks connected to an old valve amp which fed speakers in both rooms. No fancy mixing desk; not even a mic. But the man knew his music and he knew that 100% high energy grooves were not the tempo for an 8 hour session. So he mixed uptempo Motown with Ska, jazz instrumentals, New Orleans R&B and pop stuff, like Elvis's version of 'Fever'. It was here that I first heard The Impressions 'Amen', The Falcons 'You're So Fine', Elmore James 'I Believe', Rosie and The Originals 'Angel Baby', The Busters 'Bust Out' and other great tunes. And never a voice over or introduction. If you wanted to know, you just asked the man. Sadly, this ad hoc venue lasted but a few weeks and was never formally advertised.
