Move it! The Butch Rock 'n' Roll Explosion

FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever since Nik Cohn dismissed British pop in the '50s as "pure farce". In this way, a whole era of British music – both domestic and fabulously exotic – has been written out of history: consigned to the outer darkness of nostalgia package tours and local newspaper reports.