On 13 January 1963, the BBC broadcast the play Madhouse on Castle Street, which featured Bob Dylan. Dylan had originally been cast as the lead, but his acting was not up to standard. Given a singing role, he offered one of the earliest public performances of Blowing in the Wind, sung over the credits.
The television schedule for 13 January 1963, and details of the play Bob Dylan appeared in. Despite Dylan’s subsequent rise to fame, the BBC destroyed the recording of the play.
British Cricket in 1963 saw the introduction of a professional limited overs competition, “The First Class Knock Out Competition for the Gillette Cup”. In the inaugural season, the matches consisted of 65 overs per side with a bowler bowling a maximum of 15 overs.
In the semi-finals, Sussex, 292 all out, beat Northamptonshire, 187 all out, by 105 runs, while Worcestershire, 60 – 1, beat Lancashire, 59 all out, by 9 wickets.
In the final, Sussex 168 all out, beat Worcestershire, 154 all out, by 14 runs.
The early starts, to accommodate 130 overs in a day, often meant that the team batting first were at a severe disadvantage due to the dewy conditions favouring the bowlers.
In September 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama, shattering a stained-glass window. In response, John Petts, a stained-glass artist from Carmarthenshire, Wales launched a campaign to fund and create a new window as a gift to the church from the people of Wales. The funds were raised in the blink of an eye, and a friendship between the community in Alabama and Wales continues to this day.
Developed in Birmingham, England in 1963, the Mellotron became one of the sounds of the sixties. Manfred Mann used the Mellotron on Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James, 1966, while a year later the Beatles used the instrument on Strawberry Fields Forever.
In the 1960s and 1970s the Mellotron became a mainstay for progressive rock bands including the Moody Blues, Barclay James Harvest, King Crimson, Yes and Genesis.
By the 1980s, many bands preferred synthesisers to Mellotrons, and production of the latter ceased in 1986. However, groups like Radiohead resurrected the Mellotron and production recommenced in 2007.
Quotes from Peggy Lee, singer, songwriter, actress and sage.
“I didn’t intend to be a jazz singer, but Louis Armstrong said I always knew how to swing. He wrote it on a photograph he gave me. I’m proud of that.”
Vancouver, 1950s. “The place was jammed, the audience was very drunk and I was quietly singing, ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ when one man cracked another over the head with a bottle. ‘Are the stars out tonight…” CRA-A-CK. ‘I don’t know if it’s cloudy or bright…’ CRA-A-CK. The fight was on. Meanwhile, I continued to sing…”
“Some of us just go along believing what we read in the papers until that marvellous day when people stop intimidating us – or should I say, we refuse to let them intimidate us, and we think and do things on our own.”
Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in 1963
https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG
For Authors
#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on 32 occasions.
A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake
Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂
Hannah Howe 