The mid 1950s were, it turns out, little different to any other period in history: the popular press were in no doubt at all that teenagers were up to no good and it had all gone downhill since their parents’ day.

Picturegoer Magazine (a 1950s equivalent of Heat) decided to investigate – were these “Jazz rioters” (a phrase I never thought I’d hear) really as bad as the media were making out?

Reporter Derek Walker and Photographer Allen Newton set off to a Rock ‘n Roll festival at Butlins, Clacton where a thousand youngsters packed the chalet terraces.

It showed just how easy it is for you pop fans to get a bad name. It all depends on whether little groups of hotheads, devil-bent on stirring trouble, are persuasive enough to get the majority on their side. Usually honours go the level-headed majority; sometimes the hotheads get their way. That’s when the headlines sizzle.

Just once during the festival weekend big trouble seemed to be brewing. The bandsmen had packed up, the Viennese ballroom had emptied. Rumour insisted that an all-night rock ‘n roll session to records was to start in the smaller Regency hall.

A couple of hundred cats turned up. “Sorry” announced officials, “it was just a rumour. Let’s get to bed shall we?” Some of the young men in long jackets or sweaters didn’t like that. They picked up a pile of papers, ripped them, threw them into a snowstorm.

“Rock, rock, rock” and “Carve up” chanting began among the dozen or so lads in the centre of the floor. Not many others took it up, but the noise was enough to make organiser Tony Hughes grab the microphone. He was half-breathless, half-pleading.

THIS, he said, was what gave modern music a bad name. THIS was what the press wanted to see. THIS was what would appear in the headlines as rock ‘n roll riots…as he spoke a photographer’s flash lit the dimmed hall for a second. “Print that picture,” hissed a youngster at the cameraman “and the boys’ll be around the get you.”

Most of the youngsters were drifting off chalet-wards to bed or to all-night parties that left the lawns littered with beer bottles and cigarette stubs.

pop music fans, rock ‘n rollers, the cats…they’re just high-spirited, energetic youngsters who can’t resist that music beat.

SO A FEW HOTHEADS ACT LIKE STUPID, DAZED OR CRAZED ADOLESCENTS. WHY GIVE ALL THE YOUNGSTERS A BAD NAME BECAUSE OF THIS.

A few kids giving the majority a bad name; with eager journalists in search of a story all too keen to blow it out of all proportion. Sounds strangely familiar. Those teenage “rioters” are of course now in their 70s – so if you have any memories of the issue from back then, please get in touch.

(The cover photo is of Eileen Elton, who was obviously being touted as the next big thing in Hollywood at the time, but sadly appears not to have done anything after 1957. Top half of the photo only, she’s naked from the waist down and it’s a family blog!).

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