WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.879 This Apple podcast title, The Deep Dive, Jeff 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.620 Dexter, the mod scene and the birth of DJ culture, 00:00:06.019 --> 00:00:09.140 Apple podcast description. Uncover the untold 00:00:09.140 --> 00:00:12.019 story of Jeff Dexter, the legendary British DJ, 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:14.419 club promoter and record producer who defined 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:17.940 the 1960s London mod scene. In this deep dive, 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.460 we explore how a tailoring obsessed teenager 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:22.699 from Elephant and Castle popularized the twist 00:00:22.699 --> 00:00:25.100 in England, danced his way into London's most 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:28.339 exclusive clubs and shaped music history. From 00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:31.320 spinning records at the first 1971 Glastonbury 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:33.840 Fair to launching the chart -topping rock band 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:36.759 America and befriending a young Mark Bolan, discover 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:38.920 the roots of DJing and the cultural chefs that 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:41.479 forever changed the UK music industry. Perfect 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:44.079 for music history buffs, mod culture enthusiasts, 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:47.280 and anyone fascinated by 1960s London nightlife. 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.750 Welcome to our deep dive. If you were looking 00:00:50.750 --> 00:00:52.670 at the title and description for today's session 00:00:52.670 --> 00:00:54.789 before you hit play, you probably saw our focus. 00:00:55.869 --> 00:00:58.390 We're unraveling the incredible, somewhat hidden 00:00:58.390 --> 00:01:00.649 history of Jeff Dexter. Yeah, the mod scene, 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:03.609 the birth of DJ culture. Exactly. And today, 00:01:03.710 --> 00:01:05.409 we're pulling our source material straight from 00:01:05.409 --> 00:01:07.870 the Wikipedia article on Jeff Dexter. Who was 00:01:07.870 --> 00:01:10.090 born Jeffrey Dexter Bedwell, just for the record. 00:01:10.209 --> 00:01:12.370 Right, Jeffrey Dexter Bedwell. And our mission 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:18.069 today is to really explore how sheer audacity... 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.840 borderline obsessive love for fashion, and this 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.200 incredible youth culture hustle transformed a 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.159 kid from South London into a lynchpin of the 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:31.120 1960s underground. And eventually a massive music 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:33.480 industry heavyweight. Oh, absolutely. OK, let's 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:35.239 unpack this, because we are talking about a guy 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:38.060 who spun records at the very first Glastonbury 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:42.500 Fair, who literally introduced the twist to England. 00:01:42.620 --> 00:01:45.420 Which is a crazy story on its own. Right. And 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:48.019 who helped launch the global hit band, America. 00:01:48.829 --> 00:01:51.090 But he started with absolutely nothing but a 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:53.530 needle, thread, and a whole lot of confidence. 00:01:53.709 --> 00:01:56.049 It is a staggering trajectory, to say the least. 00:01:56.170 --> 00:01:58.409 And what we were going to see as we look at Dexter's 00:01:58.409 --> 00:02:00.549 life is that this isn't just, you know, a standard 00:02:00.549 --> 00:02:02.349 music biography. Like where someone just picks 00:02:02.349 --> 00:02:05.030 up a guitar and gets famous. Exactly. It is essentially 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.909 a masterclass in how underground youth culture 00:02:07.909 --> 00:02:10.430 bubbles up from the streets. From the very bottom. 00:02:10.689 --> 00:02:13.469 Right. Specifically, the working class neighborhoods 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:17.419 of post -war London. and how that dictates global 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:20.460 mainstream tastes. You are going to see how the 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:24.259 margins continually redefine the center. It's 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:27.340 a story of post -war Britain, the actual birth 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:30.669 of the teenager, as a distinct consumer class. 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:32.789 Which didn't even exist before then. No, it really 00:02:32.789 --> 00:02:35.870 didn't. And it's about the sheer power of pretending 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:38.490 you belong until you actually do. I want to stop 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:40.069 you right there and look at that starting point 00:02:40.069 --> 00:02:42.270 because context is everything here. Absolutely. 00:02:42.689 --> 00:02:46.270 So Jeff Dexter was born on August 15th, 1946. 00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:48.569 In Lambeth Hospital. Right, Lambeth Hospital. 00:02:48.969 --> 00:02:51.409 And he was raised in Newington Butts, which is 00:02:51.409 --> 00:02:54.069 near Elephant Castle in London. Yeah. And then 00:02:54.069 --> 00:02:56.340 he moved to Camberwell Road when he was 10. No, 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:58.400 this is 1946. We really have to picture that 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:00.639 area at the time. Oh, yeah. We are talking about 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:02.840 a London that is literally still smoldering from 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:05.360 the blitz. It's gray. It's heavily rationed. 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:08.120 Economically devastated. So how does a kid in 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:10.840 that specific environment even begin to connect 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:13.599 with global music and fashion? That is the exact 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:15.680 right question to ask, because you have to look 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.060 at the physical landscape. Elephant and castle 00:03:18.060 --> 00:03:21.379 in the late 1940s and early 1950s was defined 00:03:21.379 --> 00:03:24.539 by bomb craters and austerity. Just total survival 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:28.030 mode. Yes. Food rationing in the UK didn't entirely 00:03:28.030 --> 00:03:32.469 end until 1954. Wow, 1954. So the concept of 00:03:32.469 --> 00:03:36.550 disposable income or leisure time. Or buying 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:38.710 things simply for pleasure. Right. It was an 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:41.069 incredibly foreign concept to working class families 00:03:41.069 --> 00:03:43.189 trying to rebuild their lives. Which makes this 00:03:43.189 --> 00:03:45.789 first detail from the source so fascinating. 00:03:45.889 --> 00:03:48.860 The record. Yes, the record. The text notes that 00:03:48.860 --> 00:03:52.379 Dexter bought his first record in 1955 or 1956, 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:54.699 so he's just nine or ten years old. Just a little 00:03:54.699 --> 00:03:58.199 kid. And the record was a 78 rpm of 16 tons by 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:01.430 Tennessee Ernie Ford. But here is the massive 00:04:01.430 --> 00:04:04.030 catch. His family did not own a gramophone. They 00:04:04.030 --> 00:04:06.189 didn't have one. So he had to physically take 00:04:06.189 --> 00:04:08.669 this record and visit his friends' houses just 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:11.110 to listen to it. It's incredible. Why buy a record 00:04:11.110 --> 00:04:12.889 if you literally cannot play it? For you listening, 00:04:12.889 --> 00:04:15.030 it's like buying a video game today without owning 00:04:15.030 --> 00:04:17.069 the console, just to carry it over to a friend's 00:04:17.069 --> 00:04:20.050 house. What's fascinating here is the profound 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:22.889 level of dedication required to be a music fan 00:04:22.889 --> 00:04:26.290 in mid -1950s working class London. Yeah. Tell 00:04:26.290 --> 00:04:29.389 us about those 78s. A 78 RPM record in 19... 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:32.319 wasn't just a piece of plastic, it was made of 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.879 shellac. Which is heavy. It was heavy, and it 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:37.160 was incredibly brittle. I mean, if you dropped 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:39.560 it, it shattered into a dozen pieces on the pavement. 00:04:39.660 --> 00:04:42.240 Oh man, no streaming, no downloading? Not at 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:44.079 all. It wasn't something you could easily stream 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.990 or slip into a pocket. Buying a physical medium 00:04:46.990 --> 00:04:50.209 without the hardware to play it signifies a deep, 00:04:50.550 --> 00:04:53.629 almost primal commitment to the very idea of 00:04:53.629 --> 00:04:56.569 music. And the idea of ownership. Exactly, ownership. 00:04:56.889 --> 00:04:59.149 He wanted a piece of that cultural capital for 00:04:59.149 --> 00:05:01.569 himself, even if he couldn't access it independently. 00:05:02.089 --> 00:05:05.209 And 16 tons is a very specific choice for a 10 00:05:05.209 --> 00:05:07.250 -year -old in London. It really is. I mean, it's 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:10.160 an American... country and western song about 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:13.279 the absolute misery of coal mining and being 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:16.139 hopelessly in debt to the company store. What 00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:18.500 is a kid in Camberwell Road doing with that? 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:21.220 It speaks to the rhythm and the attitude of the 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:24.920 American import. Postwar British youth were captivated 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:28.800 by America. America represented technicolor wealth 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:31.920 and rebellion. While Britain represented grayscale 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:35.399 rationing. Perfectly said. Even though the song 00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:38.639 is about mining in Kentucky, the driving snapping 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:42.300 beat and the deep booming voice of Tennessee, 00:05:42.939 --> 00:05:44.860 Ernie Ford, would have sounded like something 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:47.180 from another planet to a kid in London. Like 00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:50.000 an alien transmission. Yeah. But look at the 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000 practical reality of what he did. By not having 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.660 a gramophone, that early barrier to entry actually 00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:59.199 forged a communal listening experience. Because 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.220 he couldn't sit alone in his bedroom? He was 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:03.279 forced to go out, to visit friends, to share 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.699 the music. This inadvertently trained him for 00:06:05.699 --> 00:06:08.160 his future career. Are you saying he was basically 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:10.100 organizing listening parties at 10 years old? 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:12.600 Exactly. From the age of 10, he was already gathering 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:15.240 people around a record player. Wow. He was already 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:17.100 creating an event around a piece of music, which 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:19.800 is the foundational core of what a DJ does. He 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:22.310 was curating an experience. Acting is the bridge 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:24.170 between the music and the audience. Purely out 00:06:24.170 --> 00:06:26.889 of necessity. That makes a lot of sense. He was 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:29.209 a DJ before he even knew what the concept was. 00:06:30.790 --> 00:06:32.990 But music was only half of the equation for Dexter, 00:06:33.170 --> 00:06:35.149 right? Right. There was the fashion. The source 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:37.850 tells us his other major obsession was fashion. 00:06:38.589 --> 00:06:40.930 He had an early interest in clothing and style, 00:06:41.269 --> 00:06:43.449 influenced heavily by his mother and his brother. 00:06:43.649 --> 00:06:45.970 Which leads to a very interesting tactical move 00:06:45.970 --> 00:06:49.839 on his part. Yes, as a boy. He joined the Sea 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:52.920 Scouts and the Boys Brigade. Now, you'd assume 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.540 a kid joins those for the camping or the sailing. 00:06:55.579 --> 00:06:58.660 Or the discipline. Right. But he explicitly stated 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:01.279 he joined specifically because he wanted to wear 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.699 the uniforms. This is a critical piece of the 00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:06.060 puzzle regarding youth culture and social mobility. 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:08.480 How so? Well, if we look at the intersection 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:12.060 of fashion, identity, and rebellion in post -war 00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:15.319 Britain, it's entirely rooted in self -presentation. 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:18.300 For you listening, you have to understand that 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:21.279 the teenager as a demographic didn't really exist 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:23.759 before this era. Right. Before the 1950s, you 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:25.459 were a child. And then you went to work and became 00:07:25.459 --> 00:07:28.300 an adult. Dressing in miniature versions of your 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:32.100 parents' drab clothing. Precisely. The 1950s 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:36.000 birthed this new transitional phase where young 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.079 people suddenly had a little bit of pocket money. 00:07:38.259 --> 00:07:42.139 And a desire to... visually separate themselves 00:07:42.139 --> 00:07:44.959 from the older generation. Right. So the uniform 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:48.000 was his way of participating in that visual separation. 00:07:48.339 --> 00:07:51.199 Even though a boys' brigade uniform is, by definition, 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.459 meant to enforce conformity. It's a paradox, 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:57.300 but a brilliant one. For a young Jeff Dexter, 00:07:57.540 --> 00:08:00.120 a uniform wasn't about conforming to a military 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:02.860 or religious ideal. Which was the intended purpose 00:08:02.860 --> 00:08:05.079 of those organizations. Right. It was an accessible 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:07.620 way to engage with structured style. It was a 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:09.360 way to look the part when you couldn't afford 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:12.800 expensive tailored clothes. Oh, I see. A uniform 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.399 has clean lines. It has brass buttons. It demands 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:18.079 maintenance and pride. He was essentially borrowing 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:20.500 the prestige of a uniform to elevate his own 00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:23.050 status in a neighborhood where most kids were 00:08:23.050 --> 00:08:25.470 wearing hand -me -downs. That is so smart. And 00:08:25.470 --> 00:08:27.189 he didn't stop at just wearing clothes. He wanted 00:08:27.189 --> 00:08:28.949 to understand how they were built. He went all 00:08:28.949 --> 00:08:32.210 in. He actually took up dressmaking and palering. 00:08:32.889 --> 00:08:35.690 Now, he noted that he was often the only boy 00:08:35.690 --> 00:08:38.549 in these settings surrounded by girls and women 00:08:38.549 --> 00:08:41.210 learning how to sew. Which is a huge detail. 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:45.490 I have to push back here on the reality of 1950s 00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:48.309 South London. Sewing and tailoring for a young 00:08:48.309 --> 00:08:50.909 boy in a rough working class neighborhood. Yeah. 00:08:51.230 --> 00:08:53.710 Was there no pushback or bullying for doing what 00:08:53.710 --> 00:08:56.289 was strictly considered women's work at the time? 00:08:56.549 --> 00:08:59.009 It seems like a massive social risk. It was an 00:08:59.009 --> 00:09:01.649 enormous social risk. The gender dynamics of 00:09:01.649 --> 00:09:04.389 working class London in the 1950s were incredibly 00:09:04.389 --> 00:09:06.590 rigid. Boys were expected to play football. Get 00:09:06.590 --> 00:09:09.090 into scraps, prepare for manual labor. Right. 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.370 Taking a needle and thread and sitting in a... 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.019 dressmaking class was subverting every expectation 00:09:14.019 --> 00:09:16.360 of working -class masculinity. But he did it 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:19.320 anyway. Because Dexter was a pragmatist. He recognized 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:21.720 early on that understanding clothes, understanding 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:24.059 how a garment is constructed, gave him access. 00:09:24.379 --> 00:09:27.000 Access to what? It gave him access to a unique 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:29.759 skill that none of his male peers had, but more 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.120 importantly to a teenage boy, it gave him access 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:34.220 to girls. The stores actually points that out 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:37.000 explicitly. It says this unique skill set made 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:39.960 him highly popular with the girls. A fact that 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.200 he thoroughly enjoyed. Yes, he did. He basically 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:46.039 bypassed the traditional macho posturing of his 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:49.039 neighborhood to get a social edge. Precisely. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:50.879 He was playing chess while everyone else was 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.480 playing checkers. I love that. He realized that 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:55.980 if he controlled the fashion, if he could alter 00:09:55.980 --> 00:09:59.480 a dress or hem a skirt for a girl, he had an 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:02.460 in that no other boy had. He was building social 00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:05.039 capital through aesthetics. And this understanding 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:07.799 of how a dart works, how a lapel should sit, 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:11.159 how fabric drapes, this becomes his ultimate 00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:13.019 weapon. Which brings us to what might be the 00:10:13.019 --> 00:10:15.919 most cinematic moment in this entire deep dive. 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:18.740 The club infiltration. His infiltration of the 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:21.600 Lyceum Clove. The audacity here is just off the 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:25.460 charts. It's August 1961. Dexter is just 14 years 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:27.990 old. 14. Some older girls he knows invite him 00:10:27.990 --> 00:10:30.610 to go to the Lyceum, which was a massive, iconic 00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:33.049 venue in London. Huge place. But there's a huge 00:10:33.049 --> 00:10:35.389 physical barrier here. He's only four foot eight 00:10:35.389 --> 00:10:37.549 and a half inches tall. He readily admits he 00:10:37.549 --> 00:10:40.529 looked about 11 years old, yet he manages to 00:10:40.529 --> 00:10:43.509 gain entry to an adult club by claiming to be 00:10:43.509 --> 00:10:48.370 16. How does a kid who looks 11 get past a London 00:10:48.370 --> 00:10:52.590 bouncer? This introduces a uniquely British cultural 00:10:52.590 --> 00:10:57.019 concept called front. Front? Yes. It's pure audacious 00:10:57.019 --> 00:10:59.399 bluffing. It's walking into a room you have no 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:01.200 business being in and acting like you own the 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.639 place. Just sheer confidence. But confidence 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:05.360 alone doesn't make you taller. They would have 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:07.159 looked at him and laughed if it weren't for the 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:09.179 clothes. Right. The source says he relied on 00:11:09.179 --> 00:11:11.320 having all the right clothes and what he called 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:14.039 the equipment to look grown up. The equipment, 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:16.860 meaning the tailored suits. He used those tailoring 00:11:16.860 --> 00:11:18.740 skills we just talked about, and he wasn't doing 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:21.379 this alone. No, he had a partner in crime. Back 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:24.379 in 1959, he had befriended a 12 -year -old named 00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:26.960 Mark Feld. And for you listening who know your 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.740 music history... Mark Feld later changes his 00:11:29.740 --> 00:11:32.620 name. Yes, he becomes the legendary glam rock 00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:36.240 icon Mark Bolan, the frontman of T -Rex. Which 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:38.980 is just a crazy historical collision. It really 00:11:38.980 --> 00:11:41.960 is. Both of these boys were extremely small for 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:44.480 their age, but they gained admission to these 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:47.740 exclusive adult clubs using this front and their 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:51.259 nice clothes. But the question is, how do two 00:11:51.259 --> 00:11:55.100 poor kids get adult mod suits? Exactly. If we 00:11:55.100 --> 00:11:56.980 connect this to the bigger picture, we are looking 00:11:56.980 --> 00:11:59.279 at the very mechanics of youth gatekeeping and 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:02.039 subversion. Right. To answer your question, they 00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:04.960 couldn't afford Italian -cut mod suits. So what 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:06.899 do they do? They went to the children's department 00:12:06.899 --> 00:12:09.320 of high street budget shops like Woolworths and 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:11.879 CNA. They bought cheap kids clothes. They bought 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:15.059 cheap kids blazers and trousers. Then Dexter 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:17.789 would take them home. rip the seams apart, and 00:12:17.789 --> 00:12:20.450 use his dressmaking skills to alter them. Wow. 00:12:20.690 --> 00:12:22.889 He would take in the lapels, change the buttons, 00:12:23.049 --> 00:12:25.470 adjust the darts, and taper the trousers to mimic 00:12:25.470 --> 00:12:28.629 expensive, bespoke adult fashion. Here's where 00:12:28.629 --> 00:12:31.389 it gets really interesting. You have these two 00:12:31.389 --> 00:12:34.230 working -class kids altering cheap Woolworth 00:12:34.230 --> 00:12:37.350 clothes on a bedroom floor, and they are about 00:12:37.350 --> 00:12:40.009 to go out and dictate British music and fashion 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:42.950 for a generation. It's amazing. Mark Boland becomes 00:12:42.950 --> 00:12:46.370 a rock god, and Dexter shapes the entire DJ scene. 00:12:46.870 --> 00:12:49.129 It's total resourcefulness. It almost feels like 00:12:49.129 --> 00:12:51.710 the DIY ethos of the punk movement. But this 00:12:51.710 --> 00:12:54.929 is 1961, a decade and a half before punk existed. 00:12:55.350 --> 00:12:58.049 It absolutely predates the punk ethos of DIY, 00:12:58.570 --> 00:13:01.269 but with a completely different aesthetic goal. 00:13:01.529 --> 00:13:04.309 Right, punk was messy. Punk, in the late 70s, 00:13:04.330 --> 00:13:06.629 was about deconstructing the garment to show 00:13:06.629 --> 00:13:10.250 your anger safety pins, ripped fabric, chaos. 00:13:10.490 --> 00:13:12.960 And what were Dexter and Boland doing? Their 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.799 mod ethos was about hyper -construction. It was 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.179 about making the cheap look incredibly expensive 00:13:18.179 --> 00:13:20.419 and flawless. Who's move? For the listener, we 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:22.559 should clarify what a mod actually was. Good 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:24.960 point. Short for modernist, it was a subculture 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.000 obsessed with sharp, Italian -inspired fashion, 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:31.220 modern jazz, and later American R &B and soul 00:13:31.220 --> 00:13:33.500 music. It was a suit of armor against the dreary 00:13:33.500 --> 00:13:36.240 reality of post -war Britain. Exactly. They were 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:39.419 aspiring upward, visually, while subverting the 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:41.440 economic barriers that kept them down. So they 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.210 put on their They counterfeit adult suits, they 00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:45.230 channel this incredible front, and they march 00:13:45.230 --> 00:13:47.470 into the Lyceum. And the Lyceum represents the 00:13:47.470 --> 00:13:50.149 adult world. It represents establishment, commerce, 00:13:50.330 --> 00:13:52.669 and maturity. And Dexter just walks right in. 00:13:53.009 --> 00:13:55.629 Unbelievable. While he's there, he meets a DJ 00:13:55.629 --> 00:13:58.429 named Ian Samwell. And they become firm friends, 00:13:58.490 --> 00:14:01.049 which becomes very important later. Yes, keep 00:14:01.049 --> 00:14:03.909 Ian Samwell in mind. But the clothes only got 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:06.169 him through the door. It's what he does on the 00:14:06.169 --> 00:14:08.690 dance floor that completely alters the trajectory 00:14:08.690 --> 00:14:11.620 of his life. This is where things get wild. Which 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:14.019 brings us to the great moral panic of September 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:17.759 1961. Yes, the collision of youth culture and 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:20.679 establishment panic. So Dexter is inside the 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:23.840 Lyceum wearing his tailored kid suit, and he 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:27.240 gets banned from the club. Kicked out. Why? For 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:29.360 dancing the Twist, which had just arrived in 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.259 England from America. Fresh across the Atlantic. 00:14:32.620 --> 00:14:35.259 According to Dexter, the management at the Lyceum 00:14:35.259 --> 00:14:38.559 deemed the dance Obscene. Obscene. Let me get 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:40.240 this timeline straight from the source. He sounds 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:43.019 insane. He gets banned. Right. Then two weeks 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:45.460 later, he manages to talk his way back in by 00:14:45.460 --> 00:14:48.179 promising not to do the dance. Using that front 00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:51.159 again. Then two weeks after that, the Lyceum 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:53.720 officially hosts the Arthur Murray School of 00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:56.679 Dancing to demonstrate the twist. You can't make 00:14:56.679 --> 00:14:58.940 it up. The exact same dance they just called 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:02.200 obscene a month prior. We have to unpack the 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:04.860 rapid life cycle of this cultural moral panic 00:15:04.860 --> 00:15:07.539 because it perfectly illustrates the tension 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:11.159 between generational fear and commercial opportunity. 00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:12.779 Yeah, let's look at the history of the twist 00:15:12.779 --> 00:15:16.600 itself. Why was it considered obscene? Because 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:19.139 it wasn't a traditional ballroom dance. Exactly. 00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:21.879 Prior to this, formal dancing was an open couple 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:24.610 dance where you held your partner. You followed 00:15:24.610 --> 00:15:27.529 steps. You followed steps. The twist was revolutionary 00:15:27.529 --> 00:15:29.529 because you didn't hold your partner. You danced 00:15:29.529 --> 00:15:32.009 apart. And the primary movement was in the hips 00:15:32.009 --> 00:15:35.370 and the pelvis. Ah, the pelvis. It has its roots 00:15:35.370 --> 00:15:37.789 in African -American dance styles. And when it 00:15:37.789 --> 00:15:40.590 hit white mainstream audiences in America and 00:15:40.590 --> 00:15:43.490 then Britain, it terrified the older generation. 00:15:43.629 --> 00:15:45.690 I can imagine. To the management running the 00:15:45.690 --> 00:15:48.669 lyceum, this lack of physical contact combined 00:15:48.669 --> 00:15:51.090 with pelvic motion was deeply threatening. It 00:15:51.090 --> 00:15:54.250 was unsupervised, highly sexualized. individualism 00:15:54.250 --> 00:15:57.950 on the dance floor. Exactly. So it is immediately 00:15:57.950 --> 00:16:01.110 labeled obscene when performed organically by 00:16:01.110 --> 00:16:04.169 a working class teenager. But then a month later... 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.549 They are hosting classes for it. Notice the mechanics 00:16:06.549 --> 00:16:09.169 of how it becomes acceptable. How does that happen? 00:16:09.690 --> 00:16:12.769 The Arthur Murray School of Dancing was a massive, 00:16:13.129 --> 00:16:16.450 sanitized corporate franchise. Very safe. Very 00:16:16.450 --> 00:16:19.710 safe. They took dances, codified them, and sold 00:16:19.710 --> 00:16:22.009 them to the white middle and upper classes. Once 00:16:22.009 --> 00:16:25.289 a formalized corporate entity codifies the dance, 00:16:25.649 --> 00:16:27.990 it suddenly becomes acceptable. It shifts from 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:31.330 being a dangerous organic youth expression to 00:16:31.330 --> 00:16:34.379 a monetizable product. The Lyceum management 00:16:34.379 --> 00:16:36.879 weren't moral puritans. They were capitalists. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:38.940 They realized they couldn't stop the trend, so 00:16:38.940 --> 00:16:41.460 they decided to sell it. That hypocrisy is just 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:44.220 wild. They ban him for being a teenager doing 00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:46.500 a new dance, but the second it's a class they 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:48.539 can charge admission for, it's totally fine. 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:51.059 Classic establishment move. But during all this 00:16:51.059 --> 00:16:53.639 back and forth, something massive happens to 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.279 Dexter. A huge break. His incredible dancing 00:16:56.279 --> 00:16:59.360 was captured on film and included in Pathé newsreels, 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:01.639 which were shown in cinemas all across the country. 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:05.019 We need to explain the sheer cultural monopoly 00:17:05.019 --> 00:17:07.660 of the Pathé newsreel for modern listeners. Yeah, 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:09.519 put that in perspective for us. Today, if you 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:11.839 do a dance, you put on TikTok and maybe you go 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.160 viral. Sure. In 1961, television ownership in 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:17.619 the UK was growing, but it wasn't universal and 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:20.559 the news was incredibly dry. Right, very formal. 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.000 If you wanted to see high quality moving images 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.880 of current events, culture or sports, you went 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.420 to the cinema. Before the main feature played, 00:17:29.859 --> 00:17:31.799 everyone watched the Pathé newsreels. So it was 00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:34.960 a captive audience. Exactly. So when Jeff Dexter's 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:37.079 dancing was featured, it wasn't just a niche 00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:39.660 audience seeing it. Literally everyone sitting 00:17:39.660 --> 00:17:41.859 in a cinema across Britain waiting for their 00:17:41.859 --> 00:17:45.839 movie to start saw his face. He achieved a level 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:49.359 of instant, unavoidable micro -celebrity that 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:52.019 is hard to replicate today. He went pre -digital 00:17:52.019 --> 00:17:55.170 viral. And that fame is what forces the Lyceum's 00:17:55.170 --> 00:17:57.529 hand. They realize people want to see the kid 00:17:57.529 --> 00:17:59.930 from the cinema screen in real life, capitalizing 00:17:59.930 --> 00:18:02.130 on the hype. So they just throw their age rules 00:18:02.130 --> 00:18:04.150 out the window and put them on the payroll to 00:18:04.150 --> 00:18:07.410 dance in an adult club. And Dexter's reaction 00:18:07.410 --> 00:18:10.150 to this is amazing. What did he do? The source 00:18:10.150 --> 00:18:12.029 says he dropped his tailoring in music studies 00:18:12.029 --> 00:18:15.049 entirely, stating the thought of being paid to 00:18:15.049 --> 00:18:17.890 dance with women was just phenomenal. It's the 00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:20.490 ultimate teenage dream realized through sheer 00:18:20.490 --> 00:18:24.000 hustle. He took a moral panic, rode the wave 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:26.779 of media exposure, and turned it into a paying 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:29.319 career before he was old enough to legally buy 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:32.220 a drink. He completely outmaneuvered the adult 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:34.759 establishment. He really did. I just can't get 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:37.160 over the mental image of this. He goes from sneaking 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:40.039 in with a fake suit to literally being on the 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:41.920 payroll, and he drops out of school to do it. 00:18:42.099 --> 00:18:43.900 But he doesn't just rest on his laurels as a 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:46.319 dancer. No, he doesn't. He starts paying close 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:49.240 attention to the broader scene in London. He's 00:18:49.240 --> 00:18:51.359 always watching. The source notes that Dexter 00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:53.539 observed the strong influence of French -run 00:18:53.539 --> 00:18:57.380 clubs in 1960s London places like La Discotheque 00:18:57.380 --> 00:19:00.079 and La Pubelle. Right. He actually suggests La 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.680 Pubelle might have been London's very first discotheque. 00:19:03.099 --> 00:19:05.000 He recalls that the French became completely 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:07.720 obsessed with the twist, so much so that the 00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:10.400 dance even became known around town as the French 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:13.829 Twist. This highlights the incredible cross -pollination 00:19:13.829 --> 00:19:16.470 of European youth culture happening in Soho and 00:19:16.470 --> 00:19:18.750 the West End at the time. London in the early 00:19:18.750 --> 00:19:21.190 60s wasn't operating in a vacuum. Not at all. 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:24.170 You had these French -run clubs introducing the 00:19:24.170 --> 00:19:26.769 concept of the discotheque. For listeners, the 00:19:26.769 --> 00:19:30.089 word discotheque literally means record library 00:19:30.089 --> 00:19:32.829 in French. A library of records. It's a revolutionary 00:19:32.829 --> 00:19:36.109 concept. A venue strictly for playing records 00:19:36.109 --> 00:19:38.589 over a sound system rather than hosting live 00:19:38.589 --> 00:19:41.059 bands. Was that unusual at the time? I feel like 00:19:41.059 --> 00:19:42.839 we take it for granted that a club just plays 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.660 records. It was highly unusual. Before this, 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:48.200 if you went out dancing, you danced to a live 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:51.539 jazz band, a skiffle group, or a rock and roll 00:19:51.539 --> 00:19:54.079 combo. Playing recorded music was seen as cheap, 00:19:54.099 --> 00:19:56.279 maybe. Yeah, or something you did in a coffee 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:58.539 bar with a jukebox, not a dedicated nightlife 00:19:58.539 --> 00:20:01.220 venue. The French brought a more continental, 00:20:01.500 --> 00:20:03.640 sophisticated approach to nightlife that deeply 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:06.299 appealed to the mod sensibility. Because the 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:07.839 mods were always looking toward Europe, right? 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:10.259 Specifically, Italy for the scooters and the 00:20:10.259 --> 00:20:13.299 suits, and France for the cinema and the Nightlife 00:20:13.299 --> 00:20:15.960 5. They were looking for style cues. They wanted 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:18.480 to escape the British grayness. Exactly. So the 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:20.500 fact that the dance was rebranded the French 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:23.359 Twist shows how cultural cachet was imported. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:25.980 It sounded more exotic. And Dexter sees this 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:29.029 happening and immediately acts on it. Mm. In 00:20:29.029 --> 00:20:32.630 early 1962, he capitalizes on this massive trend. 00:20:32.670 --> 00:20:34.789 It makes his move. He teams up with his friend 00:20:34.789 --> 00:20:37.670 from the Lyceum, DJ Ian Samwell, who we mentioned 00:20:37.670 --> 00:20:39.690 earlier. There he is. Right. Samwell writes a 00:20:39.690 --> 00:20:42.390 song, and Dexter makes a record called Let Me 00:20:42.390 --> 00:20:44.329 Teach You How to Dance and Twistin' Like the 00:20:44.329 --> 00:20:46.970 French Kids Do. The timeline of his rapid evolution 00:20:46.970 --> 00:20:49.390 here is what is truly staggering. Let's map it 00:20:49.390 --> 00:20:52.309 out. Think about the progression. In 1955, he 00:20:52.309 --> 00:20:56.109 is buying his first 78 RPM record without a player. 00:20:56.430 --> 00:20:59.730 By August 1961, he is a 14 -year -old sneaking 00:20:59.730 --> 00:21:02.609 into clubs in altered kids closing. By September 00:21:02.609 --> 00:21:06.049 1961, he is a paid famous dancer causing a moral 00:21:06.049 --> 00:21:10.049 panic. And by early 1962, he is in a studio recording 00:21:10.049 --> 00:21:12.750 his own track. capitalizing on a dance craze 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:15.230 he helped popularize. In basically one calendar 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:17.450 year, he transitions from a consumer trying to 00:21:17.450 --> 00:21:19.470 sneak through the door to the talent on the floor 00:21:19.470 --> 00:21:22.289 to a creator pressing his own vinyl. It's an 00:21:22.289 --> 00:21:25.009 acceleration that speaks to his intense networking 00:21:25.009 --> 00:21:28.609 skills and his finger on the pulse of what the 00:21:28.609 --> 00:21:31.329 youth actually wanted. He didn't just participate 00:21:31.329 --> 00:21:34.890 in the trends. He actively sought to monetize 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:37.430 and lead them. He was a 15 -year -old cultural 00:21:37.430 --> 00:21:40.460 entrepreneur. which perfectly transitions into 00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:43.480 the next major phase of his life, moving behind 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:46.440 the decks. The DJ years. Dexter eventually transitioned 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:49.039 from being the dancer on the floor to being the 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:50.900 one spinning the records in the booth. Right. 00:21:51.259 --> 00:21:53.480 Our source tells us he became the resident DJ 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:56.599 at a legendary club called Middle Earth in Covent 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:59.019 Garden. A massive venue. And he's working right 00:21:59.019 --> 00:22:02.039 alongside the iconic broadcaster John Peel. That 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:04.460 is a huge validation of his taste. The source 00:22:04.460 --> 00:22:06.799 also notes that Middle Earth was actually a bigger 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:09.240 club than the UFO club in Tottenham Court Road. 00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:12.920 Which is wild because UFO is legendary in its 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:14.900 own right as the epicenter of the underground. 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.380 And Dexter was the resident DJ there as well. 00:22:17.460 --> 00:22:20.319 He was everywhere. This raises an important question 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:22.440 regarding the cultural landscape of the era. 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:25.259 And it's one we need to explore deeply. Was that? 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:28.720 What exactly was the role of the DJ in the 1960s 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:30.539 underground? Because it wasn't what we think 00:22:30.539 --> 00:22:32.599 of today, right? He wasn't standing on a massive 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:35.900 festival stage with lasers. seamlessly beat matching 00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:38.920 house tracks. Exactly. Today, the DJ is often 00:22:38.920 --> 00:22:41.259 the primary producer and the focal point of the 00:22:41.259 --> 00:22:44.099 event. In the mid to late 60s, at places like 00:22:44.099 --> 00:22:48.019 UFO and Middle Earth, DJing was an entirely different 00:22:48.019 --> 00:22:50.259 art form. What were they doing then? They weren't 00:22:50.259 --> 00:22:52.779 necessarily mixing seamlessly from one track 00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:55.140 to another, the equipment barely allowed for 00:22:55.140 --> 00:22:57.720 it. Right, no sync buttons. They were taste makers. 00:22:57.859 --> 00:22:59.720 They were the curators of the counterculture. 00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:01.759 We have to look at the transition happening in 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:05.069 London at this time. From mod? to psychedelic. 00:23:05.490 --> 00:23:07.910 The sharp amphetamine -fueled mod scene of the 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:11.069 early 60s was giving way to the sprawling, acid 00:23:11.069 --> 00:23:13.490 -drenched psychedelic scene of the late 60s. 00:23:13.650 --> 00:23:15.569 And UFO and Middle Earth were the headquarters 00:23:15.569 --> 00:23:18.089 for that shift. Pink Floyd was playing their 00:23:18.089 --> 00:23:20.900 soft machine. It was a complete sensory overload 00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:23.759 with light shows and avant -garde art. So where 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:26.460 does the DJ fit into that chaos? If you were 00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:29.140 the resident DJ at those clubs during this transition, 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:33.079 you were the person introducing the latest, strangest, 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:36.380 most mind -expanding sounds from America and 00:23:36.380 --> 00:23:38.319 Europe to the British underground. You were setting 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:40.720 the tone. You might play a heavy blues track. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:44.240 followed by a 15 minute sitar raga, followed 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.200 by a spoken word poetry record. Just taking people 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:49.900 on a trip. You were curating the vibe of cultural 00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:52.700 revolution. You were trusted to guide the audience 00:23:52.700 --> 00:23:54.920 through an experience. And the fact that he was 00:23:54.920 --> 00:23:57.799 working alongside John Peel is a massive detail. 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:01.740 John Peel is basically the godfather of discovering 00:24:01.740 --> 00:24:05.420 new underground music in the UK for decades on 00:24:05.420 --> 00:24:08.079 the BBC. Everyone wanted appeal session. Exactly. 00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:11.160 To be his peer at Middle Earth shows the immense 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:13.799 level of respect Dexter had cultivated. He went 00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:16.900 from a kid in a tailored Woolworths jacket to 00:24:16.900 --> 00:24:19.299 the guy dictating the playlist for the absolute 00:24:19.299 --> 00:24:21.740 epicenter of the London underground. And if we 00:24:21.740 --> 00:24:24.019 trace the geography of his rise, it tells its 00:24:24.019 --> 00:24:26.599 own story of social mobility. From South London 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:29.420 up. He starts in the working class, heavily bombed 00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:31.700 out post -war streets of Elephant and Castle. 00:24:32.029 --> 00:24:35.450 Through clothes, front and dancing, he infiltrates 00:24:35.450 --> 00:24:38.549 the glittering commercial West End at the Lyceum. 00:24:38.670 --> 00:24:41.289 Then he moves laterally to become the resident 00:24:41.289 --> 00:24:44.069 tastemaker of the Bohemian psychedelic underground 00:24:44.069 --> 00:24:46.970 in Covent Garden and Tottenham Court Road. He's 00:24:46.970 --> 00:24:50.150 charting a physical and cultural map across London, 00:24:50.569 --> 00:24:53.230 which leads us to the ultimate destination on 00:24:53.230 --> 00:24:55.710 that map. The big one. The source states that 00:24:55.710 --> 00:24:58.390 this journey behind the turntables culminated 00:24:58.390 --> 00:25:02.089 when he DJ'd at the 1971 Glastonbury Fair. Now, 00:25:02.089 --> 00:25:03.869 we have to clarify this for the listener. Yes, 00:25:04.029 --> 00:25:06.930 please do, because modern Glastonbury is a corporate 00:25:06.930 --> 00:25:10.789 behemoth with 200 ,000 people, VIP yurts, and 00:25:10.789 --> 00:25:14.009 televised sets. The 1971 Glastonbury Fair was 00:25:14.009 --> 00:25:17.069 the direct precursor to that, but it was a completely 00:25:17.069 --> 00:25:19.910 different animal. How so? The contrast is vital. 00:25:20.069 --> 00:25:22.769 The 1971 Glastonbury Fair, organized by Michael 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:25.490 Eves, Andrew Kerr, and Arabella Churchill, was 00:25:25.490 --> 00:25:27.990 the absolute pinnacle of the British countercultural 00:25:27.990 --> 00:25:30.230 gathering. It was free. It was largely a free 00:25:30.230 --> 00:25:32.609 festival. It was conceived almost as a spiritual 00:25:32.609 --> 00:25:34.910 antidote to the heavy commercialization of other 00:25:34.910 --> 00:25:36.690 rock festivals like the Isle of Wight. It was 00:25:36.690 --> 00:25:39.289 much smaller. There were maybe 12 ,000 people 00:25:39.289 --> 00:25:42.009 there. It was famous for offering free milk from 00:25:42.009 --> 00:25:45.049 the farm to the attendees. And the stage. They 00:25:45.049 --> 00:25:48.130 built the very first pyramid stage out of scaffolding 00:25:48.130 --> 00:25:50.910 and plastic sheeting, specifically positioning 00:25:50.910 --> 00:25:53.410 it on what they believed was a ley line. And 00:25:53.410 --> 00:25:56.269 Jeff Dexter is there, spinning records. Imagine 00:25:56.269 --> 00:25:58.849 the scene. David Bowie is playing at four in 00:25:58.849 --> 00:26:01.190 the morning as the sun comes up. The vibe is 00:26:01.190 --> 00:26:04.670 incredibly raw and rural. And Dexter is the musical 00:26:04.670 --> 00:26:07.619 glue. holding the spaces between the bands together. 00:26:07.940 --> 00:26:09.819 He didn't just move through these scenes, he 00:26:09.819 --> 00:26:12.359 anchored them. He provided the soundtrack to 00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:14.660 the shifting generational consciousness. And 00:26:14.660 --> 00:26:16.819 it represents a complete evolution from his origins. 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:20.700 Think about it. He started by carrying a 78 RPM 00:26:20.700 --> 00:26:22.960 record through the concrete streets of South 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:25.299 London just to find a machine to play it on. 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:28.680 16 years later, he is standing in a field in 00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.799 Somerset, commanding a sound system for 12 ,000 00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:34.480 people. at the dawn of the modern festival era. 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:37.079 He has become the machine. It's an incredible 00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:39.359 arc. And just when you think he's reached the 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:42.000 absolute peak as a tastemaker at the first Glastonbury, 00:26:42.299 --> 00:26:45.079 he pivots again. Another reinvention. He completely 00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:48.019 shifts his role and shapes the global industry 00:26:48.019 --> 00:26:51.059 from a totally different angle. The source tells 00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:54.599 us that in 1970, Dexter moved into music management. 00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:57.740 He took on a band named, rather appropriately, 00:26:58.740 --> 00:27:01.230 America. This is a fascinating pivot. Let's look 00:27:01.230 --> 00:27:03.849 at the band America. They were an American folk 00:27:03.849 --> 00:27:06.750 rock band, but ironically, they formed in London. 00:27:07.029 --> 00:27:09.250 Right. The members were Jerry Beckley, Dewey 00:27:09.250 --> 00:27:11.690 Bunnell and Dan Peake. They were actually the 00:27:11.690 --> 00:27:14.569 sons of U .S. Air Force personnel stationed at 00:27:14.569 --> 00:27:17.609 the RAF West Russela base near London. So you 00:27:17.609 --> 00:27:19.849 have these American military brats living in 00:27:19.849 --> 00:27:23.650 London playing acoustic folk rock and Jeff Dexter, 00:27:23.869 --> 00:27:26.809 the ultimate London mod turned psychedelic DJ, 00:27:26.950 --> 00:27:29.349 becomes their manager. It seems like an odd pairing 00:27:29.349 --> 00:27:31.809 on paper. How did he actually impact them? The 00:27:31.809 --> 00:27:34.190 source is quite clear on his impact. Dexter didn't 00:27:34.190 --> 00:27:36.210 just manage them in a passive administrative 00:27:36.210 --> 00:27:38.190 sense. He wasn't just doing the paperwork. He 00:27:38.190 --> 00:27:40.650 was heavily involved in their creative genesis. 00:27:41.109 --> 00:27:43.529 He co -produced their self -titled first album 00:27:43.529 --> 00:27:45.750 and he booked their very first gig. Where did 00:27:45.750 --> 00:27:48.369 they play? They played at an event called Implosion 00:27:48.369 --> 00:27:51.029 at the Roundhouse, which Dexter was heavily involved 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:54.119 in running. And that album... under his guidance, 00:27:54.740 --> 00:27:57.279 achieved massive global success, including their 00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:00.900 huge 1972 number one hit, A Horse with No Name. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:03.519 That song is iconic. It's a staple of classic 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:06.220 rock radio to this day. But I want to dig into 00:28:06.220 --> 00:28:09.859 how he did it. How does a DJ step into a studio 00:28:09.859 --> 00:28:12.440 and produce a platinum selling acoustic folk 00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:15.579 album? This is the ultimate culmination of Jeff 00:28:15.579 --> 00:28:18.539 Dexter's entire skill set. The kid who used front 00:28:18.539 --> 00:28:21.319 to talk his way past the bouncers at the Lyceum 00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:24.880 used that exact same networking prowess and audacity 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:27.240 to launch a global phenomenon. Because being 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:29.839 a manager requires hustle. It requires an innate 00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:31.920 understanding of what the public wants, and it 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.019 requires knowing every promoter and venue owner 00:28:34.019 --> 00:28:36.279 in the scene. Dexter had been training for that 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:38.759 since he was 14 years old, hustling his way into 00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:41.440 clubs. And the production side. translating DJ 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:44.039 skills into studio skills. That is the most crucial 00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:46.160 connection. Producing a record is essentially 00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:48.859 an extension of DJing. Tell me more about that. 00:28:49.059 --> 00:28:51.720 What does a great DJ do? They spend hours reading 00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:53.859 a room, understanding the psychological flow 00:28:53.859 --> 00:28:56.299 of a song, knowing exactly when a beat should 00:28:56.299 --> 00:28:58.599 drop or a chorus should swell to make a crowd 00:28:58.599 --> 00:29:01.000 react. They understand the architecture of a 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:03.920 hit. Exactly. Dexter applied the taste -making 00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:06.279 skills he honed night after night at Middle Earth 00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:09.599 and UFO to the studio. He recognized that the 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:12.680 heavy acid rock sound of the late 60s was giving 00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:16.000 way to a softer, more introspective, harmony 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:18.799 driven acoustic sound in the early 70s. Artists 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:21.380 like Crosby, Stills and Nash or James Taylor 00:29:21.380 --> 00:29:24.319 were rising. He helped shape America's sound 00:29:24.319 --> 00:29:27.039 to perfectly meet that incoming cultural wave. 00:29:27.420 --> 00:29:29.700 He curated their sound for a global audience, 00:29:29.859 --> 00:29:32.859 just like he curated a playlist for a club. Precisely. 00:29:33.019 --> 00:29:35.519 So what does this all mean? When we zoom out 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:38.259 and look at this entire journey, it's just astonishing. 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:40.480 It really is. For you listening, I want you to 00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:42.460 think about the complete life cycle in the music 00:29:42.460 --> 00:29:45.400 business we just traced over the last hour. He 00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:48.859 started as a pure fan, a 10 year old kid literally 00:29:48.859 --> 00:29:50.759 carrying a record through the streets because 00:29:50.759 --> 00:29:53.470 he didn't own a player. He became a dancer, serving 00:29:53.470 --> 00:29:56.309 as the physical visual representation of the 00:29:56.309 --> 00:29:58.769 music. He became a DJ, stepping up as the curator 00:29:58.769 --> 00:30:01.029 and tastemaker of the music. He became a recording 00:30:01.029 --> 00:30:04.289 artist in 1962, creating the music. And finally. 00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:07.680 He became a producer and a manager directing 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.700 the actual business and sonic architecture of 00:30:10.700 --> 00:30:13.920 the music. He experienced and mastered every 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:16.799 single facet of the industry and it was all driven 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:20.119 by this relentless working -class resourcefulness. 00:30:20.539 --> 00:30:23.210 His profound lesson in cultural agency. He never 00:30:23.210 --> 00:30:25.329 waited for permission. He didn't have the luxury 00:30:25.329 --> 00:30:28.029 of waiting. Exactly. Whether it's meticulously 00:30:28.029 --> 00:30:30.369 altering a cheap child's jacket from Woolworth 00:30:30.369 --> 00:30:34.130 to look like high fashion, or using the controversy 00:30:34.130 --> 00:30:37.009 of a band dance to get a paid gig at a club he 00:30:37.009 --> 00:30:39.529 was previously too young to enter. Jeff Dexter's 00:30:39.529 --> 00:30:42.289 story is fundamentally about refusing to accept 00:30:42.289 --> 00:30:44.430 the barriers placed in front of you. He hacked 00:30:44.430 --> 00:30:46.730 the social and cultural hierarchy of his time 00:30:46.730 --> 00:30:49.289 at every single turn. And that leaves us with 00:30:49.289 --> 00:30:51.670 a compelling final thought. Let's hear it. If 00:30:51.670 --> 00:30:53.910 a 14 -year -old kid altering children's clothing 00:30:53.910 --> 00:30:56.130 on a bedroom floor and dancing in a London club 00:30:56.130 --> 00:30:59.250 could quietly set the stage for modern DJ culture 00:30:59.250 --> 00:31:01.849 and eventually produce global hit records, it 00:31:01.849 --> 00:31:03.890 makes you wonder about today. What's happening 00:31:03.890 --> 00:31:06.630 right now? What seemingly trivial misunderstood 00:31:06.630 --> 00:31:09.269 youth trends are happening right now in the obscure 00:31:09.269 --> 00:31:12.529 corners of the internet or in tiny unglamorous 00:31:12.529 --> 00:31:16.190 underground clubs? Right. What moral panic is 00:31:16.190 --> 00:31:19.230 currently unfolding that is actively quietly 00:31:19.230 --> 00:31:22.130 writing the cultural history of tomorrow? That 00:31:22.130 --> 00:31:25.559 is such a great thought to end on. The next massive 00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:27.880 cultural shift is probably happening right now, 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:30.359 being led by a teenager who just figured out 00:31:30.359 --> 00:31:32.980 how to bypass the gatekeepers. Absolutely. Thank 00:31:32.980 --> 00:31:34.980 you for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:31:34.980 --> 00:31:37.380 extraordinary life of Jeff Dexter. We hope you 00:31:37.380 --> 00:31:39.339 learned something new, gained a new perspective 00:31:39.339 --> 00:31:41.619 on the music you listen to, and found a bit of 00:31:41.619 --> 00:31:43.599 inspiration in his incredible hustle. We will 00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:44.900 catch you on the next deep dive.