I've pondered many times in this space why one little island has produced so many musical legends. It's a waste to start listing them ... I'd never stop ... but you have to admit that it's *way* out of proportion for their population.
One clue came in the form of something I had never heard of: the so-called Rock 'n Dole program, a part of the New Deal that Blair installed in 1998.
Apparently, if you did some sort of volunteer work or other service to the country, you were eligible for a handout. And if you could prove that you were working on a musical career, that counted. Nothing like that could ever happen in the U.S. I mean, it was an expressed goal of the program to create more rock bands. They actually saw that a scene like in the photo of Embrace in concert (above) was good for the economy. And you don't get there by logging time at the til in the local Tesco.
I'm not sure how many modern acts got their start this way. Naturally, this specific program came a little late for Zepplin and the Jam. But according to one article I read, Embrace were one and I have to assume that any act you could name now, from Arctic Monkey to Elbow dipped into the program at some point or another.
Now the program is coming to an end. Many a dissertation has been written about the racial attitudes and economic mixture that created the Stones and the Sex Pistols. But that they even had this program for a decade says a lot about that place. Historians will probably look back on this period with curiosity, just as they do the influx of R&B and Soul records into Liverpool in the late 50s and early 60s -- and into the hands of Lennon and McCartney and Harrison. Well, maybe Rock 'n Dole didn't have the same impact, but it's still pretty cool.
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