Appel à communications : Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein’ (Dick Rowe, 1962): the Impact and Influence of the British Invasion (1964-1967)

Dick Rowe’s famous rejection of the Beatles in 1962 couldn’t have been further from the truth and while guitar bands like the Shadows were indeed about to be sidelined by a new wave of largely Liverpool Beat Groups, the guitar remained central to the sound and success of what eventually became known as the British Invasion. Rowe must have accepted the inevitability of eating his own words when George Harrison encouraged him to sign the Rolling Stones in 1963, a tip off that quite possibly saved him his job at Decca Records and further consolidated the guitar as central to the instrumentation of the mid-60s. Keith Richards, Dave Davies, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton - to name but a few - all kept the guitar very much within the sonic foreground of recorded music and live performance in a decade that saw the UK supplant, if only for a brief window of time, the dominance of popular music from the USA. None the less, the fact that most of the instruments played by British guitarists were American models was a reminder of where the original inspiration for bands like the Beatles and the Stones came from, as well as a visible manifestation of the transatlantic-cross-town-traffic of influence that characterised the period. 

In this one day symposium we intend to reconsider the rise, impact and influence of the so-called British Invasion both at home and in the USA, as well as the longer term repercussions it had when it bounced back to Europe. We invite proposals for twenty minute papers on the following subject areas: 

The Beatles and the rewriting of American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and soul.

Merseybeat: the importance of Liverpool in redefining and/or recycling American popular music and the creation of a new English sound. 

The influence of the Beatles/Mersey Beat on the wider UK. The interface between local and national music scenes in the early-to-mid 60s. 

The Beatles in America: impact and influence of the British Invasion. The Stones, the Who, the Kinks et al in the USA.

Women and the British Invasion.

Repercussions of the British Invasion: the rediscovery and reinvention of American pop/rock. American influences on the UK music scene: Dylan, the Byrds, the American Psychedelic Invasion. 

Popular music and questions of national identity in the 60s.

Gear, guitars and amps: the technical hardware of the British Invasion and its shaping of the 60s sound. 

In the studio: the development of recording techniques in the mid-60s.

Change and evolution in the music industry.

The British Invasion of Europe: the impact, influence and popularity of British bands in France, for example. 

Please send proposals (500 words) together with a short bio’ to Eric Tabuteau eric.tabuteau@univ-orleans.fr and Ben Winsworth ben.winsworth@univ-orleans.fr by December 31st 2025.