33. Gene Vincent introduces leather boots and booze to rock'n'roll
In the late-'50s, Gene Vincent arrived in the UK to appear on Boy Meets Girlsı. Records like 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' and 'Race With The Devil' sounded like the work of a dangerous, razor-totin' punk. But the Gene Vincent that arrived at the airport was dressed in a suit and looked like a Maths teacher. TV producer Jack Good did the only sensible thing and whisked him off to a fetish outfitters and had him dressed head-to-foot in shiny black leather. It was Vincent's finest moment. He survived the car crash in 1960 that killed Eddie Cochran and limped through the '60s as an increasingly pathetic figure, but his performance that night, flanked by motorcycle outriders, fixed forever in the public imagination the image of rock'n'rollers as greasers, outlaw bikers and modern barbarians.
