Every seven years, around this time, I start to get excited. Filming for 63 Up starts in a few months, for broadcast in May 2019. It will be the ninth instalment in the 7 Up series which has followed 14 boys and girls (now men and women) since 1964. The series documents their lives – different backgrounds, different paths. Some struggled around 21 and 28 with mental health and homelessness, some struggled around 35 and 42 with relationships, but around 49 Up you started to see a more content group, with more under their belts and less to prove. Set your alarm for May 2019 and get a glimpse of 63.
Child musicians often get a less complete showing. Last week’s blog heroes Musical Youth were seen but not heard on Pass the Dutchie, the song played by session musicians because the boys couldn’t get the time off school.
Heard but not seen works too. XTC’s Dear God features the voice of Todd Rundgren’s daughter, eight year old Jasmine Veillette, while the video features a boy.
But perhaps the most famous child performers in popular music were the Islington Green class of 1979, whose music teacher Alun Renshaw found himself in hot water with headmistress Margaret Maden. Allowing the children to chant “we don’t need no education” for Pink Floyd created a fierce backlash against the school. The children were heard but not seen. Because they didn’t have Equity cards, which would allow them to act in the video, their parts were played by stage school children, who needed the education – and the work.
And then there are some songs (technically, lots) where children are neither seen nor heard. I’d always assumed that the Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ was kicked off by kids, but it was the Bach Choir. And, if the credits are to be believed, no children were involved in the making of this recent tune from the Killers.