THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

They wanted coal miners to write, poets to work shifts in a steel mill, libraries to be introduced into factories, and theatres to produce plays that were accessible to everyone but fulfilled a moral purpose too.  The FDJ’s newspaper Junge Welt declared that Western music was simplistic and deliberately seductive to keep the masses sedated and stupid.  Referring to Elvis Presley specifically, it declared, ‘His “songs” are like his face: daft, stupid and brutal.’

Hoyer/Wall