The Stomp was an American-launched dance craze that made it to every rock-loving nation in the world during the early 1960s. It was described as "the world's easiest dance"—something you could learn in 30 seconds. Also attractive to stomp-happy teens who filled the dance halls was the sheer noise produced by the dance, as dozens or even hundreds of kids would smash their feet down in unison, right-right, left-left—even if you weren't actually making the ceiling plaster crack or splintering the wooden floor, it very much sounded like it could happen.

As far as I can tell, the Stomp is the same mindless two-step boogie whether it's called simply the Stomp, or the 

The Stomp arrived in Australia in early 1963, just after it peaked in America, and as the Aussie kids pumped the dance up to new heights in terms of volume and power, parents and city councilmembers responded with stomp-related bans and restrictions, as well as a bit of unfiltered racism. The Australian media, meanwhile, picked up the Stomp story and ran happily from one end of 1963 to the other, before dropping it to chase after the Beatles.

Gathered here are newspaper excerpts from 1963, mostly from the Sydney Morning Herald, arranged in roughly chronological order.


Advertisements for stomp dances on the North Shore are annoying Ku-ring-gai Council. The deputy building surveyor, Mr T. E. Chessell, said in a report to the council last night that posters advertising several stomp dances were being indiscriminately displayed on brick shopfronts, electricity poles, walls, waste bins, and telephone booths. He said the posters were completely nullifying the council's recent successful campaign against unauthorized advertising. “They are a willful disfigurement of public and private property." Mr Chessell said that prosecution was possible only when persons were apprehended in the act of fixing posters. Mr Chessell recommended that the council seek the help of Chambers of Commerce and shopkeepers in gathering evidence against offenders. 


Dances are now providing the kind of entertainment the kids want, in once-dead “exclusive" suburbs. And they are rowdy, come-as-you-are, stomp-type affairs, not the “square” kind the Surfies and their girls boycotted [recently]. “They staged dances," on North Shore mother said. "But they were total flops because the organizers made it clear bare feet and surf music weren't welcome. In effect, they were saying: ‘If you conform, we will accept you. If not, stay away.’ But these youngsters are not going to conform; let's face it.” One of the surf clubs came to the rescue, by staging a “stomp” which was a resounding success. Now other groups—including the churches—have followed suit, and the dances they run are packed with hundreds of boys and girls. Bands lift the roof, youngsters dress as they like, and roar their hotrods.

Envious "Rockers" are even said to be disguising themselves as "Surfies" to join in the fun.

"Narrowness of outlook caused a lot of our troubles," the North Shore woman said. "It's been publicly claimed that the North Shore is an area for retired people. This is nonsense! It’s an area full of young people who worship the surf, and up till now have had nothing to do but get into mischief. At least since the dances started they can stomp all night, and get things out of their systems. It’s a marvelous way of letting off steam!" 


Stomps have sprung up in halls all along the North Shore and at surf clubs in the beachside suburbs. They are open to anyone, and teenagers find they can meet plenty of people there. Howling electric guitars, duffle jackets, bare feet, surf jeans, and shark-tooth emblems provide the necessary background. Above all, the dance is easy to do and you don't need a skilled partner. 

"THE STOMP: 'GOOD CLEAN FUN' FOR SURFIES"


The sophisticated, the sloppy, and angelic-faced, the grubby—they were all there at the Marubra Surf Life Saving Club's Saturday afternoon stomp last week. Teenagers (and 11 and 12-year-olds), most of them keen surfers, have found a new way to spend their weekends instead of lounging around milk- bars or wandering the beach ready to pick a fight. They go stomping.

It's terrific. It’s phenomenal. It's the greatest, they say.

The Stomp originated in California and imitates some of the actions of surfboard riding, set to the taut and strident music of guitars and drums. Originally it was danced on beach sand. In Sydney, it is usually danced (often barefoot) on the hard boards of surf club halls. Already a host of conceptions and misconceptions have grown up around this latest teenage enthusiasm. 

They stomp up and down in one place without moving. They are fanatics. They stomp poker-faced. They never change partners.

 These are some of the beliefs current among adults about the Stomp. [None of this applies] to the young teenagers who patronize the Saturday and Sunday afternoon stomp sessions at the Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club. Severn hundred youngsters stomped last Saturday afternoon. All were enthusiasts but not fanatics. They had time to laugh as they stomped, to bend down and pat the dogs (yes—they stomp too), and they didn't take themselves too seriously. They put all their young explosive energy into stomping up and down on the hard boards to the electric rhythm of the guitars. The music was ear-splitting in volume, but the rhythm was exhilarating. There was nothing insidious about it. This was no whining, moaning, "I'm so sorry for myself" pop music. It was the perfect expression of the strident surging vitality of the young. 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: "STOMPS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED"


I, like thousands of other teenagers each week, go to stomp dances, usually held in council-owned halls. It seems that nearby residents are forwarding complaints to councils protesting about the excessive noise made by stompers and the accompanying band. Surely we aren’t expected to go into the bush away from residential areas to hold our dances! Spending Friday and Saturday nights at the pictures, or at a club, would not hurt these people. Suggestions of staying at home and amusing ourselves have been made but teenagers like to be with their own kind to enjoy themselves, not to remain at home. A few months ago there were many incidents of gatecrashing by teenagers because of the lack of entertainment, but since these dances began I have not read of any at all. The reason is we now have something entertaining to occupy ourselves. For this reason, I think stomps should be promoted, not impeded. 

[Signed, D. Cleland. Sydney Morning Herald, Sept 9]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: "BEHAVIOUR OF TEENAGERS"


It is hard to imagine any young person being so wanting in natural thoughtfulness and consideration as to write the letter “Stomps Should Be Encouraged’' (September 9). It acknowledges that people in the vicinity of the halls where the dances are being held are being disturbed by the noise. The suggestion is made “spending Friday and Saturday nights at the pictures or a club would not hurt these people.” Let the writer do a little thinking. Because he or she finds home unattractive, should those who enjoy their homes be forced to leave them two nights a week because of the noise from a group of thoughtless young people? Many of the people in their homes arc old or ill and could not leave them even if they were willing to do so. Stomp dances are taken from the dark races and in their countries are performed on the earth, not on board floors, hence the stomping. 

[Signed: M.E. Orton, Sydney Morning Herald, Sept 12]


Two carloads of police went to the Warringah Mall, Brookvale, last night to stop teenagers from holding an open-air stomp. The police were sent from Manly after it was reported that the children planned to stage an unauthorized dance. Seven police officers spent two hours telling the youngsters the dance could not be held. Two bands were supposed to provide the music but they did not appear. The last of the children left the mall at 9.30 PM. 


ACT police have formed a special patrol to stamp out stomp incidents. On Saturday night, police broke up a stomp dance in the YWCA hall when a clash between "Surfies” and "Rockers” developed into a brawl. A champion Canberra Junior swimmer, Lindsay O'Brien, 16, was knocked down by several youths and kicked, and a band was chased from the stage. Police arrested 15 youths, charged six, and closed down the dance at 10 p.m. The 300 youths at the dance left the hall and formed into groups on either side of the road outside, while police parked in the middle. An organizer of the dance, Mr. Leo Heimburger, said a club would now probably have to be formed to keep out undesirable types at the dances. Two professional bouncers would be employed at the next stomp, probably in three weeks, he said. However, the YWCA may refuse to let the hall for teenage dances. The Association today inserted an advertisement in the local newspaper dissociating itself from recent stomp dances. An official said no further similar dances were likely in the hall. 


Waverley Council has banned the stomp from the Esplanade hall at Bondi Beach because it fears the foundations might not stand the strain. "We are not against the stomp as a dance form," Waverley’s Mayor, Alderman D. J. Morey, said last night. "It's just that our engineer feels the steady beat of large numbers of young feet might be too much for the old hall.” Alderman Morey stressed that the hall was quite safe for other functions. "The usual dances can go on there. But stomping does not exactly fit the old idea of tripping the light fantastic.” 

[caption id="attachment_112743" align="alignnone" width="900"] Teenagers wearing typical 'Mod' clothing, including the classic parka coat, dancing 'The Stomp' in a club in Sydney, Australia, 11th September 1963. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)[/caption]


Part of the ceiling of the Bega Town Hall collapsed this morning after a “stomp” dance last night. However, the Deputy Mayor, Alderman L. Bishop, said he did not think the “stompers’' caused the collapse, as the ceiling had shown signs of deterioration on Christmas Day, after a storm. He said council officers would investigate the cause of the collapse next week. The “stomp,” attended by about 250 young people, was still in progress soon after midnight when the Town Hall caretaker Mr. H. Jordan, warned police and aldermen that a 140 square-foot section of the ceiling in the entrance to the hall was in danger of collapsing. The aldermen stopped the dance and ordered that the area under the ceiling be roped off. The ceiling collapsed later this morning while Alderman Bishop and other aldermen were conferring. Sheets of ceiling material fell, cracking windows and tearing away light fittings. 


The latest teenage dance craze, the Stomp, will be banned at all dances held in the town hall [at Port Pirie]. At its meeting this week, city council decided to ban the stomp following a report from the town clerk (Mr. R. W. Fullgrabe). He feared the floor of the building might be damaged if the Stomp continued to be included in the programs of dances held in the hall. Mr. Fullgrabe said the Stomp was more like a corroboree than a conventional dance. [Note: a "corroboree" is broadly defined as a festive gathering of Aboriginal people] 


Having visited New Guinea and seen some half-dozen different Stone Age tribes give an exhibition of their primitive native dances,I was surprised on my return to Bondi see how educated white Australian teenagers ape the stomp or dance of our prehistoric forefathers. What other prehistoric custom will our teenager rediscover next? Will it be human sacrifice, cannibalism, bone-pointing, or head-shrinking? 

[Signed: Ernest A. Goodman, Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 24]


Pattie Amphlett, better known as "Little Pattie," is 14, small and blonde. And she has a hit record. It is her first record and it goes under the unlikely title of “He’s My Blond-Headed, Stompie Wompie, Real Gone Surfer Boy.” (The next line goes “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.”) The record is what the trade call a “double header” because the other side of the record, which is “Stompin' at Maroubra," is going well, too.

This week “He’s My Blond-Headed” is No. 13 on one radio station’s top 100 and No. 31 on another station's top 40. And after being released for six weeks it is still climbing. “Stompin’ at Maroubra” headed a special list of “Juke Box Money Spinners” this week. This means it was the most played record on jukeboxes around Sydney.

So little Pattie is in demand and is being offered so much work that she is considering giving up school next year to concentrate on singing. She has just got a good Intermediate examination pass from Sydney High. She failed only in German.

Pattie is undoubtedly the youngest and smallest performer on the hit parades just now. She won't be 15 until next March and she weighs just over six stone. She is four feet nine inches tall. Her eyes are green and her hair is naturally blonde. She wears it long down to her shoulders and her fringe hangs low over her forehead. She lives with her parents and an older brother at Eastlakes and spends most of her weekends on Maroubra Beach. Pattie does not own a board, but occasionally rides boards belonging to her friends. She says she is not an expert.

It was life on the beach that started her singing. She sang a number at a stomp dance at Maroubra and was soon installed there as the regular vocalist. Now she sings at the Maroubra Stomp every Sunday. She dresses in jeans and sometimes sings in bare feet. She dresses more formally when she works at other dances or on television. She has had six television appearances in the past two months.

Pattie goes to church regularly and has no steady boyfriend at this stage. 

DANCE CRAZE '63: THE AUSSIES OUT-STOMPED US ALL

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