Together with St Mary’s Hall, also in Putney, the Pontiac Club was a popular venue in southwest London in the early-mid 1960s.
Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds were resident band there at one point as were The Action, formerly The Boys and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
The club was located at 200 Upper Richmond Road, Putney, near the main railway station.
I have started a gig list below and would welcome any additions as well as memories in the comments below. If you have any memorabilia, including posters for the club, I would be happy to include them with a credit.
1963
28 December 1963 (Saturday) – Manfred Mann and Mark Leeman Five (Greg Russo’s research)
1965
Initially billed as the New Pontiac Club
27 May 1965 (Thursday) – Donovan with full supporting groups (Kingston & Malden Borough News)
28 May 1965 (Friday) – Alex Harvey Soul Band with support (Melody Maker/Kingston & Malden Borough News)
29 May 1965 (Saturday) – The Peddlers with support (Melody Maker/Kingston & Malden Borough News)
30 May 1965 (Sunday) – Rey Anton & The Peppermint Men with support (Melody Maker/Kingston & Malden Borough News)
2 June 1965 (Wednesday) – Alexis Korner with support (Melody Maker/Kingston & Malden Borough News)
4 June 1965 (Friday) – The Downliners Sect and The Boston Dexters (Melody Maker)
5 June 1965 (Saturday) – The Beat Merchants, The Billy Woods Combo and The Boston Dexters (Melody Maker)
6 June 1965 (Sunday) – Mike Berry & The Outsiders with support (Melody Maker)
9 June 1965 (Wednesday) – The Muleskinners with support (Melody Maker)
Future Small Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan played with The Muleskinners.
11 June 1965 (Friday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers (New Musical Express)
16 June 1965 (Wednesday) – The Boston Dexters and The Blues Messengers (Melody Maker)
18 June 1965 (Friday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
19 June 1965 (Saturday) – Alex Harvey’s Soul Band (Melody Maker)
20 June 1965 (Sunday) – The Hollies and Rey Anton & The Peppermint Men (Melody Maker)
25 June 1965 (Friday) – The Boston Dexters and Long John Baldry & The Hoochie Coochie Men (Melody Maker)
26 June 1965 (Saturday) – The Mark Leeman Five (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
27 June 1965 (Sunday) – Phil Ryan & The Crescents (New Musical Express/Melody Maker) Ronnie Jones & The Blue Jays may also have been on the bill for this date
30 June 1965 (Wednesday) – The Artwoods and The Boston Dexters (Melody Maker/New Musical Express)
2 July 1965 (Friday) – The Mark Leeman Five and Platform 6 (Melody Maker/New Musical Express)
3 July 1965 (Saturday) – The Comanches and The Primitives (Melody Maker)
4 July 1965 (Sunday) – Gerry L Thompson & The Sidewinders (Melody Maker)
7 July 1965 (Wednesday) – The Boston Dexters (New Musical Express)
9 July 1965 (Friday) – The Beat Merchants and The Comanches (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
10 July 1965 (Saturday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-timers and Gerry L Thompson & The Sidewinders (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
11 July 1965 (Sunday) – The Boston Dexters and The Fetish Crowd (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
14 July 1965 (Wednesday) – Manfred Mann and The Boston Dexters (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
16 July 1965 (Friday) – The Checkmates and The Thoughts (New Musical Express)
17 July 1965 (Saturday) – Ronnie Jones & The Blue Jays and Gerry L Thompson & The Sidewinders (New Musical Express)
18 July 1965 (Sunday) – The Boston Dexters (New Musical Express)
21 July 1965 (Wednesday) – The Classmates and Group Survival (Melody Maker)
23 July 1965 (Friday) – Gerry L Thompson & The Sidewinders and The Five Proud Walkers (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
24 July 1965 (Saturday) – The Action and Peter Fenton & The Tasty Mob (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
The Action were recently billed as The Boys.
25 July 1965 (Sunday) – The Thoughts (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
28 July 1965 (Wednesday) – The Who and surf band in support (New Musical Express/Melody Maker) (see comments section below) This could have been The Summer Set
30 July 1965 (Friday) – Gerry L Thompson & The Sidewinders and The RBQ (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
31 July 1965 (Saturday) – John Lee’s Groundhogs (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
1 August (Sunday) – The Boston Dexters (New Musical Express)
4 August 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers started a regular (two month) Wednesday night residency on this date.
6 August 1965 (Friday) – Tony Knight’s Chessmen and The Fetish Crowd (Melody Maker/New Musical Express)
7 August 1965 (Saturday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-timers and Soul Survival (Melody Maker/New Musical Express)
Later this same evening The Byrds played at the Pontiac Club. According to author Don Hughes, The Dae-b-Four were the support band.
8 August (Sunday) – The Boston Dexters (Melody Maker)
11 August 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
13 August 1965 (Friday) – Guy Hamilton & The Senators (Melody Maker)
14 August 1965 (Saturday) – The Primitives and The Boston Dexters (Melody Maker)
15 August 1965 (Sunday) – The Boston Dexters (Melody Maker)
18 August 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
20 August 1965 (Friday) – The Fenmen (New Musical Express)
21 August 1965 (Saturday) – The Action and Sonny Childe & The Cool School (New Musical Express)
22 August 1965 (Sunday) – The Truth (New Musical Express)
25 August 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (New Musical Express)
According to Christopher Hjort’s excellent book Strange Brew, this was the last gig by The Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton who left and was replaced by a succession of fill-in guitarists before returning in November.
27 August 1965 (Friday) – Ronnie Jones & The Blue Jays (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
28 August 1965 (Saturday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-timers (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
29 August 1965 (Sunday) – The Ingoes (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
The Ingoes morphed into Blossom Toes.
1 September 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (New Musical Express/Melody Maker)
According to Christopher Hjort’s book, John Weider, who has previously played with Johnny Kidd & The Pirates among others, covered for Eric Clapton in The Bluesbreakers for this gig.
3 September 1965 (Friday) – Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds (New Musical Express)
4 September 1965 (Saturday) – The VIPs (New Musical Express)
The VIPs band morphed into Spooky Tooth.
5 September 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
The Action had a regular Sunday residency at this venue for a while. Some sources also note that The Objects played in support on this date.
8 September 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
According to Christopher Hjort’s book, John Slaughter from Chris Barber’s band covered for Eric Clapton in The Bluesbreakers for this gig.
10 September 1965 (Friday) – The Crowd (Melody Maker)
11 September 1965 (Saturday) – The Rick ‘N’ Beckers (Melody Maker)
12 September 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
15 September 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
According to Christopher Hjort’s book, former Jimmy Powell & The Five Dimensions guitarist Geoff Krivit covered for Eric Clapton in The Bluesbreakers for this gig.
18 September 1965 (Saturday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-timers (Melody Maker)
19 September 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
22 September 1965 (Wednesday) – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Melody Maker)
According to Christopher Hjort’s book, former Jimmy Powell & The Five Dimensions guitarist Geoff Krivit covered for Eric Clapton in The Bluesbreakers for this gig.
This is the band’s final show at the Pontiac and Hjort notes that Peter Green approached Mayall at this venue to ask if he could take over from Krivit as permanent guitarist.
24 September 1965 (Friday) – Tony Colton’s Big Boss Band (Melody Maker)
25 September 1965 (Saturday) – The Beat Merchants (Melody Maker)
26 September 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
1 October 1965 (Friday) – The Bo Street Runners (Melody Maker)
2 October 1965 (Saturday) – The VIPs (Melody Maker)
3 October 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
9 October 1965 (Saturday) – Five Proud Walkers (Info from John Treais)
10 October 1965 (Sunday) – Jimmy Witherspoon (Melody Maker)
15 October 1965 (Friday) – Them (Melody Maker)
Them was Van Morrison’s Belfast band. Around this time, former members began gigged in a rival Them.
16 October 1965 (Saturday) – The Arthur Brown Union (Info from John Treais)
17 October 1965 (Sunday) – Gary Farr & T-Bones (Melody Maker)
20 October 1965 (Wednesday) – T-Bone Walker and The Blue Jays (Melody Maker)
22 October 1965 (Friday) – Dean Ford & The Gaylords (Melody Maker)
This band morphed into Marmalade.
23 October 1965 (Saturday) – The Vectors (Melody Maker)
24 October 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
30 October 1964 (Saturday) – Victor Brox (Info from John Treais)
31 October 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
6 November 1965 (Saturday) – J C & The Machine (aka Julian Covey) (Melody Maker)
After John McVie was sacked from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers on 3 October, he found work with Julian Covey’s band until he returned to Mayall in early January 1966.
7 November 1965 (Sunday) – The Action (Melody Maker)
9 November 1965 (Tuesday) – Wilson Pickett (Melody Maker)
17 December 1965 (Friday) – The Carnaby (Melody Maker)
18 December 1965 (Saturday) – The High Society (Melody Maker)
This group had recently been The Arthur Brown Union but when Arthur left earlier this month, singer Dave Terry (aka Elmer Gantry) took over. They soon became The Union.
19 December 1965 (Sunday) – The Crowd with Peter Fenton (Melody Maker)
24 December 1965 (Friday) – The Army (Melody Maker)
Emerging out of Hampton R&B band, The Others, this group soon changed name to Sands.
26 December 1965 (Sunday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-timers (Melody Maker)
27 December 1965 (Monday) – The Mickey Finn (Melody Maker)
1966
17 March 1966 (Thursday) – The Loose Ends and support (Melody Maker)
19 March 1966 (Saturday) – The Checkers and support (Melody Maker)
20 March 1966 (Sunday) – The In Crowd (Melody Maker)
The In Crowd morphed into Tomorrow in early 1967.
23 March 1966 (Wednesday) – Jimmy James & The Vagabonds (Melody Maker)
24 March 1966 (Thursday) – The Mickey Finns (Melody Maker)
26 March 1966 (Saturday) – The Basic 5 (Melody Maker)
27 March 1966 (Sunday) – The Shevells (Melody Maker)
5 May 1966 (Thursday) – The Carl Douglas Set (poster from Ken Baxter)
7 May 1966 (Saturday) – Dracken Lewis 5 (most likely Deakin Lewis) and Front Line (poster from Ken Baxter)
28 May 1966 (Saturday) – Jo Jo Gunne (Melody Maker)
4 June 1966 (Saturday) – The Drag Set (Melody Maker)
18 June 1966 (Saturday) – Jo Jo Gunne (Melody Maker)
Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, without prior permission from the author.
Another gig on 7 May 1966 was:
Dracken Lewis 5 and Front Line
I think that was DEAKIN LEWIS… that was me !!.. but have no record nor memory of it….ADHD n all !!!! just know we played there a number of times. Please tell me if im wrong… or right ???
I saw T-Bone Walker at The Pontiac, backed by Ronnie Jones and The Blue Jays (I think), but can’t find any details of this anywhere. It was poorly attended and predated his success at the Jazz at the Phil in November 1966, most likely spring or summer 1966, possibly one of the last gigs there.
It was a great room with “pop art” paintings of superheroes on large mirrors around the walls. From the size of these mirrors as I remember them, I’m guessing that at one point it had been a dance studio.
Membership card here….
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=522918471075479&set=pb.100000719921735.-2207520000.1433064095.&type=3&theater
I saw The Who there on July 28th 1965. I remember that there were two seperate stage areas and there was a surf band that was the support. The Who played in the main area and managed one set as the PA went on the blink. The stage area was very small and I was front row and Pete Townshend was probably five feet away . The stage height was low or it may have been on the floor ! I saw Roger Daltrey 4 years ago and he signed a poster for me as ” Pontiac Max”. He didn’t remember the gig !
I remember it well at the end Keith moon thru his drum sticks into the crowd and a friend caught one
Dave Street that was Martin Tubridy!!
Could the surf band have been The Summer Set?
hi
Was at the Byrds gig that night in 65. Great gig and still a favourite memory, was wide awake with the stimulant at the time.
I, too, was at the Pontiac for the Byrds session – got in free because as regulars me and my mate were given loads of flyers to promote the session. We went down to Richmond on the Saturday afternoon (gig was that evening) and after a couple of hours got fed with handing them out – rented a row boat by Richmond bridge and dumped them in the river.
I remember the gig being quite short and the crowd not being happy for little more than about 20-30 minutes of the Byrds. Also, some of the older, larger (and harder) regulars were used as security in return for free tickets. They accompanied the Byrds up in the lift and complained that they stank. But that summer of 65 was great for a 17 year old, also taking the stimulant of the day.
The Byrds.
We were too young to go into pubs and had to hang around outside all evening, until very late, on a nice summer’s day. Very boring. When the Byrds arrived the place was packed, but we could see them. The sound balance was non-existent, and only the jangling guitar sound could be heard, with the vocals very low. Yes, my feeling is that it was a very short set. So dissapointing.
John Mayall
Eric Clapton had just joined when Mayall took up a residency in the Pontiac. We went about the second or third week, with a smallish audience.
I had never seen Clapton before, and came away with the imprerssion that his guitar playing sound was like hearing a violin, so smooth, with every note merging into another.
After a few weeks the audience was so big that we just stopped going.
Love this club. Great atmosphere. I remember having a chat with
Wilson Picket after he appeared here late 65 or early 66.
Mike Raven (DJ from Radio 390) did a session here in early 66.
I suppose we all have a favourite tune/s that reminds us of a particlar place, well my ones, for this club was “First I look at the Purse” by the Contours, “Harlem Shuffle” by Bob and Earl and of course “Midnight Hour” by Wilson Picket.
French Blue anyone?
Great days.
Hi Pete great post, I agree we had some great times in The Pontiac, we always have a good old chat about the club when we meet up.
French Blues anytime,talk and dance all night,visited the club a couple of times midweek,cool sounds and too smooth to move,sounds so nice play it twice, Would love to live the dream again.
I was there for the Byrds. Thought they were great. Remember going into launderette next morning until my parents got up. I was using the substance. Great club
I used to go to the club midweek,I recall Wednesdays,to Mike Ravens Soul music shows.He used to play Atlantic,Motown plus other great Soul singles that had recently been released,many ahead of U.K.release.On one occasion I won a minor competition,I can’t recall what for,but he gave me an American pressing of Marvin Gaye’ s Take This Heart Of Mine,which I still possess.
I saw the yardbirds, there many times,
I remember the man on the door was a Johnny Bindon
Wilson Picket (midnight Hour Fame)
A girl stood on a glass table, fell through cutting her legs.
No Alchohol was served, opposite was a off licence where we bought
VP wine,
Lots of Purple Hearts and blues going on.
I was getting worried that the Yardbirds were not mentioned. Like you I saw them there many times. And of course the Purple Hearts, our crowd was from Battersea
Hi John. Great memories of Pontiac.Also remember you and Tubs Ministry of Education 1967!!
When the who played we met them in the station hotel across the road for a drink in the interval of there session. We were all young and the same ages. It was a great club for the times.
heres my club card from pontiac
it wont post so find it on soul source site where you can copy it
Remember ( not too well) seeing a female Motown group here. Was it Gladys Knight or the Ronettes or Martha and the Vandellas maybe?
Are you Richard Oakley from Bembridge House would love to hear from you find me on Facebook Chris martin
The Action took me to see Ike & Tina Turner in ’65 or ’66 and I thought it was here at the Pontiac. Does anyone else have a better memory than me?
I believe an owner of this club lived in Memphis Tennessee. My sister knew him. Could that be corrrect? Didnt see an actual photo of the club here.
Cheers
I attended a concert there starring Jimi Hendrix. When was that?