Tag Archives: Jethro Tull

Gethsemane

July 1, 2021 Nick Warburton Leave a comment

Blues-rock aggregation Gethsemane was the final version of a group that guitarist Martin Barre (b. 17 November 1946, King’s Heath, Birmingham) had first joined in July 1966 before landing the “gig of his dreams” with Jethro Tull.

Bass player and leader Bryan Stevens (b. 13 November 1941, Lha Datu, North Borneo) and keyboard player/singer Mick Ketley (b. 1 October 1947, Balham, London) were there from the outset, having been integral members of Beau Brummell & The Noblemen from late 1964 to June 1966.

Photo: Bryan Stevens/Mick Ketley. The Noblemen, early 1966. Mick Ketley (far right) and Bryan Stevens (front centre)

Returning to England after touring Europe, Stevens and Ketley had decided to put together a new version of The Noblemen, adding new musicians, including drummer Malcolm Tomlinson (b. 16 June 1946, Isleworth, Middlesex; d. 2 April 2016) from west London and Martin Barre.

All four musicians survived the group’s evolution from Mod/soul outfit Motivation through to psychedelic pop band The Penny Peep Show/Penny Peeps.

Photo: Bryan Stevens/Mick Ketley. Motivation, early 1967. Left to right: Chris Rodger, Martin Barre, Mick Ketley, Jimmy Marsh, Malcolm Tomlinson and Bryan Stevens

However, despite garnering plenty of work on the club scene in the first half of 1968, the emerging blues explosion headed up by Fleetwood Mac was starting to make psychedelic rock bands redundant.

That July, Canadian group The Band’s Music from Big Pink had been given a UK release and had turned musicians’ heads, The Penny Peeps included.

After playing at Nottingham’s Beachcomber Club on Saturday, 13 July; Leicester Rowing Club, two Saturdays later; and the Swan in Yardley, the West Midlands on Saturday, 3 August, the musicians realised another change in style was required.

The decision was influenced in part by the audience’s response at one particular gig (possibly the Walgrave in Coventry on Sunday, 4 August) where the group’s performance was poorly received.

In the interval, the band’s current singer Denny Alexander suggested that the band play some blues numbers in the second set and with Mike Ketley and Malcolm Tomlinson also helping out with lead vocals, the fresh approach went down a storm.

Taking on a new name, In the Garden of Gethsemane, which was soon shortened to Gethsemane, the group began to plough a more blues-based direction.

The decision to adopt a new style may also have been prompted by the Eighth National Jazz and Blues Festival held at Kempton Park racecourse in Sunbury-on-Thames on Sunday, 11 August.

Malcolm Tomlinson had attended and was blown away by Jethro Tull and its enigmatic front-man Ian Anderson whose mastery of the flute made an impression on the drummer. Both he and Martin Barre had recently started to play flute and Tomlinson came back raving about the group to Barre, urging the guitarist to check out Anderson’s inspirational group.

Around this time, however, Denny Alexander dropped out to pursue a non-musical career.

Reduced to a quartet, the new musical direction that Gethsemane took gave the band an opportunity to be more creative and to stretch out during live performances. One of the “features” of the band’s stage show during this period was a flute duet featuring Barre and Tomlinson.

Mike Ketley believes the genesis of Gethsemane began when the musicians played an (unadvertised) all-nighter at the Gunnell brothers’ Flamingo in Wardour Street around mid-to-late August.

“What I remember is Malc Tomlinson on drums, Bryan on bass, Martin Barre on guitar and me on Hammond. We were definitely a four piece there and by then Malc had decided to take up the flute. Martin by this time was becoming a much better flute player than he was a sax player.

“One of our set numbers was ‘Work Song’ made famous by Cannonball Adderley plus others. After we had played the main theme twice through with some ad lib from me and Martin, Malc said play some percussion rhythm on the keys and he came out from behind the drums flute in hand and between him and Martin, who by then had realised this was something completely spontaneous, we played some pretty bizarre stuff, completely unrehearsed with two flutes talking to each other, while Bryan did his own thing on bass in line with me just using the percussion tabs and hitting the keys to make a tempo. Having lost Denny Alexander it was almost like the start of a new direction for us.”

One of the first advertised gigs with the new name (albeit it as Gethsemane Soul Band) was at the Royal Lido Ballroom in Prestatyn, north Wales on Saturday, 24 August.

The next day, the group played the first of several shows at Eel Pie Island in Twickenham, west London. The popular island hangout had closed briefly in September 1967 and only reopened on 31 July. Ketley distinctly recalls opening for The Nice at the venue (who were billed to play there on Wednesday, 28 August).

One of the most significant dates during this period was Saturday, 31 August when Gethsemane (misspelt as Gethsemanie) opened the Van Dike Club in Plymouth, Devon, playing first before headliner Jethro Tull. It was the first opportunity that Martin Barre had to check out his future employers.

Interestingly, an advertised gig at the Cobweb at St Leonards in East Sussex on Saturday, 7 September (see above) reveals that the group was still occasionally billed as The Penny Peeps, which raises the question of whether Denny Alexander was still a member at this point. (Ed: Ketley says that Alexander had definitely left the band once they had redefined the music they wanted to play and chosen the name Gethsemane.)

Like the previous incarnations, Gethsemane had a busy diary, which increasingly took in blues clubs and the burgeoning university circuit.

On Sunday, 8 September, the quartet performed at the Aurora Hotel in Gillingham, Kent. That Saturday (14 September), the group (billed as Geth Semane) played one of its most prestigious shows – the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm on a bill that also featured The Scaffold, David Bowie, Junior’s Eyes and The Edgar Broughton Band.

DJ John Peel apparently was a huge fan and recorded the band’s set, which he played the following week on his radio show.

On Saturday, 28 September, Gethsemane played at the Stage Club in Oxford.

The following Saturday (5 October), the group landed an important gig, opening for blues trailblazers Fleetwood Mac at the Links in Borehamwood, Herts.

Without Alexander to front the group, the vocals were shared between Malcolm Tomlinson and Mike Ketley.

“Malc always had a great voice,” says Stevens. “We were doing cover versions of The Band as we had got hold of an early copy of Music from Big Pink. If I remember right, Malc sang ‘the Weight’ and ‘Chest Fever’. It was really good.”

Two days after the Fleetwood Mac support gig, the band headed for south Wales to play at the Landland Bay Hotel in Swansea (billed as Gethsemaney).

A few weeks later, on Wednesday, 16 October, the band (billed as Geth Semane) appeared at the Railway Hotel in Bishop’s Stortford, Herts. The group would return to play there on Wednesday, 6 November.

Later that month, Gethsemane appeared at popular blues haunt the Nag’s Head in Battersea on Monday, 21 October and then two days later returned to Eel Pie Island to share the bill with Alan Bown.

Around this period, Gethsemane piqued the interest of Bee Gees producer Robert Stigwood, and through this association signed with Dick James Music (Northern Songs). While the idea was to record an album, the band soon ran into problems in the studio.

“I have an acetate of Elton John. It’s just him playing at the piano singing ‘Lady Samantha’ which is all about a ghost,” says Ketley.

“Dick James Music, Elton’s publisher gave us a recording to try and do our own version but Elton paid a visit one recording session and said he didn’t like what we were doing with his song so it never went ahead.”

“Musical differences” erupted between the group, Northern Songs and Robert Stigwood. It seems the producer was looking for something much more “poppy” from the group, who also cut a version of “Grease Monkey”, allegedly with future Average White Band member Alan Gorrie providing the bass and lead vocals. At the time, Gorrie’s band Hopscotch were flat mates with Gethsemane.

The decision to cut Elton John’s “Lady Samantha” seemed a rather unusual choice for a blues band. Perhaps the decision was made following an Elton John radio session, taped on 28 October at BBC’s Agolin Hall.

On that occasion, John recorded three tracks – “Lady Samantha”, “Across the Havens” and “Skyline Pigeon”, abetted by a studio group comprising long standing guitarist Caleb Quaye, session bass player Boots Slade (formerly of the Alan Price Set) and Malcolm Tomlinson on drums. The three songs were played on BBC’s Stuart Henry Show the following week.

Whatever the reason, the disappointment and frustration surrounding the LP sessions, together with an aborted attempt to record with guitarist Jeff Beck (the most plausible recording date is 18 September), appears to have been a major factor in driving the band apart.

During November 1968, the band ploughed on but was soon running out of steam. After a show at the Industrial Club in Norwich on Friday, 8 November, the group travelled to Reading the following Wednesday to play at the Thing-A-Me-Jig before moving on to Wolverhampton the next evening (14 November) to play the Club Lafayette (billed as Gethsemany).

Back in London, the group landed a gig at the Hornsey Wood Tavern in Finsbury Park the following evening (Friday, 15 November), sharing the bill once again with Jethro Tull. Aware that Mick Abrahams was leaving, Martin Barre auditioned for the guitar spot but it didn’t go well and he worried he’d missed out on his dream job.

With a show at the Crown Hotel in Birmingham on Tuesday, 26 November, Gethsemane began winding down operations, agreeing to split that Christmas.

A highly memorable gig at Dundee College of Art on 12 December opening for headliners, Pink Floyd, followed before Gethsemane returned to London to fulfil a few final engagements, including a show at the Pheasantry on the Kings Road, before dissolving.

“The last gig we ever did was at a college in Brook Green, Hammersmith and a guy from Island Records asked if we would be interested in signing up,” says Stevens.

“We didn’t want to know. We had had so many people saying so many times, ‘sign here and we will make you famous!’ Anyway, by that time, we had all decided to go our separate ways.”

Martin Barre has different recollections about Gethsemane’s final gig. “Terry Ellis form Chrysalis approached me to invite me to audition for Tull, which I did a few days later. It was the first one… it took two [to get the position]. He had been sent by Tull to find me and wasn’t interested in the band.”

Having discovered that Mick Abrahams’ replacement Tony Iommi had been dismissed after only a month in the band, Barre phoned Jethro Tull’s singer Ian Anderson to see if he could try out a second time for the band. [Ed – Tomlinson also auditioned at the same time.]

Stevens continues the story: “He didn’t have a very good guitar at the time and mentioned he desperately wanted a Les Paul Gibson for the audition. The guy in the flat below us in our Chiswick flat offered to lend him the £500 – pretty good considering that was quite heavy money in the late ’60s.”

Invited round to Anderson’s flat for a second audition, Barre got the “gig of his dreams”. The rest as they say is history. But what about his former band mates?

Having led a succession of groups from Johnny Devlin & The Detours through to Gethsemane, Bryan Stevens decided to sell his bass and used the money to help finance his studies. Returning to college, he later became a surveyor and currently lives in Chiswick.

Mike Ketley meanwhile returned to the south coast. Switching from keyboards to bass, he joined forces with a several former Noblemen and for a couple of years worked in a local band called The Concords. He later abandoned live work and after leaving music retail, worked for the Hammond Organ Company, then joined Yamaha Music UK retiring as MD after 32 years.

Stevens and Ketley have remained firm friends and in June 2002 re-joined former band mates in a Johnny Devlin & The Detours reunion held in Bognor Regis. Among the guests at the reunion was former Soundtracks guitarist Ray Flacke, who later went on to play with Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler. Ketley has also re-recorded “Model Village” with his son’s band called The Vybe.

Johnny Devlin and The Detours got together again in 2003 to headline a gathering of ’60s groups from Bognor for a sell-out night in aid of the hospice that looked after Barry Benson (P J Proby’s hairdresser) who had died of cancer a few months earlier. Called “Back to the ‘60s” such was its popularity that the annual event lasted for 10 years and raised nearly £70k for local charities in and around the Bognor Regis area.

Stevens and Ketley were involved in another significant reunion – after over 35 years, they finally met up with Penny Peeps singer Denny Alexander over the Christmas 2004 period. Another reunion took place on 29 March 2009.

Bryan Stevens, Mick Ketley and Denny Alexander, 2009

They also renewed contact with Malcolm Tomlinson, who, aside from Martin Barre, was the only member of the band to maintain a significant musical profile.

After Gethsemane’s demise, Tomlinson reunited with his former Jeff Curtis & The Flames cohort Louis McKelvey and in February 1969 moved to Toronto, Canada where the pair formed Milkwood with future Celine Dion backing singer Mary Lou Gauthier. (McKelvey, incidentally, had also been one of the hopefuls who auditioned for Ian Anderson and the guitar slot in Jethro Tull).

Milkwood, 1969. Left to right: Ron Frankel, Jack Geisinger, Louis McKelvey, Mary Lou Gauthier and Malcolm Tomlinson

During his first few months in the city, Tomlinson was called on to play drums and flute on ex-A Passing Fancy guitarist and singer/songwriter Jay Telfer’s ambitious solo album, Perch but unfortunately the recording was subsequently shelved, as was Milkwood’s own album, cut in New York that summer for the Polydor label with legendary producer Jerry Ragavoy.

However, Tomlinson did make a notable session appearance on label mate, Life’s eponymous lone album recorded in late 1969, providing a superb flute solo to the Terry Reid cover “Lovin’ Time”.

Milkwood’s greatest claim to fame was appearing at Toronto’s famous Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival concert on 13 September, just before John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band. Yet despite garnering praise from Jimi Hendrix in Cashbox magazine after he’d spotted the quintet playing at the Penny Farthing club in Yorkville Village, Milkwood imploded shortly after a show in Ottawa in late October.

Next up, Tomlinson briefly played with McKelvey in the short-lived biker group, Damage. One of the band’s most high profile shows was an appearance at the Toronto Rock Festival on 26 March 1970, appearing on the bill with Funkadelic, Luke & the Apostles, Nucleus and Leigh Ashford among others.

When that group folded in late 1970, Tomlinson briefly teamed up with former Elektra Records band, Rhinoceros before joining Syrinx in October 1971 and recording material for True North Records under the name, JFC Heartbeat.

He then worked with Toronto-based groups, Rambunkshish and Zig Zag alongside Toronto blues guitarist Danny Marks, before signing up with Bill King’s band during 1972.

More impressive, in 1973, he recorded an album’s worth of material with Rick James and the original Stone City Band, which is still to see a release.

Versatile as ever, Tomlinson subsequently played drums with Jackson Hawke, did sessions for Jay Telfer and then joined Bearfoot before recording two solo albums for A&M Records in 1977 and 1979 entitled Coming Outta Nowhere and Rock ‘N’ Roll Hermit. He dropped out of the recording scene during the ’80s and ’90s.

However, in 2007, Tomlinson sang on Toronto group The Cameo Blues Band’s latest album. In June of that year, he played drums with ’60s folk-rock group, Kensington Market to celebrate the “Summer of Love” and also doubled up with Luke & the Apostles. Tomlinson died on 2 April 2016.

Louis McKelvey and Malcolm Tomlinson, Toronto, 2004

Denny Alexander has also passed away. He died on 6 December 2018 and both Mike Ketley and Bryan Stevens were pall bearers at his funeral in January 2019.

Thanks to Bryan Stevens, Mike Ketley, Martin Barre, Denny Alexander and Malcolm Tomlinson.

Categories: Bognor Regis, England, West Sussex

The Penny Peeps

June 26, 2021 Nick Warburton 1 Comment

Aficionados of UK freakbeat will be familiar with The Penny Peeps’ Who-inspired rocker “Model Village”, which graced the ‘B’ side of the band’s debut single “Little Man with a Stick” for Liberty Records in February 1968.

With its swirling organ, driving guitar and powerful lead vocal, the track is justifiably revered as a minor ’60s classic and has turned up over the years on a number of compilations, most notably the Rubble series and the box set Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers.

Little is known about the Penny Peeps, aside from the fact that they recorded two hopelessly obscure, yet highly collectable singles for Liberty Records, which today can fetch astronomical sums of money.

Collectors may be surprised to learn, however, that The Penny Peeps’ guitarist was none other than future Jethro Tull axe man Martin Barre (b. 17 November 1946, King’s Heath, Birmingham).

Perhaps more surprising is news that The Penny Peeps recorded around 15 demos for the label in early 1968, including the marvellous “Meet Me at the Fair”, the band’s preferred choice as ‘B’ side for “Model Village”. The infectious soul-tinged rocker was subsequently dropped in favour of the more commercial “Little Man with a Stick”.

As fate would have it both “Little Man with a Stick” and its follow up single, “I See the Morning” sank without a trace and the group’s lead singer and song-writer, Denny Alexander, departed during August 1968. The group briefly continued as a quartet under the name Gethsemane before the musicians went their separate ways that December.

While Barre subsequently “landed on his feet” joining highly respected blues band, Jethro Tull, the music he recorded with his pre-Tull bands has often been overlooked.

Martin Barre, who’d previously played with Midlands bands The Dwellers and The Moonrakers, had joined the group that would become The Penny Peeps in July 1966.

Known as The Noblemen at the time, the group also comprised singer Jimmy Marsh; guitarist Chuck Fryers; bass player Bryan Stevens (b. 13 November 1941, Lha Datu, North Borneo); keyboard player Mike Ketley (b. 1 October 1947, Balham, London); sax player Chris Rodger; and drummer Malcolm Tomlinson (b. 16 June 1946, Isleworth, Middlesex; d. 2 April 2016).

However, Fryers dropped out soon afterwards (later to join The Sorrows) and after a few months, the band changed name to Motivation (sometimes billed as The Motivation – see earlier entry).

During a trip to Italy in March-May 1967 singer Jimmy Marsh departed followed soon after by sax player Chris Rodger when the group returned home. With Ketley handling lead vocals in the short-term, the band started to look for a new front man.

Former Clayton Squares and Thoughts singer Denny Thomas Alexander (b. 10 March 1946, Liverpool, Lancashire, d. 6 December 2018) answered the call and joined in early June 1967.

With a Cheshire version of The Motivation increasingly active (they opened for The Jeff Beck Group at Nantwich Civic Hall on 24 June 1967) and yet another group billed as The Motivation signing and later recording with Direction Records, the musicians decided to become The Penny Peep Show in August 1967.

One of the first advertised shows under this name was at the Gala Ballroom in Norwich on 15 and 16 September (Friday and Saturday). On the Sunday, they travelled over to Birmingham to appear at the Swan in Yardley.

Other dates that month included a return to the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe on Saturday, 23 September and an appearance at the Belfry in Wishaw, near Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands two days later, with The Sight & Sound.

The Penny Peep Show were back in the Birmingham area early the next month for a show at the Penthouse in the city centre with New Zealand group The Human Instinct on Saturday, 7 October (they would return here on Friday, 3 November).

It was possibly this same weekend that Stevens met his future wife Beth.

“We played at Birmingham University for the Fresher’s Dance, which is where I met Beth. I definitely remember that gig. Beth lived in Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames and she used to go to Walton Hop where we played some months later [in May 1968]”.

The following weekend, the musicians headed down to the southwest for a show at the Flamingo Ballroom in Penzance on Saturday, 14 October and headed home via Dorset to appear the Weymouth’s Steering Wheel on the following Saturday evening (21 October).

Throughout the next month, the band continued to crisscross the country, playing at venues like Birmingham’s Ringway Club on Saturday, 4 November; the Carnival Hall in Basingstoke, Hampshire on Thursday, 9 November; Coventry’s Tudor Club at the Mercers Arms on Sunday, 19 November; and the 76 Club in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire on 24 November.

Newspaper adverts reveal that during December, The Penny Peep Show returned to play shows at Weymouth’s Steering Wheel, the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe (returning in early January) and the Swan in Yardley, closing the year with a show at the Wellington Club in Dereham, Norfolk on Saturday, 30 December.

Through Pete Hockham, formerly one of Bob Gaitley’s agents at the Beat Ballad and Blues agency and now working for Brian Epstein’s NEMS agency, the band signed up with NEMS around January 1968 and gained regular work in the London area.

One of the group’s first London dates took place on Thursday, 8 February, opening for Brighton band The Mike Stuart Span (who shared the same agency) at the famous 100 Club in Oxford Street.

The next day, the group played at the Nottingham Boat Club. Over the next year, the musicians would regularly perform in the city and its surrounding area.

That same month, the group signed a deal with Liberty Records and got to work recording over an album’s worth of material, most of which comprised demos.

Interested listeners can hear early demos of the four tracks that made up The Penny Peeps’ two singles plus unreleased tracks online. Acetates of “Model Village”, “I See the Morning”, “Curly, The Knight of The Road” and “Meet Me at the Fair” reveal just how powerful these demo versions were.

“When The Penny Peeps got the Liberty contract, I also got a song writing contract with them from Metric Music, which was on Albermarle Street at the time,” says Alexander.

“When I went to sign my contract there was also a duo who were part of band called the Idle Race. One turned out to be Jeff Lynne later of ELO fame and fortune. A third person sitting in the corner very quietly and looking very shy and school boyish turned out be Mike Batt!”

“The contract required a certain amount of songs in a certain period,” continues Alexander “and the band used to act as session men – and therefore got paid which helped when gigs were scarce. Most songs were recorded at the Marquee studio at the back of the old Marquee club in Wardour Street. I probably wrote about 15 or 16 songs.”

Some of these songs, such as “Helen Doesn’t Care” and “Into My Life She Came”, which features Martin Barre on flute, are gems. So is “Meet Me at The Fair”, which the group had envisaged would be coupled with Alexander’s organ and guitar driven rocker “Model Village” for the band’s debut single. Instead, Liberty chose to go with the poppy Les Reed-Barry Mason collaboration, “Little Man with a Stick”.

“I remember how pissed off we all were when Liberty insisted that ‘Little Man with a Stick’ should be the ‘A’ side as it was not us and none of us liked it,” says Stevens. “I suppose it was the usual case of the record company wanting to use their in-house song writers.”

Released on 16 February, under the new name, The Penny Peeps, “Little Man with a Stick” c/w “Model Village” failed to chart, although it did gain some radio exposure. (Ed – mint copies of this single will set you back a hefty price.)

“Little Man with a Stick” received a lukewarm welcome in the music press, with NME reporting: “A new British number by Les Reed and Barry Mason. It’s good fun with a strong novelty content, but not one of the duo’s most memorable compositions. Competent performance.”

The single’s release coincided with a memorable show at the Brighton Dome Theatre on Thursday, 22 February where The Penny Peeps backed The Scaffold on a bill that also included The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and also played their own set. Back in London, the group appeared at London’s Speakeasy six days later.

Throughout this period, the group toured extensively, and even made a brief trip to Belgium to play some dates.

“We played in Belgium for an Embassy party on-board a ship tied up at the docks,” says Stevens.

Sean Connery and Bridget Bardot were in the audience that night and Ketley thinks they may have been celebrating after wrapping up filming on the movie they were in together called Shalako.

Penny Peeps, spring 1968. Clockwise from bottom left: Martin Barre, Denny Alexander, Malcolm Tomlinson, Bryan Stevens and Mick Ketley

On Friday, 8 March, The Penny Peeps returned to play a show at the Nottingham Boat Club.

A few weeks later, on Saturday, 23 March, they were back in the city to appear at the Beachcomber Club. The previous evening (billed as The Penny Peep Show), the musicians performed at the Fiesta Hall in Andover, Hampshire.

Closing the month, The Penny Peeps returned to Bournemouth for a show at the Linden Sports Club, a venue they would perform at regularly throughout the year.

Newspaper adverts for April reveal that The Penny Peeps performed regularly along the south coast.

Besides the usual trek to Weymouth to play the Steering Wheel (Wednesday, 3 April), the band also played at the Cobweb, situated at the Marine Court in St Leonards, East Sussex. The show (on Saturday, 20 April) found the band playing on the same bill as Tony Rivers & The Castaways, soon to morph into Harmony Grass.

On Thursday, 25 April (again billed as The Penny Peep Show), the musicians played at Hatchetts Playground, a flash club on Piccadilly Circus.

With the band’s original material going down a storm on the road, the group returned to Nottingham on Friday, 3 May for another show at the Nottingham Boat Club.

Later that month (Saturday, 18 May), The Penny Peeps played at the Walton Hop, situated in the Playhouse at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, the UK’s first discotheque.

On Saturday, 15 June, The Penny Peeps returned to Nottingham for a show at the Beachcomber Club, returning home to Bognor Regis that evening to perform at the Linden Sports Club in Bournemouth the next day.

Six days later, the band’s second release Alexander’s “I See the Morning” c/w “Curly, The Knight of The Road” also failed to chart despite Tony Blackburn using the song to open his Radio 1 Breakfast show every morning for a week.

Despite plenty of work, including a return to Nottingham’s Beachcomber Club on Saturday, 13 July; Leicester Rowing Club, two Saturday’s later; and the Swan in Yardley, the West Midlands on Saturday, 3 August, the emerging blues explosion headed up by Fleetwood Mac was starting to make psychedelic rock bands redundant.

That July, Canadian group The Band’s Music from Big Pink had been given a UK release and had turned musicians’ heads, The Penny Peeps included.

During a gig that month, possibly at the Walgrave in Coventry on Sunday, 4 August (see above) The Penny Peep Show/Penny Peeps’ current repertoire was met with an icy response and Alexander realised that drastic measures were needed.

In the interval, he suggested that the band play some blues numbers in the second set and with Ketley and Tomlinson also helping out with lead vocals, the fresh approach went down a storm.

Taking on a new name, In the Garden of Gethsemane, which was soon shortened to Gethsemane, the group began to plough a more blues-based direction.

The Penny Peeps before Denny Alexander left. Left to right: Martin Barre, Mick Ketley, Denny Alexander, Malcolm Tomlinson and Bryan Stevens

The decision to adopt a new style may also have been prompted by the Eighth National Jazz and Blues Festival held at Kempton Park racecourse in Sunbury-on-Thames on Sunday, 11 August.

Around this time Denny Alexander dropped out to pursue a non-musical career.

Retiring from professional playing, he tried his hand as a trainee publican for a while but the venture didn’t last long. Back in Liverpool, he gathered together some friends who had a musical cabaret act and the sax player from The Undertakers and recorded six tracks in late 1972.

The songs: “Don’t Let It Rain (Wedding Day)”, “Crossroads of Life”, “My Last Goodbye to You”, “I’d Like to Get to Know You Girl”, “Your Alive” and “Babe I Love You” remain unreleased to this day.

The songs vary in style although some show touches of a country-rock influence. Like all of Alexander’s songs, the tracks are extremely melodic and a couple could have been huge hits in the hands of a more established artist.

With the recordings complete, Alexander turned his back on music and went into the financial services industry, retiring in the early 2000s. However, he did reunite with Bryan Stevens and Mick Ketley in the late 2000s.

Reduced to a quartet, the new musical direction that Gethsemane took gave the band an opportunity to be more creative and to stretch out during live performances.

To be continued:

Thanks to Bryan Stevens, Mike Ketley, Martin Barre, Denny Alexander, Malcolm Tomlinson, Mike Paxman, Vernon Joynson and Hugh MacLean. Thank you to Bryan Stevens and Mike Ketley for the band photos.

Categories: England, London

Motivation

June 20, 2021 Nick Warburton 1 Comment

Best known for containing future Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre (b. 17 November 1946, King’s Heath, Birmingham), London-based Mod/soul outfit Motivation began life as The Noblemen, changing name in November 1966.

The Noblemen (see earlier entry) originally hailed from Bognor Regis on England’s south coast and contained bass player and band leader Bryan Stevens (b. 13 November 1941, Lha Datu, North Borneo) and keyboard player Mick Ketley (b. 1 October 1947, Balham, south London).

Both musicians had previously played with local band Johnny Devlin & The Detours, who had linked up with South African singer Beau Brummell in late 1964 and become his support group, The Noblemen.

By June 1966, however, The Noblemen’s final line-up had returned to England after touring in Europe.

With drummer Bernie Smith opting out, Stevens, Ketley and guitarist Chuck Fryers had decided to form a new version and brought in two Londoners – singer Jimmy Marsh (b. 9 April 1941, Salem, Carmarthenshire, Wales; d. 13 April 2020) and drummer Malcolm Tomlinson (b. 16 June 1946, Isleworth, Middlesex; d. 2 April 2016).

They then advertised for a horn player in Melody Maker, which resulted in two musicians from the West Midlands auditioning – sax player Chris Rodger (b. 16 October 1946, Solihull, Warwickshire) and his friend Martin Barre, who joined, initially, as a second sax player.

However, when Fryers decided to leave in August to join The Warren J Five and later The Sorrows, Barre assumed lead guitar duties and The Noblemen moved up to London. Signing up with the Roy Tempest Agency, The Noblemen backed soul acts like The Vibrations, Edwin Starr and Alvin Robinson over the next few months.

Throughout 1965 and 1966, a south London R&B outfit from Norbury had been gigging as The Motivation but by the end of the year this band split up, leaving the name free.

Motivation, banks of the River Thames, near Syon Park, spring 1967

With The Noblemen finishing up with work with Roy Tempest and increasingly lining up gigs under their own name, the decision was made to adopt a new moniker and Motivation was chosen (although promoters would sometimes bill them as The Motivation).

That November, The Noblemen were in the middle of supporting US soul act, The Coasters and one of the first gigs using Motivation took place at the Oasis in Manchester on Saturday, 12 November.

The new name remained for a double-nighter a fortnight later, on Saturday, 26 November at the Starlight Ballroom at the Boston Gliderdrome followed by the Burlesque in Leicester.

It was while backing The Coasters that Mick Ketley and Malcolm Tomlinson were invited to a party one evening by the singers to meet an American guitarist friend of theirs who’d recently arrived in London.

“I always thought we were backing The Coasters when one Saturday afternoon we played at an American Embassy type gig along the Cromwell Road then drove to Boston in Lincolnshire where the Move were on stage smashing up TV sets, then on to Leicester for an all-nighter,” says Stevens.

“On the journey back to London Cornell Gunter invited us to a party they were having at the Royal Lancaster on the Sunday evening and said we had to come and meet the most amazing guitarist who had just arrived in the country which turned out to be Jimi Hendrix.”

Stevens also remembers one particularly hair raising story while touring with The Coasters that took place on Sunday, 20 November in Greater Manchester.

“We were backing [them] on a seven-day tour of England and had a double-nighter in Manchester – two large working men’s clubs. It was the Princess and the Domino clubs, owned by the same promoter,” recalls the bass player.

“We went on the first venue and went down very well, in fact there were encores and it made us late leaving. Then we had to pack up the drums and amplifiers and follow the promoter’s car on a dash to the other club the other side of Manchester.”

Arriving nearly an hour late, the group set up its amps behind the stage curtain where it could hear the drunken crowd starting to get rowdy. With no time to waste the club’s manager said: “just bring The Coasters straight on, there’s no time for your lead singer to do even one number”.

The curtain was raised to a huge cheer and The Coasters were hurried on stage. The trouble started immediately. Unfortunately, the one number was not enough to quieten the audience, and when the lead singer Cornell Gunter politely asked the drunken crowd to quieten down, most took no notice and continued to shout out.

After a very loud expletive over the mic Gunter turned his back on the audience and walked back to the waiting band to start the next number. This was met with a torrent of boos, shouting, glass ashtrays and beer bottles. The place went into uproar and the manager shouted from the wings “play them off” and the curtains were closed. All four singers were in a headlong retreat to the dressing room, while the band, minus Jimmy Marsh packed up the gear and loaded the band wagon at the back door from the stage.

“The Coasters were being driven around the gigs by Chris Rodger and when it was time to leave he went to their dressing room where he found them checking their guns for ammunition – by this time some of the crowd were trying to force their way into the dressing room – they were pretty scared like we were,” remembers Ketley.

“While we were loading the gear, we heard screams and shouting coming from the back of the club. Looking through the curtains to our horror Marsh stood, smashed bottle in hand surrounded by five bouncers from the club. He was eventually bundled out the back door and into the band wagon. The police had been called by the manager and eventually we had a police escort out of Manchester, with Rodger driving The Coasters separately but as he said, ‘with their guns at the ready’. We got to the M6 with no further incident and everybody feeling very relieved.”

Motivation, Hyde Park, late 1966. Left to right: Mick Ketley, Martin Barre, Bryan Stevens, Malcolm Tomlinson, Chris Rodger and Jimmy Marsh

Jimmy Marsh adds that there is more to the story. “We got to the club and all the bouncers looked like Teddy Boys. They were nasty. One of the bouncers wanted to know what we were going to do. I chimed in and said, ‘Well, I’m the lead vocalist and I usually do half an hour before The Coasters come on’.

“The manager of the club had joined us by that time and said, ‘There’s only time for one song’ and my back went up. I always remember saying, ‘Well, fuck you, I’m not singing, and I headed off for the bar, so they’d have to bring The Coasters on straight away.”

It turned out that’s what the manager wanted anyway as the audience were becoming more and more hostile waiting for the show to start. Perched at the bar, Marsh remembers the beer bottles being thrown at the stage.

“The lead vocalist was so camp, it was outrageous and of course up there a man’s got to be a man,” he says.

“Then one of the bouncers came over to me and said, ‘We’re going to have you’. Well, I hadn’t done anything so I told him to f-off. Anyway, I finished my drink and headed for the stage door and several of them came up behind me and threw me through the door.”

Marsh remembers losing it completely and taking on about five or six bouncers.

“Finally, we got out and, nervous reaction, I’m sitting there in our converted ambulance laughing hysterically. Bryan said to me, ‘You’re mad’ and I said, ‘Well they started it’ and they did.”

As the singer points out, Roy Tempest later presented them with a bill for £30 to cover the damage! Perhaps not surprisingly, the musicians parted with the promoter a few weeks later and in early December 1966 began gigging independently.

Motivation on Bognor Regis station, late 1966

A fresh batch of publicity photos were taken in London at Park Lane near Hyde Park and on Bognor Regis train station to mark the occasion.

Left to right: Jimmy Marsh, Martin Barre, Bryan Stevens, Mick Ketley, Chris Rodger and Malcolm Tomlinson

During this period, Jimmy Marsh remembers [The] Motivation opening for The Tremeloes at Carlisle Town Hall.

Motivation were billed to play in Guildford on 4 December, the same day they played in Coventry

Judging by newspaper adverts, [The] Motivation continued to gig across England in the lead up to Christmas, including performances at the Hotel Leofric in Coventry (not far from Barre’s home Solihull) on Sunday, 4 December; the Gala Ballroom in Norwich on Saturday, 10 December (billed as The Motivations); the Britannia Rowing Club in Nottingham on Saturday, 17 December; and the Concorde in Southampton on Tuesday, 20 December.

To add to the confusion, another group called The Motivation from Cheshire (sometimes billed as The Motovation) began gigging from late 1966 into late 1967.

Some of the northern gigs therefore may have been by this band, although the show at the Lion Hotel in Warrington, Cheshire on Saturday, 24 December was not one of them.

Judging by a gig in The Kentish Express, the band appears to have seen the year out with a gig at the ‘2 ‘B’s’ Club in Ashford, Kent with The Suspects, a venue they had previously played as The Noblemen on 29 August 1966.

Bryan Stevens kept a gig list of Motivation’s shows in January, February and early March, which reveal that the opening months of 1967 were no less frenetic on the touring front.

Appearances included the Winter Gardens in Penzance and the Blue Lagoon in Newquay, both in Cornwall on Friday, 6 and Saturday, 7 January respectively; a return to the New Yorker Discotheque in Swindon on Saturday, 14 January; the Bromel Club in Bromley, south London on Friday, 20 January; the Royal Links Pavilion in Cromer, Norfolk on Saturday, 22 January; and a return to the Concorde in Southampton on Tuesday, 24 January.

Of significant note are two dates at the legendary Marquee club in Wardour Street where they were billed to open for The Herd (featuring Peter Frampton) on both occasions.

The first took place on Monday, 6 February, followed by a second appearance the next month on Monday, 6 March.

On the second occasion, Marsh remembers surprising his band mates by announcing that he wanted to sing a Roy Orbison classic, “Running Scared” among the usual soul numbers. At first the band refused to play it but relented when he threatened to walk off the stage. Marsh notes that the song brought the roof down.

Stevens’ gig list reveals that February and early March were also packed with dates. These included the Carlton Ballroom in Erdington, West Midlands (later to become Mothers) on Friday, 10 February; RAF Benson in Oxfordshire on Thursday, 16 February; an Oxford College on Saturday, 25 February; and Tiles on Oxford Street on Saturday, 4 March.

One date stands out: Cooks Ferry Inn in Edmonton in north London on Friday, 17 February as the other act on the bill was none other than The John Evan Smash (later to morph into Jethro Tull!).

Near Syon Park by the River Thames, spring 1967

Newspaper adverts reveal quite a few missing dates from Stevens’ list so it’s not clear if these gigs took place or were by another version of The Motivation but they include venues that Barre’s group performed at.

These include the Kingfisher Hall in Redditch, Worcestershire on Friday, 3 February; Maidstone Corn Exchange the next day (4 February); and the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, which was a venue the band played extensively, on Wednesday, 1 March.

The Maidstone gig above does seem likely because on the same day, Motivation returned to the ‘2 ‘B’s’ Club in Ashford, Kent, which is listed on Bryan’s gig list for sometime in late January-early February.

Whatever the case, sometime around the second Marquee date with The Herd in early March, Motivation got a new set of publicity photos taken on the banks of the River Thames near Syon Park in west London.

Then, later that week on 8 March, the musicians headed off for Rome to perform at the famous Piper Club for around four weeks, playing six hours a night until 3am.

Chris Rodger remembers Motivation started playing on Saturday, 11 March, having driven non-stop for 60 hours to the Italian capital.

Jimmy Marsh vividly recalls Ray Charles’s dancers came in while they were there and asked the band to prolong their solo so they could dance to the music. The singer promptly leapt off the stage to dance with them!

More significantly, Marsh also remembers that The Rolling Stones’ entourage came into the club while they were resident band.

“I vaguely remember when The Rolling Stones’ ‘fixer’ Tom Keylock came to the Piper Club,” says Stevens.

“He invited some of our guys to his table and praised our set. He said he’d try and fix our band to be a warm up for The Rolling Stones when they played later that month in Italy but nothing happened.

“There were a lot of celebrities turning up at the Piper Club. One of The Beatles’ parents invited some of our guys to their table. I think it was George Harrison’s parents.”

The Rolling Stones did, in fact, play in Rome on Thursday, 6 April, so it seems likely the group was still performing at the Piper Club at this point.

“I know that we played for a few weeks at the Piper Club and then a week or two at a very small but smart nightclub, also in Rome,” says Martin Barre.

“After that we had no work but had met a really nice young man [Marco] with his fiancé while at this nightclub and he invited us to play at his club in Livorno.”

Ketley recalls that the ‘smart club’ in Rome was a bitter sweet experience.

“The owner was a friend of the owner of the Piper club Senor Boniga. Looking back, I think he got money from the owner of the dining club. It was a smart dinner club and all they wanted was very quiet dinner music. We were constantly told to ‘turn down’ and our music was not really suitable.”

Motivation, west London, spring 1967 before the Italian trip

Behind the scenes, however, the pressures of being on the road began to take its toll. “When we were in Rome I had to attend the hospital,” recalls Marsh.

“I punctured my vocal chords and to get it fixed, you would have to be a big time operator to foot that kind of bill.”

With his health failing, Marsh left the band in Rome and returned to England.

Jimmy Marsh subsequently dropped out of the music business, only resurfacing briefly in the early ’80s with the short-lived west London band, A Touch of Gold.

Looking back, he has this to say. “A big problem with Motivation was the rivalry. Martin [Barre] was my favourite; he was a lovely kid. I always thought good luck to him when he made it.”

He also remembers a story regarding the future Jethro Tull guitarist. “After I left them I was living in Notting Hill Gate in Pembridge Villas and Martin turned up at my place. I always remember the girl who lived in the room next to me had a lovely clarinet, which she was going to sell and he wanted it but didn’t have the money. I said, ‘Martin, do you want me to get it for you?’ He said, ‘No, thanks’. Next thing I know he’s worth millions!”

This author was in contact with the singer a few years ago but recently found out that he died on 13 April 2020.

This gig in Redditch on 26 March took place while the band was in Italy so the group would have been cancelled

With Jimmy Marsh out of the picture, Martin Barre remembers Mike Ketley took over all the lead vocals for the remainder of the Italian dates.

“Jimmy didn’t come to the club in Livorno,” says the guitarist. “We stayed at this guy’s fiancé’s house. At first we slept in the attic but it was so hot that we moved to a nearby hotel. This became too expensive and we had to finish in Livorno and drive home.

“While in Livorno we went to the Viareggio Piper Club and saw Dave Antony’s Moods, a band I had seen before with The Moonrakers at the Bure Club near Bournemouth.”

Chris Rodger, who wrote letters to his future wife while he was away in Rome, notes that the band arrived back in England on 19 May and took a week’s holiday to recover.

Although advertised, the group was in Italy during this period

Motivation were billed to play at the New Yorker Discotheque on Saturday, 15 April and the advertisement also notes that they recently played at the Cromwellian in west Kensington. However, neither gig was honoured as the band was still in Italy.

The same is true of other gigs advertised during April and May. These include the Methodist Hall in Studley, Warwickshire on Saturday, 22 April and a show the following day at the Tavern Club in Dereham, Norfolk.

Rodger does remember his final gig with the band, which took place at the Playboy Club on Park Lane, central London on 27 May, after which he announced his departure.

Soon afterwards, the musicians went in search of a new lead singer to take over from Jimmy Marsh.

Singer Denny Thomas Alexander (b. 10 March 1946, Liverpool, Lancashire, d. 6 December 2018) remembers Stevens picking him up from his home in Liverpool and then collecting Martin Barre in Solihull on route to Bognor Regis where the new version would rehearse extensively at the Shoreline Club.

Stevens and Ketley had remembered The Clayton Squares’s singer whose band had shared the stage with Beau Brummell & The Noblemen at the Storyville Club in Frankfurt in West Germany back in March 1966.

“When we decided we wanted a change after Jimmy Marsh, I contacted Denny who agreed to join up with us,” remembers Stevens.

“I went up to Liverpool and brought him down to Bognor where he stayed at the Shoreline Hotel (the only teenage hotel run by teenagers for teenagers in Bognor) while we got a new act together before going out on the road again.”

Alexander, like his erstwhile colleagues, had been active since the early ’60s, playing with Liverpool bands Tony & The Chequers, The Aarons, The Secrets and The Kinsleys.

Denny Alexander (bottom left) with The Clayton Squares in 1965

His greatest success, however, came with The Clayton Squares, who he joined in February 1965 and with whom he recorded two singles for Decca in late 1965 and early 1966. The band, which was managed by Don Arden, had played extensively at the Cavern but had arrived on the scene too late to capitalise on the success of the first wave of Merseyside bands.

Alexander, who had been working in West Germany with the London-based group, The Thoughts (and recorded unreleased material with them for Shel Talmy’s Planet Records) after leaving the Clayton Squares, brought both a strong voice and some powerful original material to the new Motivation line up.

It’s quite possible that most of June 1967 was spent rehearsing new exciting original material that Alexander was starting to pen and performing it at the Shoreline (dates for this venue are impossible to find).

During this period back on the south coast, Motivation was booked to appear at the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe on Tuesday, 28 June, returning soon after to perform on Monday, 3 July.

More significantly, on Saturday, 1 July, Motivation opened for Cream at the Upper Cut in Forest Gate, east London.

Ketley remembers finishing their set and walking outside for fresh air and heard a strange noise coming from an open back truck parked next to their own gig wagon.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes as there laid down in the back of the truck was Ginger Baker opening up packets of drum sticks and rolling them across the floor of the truck so he could choose the best ones for the set. I also remember the drum roll Ginger did on the double bass drums while getting ready to open – the curtains were closed and even then the audience erupted – they opened with ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Amazing!”

On Friday, 4 August, Motivation also appeared at Caesar’s Place at the Mulberry Tree in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire with The Agency.

Then, the following day, they travelled to Birmingham to appear at the Carlton Ballroom in Erdington, followed by a second show that evening at the Elbow Room in Aston. The weekend was completed with a show in Coventry on the Sunday at the Casablanca Club in the Sportsman’s Arms, Allesley.

During August, the band (sometimes billed as The Motivations) appeared at the Beeches Barn Theatre in Cirencester, Gloucestershire (Friday, 11 August) before returning to the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe for a show on Saturday, 19 August and then travelling to Worcestershire to appear at the Chateau Impney in Droitwich on Friday, 25 August. It was at this point that another name change was deemed necessary.

With the Cheshire version of The Motivation increasingly active (they opened for The Jeff Beck Group at Nantwich Civic Hall on 24 June 1967) and yet another group billed as The Motivation signing and later recording with Direction Records, the musicians decided to become The Penny Peep Show.

To be continued…

Thanks to Bryan Stevens, Mike Ketley, Martin Barre, Jimmy Marsh, Denny Alexander, Chris Rodger, Malcolm Tomlinson, Mike Paxman, Vernon Joynson and Hugh MacLean. Thank you to Bryan Stevens and Mike Ketley for the band photos.

Categories: Bognor Regis, England, West Sussex

The Noblemen

June 16, 2021 Nick Warburton Leave a comment

South coast R&B band The Noblemen are notable for containing musicians who went on to success with a number of mid-late 1960s rock bands, notably Audience, The Manchester Playboys and The Sorrows.

Helmed by longstanding bass player Bryan Stevens (b. 13 November 1941, Lha Datu, North Borneo) and keyboard player/singer Mick Ketley (b. 1 October 1947, Balham, south London), The Noblemen changed name to Motivation in November 1966.

Then, in August 1967, the musicians reinvented themselves as The Penny Peep Show (aka Penny Peeps) and recorded two rare 45s for Liberty Records during 1968.

Later that year, they changed name and style again to Gethsemane before splitting in December 1968 whereupon their guitarist Martin Barre (b. 17 November 1946, King’s Heath, Birmingham) joined Jethro Tull.

The Noblemen’s roots can be traced back to Bognor Regis group Johnny Devlin & The Detours, who also featured longstanding guitarist Alan Paul “Chuck” Fryers (b. 24 May 1945, Bognor Regis, West Sussex) and drummer Bernie Smith.

Stevens’ first recording was with a skiffle group The Shootin’ Stars that he’d formed while at King’s School in Chester during 1956/1957.

“We took part in a Skiffle contest at the Gaumont Cinema in Chester – it was my first taste of playing to an audience,” remembers the bass player.

“The Shootin’ Stars also recorded an EP at a small terraced house in Liverpool, same place as The Beatles recorded their first record – the sleeve shows PF Philips, 38 Kensington, Liverpool 7.

“We recorded in the front room, the windows had heavy drapes against them to deaden sounds. We recorded around a central mic, ran through the four numbers we were to record once, then Mr Philips peered through a small serving hatch from where he was in the rear room with his recording machine. He said: ‘OK boys are you ready to record?’ Once we recorded the numbers he played them back to us and asked if that was OK, and asked how many copies we wanted. Within half an hour we were out clutching our very first record!”

Moving south to Bognor Regis, Stevens formed The Detours in February 1960, who were joined by singer Johnny Devlin in early 1962, prompting a name change to Johnny Devlin & The Detours.

Shortly afterwards, Stevens recruited Ketley from another local group, The Soundtracks. Before the year was out Fryers had been added from The Cruisers plus sax player Bob Pettit. Finally Smith, who’d worked in The Soundtracks alongside Ketley, came on-board in early 1963.

With the line-up settled, Johnny Devlin & The Detours recorded a one-off single, “Sometimes” c/w “If You Want Someone”, for Pye Records, which was released in January 1964.

To promote the single, the band appeared as newcomers on Granada TV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars alongside Adam Faith, Manfred Man, Dickie Valentine and Jackie Trent that February. However, when “Sometimes” flopped, Johnny Devlin departed and John Read briefly took over the lead vocals.

Around this time, a west London group called The Detours spotted them performing on TV and decided to change their name to The High Numbers (and subsequently The Who!).

The Detours meanwhile soon went through their own transformation after Bob Gaitley, who ran Littlehampton’s Top Hat and Worthing’s Mexican Hat where they regularly played, invited the musicians to link up with South African singer Mike Bush (aka Beau Brummell).

Brummell, who went on to own a naturist valley in Northern Transvaal, had arrived in England in 1961 and worked under various pseudonyms before adopting the title, “Beau Brummell”, named after the British dandy of the 19th century, in late 1963.

Photo: Littlehampton Post, 9 January 1965

Recruiting The Detours (now renamed The Noblemen) as his support group, Brummell and the musicians got the opportunity to record two tracks at Abbey Road in December 1964 with EMI producer Bob Barratt – “I Know, Know, Know” and “Shopping Around”.

Left to right: Mike Turnill, Bernie Smith, Bryan Stevens, Mick Ketley and Chuck Fryers

By the time the pairing was released as a single on Columbia Records in January 1965, Mike Turnill had briefly taken over from Pettit.

However, the new sax player was only passing through. Within a matter of weeks, the band had placed an advert in Melody Maker’s 13 February issue, looking for a replacement. Bob Lomas answered and took the job but the changes didn’t end there.

In the last week of February the group expanded the horn section by bringing in tenor sax player – Malcolm Randall, who had placed an advert in Melody Maker’s 27 February issue looking for a group.

Hailing from west London, Randall had joined his first group, Twickenham R&B band Jeff Curtis & The Flames, in spring 1963.

Regulars at the Ealing Jazz Club, the sax player would remain with Jeff Curtis & The Flames until early February 1965. Interestingly, he would not be the only ex-Flame to join The Noblemen.

Jeff Curtis & The Flames late 1964 with Malcolm Randall top left with saxophone

Although Randall missed out on Jeff Curtis & The Flames’ first recording session at Lansdowne Road Studios in Holland Park in October 1963 (see later), he did participate in their second visit, around the same time the following year, to record two tracks – Solomon Burke and Bert Berns’ “Down in the Valley” and a cover of The Showman’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll Will Stand”, both of which remained in the can.

Just before Randall’s arrival, the Evening Standard reports that the group appears on ITV’s Ollie & Fred’s Five O’ clock Club TV show with The Barron Knights and The Dougie Squires Three on 26 February.

A photo session to capture the revamped Noblemen decked out in its regency clothes was held in Brighton in early March before the band set off for some gigs in West Germany.

Back in England, the band embarked on a nationwide tour which took them as far north as Carlisle in Cumbria and a gig at the Market Assembly Hall on Thursday, 15 April.

A few weeks later Beau Brummell & The Noblemen appeared at the California Ballroom in Dunstable on Saturday, 1 May.

Just over a week later, on Sunday, 9 May, the group shared the bill with Randall’s former group Jeff Curtis & The Flames at the Majestic Ballroom in Luton.

The following week (14 May), Beau Brummell was listed appearing at the Carlton Ballroom in Erdington, West Midlands with The Chucks. Two days later, and billed as the Exclusive Noblemen Orchestra, the group plays at the Cubiklub in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

The group continued to gig around England in May, playing frequently at the Top Hat in Littlehampton and the Mexican Hat in Worthing. They also played at Malborough Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire on 22 May.

Later that month, the band headed up to Scotland for a short tour, which included Dumfries Drill Hall on Saturday, 5 June.

On Sunday, 13 June 1965, the band performed at the Downs, Hassocks, West Sussex

Left to right: Chuck Fryers, Mick Ketley, Bernie Smith, Bryan Stevens, Bob Lomas and Malcolm Randall

From there, the band headed to West Germany to perform at the Storyville Jazz Clubs in Duisberg, Frankfurt and Cologne. At the latter, the musicians met Folkestone band Neil Landon & The Burnettes whose lead guitarist Noel Redding later became bass player for Jimi Hendrix while Neil Landon went on to form The Flower Pot Men, authors of the hit “Let’s go to San Francisco”.

Returning home, the group played at Torquay Town Hall on Saturday, 3 July, before heading back to West Germany to perform for three nights at the legendary Star Club in Hamburg from Friday, 9 July through to Sunday, 11 July. The group was widely photographed inside both and outside the club as well as in a park with a new sax player called John replacing Bob Lomas.

Next up, Beau Brummell & The Noblemen returned to the Storyville Jazz Club in Duisberg where they shared the bill with The Manchester Playboys (most likely from Monday, 12 July to Thursday, 15 July).

The Noblemen with Malcolm Randall top left in Cologne

Randall was so impressed with the Mod/soul band that he handed in his notice, moving up to Manchester to join them soon after. The sax player would later work with Red Express, who morphed into Shakatak, and Sindy & The Action Men among others.

Beau Brummell & The Noblemen returned to England and performed at double-night show in Greater Manchester on Friday, 16 July. The first show was at the Domino Club in Openshaw with Lulu & The Luvvers, which was followed by a second at the Princess club, Chorlton with Julie Grant.

They then appeared at the Manor Lounge, Stockport, Greater Manchester on Monday, 19 July, which may have been Randall’s final gig as The Manchester Playboys’ home base was nearby.

The band also played at the Mid-Beds Conservative Association in Shefford Hardwicke on Saturday, 24 July. The following weekend, on Friday, 30 July, the band, billed as Beau Brummell & his exclusive Noblemen Orchestra performed at the New Embassy Club at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

A few weeks later, they advertised for a replacement tenor sax player in Melody Maker’s 14 August issue. Jeremy “Jem” Field, who’d previously been a member of Gene Vincent’s backing group, The Shouts answered and was taken on.

On the same day, the band were billed to play at the New Cornish Riviera Lido, St Austell, Cornwall with The Road Runners.

Not long after, Keith Gemmell (b. 15 February 1948, Hackney, north London) took over from the sax player known as John.

Billed as Beau Brummell & His Noblemen Orchestra, one of the new line-up’s first gigs was Cheltenham Town Hall on Friday, 20 August, followed by a show at the Galaxy Club in Basingstoke the next day.

Then on Sunday, 22 August, the group shared the bill with The Beat Merchants at the Mexican Hat in Worthing.

The Noblemen in Oslo. Left to right: Chuck Fryers, Mick Ketley, Bryan Stevens, Bernie Smith, Keith Gemmell and Jem Field

During September, the musicians travelled to Scandinavia to play dates in Norway and Sweden before heading back to Britain briefly.

One of the band’s first gigs back home was at the Mexican Hat in Worthing on Sunday, 26 September with The Beat Merchants. The advert in the Worthing Gazette notes that the gig was The Noblemen’s final appearance in Britain for six weeks.

With a string of dates lined up in Italy, the band headed back to the continent, travelling in a converted London St John’s ambulance, equipped with a wardrobe for stage clothes, a cocktail cabinet and other accessories.

While in Rome, the group performed at the famous Piper Club on Friday, 1 October 1965 playing in front of film stars and even the Aga Khan, as well as playing Jane Fonda’s 18^th birthday party in a sumptuous villa just outside the capital – no wonder Brummell’s exploits gained him front-page headlines where ever he went!

“The club owner had converted what was an abandoned cinema into a high-vaulted, large auditorium,” remembers Stevens.

“The two stages were set high up at one end, the under-floor lit dance floor was surrounded by tables with a full a width bar at the other end.

“We arrived in two open coaches – Beau, Miss Italy, the club’s owner and one Nobleman in one coach and the rest of the band in the other coach – all of us wearing our stage gear, including scarlet lined capes. There was a lot of press and TV cameras and, apparently, invited celebrities from Rome’s Cincinatti Film Studios.”

The Noblemen, Piper Club, Rome, October 1965

Brummell, however, saw many opportunities opening up for him while in Italy’s capital and, although the singer would continue to perform with The Noblemen intermittently up to spring 1966, he gradually backed out.

During November 1965, for instance, Brummell joined the group for a ten-day stand at a club in Milan. While there, Beau Brummell & The Noblemen recorded four tracks in a studio that was a former church, including the powerful sax-driven “Jezebel” and the Brummell composition, “I’m In Love”, both of which were shelved.

The Noblemen sans Brummell then headed south to Naples to play further dates before returning to Rome where the musicians recorded the tracks “Jump Back Baby” and “Ecstasy” with Chuck Fryers providing the lead vocals.

While in Italy, Columbia released Beau Brummell’s third UK single (and second featuring The Noblemen) – the spoken number, “A Better Man than I” backed by “Teardrops”. Credited to Brummell’s Noblemen Orchestra, the single failed to chart.

During December 1965, Beau Brummell & The Noblemen performed in Ostend in Belgium before returning to Britain briefly to fit in a show at the Mexican Hat in Worthing on Sunday, 12 December with The Look before returning to the continent and travelling to Turin where the band performed at a club in the run up to the new year.

With Brummell remaining in Italy, The Noblemen returned home to Britain and undertook a mini tour of Scotland in early January 1966.

Bognor Regis, January 1966. Photo may be subject to copyright

They also played at the Top Hat in Littlehampton on Friday, 7 January and the Shoreline in Bognor Regis on Saturday, 8 January, both in West Sussex.

The Noblemen, early 1966, without Beau Brummell

Significantly, they were a late addition to an all-nighter show held at the original Cavern club in Liverpool on Sunday, 27 February, the final show at the legendary venue before it was temporarily closed (reopening on 23 July). Also on the bill were Rory Storm & The Hurricanes and The Big Three, among others.

Heading back to West Germany, The Noblemen reunited with Beau Brummell at the Storyville Jazz Club in Frankfurt where the band shared the billing with Liverpool-based group The Clayton Squares from 7-10 March. Their singer Denny Alexander would join forces with Stevens and Ketley in June 1967.

Returning to Italy in April, The Noblemen finally parted with Beau Brummell, who would later return to his native South Africa and passed away in June 2020. The musicians held down a short residency at the Livorno Club in Pisa before heading back home via West Germany.

Thanks to a contact they had made while at the Piper Club in Rome during October 1965, The Noblemen landed an opening gig for The Spencer Davis Group on Friday, 20 May 1966, with Fryers having to borrow Davis’ guitar as his own had been stolen while in Pisa. The next day Jem Field handed in his notice and head back home by train.

Stripped down to a quintet, The Noblemen next played some US air bases with The New Faces but within a matter of weeks Keith Gemmell had also departed, heading home with this group.

Back in Hackney, he joined The Lloyd Alexander Blues Band (later Lloyd Alexander Real Estate), who released a rare 45 before several members, including Gemmell, formed the highly respected rock band, Audience. In later years, the sax player worked with the group Sammy and died on 24 July 2016.

For a short while, the remaining Noblemen hooked up with country and western singer/comedian Don Bowman but after performing at the Star Club in Hamburg under their own name, the quartet returned home in mid-June.

Arriving back in Bognor Regis towards the end of June, Bernie Smith decided to hang up his drum sticks, leaving Fryers, Ketley and Stevens with the name.

Determined to press on with new members, Stevens quickly recruited London singer Jimmy Marsh (b. 9 April 1941, Salem, Carmarthenshire, Wales) who in turn recommended a new drummer Malcolm Tomlinson (b. 16 June 1946, Isleworth, Middlesex; d. 2 April 2016) to replace outgoing Bernie Smith.

“We had met both Jim and Malcolm when we were still Johnny Devlin & The Detours preparing to become The Noblemen,” remembers Ketley.

“They played at a local gig in Littlehampton called the Top Hat club, which was owned by Bob Gaitley who managed Brummell and us and ran the Beat Ballard and Blues Agency, which was famous in the south in those days.”

Bryan Stevens continues the story: “Bob Gaitley gave me Jimmy’s number when we needed a singer after we left Beau Brummell. Jimmy came down to Bognor and we got working with him shortly afterwards as he was a good ‘soul’ singer doing cover versions of Otis Redding hits.”

The singer had a long musical pedigree. His first band, The Fairlanes, formed in 1961, gigged largely on American airbases but also got the opportunity to back cabaret acts Kathy Kirby and Vince Hill. The Fairlanes’ bass player Terry Gore and drummer John Warwick both went on to play with The Trekkers, The Cast and finally Tangerine Peel.

Towards the end of 1962, Marsh formed the original Del Mar Trio, and on 1 June 1963 they participated in the “Rock across the Channel ferry” gig on the MV Royal Daffodil from Southend to Boulogne and back with numerous artists and headlined by Jerry Lee Lewis.

Sometime in 1963, Marsh also played an impromptu jam session at Sound City on Shaftsbury Avenue, the top music store in the country, backed by none other than Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. The Del Mar Trio’s guitarist Allen Bevan worked at the music shop and later that same year introduced Malcolm Tomlinson, who worked at nearby Drum City.

Tomlinson was a talented musician, who, while primarily a drummer, was also a decent guitar player (and later mastered the flute). Attending Spring Grove Grammar School where drummer Mick Underwood was a class mate, his first musical outing had been the west London band The Panthers. However, this was short-lived, and in early 1963 he joined Jeff Curtis & The Flames alongside former Noblemen sax player Malcolm Randall.

Jeff Curtis & The Flames, 1963. Malcolm Tomlinson (third right) and former member Malcolm Randall (far right)

While playing with The Flames, Tomlinson participated in the Jerry Lee Lewis ferry gig in June 1963, which is probably where he became friends with Jimmy Marsh.

On 4 October 1963, Jeff Curtis & The Flames recorded a four track demo at Landsdowne Studios in Holland Park comprising “Bye Bye Johnny”, “Everybody Needs a Lover”, “Route 66” and “It Don’t Take But a Few Minutes” (the latter with Lenny Hastings behind the kit), but Tomlinson moved on in June 1964 to join the second version of The Del Mar Trio.

The new line up decided to try its luck on the south coast that summer and thanks to Bob Gaitley got the opportunity to play at his venues, the Top Hat and the Mexican Hat in nearby Worthing. They also undertook a short tour of Cornwall in January 1965. It was Gaitley who arranged an audition for EMI at Abbey Road under the direction of Bob Barratt that February.

Four tracks have been logged under the name “James Deene & The Del Mar Trio” – “You Know How”, “Pocket Full of Rainbows”, “Like a Baby” and “Haunting Me”.

The group then changed its name to James Deane & The London Cats and around May 1965 headed for Bavaria, West Germany to play the club scene around Furth, Munich and Nuremburg.

Over the next 12 months or so, the group members drifted back home. When Tomlinson split to work with a German group for about three months in early 1966, Marsh found himself on his own.

“Bryan found out where I was [in West Germany] through the consulate and would I be interested in fronting the band,” explains Marsh. “I got a plane home and I went straight to the south coast and the Shoreline club.”

Being away so long, Marsh didn’t know “the scene” or the “mode of dress” required for the new group.

“There’s me, I turned up at the Shoreline, my hair’s all swept back, American button down shirt, Levis and a pair of boots. I remember Bryan saying something to me, ‘It’s not your singing Jimmy; it’s your clothes and your hair’.” Stevens took Marsh to Carnaby Street and kitted him out in the latest attire.

With Marsh and Tomlinson onboard, The Noblemen were billed to play at the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe, Dorset on Sunday, 3 July 1966 with Karl & The Rapiers (although this might have been one of Bernie Smith’s final shows).

Shortly after Marsh and Tomlinson had joined forces with Fryers, Ketley and Stevens, the bass player placed an advert in Melody Maker’s 23 July issue asking for a trumpeter or sax player (tenor or baritone) (Ed: the issue hit newsstands on 16 July).

Two musicians who responded were Chris Rodger (b. 16 October 1946, Solihull, Warwickshire) and his mate Martin Barre, who had recently split from their former band, Midlands outfit, The Moonrakers.

According to Barre, both musicians had been promised work with Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages but on their arrival in London found the guitar and horn positions had already been taken up by other musicians.

“The Moonrakers stopped when Chris and I went to London to join Screaming Lord Sutch on a promise from Tony Dangerfield,” remembers Barre. “He nearly dropped dead when we turned up! No gig there.”

Rodger, however, has a different recollection. He remembers attending an audition in Harrow without Barre and would have joined The Savages (who no longer featured Dangerfield) for a trip to the Piper Club in Rome but the offer was withdrawn when the Italian gig was moved forward and he and Barre had commitments with The Moonrakers.

Although the guitar was always his preferred choice of instrument, Barre had also learnt saxophone and flute at an early age and around 1963 joined his first serious group, the Midlands beat combo, The Dwellers, who, according to author Greg Russo, recorded a demo that year, Barre’s “I Can’t Get over You”.

Photo: Chris Rodger. The Moonrakers, 1965. Chris Rodger (far left back row). Martin Barre (far right, front row).

Living in Solihull, Barre’s next group was The Moonrakers, who were led by former Dwellers’ singer John Carter and also featured rhythm guitarist Tony Painter, a bass player called Alan and drummer Paul Willets who subsequently went on to The Applejacks.

While playing with band, Barre also studied architecture at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University).

Rodger, who was educated at Herne Court School in Bournemouth, had first played with keyboard player Bramwell Beer in Syndicate 1 after leaving boarding school in 1963. In January 1965, both musicians joined The Moonrakers where they met Barre.

Photo: Chris Rodger. Martin bottom left and Chris far right

“We became a very popular Midlands band working every weekend over a period of 18 months and winning Brumbeat top band for 1965,” he recalls.

“In the summer of 1965, the band did a short tour of the south coast, including the Bure Country Club, supporting Unit 4 Plus 2, the Boscombe Beat Ballroom and the White Hart, Burley. In October we recorded a demo at a studio in Nottingham but no copies exist to my knowledge.”

After The Savages’ gig had fallen through, Rodger spotted Stevens’ advert and applied for the spot and, although only one horn player was required, Barre accompanied his friend to the initial meeting to chance his luck, hoping he might be taken on as second sax player while angling for the guitar position.

“I remember we met outside Sound City in Shaftesbury Avenue and it was touch and go whether or not I took him on,” remembers Stevens.

The date in question was most likely Friday, 22 July as that was the day Barre purchased a saxophone from Sound City, so he could practise incessantly in preparation for the audition three days later on Monday, 25 July at the Red Lion pub in Battersea. (Ed. Rodger says this never happened as they debuted on Sunday, 24 July without an audition).

According to Ketley, Barre’s sound and technique was not particularly good at this point and from the outset Rodger assumed the more prominent role, playing solos and supporting Barre until he got up to speed.

“It wasn’t until months and months later that we would go to bed after a gig to the sound of Martin practising on his 335, and wake up in the late afternoon and Martin was still playing that we realised that he was a much better guitarist than he was a sax player,” says Ketley.

In fact, Barre later admitted to taking the job, so that he could get into the band and play guitar.

“It wasn’t until we had formed The Penny Peeps and especially Gethsemane that Martin owned up to getting the sax job under false pretences,” says Ketley. “Clever really and by then we had other plans so it was fine.”

The same day that Stevens met with Barre and Rodger outside Sound City , The Noblemen were billed to perform at the Cricketers Inn in Southend-on-Sea in Essex. However, it’s not clear if the current five-piece (with Fryers) honoured this gig later that evening.

On the following day, Saturday, 23 July, the band were also billed to play at the Le Disque A Go Go in Bournemouth with a midnight performance into Sunday morning. The fact that they were based in Bognor Regis at the time suggests this second gig did take place.

As noted above, Rodger recalls that Barre and his debut took place on Sunday, 24 July with a gig at a US service club in Lancaster Gate at 4pm.

“At the end of the gig, we were asked to follow the band back to Bognor Regis to rehearse at the Shoreline Club,” he says.

“Chuck left that week and Martin, to his delight, was asked to double on sax and guitar.”

With Fryers gone, the revamped Noblemen formation didn’t waste any time and soon hit the road. On Saturday, 30 July, they were billed to perform at the Lion Hotel in Warrington, Cheshire with The Atlantics and The Atlanta Roots. Whether this gig took place is not clear.

A very early publicity photo taken on Bognor Regis beach that summer depicts a six-piece (with Barre holding the guitar) confirming that Fryers had moved on in late July 1966.

The Noblemen, summer 1966. Left to right: Mick Ketley, Martin Barre, Jimmy Marsh, Chris Rodger, Malcolm Tomlinson and Bryan Stevens

On departing The Noblemen, Fryers joined Bognor Regis band The Warren J Five who travelled to Hamburg in late 1966/early 1967 and performed at the Top Ten Club with singer Tony Sheridan.

The Warren J Five subsequently moved on to Italy where they recorded an LP for the Vedette label.

The Warren J Five in late 1966 with Chuck Fryers (third right). Photo may be subject to copyright

After a brief spell performing as The Reflections, Fryers returned to the UK with bass player Geoff Prior and joined Coventry band, The Sorrows who also recorded an LP in Italy.

Later on he worked with Thane Russal in The Electric Heart and has gone on to record solo material, including a CD called That’s It?. His departure freed up the lead guitar spot for Martin Barre.

The Noblemen spent the August month fulfilling bookings along the length of the south coast of England. They also made several trips down to the far reaches of the south west, judging by adverts in local newspapers.

On Saturday, 6 August, the group was billed to play Budleigh Salterton Public Hall in Devon before returning to the Bournemouth area the next day to appear at the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe.

The band would play regularly at this venue (and in the Bournemouth area) over the next two years.

On Saturday, 13 August, The Noblemen started a week-long residency at the 400 Ballroom in Torquay, Devon, which ran until Friday, 19 August (with the exception of playing the Sunday).

Photo: Chris Rodger. The Noblemen at the 400 Ballroom in Torquay, August 1966

A few weeks later, on Saturday, 20 August, The Noblemen were billed to perform at the Flamingo Ballroom in Redruth, Cornwall followed by a show the next day at the Park Ballroom in Plymouth, Devon. The following Thursday, 25 August, they were advertised participating in the Big Beat Boat, held in Bournemouth.

Then it was back down to Cornwall for the weekend for a show at the Blue Lagoon in Newquay on 27 August with The Nite People.

The following day, The Noblemen were billed to play at the Stoke Hotel in Guildford, Surrey, which may have been a gig they played on the way up to London to audition for the Roy Tempest Agency, a notorious British agent who brought US soul acts over and was always on the lookout for local bands to support these artists on the road.

The group appears to have seen out the month playing at the 2 ‘B’s’ Club in Ashford, Kent with The End.

The Noblemen were billed to perform at the Fiesta Hall in Andover, Hampshire on Friday, 2 September and, the following day, an appearance at the Steering Wheel in Weymouth, Dorset. This latter venue would become another regular on the group’s club circuit.

Successfully landing work with Roy Tempest, the infamous promoter arranged for the band to stay in a flat on the Kings Road above The Chelsea Cobblers, and the sextet moved in early that month.

Judging by newspaper advertisements and weekly adverts in Melody Maker the first US soul act The Noblemen supported was The Vibrations, who arrived in England in mid-September. Ketley thinks the musicians may have used Rik and Johnny Gunnell’s club, the famous Flamingo in Wardour Street to rehearse with the American group.

Judging by Rodger’s poster of The Vibrations’ tour (see above), The Noblemen were the backing band for the entire tour, although there may have been the odd show when another group stepped in.

Often The Noblemen weren’t listed on the billing. However, they are definitely named as one of the acts, along with Jimmy James & The Vagabonds, to appear with The Vibrations at the recently re-opened Cavern in Liverpool on 17 September.

Photo: Chris Rodger. One of The Vibrations at the Dungeon, Nottingham, September 1966.

It was around this time that Malcolm Tomlinson recalls meeting his idol Otis Redding, who was on his debut UK tour, at London club the Scotch of St James and shaking his hand.

On Friday, 23 September, The Noblemen did back The Vibrations at Toft’s in Folkestone, where Ketley and Stevens reunited with bass player Noel Redding, who only a few weeks later would be playing with Jimi Hendrix (Ed: They had also appeared at this venue with The Vibrations on 11 September).

Then, sometime in early October, The Noblemen provided backing for one of the countless versions of The Original Drifters that Roy Tempest imported. It sounds like the musicians only played one show with the soul singers and the most likely date is at Tiles on Oxford Street on 7 October.

Although the band was advertised, this gig probably didn’t take place as this period is when they were most likely to have been in West Germany

Interestingly, on Saturday, 15 October, the band was billed to play one of its first gigs under a new name – [The] Motivation – at the Orford Cellar in Norwich, Norfolk, although the musicians would continue to use The Noblemen name for another month. Intriguingly, the advert notes that they had recently backed The Drifters. However, this gig probably didn’t take place because the musicians were most likely in West Germany at the time.

The next soul act that the group supported was Edwin Starr, kicking off with a series of dates in mid-October. The Noblemen are listed as Starr’s backing band at the Beachcomber Club in Nottingham on Sunday, 16 October. The bill also featured John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Peter Green on lead guitar.

However, singer Alan Chamberlain from The Guests insists that it was his group that backed Starr as he recalls getting into a fight with Mayall at the venue and Green had to break it up!

It’s worth pointing out that Roy Tempest had multiple bands on his books to provide support for visiting US acts, so it’s quite possible he chopped and changed the backing groups at short notice (Ed. The Senate also backed Starr on this tour.)

Whatever the truth, The Noblemen were certainly on hand to back Edwin Starr at Granby Hall in Leicester on Friday, 21 October for a stellar show headlined by Ike & Tina Turner and also featuring soul singer Alvin Robinson, who the band would also back shortly afterwards.

During this hazy period, The Noblemen also worked very briefly with Lee Dorsey and, according to Martin Barre, Ben E King. By now, they had a new rehearsal room to work through material with the US acts.

“Roy Tempest booked the soul artists to come over,” recalls Stevens. “We met them at a first floor practice room (possibly the Roebuck) in Tottenham Court Road and had about three hours with them before going out on the road. Usually, we started at the US base in Bayswater Road (7pm) then onto [Starlight Ballroom at the] Boston Gliderdrome in Lincolnshire by midnight and sometimes then to a place in Leicester for a 6am show!”

Next up in the revolving roster of artists that The Noblemen backed was Alvin Robinson, possibly kicking off with a show at the Dungeon Club in Nottingham on Friday, 28 October.

Over the next week, the singer performed at the Starlight Ballroom at the Boston Gliderdrome in Lincolnshire, the Burlesque in Leicester, the Jigsaw in Manchester and the Whisky A Go Go in Wardour Street, but the support bands are not named in the advertisements.

“Alvin Robinson stayed at our [second] flat in Gloucester Road,” remembers Stevens.

“Roy Tempest had just given us that flat when Alvin stayed. He stayed with us for quite some time, so I think the gigs dates [were us]. He always made a stew of meat and veg and would leave it simmering on the cooker for hours and tuck into it when he returned from a gig.”

What is clear is that on Tuesday, 1 November and Wednesday, 2 November, The Motivations (as they were billed for these dates) did support Robinson at the Club Cedar in Birmingham for two nights. Tomlinson also remembers the group backing the singer at Newcastle University and briefly losing him at the venue!

Then, on Friday, 4 November, the musicians (billed as The Noblemen) starting working with another soul legend, The Coasters, backing the group at the King Mojo Club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire on a bill that also featured Sonny Childe & The TNT.

Marsh remembers Rod Stewart & The Steampacket – it would have been The Shotgun Express by this point – and Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band also performing that night but this was most likely a different occasion.

Still using The Noblemen name, the band joined The Coasters for a show at the Mecca Ballroom on the Royal Pier in Southampton, Hampshire on Wednesday, 9 November.

Interestingly, promoters continued to use The Noblemen name to advertise the group during November. This included a return to Liverpool’s Cavern on Saturday, 19 November, on a bill that also featured local band, The Escorts. [Ed. Former sax player Malcolm Randall, who’d played with Tomlinson in The Flames remembers seeing the group at the Cavern when he was gigging with his next group, The Manchester Playboys, but it’s not clear when this was.]

One of the final ones gigs as The Noblemen, again backing The Coasters, took place at the New Yorker Discotheque in Swindon, Wiltshire on Friday, 25 November.

As November closed, the band stopped using The Noblemen as a name, adopted the more Mod sounding Motivation (sometimes billed as The Motivation by promoters).

A Norbury, south London group called The Motivation had been active throughout 1965 and 1966 but it appears that by November of that year, the group was on its last legs and split around this time.

Unaware that a Cheshire band was also using The Motivation name, the musicians embraced Motivation and moved into a new chapter of their career.

To be continued…

Thanks to Bryan Stevens, Mike Ketley, Martin Barre, Jimmy Marsh, Denny Alexander, Chris Rodger, Malcolm Randall, Chuck Fryers, Malcolm Tomlinson, Mike Paxman, Vernon Joynson, Hugh MacLean, Pete Frame and Greg Russo.

Thank you to Bryan Stevens and Mike Ketley for the photos of The Noblemen.

Categories: England

Edwin Starr’s October 1966 British tour

April 8, 2021 Nick Warburton 2 Comments

In October 1966, British promoter Roy Tempest brought over American soul singer Edwin Starr for an extensive tour. Judging by advertisements in Melody Maker and regional newspapers, Starr had already visited Britain at least twice before.

Melody Maker lists a gig at Count Suckle’s Cue Club in Paddington on 10 February 1966, backed by west London band, Bluesology, who featured a certain Reginald Dwight (aka Elton John) on keyboards. This was most likely part of a wider tour but it’s not certain whether Bluesology were the backing band on all of the dates. We’d be interested to hear from readers below in the comments section.

Fast forward to late September and Edwin Starr was advertised on a promotional flyer performing at the Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester (again with Bluesology). The date in question was 29 September. It’s not clear whether this was part of a wider tour, but, whatever the case, Edwin Starr was back in Britain about two weeks later for a full-scale tour.

Roy Tempest employed quite a few bands to perform backing duties for the soul artists he brought over (see Lee Dorsey’s January 1966 British tour as an example). More often than not, the groups weren’t mentioned in the advertisements.

For this reason, it’s been difficult to pinpoint exactly who supported Edwin Starr during this tour and subsequent ones throughout the rest of the 1960s, although the obscure group The State Express did the duties during May 1968 (and some later dates).

However, for the October 1966 tour, we do know that at least three bands backed Edwin Starr.

The most high-profile one was Glaswegian soul outfit, The Senate led by singer Sol Byron (aka Billy Lochart). At the time of this tour, the rest of The Senate comprised Alex “Ludgie” Ligertwood (aka Alex Jackson) on lead guitar and vocals; Brian Johnson on keyboards; Bill Irving on bass; Bob Mather on sax; Antony Rutherford (aka Tony Mimms) on trumpet; and Tam Frew on drums.

The Senate would back Edwin Starr on some dates during a May-June 1967 tour and there are quite a few gigs below which mention the Scottish group on the billing, so it seems quite likely that they fulfilled a large number of the engagements on this tour.

However, Roy Tempest also employed Beau Brummell’s former backing band, The Noblemen, led by Bognor Regis musicians Bryan Stevens (bass) and Mick Ketley (keyboards).

By October 1966, The Noblemen had been completely reshuffled and also featured west London musicians Jimmy Marsh (vocals) and Malcolm Tomlinson (drums), together with Birmingham players Chris Rodger (saxophone) and future Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre. The Noblemen had previously backed The Vibrations and The Drifters.

The final group that we know who definitely did back Edwin Starr was Dalston, north London group, The Guests led by singer Alan Chamberlain. This little known group also comprised guitarist Bernie Jory (who went on to The Mickey Finn); bass player John Towell; drummer Hans Herbert (who went on to play with Geno Washington) plus two saxophone players, one of whom might have been Kenny Power who’d worked with Herbert in The Flexmen and joined the drummer in The All Night Workers in late 1966.

Chamberlain remembers the band played with Edwin Starr over a week period. Although the group was working for the Charles Kray entertainment agency, he believes that Roy Tempest may have requested for them to fill in when the other groups couldn’t honour the Edwin Starr gigs. He remembers the band rehearsing over a pub on Tottenham Court Road opposite Kray’s offices, based at the Clark Brothers dance studio.

I’ve listed the gigs I have found for the October 1966 tour below and would welcome any comments from readers and any clarification on the bands that did the honours in supporting Edwin Starr. It’s quite possible, for instance, that there were other groups who helped out on this tour. There also likely to be some missing gigs from this list.

14 October 1966 – Domino Club, Openshaw and Princess Theatre, Chorlton, Greater Manchester (Manchester Evening News and Chronicle) This was billed as Edwin Starr & The Senate featuring Sol Byron

15 October 1966 – Cue Club, Paddington, central London (Melody Maker) Billed as The Edwin Starr Show – possibly The Senate considering last night’s gig

16 October 1966 – Beachcomber, Nottingham with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Nottingham Evening Post) The Noblemen were billed for this gig but Alan Chamberlain from The Guests insists they backed Edwin Starr as he got into an altercation with John Mayall. Chris Rodger, saxophone player with The Noblemen, confirms that it wasn’t his band as this was his birthday and he remembers The Noblemen playing in West Germany for a week, including on his birthday.

17 October 1966 – Queen’s Ballroom, Wolverhampton (Express & Star) If The Guests played the previous night, this is most likely them again

19 October 1966 – Mecca Ballroom, Royal Pier, Southampton, Hants (Southern Evening Echo) Billed as Edwin Starr & The Senate featuring Sol Byron

21 October 1966 – Sleaford Mabern Club, Sleaford, Lincolnshire (Grantham Journal) Billed as Edwin Starr & The Senate

21 October 1966 – Midnight City, Birmingham with Timebox, The Night People and Johnnie Neal (Birmingham Evening Mail) As this was the same evening and close to Leicester, it seems most likely this was The Noblemen but it could have been The Night People who were billed or The Senate as they played above gig on the same evening

21 October 1966 – Granby Halls, Leicester with The Ike & Tina Turner Revue with The Kings of Rhythm Band, Prince Albert, Jimmy Thomas, The Ikettes, Alvin Robinson and Family (Leicester Chronicle) Bryan Stevens, Mick Ketley and Martin Barre confirm this was definitely The Noblemen who switched to backing Alvin Robinson soon after

21 October 1966 – New All-Star Club, 9a Artillery Passage, Liverpool Street, east London (Melody Maker) Possibly The Noblemen but could have been The Guests as Liverpool Street wasn’t far from their Dalston base or The Senate as they played earlier gig

22 October 1966 – Rhodes Centre, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts with Rhythm and Soul (Steve Ingless book: The Day Before Yesterday/Herts & Essex Observer) This was billed as Edwin Starr & The Senate

22 October 1966 – Reading University, Reading, Berkshire (Melody Maker) Alan Chamberlain says The Guests played with Edwin Starr for a week, so this is quite possibly them but also could have been The Senate who played with Starr at the Rhodes Centre above on the same night

23 October 1966 – Starlite, Greenford, northwest London (Melody Maker) Possibly The Guests

24 October 1966 – Scotch of St James, Mayfair, central London (London Life/Tatler) Possibly The Guests

24 October 1966 – Tiles, Oxford Street, central London with Jeff Curtis & The Flames (Melody Maker) Possibly The Guests

28 October 1966 – Twisted Wheel, Manchester (Manchester Evening News) Judging by the gig below, this is most likely The Senate

29 October 1966 – Cavern, Liverpool with The Signs, The Times, The Fix, The B-Jays, The Prowlers and The Talismen (Liverpool Echo) This was Edwin Starr & The Senate

We’d be interest to hear from anyone who has any photos and/or concert advertisements. Please email: Warchive@aol.com

Categories: England

Blodwyn Pig gigs 1969

December 6, 2020 Nick Warburton 3 Comments

Guitarist Mick Abrahams formed Blodwyn Pig in his home town Luton, Bedfordshire in the first few weeks of January 1969 after leaving Jethro Tull in early December 1968.

Bass player Andy Pyle had previously been a member of Abrahams’ pre-Jethro Tull group, McGregor’s Engine while sax/flute player Jack Lancaster was from Manchester and was working with the group Sponge when he got the call.

The trio advertised for a drummer and Ron Berg who’d been working with White Rabbit (singer Linda Lewis fronted them at one point) answered and got the job.

In his autobiography, What is a Wommett?, Mick Abrahams says that Blodwyn Pig rehearsed for a week before making their debut at the Cooks Ferry Inn in Edmonton, north London.

Melody Maker lists this as 27 January and notes that the quartet was billed as The Mick Abrahams Blues Band. In fact, Abrahams’ new group was billed under his own name rather than Blodwyn Pig for its first few gigs.

The following is an incomplete gig list of Blodwyn Pig 1969 gigs which are all listed in Melody Maker unless otherwise noted.

I’d welcome any additions. The band is billed as Blodwyn Pig unless noted.

Notable gigs:

27 January 1969 – Cooks Ferry Inn, Edmonton, north London (debut) Billed as Mick Abrahams Blues Band

Melody Maker’s 1 February issue, page 4, reports the new band and name under its news extra section

1 February 1969 – Van Dike, Plymouth, Devon (Jonathan Hill’s book, Van Dike – The Life & Times of a Plymouth Club 1968-1972). Billed as Mick Abrahams Band

7 February 1969 – Bedford College, Regent’s Park, central London with Chicken Shack. Billed as Mick Abrahams Band

9 February 1969 – Kimbells, Southsea, Hants (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

11 February 1969 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

13 February 1969 – Red Lion, Leytonstone, east London. Billed as Mick Abrahams

21 February 1969 – Blues Loft, Nag’s Head, High Wycombe, Bucks (Bucks Free Press)

Melody Maker’s 22 February issue, page 6, says the band made its Marquee debut last week but I have not found a listing elsewhere. Monday night (17 February) was audition night so this is the possible date

22 February 1969 – Mothers, Erdington, West Midlands with Keef Hartley

3 March 1969 – Cooks Ferry Inn, Edmonton, north London. Billed as Mick Abrahams

15 March 1969 – London College of Printing, Elephant & Castle, south London with Chicken Shack and Jellybread. Billed as Mick Abrahams Band

18 March 1969 – Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield, South Yorkshire with Fleetwood Mac (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

22 March 1969 – Mothers, Erdginton, West Midlands with Led Zeppelin

28 March 1969 – Hornsey Wood Tavern, Hornsey Wood, north London. Billed as Mick Abrahams Blodwyn Pigg

29 March 1969 – The Village, Dagenham, east London with Killing Floor and Yellow Dog. Billed as Mick Abrahams

2 April 1969 – Rambling Jack’s Blues Club, the Railway Hotel, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts (Steve Ingless’ book The Day Before Yesterday – Rock, Rhythm and Jazz in the Bishop’s Stortford area from 1957 to 1969)

15 April 1969 – Fishmonger’s Arms, Wood Green, north London. Billed as Mick Abrahams Blodwyn Pig

18 April 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Circus (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

19 April 1969 – London College of Printing, Elephant & Castle, south London with Climax Chicago Blues Band and Smiley

20 April 1969 – Mothers, Erdington, West Midlands with Dr K’s Blues Band

21 April 1969 – King’s Hall, Romford, east London (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

22 April 1969 – Bluesville ’69 Club’s Cherry Tree, Welwyn Garden City, Herts

23 April 1969 – Blues Loft, Nag’s Head, High Wycombe, Bucks (Bucks Free Press)

25 April 1969 – Northern Poly, Holloway Road, north London with Elmer Gantry

28 April 1969 – Wall City Jazz Club, Quaintways, Chester, Cheshire with Frankie & The Countdowns and Shady Lane (Liverpool Echo) Billed as Mick Abrahams Blues Band

29 April 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

9 May 1969 – Bedford College, Regent’s Park, central London with Free

10 May 1969 – Luton College of Technology Students’ Union, Luton, Beds with The Spirit of John Morgan and Mechanical Bird (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

20 May 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Grail (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

30 May 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Sam Apple Pie (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

2 June 1969 – Cooks Ferry Inn, Edmonton, north London

4 June 1969 – Railway Hotel, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

11 June 1969 – Blues Loft, Nag’s Head, High Wycombe, Bucks

13 June 1969 – Town Hall, Birmingham, West Midlands with Led Zeppelin and Liverpool Scene (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

15 June 1969 – Free Trade Hall, Manchester with Led Zeppelin and Liverpool Scene (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

16 June 1969 – The Pavilion, Bath (Poster) Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

20 June 1969 – City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear with Led Zeppelin and Liverpool Scene (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

22 June 1969 – Mothers, Erdington, West Midlands with The Taste

25 June 1969 – Derwent College, York, North Yorkshire with Bonzo Dog Band, John Mayall, Ronnie Scott & His Band, Eclection and Alexis Korner & Invaders Steel Band (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

26 June 1969– Guildhall, Portsmouth, Hants with Led Zeppelin and The Liverpool Scene (Blodwyn Pig concert Wiki site)

27 June 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Groundhogs (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

28 June 1969 – Bath Festival of Blues, Recreation Ground, Bath with Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, John Mayall, Chicken Shack, Nice, Ten Years After and many, many others. Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

29 June 1969 – Albert Hall, Knightsbridge, central London with Led Zeppelin and The Liverpool Scene. Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

30 June 1969 – Cooks Ferry Inn, Edmonton, north London

6 July 1969 – Farx, the Northcote Arms, Southall, west London. Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

11 July 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Andromeda (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

11 July 1969 – Brunel University Students’ Union, Brunel University, London with The Soft Machine, Aaardvark and Good Earth. Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

14 July 1969 – Friars, Aylesbury, Bucks (Bucks Free Press)

25 July 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Circus (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

2 August 1969 – Torquay Town Hall, Torquay, Devon (Torbay Express and South Devon Echo) Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

5 August 1969 – Klooks Kleek, West Hampstead, north London with Wine

Melody Maker’s 9 August issue, p12, has a good write up entitled ‘Blodwyn Pig continue with the heavy sound’.

Photo: Possibly Gloucester Citizen. Image may be subject to copyright

9 August 1969 – Malvern Winter Gardens, Malvern, Worcestershire with Clouds (Poster)

10 August 1969 – 9th National Jazz, Pop, Ballads & Blues Festival, West Drayton, west London with The Nice, Family, Keef Hartley, Steamhammer and many others. Billed as Mick Abraham’s Blodwyn Pig

15 August 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Grail (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

20 August 1969 – Rambling Jack’s Blues Club, the Railway Hotel, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts (Steve Ingless’ book The Day Before Yesterday – Rock, Rhythm and Jazz in the Bishop’s Stortford area from 1957 to 1969) Concert was cancelled due to summer recess

22 August 1969 – Blues Loft, Nag’s Head, High Wycombe, Bucks (Bucks Free Press)

25 August 1969 – King’s Hall, Romford Market, Romford, east London

29 August 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Samson (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

Melody Maker’s 30 August issue, page 24 notes that the band missed some dates because Ron Berg was ill

16 September 1969 – Mothers, Erdington, West Midlands with King Crimson

18 September 1969 – Social Club, Aylesbury, Bucks

21 September 1969 – Farx, the Northcote Arms, Southall, west London. Billed as Mick Abrahams Blodwyn Pig

22 September 1969 – The Village of the Damned Blues Club, Aurora Ballroom, Brompton, Gillingham, Kent with support (Poster)

26 September 1969 – King’s Hall, Romford, east London with Stone The Crows

29 September 1969 – Dunstable Civic Hall, Dunstable, Beds with Jesse Harper

30 September 1969 – The Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Ground (Tony Bacon’s book, London Live/Melody Maker)

Categories: Birmingham, England

The Way of Life (featuring John Bonham)

October 27, 2020 Nick Warburton 1 Comment

This historically important Birmingham group is best known for featuring future Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham and bass player Dave Pegg, who went onto Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull among others.

The Way of Life #1 (June 1966-September 1966)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
Mick ‘Sprike’ Hopkins – lead guitar, vocals
Tony Clarkson – bass, vocals
John Bonham – drums, vocals

Singer Reg Jones had started out as front man with local outfit, The Counts while his younger sibling Chris played guitar with The Chantelles in the early 1960s. Reg Jones later joined his brother in The Chantelles.

In 1963, Chris Jones joined future The Way of Life member Danny King’s band, Danny King & The Jesters, which also featured bass player Chris ‘Ace’ Kefford, who went on to The Move and drummer Barry Smith (aka Barry St John), who joined The Way of Life in 1968.

In 1965, the Jones siblings reunited in The Chucks. However, after nearly 18 months together, The Chucks split up after returning from West Germany in April 1966.

The siblings next decided to form a new band. They had already asked lead guitarist Mick ‘Sprike’ Hopkins and bass player Tony Clarkson to join.

Hopkins was something of a local legend, having previously worked with Gerry Levene & The Avengers (with Roy Wood and Graeme Edge), The Diplomats and The Nicky James Movement among others.

Clarkson also had an impressive, local pedigree; he’d worked with Guitars Incorporated, The Wild Cherries and The Nicky James Movement (where he met Hopkins). He’d also briefly played with drummer Bugsy Eastwood in a short-lived outfit called The Hooties that became The Exception in late 1966.

One Sunday (either 12 or 19 June but the latter is more likely), the quartet auditioned about 20 drummers at the Club Cedar where the new outfit had a gig that night.

John Bonham, who’d worked with Clarkson and Hopkins in The Nicky James Movement, turned up and landed the job.

Nicky James Movement with Tony Clarkson (left), John Bonham (second left) and Mick Hopkins (right)

Bonham had worked with a number of West Midlands bands during the early-mid 1960s, including Terry Webb & The Spiders, The Blue Star Trio, The Senators and Steve Brett & The Mavericks before signing up with The Nicky James Movement in late 1965 (where he met Clarkson and Hopkins). Bonham then briefly gigged with Pat Wayne & The Beachcombers before turning up at the Club Cedar for the audition.

The Way of Life was augmented for its first few gigs by Nicky James on second lead vocals but he did not stay long.

Notable gigs

19 June 1966 – Club Cedar, Birmingham, West Midlands (debut)

21 June 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands

24 June 1966 – Sydenham Pub, Sydenham, West Midlands

25 June 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

1 July 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

8 July 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

9 July 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands with The Falling Leaves

14 July 1966 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

15 July 1966 – Sydenham Pub, Sydenham, West Midlands

16 July 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

23 July 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands with The Times

28 July 1966 – Bel Air Club, Castle Bromwich, West Midlands

29 July 1966 – Sydenham, West Midlands

30 July 1966 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

2 August 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands

5 August 1966 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands with Little People

12 August 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

20 August 1966 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands with Long Stack Humphries

22 August 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

10 September 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands with The Outer Limits

17 September 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands with The Uglys

21 September 1966 – Mackadown, Kitts Green, West Midlands with The Modernairs

23 September 1966 – Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands

24 September 1966 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

The Way of Life #2 (September 1966-January 1967)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar
Mick ‘Sprike’ Hopkins – lead guitar, vocals
Tony Clarkson – bass, vocals
Malc Poole – drums

John Bonham was sacked for playing too loudly and his friend Malc Poole, who’d worked with the Jones brothers in The Chucks from January-April 1966, took his place behind the drum kit. Poole has also played with The Incas and The Seed during 1966.

In December 1966, The Way of Life signed with the Rik Gunnell Agency and recorded some tracks in London.

However, the following month John Bonham convinced the Jones brothers to re-employ him.

Poole subsequently joined The Hush (who shared the bill with The Way of Life at Tiles in London in mid-February 1967). Later, in 1968, the drummer replaced Cozy Powell in Youngblood.

The drummer moved down to London in 1969 and worked with a succession of outfits, including Warhorse and The Foundations. He later played with Rick Wakeman but died on 21 May 2015.

Notable gigs

30 September 1966 – Bell Hotel, Northfield, West Midlands (Poole’s debut)

4 November 1966 – County Arms, Blaby, Leicestershire with The Justin Brothers

5 November 1966 – Mews, Moseley, West Midlands with Locomotive

9 November 1966 – Parkstone Club, Foleshill, Coventry (Kevin Reynolds’ recollections)

18 November 1966 – Walsgrave Hotel, Coventry

25 November 1966 – Midnight City, Digbeth, West Midlands with Elkie Brooks and The End

27 November 1966 – Ship & Rainbow, Wolverhampton, West Midlands with New Station Road

2 December 1966 – Mad House, Friendship Hall, Erdington, West Midlands

3 December 1966 – Civic Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire with The Times

4 December 1966 – The County Arms, Blaby, Leicestershire

9 December 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands

10 December 1966 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

11 December 1966 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands

Mid December 1966 – the band opened a new club in Liege, Belgium (most likely the New Inn Club)

24 December 1966 – Bolero, Wednesbury, West Midlands with Thernays Fugitives

31 December 1966 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with The Quiet Five

4 January 1967 – Hereford Lounge, Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

5 January 1967 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands

7 January 1967 – Winter Gardens, Banbury, Warwickshire with The Methods

9 January 1967 – The Belfry, Wishaw, West Midlands with The Lemon Line

11 January 1967 – Heartbeat, Birmingham, West Midlands (possibly Mac Poole’s final gig)

There is a good article on The Way of Life in the Bedworth & Foleshill News, 13/1/1967, page 2

The Way of Life #3 (January-February 1967)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
Mick ‘Sprike’ Hopkins – lead guitar, vocals
Tony Clarkson – bass, vocals
John Bonham – drums, vocals

Tony Clarkson’s younger brother had gone to school with Birmingham-born, Canadian-raised siblings, Ed and Brian Pilling, who had returned to the West Midlands from Toronto to form a group. Introduced to Clarkson, the trio decided to put together The Wages of Sin and lined up gigs in West Germany.

Clarkson enticed Mick Hopkins away from The Way of Life. John Bonham was also invited but decided to stay with the Jones brothers.

Mick Hopkins (left) and Tony Clarkson (second left) with The Wages of Sin, February 1967.

The Wages of Sin would become Yellow Rainbow and then Zeus, becoming Cat Stevens’s backing band. Clarkson would subsequently play with The World of Oz among others, while Hopkins would play with The Lemon Tree, Copperfield, The Idle Race, Fludd and Quartz among others.

Notable gigs

12 January 1967 – London gig (according to Birmingham Evening Mail)

13 January 1967 – Penthouse, Birmingham, West Midlands

16 January 1967 – Caravelle Club, Observation Lounge, Birmingham Airport, Birmingham, West Midlands

20 January 1967 – Royal Oak, Hockley Heath, West Midlands

21 January 1967 – Elbow Room, Aston, West Midlands

21 January 1967 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands with The Nobles

26 January 1967 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

28 January 1967 – Penthouse, Birmingham, West Midlands with The Eight Feet 4

28 January 1967 – Ship & Rainbow, Wolverhampton, West Midlands with The Confederates

29 January 1967 – Gotham City, Birmingham, West Midlands

30 January 1967 – Heartbeat, Birmingham, West Midlands

31 January 1967 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands

4 February 1967 – Le Carnaby Club, Leicester, Leicestershire

The Way of Life #4 (February-September 1967)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar
Danny King – bass, lead vocals
John Bonham – drums, vocals

Chris Jones assumed the lead guitar role and Danny King was brought in on bass and second lead vocals.

Danny King was a respected singer on the local scene and had led a succession of groups since the early 1960s starting with Danny King & The Dukes. After fronting Danny King & The Royals and Danny King & The Jesters (with Chris Jones), he formed Danny King & The Mayfair Set. During 1966, King left to sing with Locomotive.

Shortly after joining The Way of Life, the quartet traveled down to London and played the Bag O’Nails in Soho.

During the summer of 1967, The Way of Life, added Bugsy Eastwood from The Exception as a second drummer, but he did not stay long.

Notable gigs

18 February 1967 – Tiles, Oxford Street central London with The Hush and The Question

25 February 1967 – The White Bicycle, Maple Ballroom, Northampton with Premier Slam Band

11 March 1967 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with The Quiet Five and The Essex Five

13 March 1967 – The Belfry, Wishaw, West Midlands with Manchester’s Playboys (billed as The New Way of Life)

17 March 1967 – Graven Hill Theatre, Bicester with The Methods

25 March 1967 – The Mews, Moseley, West Midlands

5 April 1967 – Mackadown, Kitts Green, West Midlands with The Exception (billed as The New Way of Life with Danny King)

8 April 1967 – Ettingham Park Hotel, Alderminster, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire

The Express & Star advertised a gig with Idle Race, Sight and Sound and Chicago Hush, which related to Monday 17/4/67

25 April 1967 – Watersplash Night Club, Walsall Wood, West Midlands

20 May 1967 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

21 May 1967 – Plaza Ballroom, Bearwood, West Midlands with The Gravy Train and The Fugitives

16 June 1967 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands

17 June 1967 – Handsworth Plaza, Handsworth, West Midlands with The Kinks

19 June 1967 – Plaza Ballroom, Bearwood, West Midlands

21 June 1967 – Hen & Chickens, Langley, West Midlands with The ‘N’ Betweens and Priority

5 July 1967 – Industrial Club, Norwich, Norfolk

22 July 1967 – Sydenham Discotheque Club, Small Heath, West Midlands

31 July 1967 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

1 August 1967 – Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands

4 August 1967 – Ringway Club, Birmingham

4 August 1967 – Old Crown & Cushion, Perry Barr, West Midlands

5 August 1967 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

7 August 1967 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands

18 August 1967 – Caesar’s Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire with The Idle Race

19 August 1967 – Penthouse, Birmingham with Finders Keepers

21 August 1967 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

26 August 1967 – Elbow Room, Aston, West Midlands

30 August 1967 – Tyburn House, Erdington, West Midlands

2 September 1967 – Ringway Club, Birmingham

2 September 1967 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands

3 September 1967 – Frank Freeman Dancing Club, Kidderminster, Worcestershire with Small Change

5 September 1967 – Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands

9 September 1967 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands

The Way of Life #5 (September-October 1967)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar
Dave Pegg – bass, vocals
John Bonham – drums, vocals (replaced briefly by Phil Brittle)

After Danny King left, Dave Pegg came in from The Exception, a band that had shared the stage with The Way of Life at least once earlier in the year.

Pegg had an impressive pedigree, having previously worked with The Trespassers, Dave & The Emeralds, The Crawdaddies and Roy Everett & The Blueshounds before backing Jimmy Cliff for a few months from November 1965-February 1966.

He then hooked up with The Uglys in mid-February 1966 before joining The Exception later that year.

Laurie Hornsby’s book Brum Rocked On!, notes that the new line up rehearsed at the Warstock pub.

Dave Pegg’s diary notes that the line-up’s first gig took place at the Swadley Youth Club. The bass player recalls that he played about 20 gigs with Bonham before the drummer left.

According Harry Barber’s book on The Band of Joy, drummer Phil Brittle took over briefly before leaving to join the fourth line up of The Band of Joy in late September. He only stayed a very short while however, before John Bonham took his place and met his future Led Zeppelin colleague, Robert Plant.

Notable gigs

15 September 1967 – Swadley Youth Club, Swadley, West Midlands (Dave Pegg’s debut)

17 September 1967 – Crown & Cushion, Perry Barr, West Midlands

18 September 1967 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

23 September 1967 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

24 September 1967 – Ritz Ballroom, King’s Heath, West Midlands

25 September 1967 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands

28 September 1967 – Cofton Country Club, Rednal, West Midlands with The Rest

29 September 1967 – Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands

1 October 1967 – The Belfry, Wishaw, near Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands with The Light

5 October 1967 – Ringway, Birmingham

8 October 1967 – Ritz Ballroom, King’s Heath, West Midlands

9 October 1967 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

14 October 1967 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands

16 October 1967 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

18 October 1967 – BRS, Charles Russell Square, Erdington, West Midlands with Jo Jo Cook & The Rackets

21 October 1967 – Caesar’s Place, Mulberry Tree, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

23 October 1967 – Queen’s Head, Erdington, West Midlands (Dave Pegg’s final gig)

The Way of Life #6 (October 1967-circa January 1968)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar
Jon Fox – lead guitar, vocals
Danny King – bass, vocals
John Panteney – (Pank) drums

Dave Pegg left in late October 1967 to join The Ian Campbell Folk Group and later found fame with Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull.

The Jones siblings brought back Danny King to replace Dave Pegg on bass and recruited Jon Fox on second lead guitar and vocals.

Fox had started out with his own outfit, Jon Fox & The Hunters in the early 1960s. He subsequently became a member of Johnny Neal & The Starliners before forming The Varsity Rag in 1967.

The Way of Life also found a new drummer, John Panteney, who had worked with The Chantelles (after the Jones siblings had moved on) in the mid-1960s. He then played with several other local acts before agreeing to join The Way of Life.

However, it was yet another short-lived version. By early 1968, Fox had moved on to form Cathedral while Panteney joined Paradox with future Magnum singer Bob Catley.

Notable gigs

28 October 1967 – The Woolpack, Wolverhampton, West Midlands with The Crew

7 November 1967 – Industrial Club, Norwich, Norfolk

21 November 1967 – Bolero, Wednesbury, West Midlands

27 November 1967 – Plaza Ballroom, Bearwood, West Midlands with Lynda and The Blend

1 December 1967 – Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

2 December 1967 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

11 December 1967 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

16 December 1967 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands with The Fading Colours

21 December 1967 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands with The Idle Race and The Fading Colours

4 January 1968 – Birdland, The Raven, Castle Bromwich, West Midlands with The Idle Race (Birmingham Evening Mail)

6 January 1968 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands (Birmingham Evening Mail)

12 January 1968 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands (Birmingham Evening Mail)

19 January 1968 – Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands (Birmingham Evening Mail)

28 January 1968 – Bolero, Wednesbury, West Midlands

29 January 1968 – Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands (Birmingham Evening Mail)

The Way of Life #7 (January-November 1968)

Reg Jones – lead vocals, harmonica
Chris Jones – lead guitar
Danny King – bass, lead vocals
Barry Smith – drums

The Jones brothers rebuilt the group by bringing in drummer Barry Smith, who’d worked with them previously in The Chucks during 1965.

Smith had started out with former The Way of Life bass player/singer Danny King in his early 1960s band, Danny King & The Royals. Later on, he worked with Danny Burns & The Phantoms.

The final incarnation recorded some material for Polydor Records before splitting up in late 1968.

The Jones brothers continued to play live on the local scene. Reg Jones died in 2004 and Chris Jones passed away in March 2014.

Notable gigs

1 February 1968 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands with Danny King and The Jones Boys (Birmingham Evening Mail)

3 February 1968 – Casino, Leicester

3 February 1968 – Industrial Club, Norwich, Norfolk

17 February 1968 – Carlton Club, Erdington, West Midlands with Traffic (Birmingham Evening Mail)

23 February 1968 – Chesterfield Club, Castle Bromwich, West Midlands (Birmingham Evening Mail)

24 February 1968 – Staffs Volunteer, Bushbury, Wolverhampton, West Midlands

2 March 1968 – Bull’s Head, Yardley, West Midlands

3 March 1968 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands

9 March 1968 – Crown and Cushion, Perry Barr, West Midlands with Capital Systems

17 March 1968 – Crown & Cushion, Birmingham with The Peeps

21 March 1968 – Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands

23 March 1968 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

25 March 1968 – Holly Bush, Quinton, West Midlands

27 March 1968 – Chesterfield Club, Castle Bromwich, West Midlands

31 March 1968 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

1 April 1968 – Bulls Head, Yardley, West Midlands

9 April 1968 – Chalet Country Club, Rednal, West Midlands with Fanny Flickers

13 April 1968 – Willenhall Baths Assembly Hall, Willenhall, West Midlands with Lovin’ Kind

18 April 1968 – Station Inn, Selly Oak, West Midlands

Sources: most of the West Midlands gigs were sourced from the Birmingham Evening Mail, which is an amazing resource for music journalists. Other magazine/newspaper sources included Melody Maker, Eastern Evening News, Express & Star, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Banbury Guardian, Stratford upon Avon Herald and Leicester Mercury.

Thanks to Dave Pegg and Mac Poole (who both shared dates from their diaries), Mick Hopkins, Tony Clarkson, Jon Fox, Harry Barber, Laurie Hornsby and John R Woodhouse, who runs the Brumbeat website.

Mick Bonham’s book John Bonham: The Powerhouse behind Led Zeppelin was another great resource.

Huge thanks to Jason Barnard who originally posted this article on the Strange Brew website. This is a significantly updated version.

Categories: England, London

The Mistrale club, Beckenham

April 5, 2020 Nick Warburton 9 Comments

A popular rock venue in Southeast London, the Mistrale club began life as the Beckenham Ballroom. Located at 2-4 high street at Beckenham Junction, the Mistrale opened its doors in April 1968 with Manfred Mann performing on the first night, supported by The Grenades, a Caribbean group.

The club continued to operate into the Seventies and below is the start of a list of artists that appeared during the late 1960s. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who can add missing artists, no matter how significant, as well as memories of particular shows.

1968

17 April – Manfred Mann and The Grenades (Poster)

18 April – Reparta & The Delrons with Don Moss (Melody Maker)

19 April – Dantalion’s Chariot starring Zoot Money and The Mr Mo’s Messengers (Melody Maker)

20 April – The Pyramids (Melody Maker)

24 April – Alan Price Set (Melody Maker) and The Grenades (Poster)

26 April – Mr Mo’s Messengers (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

27 April – The Shiralee (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

28 April – The Ethiopians (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

1 May – Ike & Tina Turner Show and The Grenades (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

3 May – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Evolution (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

4 May – Mr Hip Soul Band (Poster/Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

8 May – Marmalade and Mr Mo’s Messengers (Poster/Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

9 May – Shiralee (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

10 May – Terry Lightfoot Jazzmen (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

11 May – The Pyramids and The Go Go Show (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser/Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

12 May – Moon’s Train (Malcolm Penn’s diary – thanks to Peter Gosling for sharing)

15 May – Mr Hip Soul Band (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

16 May – The Firestones (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

17 May – Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds and The Purple Dream (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser/New Musical Express)

One poster lists Cliff Bennett & His Band instead of Chris Farlowe

18 May – Alan Elsdon Jazz Band (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

19 May – Bob Miller & The Millermen (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

20 May – Bill Haley & His Comets and The Shiralee (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

22 May – Mr Mo’s Messengers (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

23 May – The Shiralee (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

24 May – James and Bobby Purify and The Grenades (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

25 May – The Mojos and Sweet Rain (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

26 May – Kenny Ball Jazz Band (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

29 May – Dave Turner Four (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

30 May – Edwin Starr and The Evolution (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

31 May – Chicken Shack and The Grenades (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

1 June – Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival Show (featuring Tommy Bishop) and Mr Mo’s Messengers (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

2 June – The Pyramids (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

5 June – Jethro Tull and The Epics (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

6 June – The Firestones (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

7 June – The Coloured Raisins and The Light Brigade (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

8 June – Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers and The Shiralee (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

9 June – Honeybus and The Pussyfoot (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

12 June – Donamite and The Duce’s (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

13 June – The Shiralee (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

14 June – Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation and The Light Brigade (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

15 June – Oscar Toney Junior and The Firestones (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

16 June – The Pyramids (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

19 June – Donamite (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

20 June – The Firestones (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

21 June – Spencer’s Washboard King and The Greatest Show on Earth (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

22 June – The Lamb Brothers Show and The Shiralee (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

23 June – Noel & The Firebirds (Coulsdon & Purley Advertiser)

27 June – The Shiralee (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

28 June – The Gass with George Paul Jefferson (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

29 June – The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band with The Evolution (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

30 June – The Freddy Mack Show (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

4 July – Cliff Bennett and Mr Mo’s Messengers (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

5 July – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Maddening Crowd (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

6 July – The Episode, The Firestones and The Duces (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

7 July – The Skatallites (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

10 July – The Duces (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

11 July – The Shiralee (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

12 July – The Evolution (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

13 July – Root & Jenny Jackson with Electric Sun (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

14 July – The Pyramids (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

17 July – The Duces (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

18 July – Mr Mo’s Messengers (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

19 July – Patti La Belle & The Bluebells and Purple Dream (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

20 July – Tim Rose, Point Blank and The Duces (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

21 July – July and The Skatellites (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

30 August 1968 – Moon’s Train (Malcolm Penn’s diary – thanks to Peter Gosling for sharing)

New Musical Express lists Ben E King for 30 August.

5 September – Ben E King (New Musical Express)

19 September – Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels (New Musical Express)

25 September – Black Sabbath (Poster)

4 October – Felice Taylor (backed by The Reaction) (New Musical Express) and Serendipity (Poster)

5 October – Grand Union and The Maddening Crowd (Poster)

6 October – The Sundae Times (Poster)

11 October – PP Arnold and The Evolution (Poster)

12 October – Julian Kirsch and Sweet Rain (Poster)

13 October – The Interstate Road Show (Poster)

18 October – Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Pretty Things and Julian Kirsch (Coulson & Purley Advertiser)

19 October – Herbie & The Royalists and The Evolution (Poster)

20 October – The Skatellites (Poster)

25 October – Amboy Dukes and Kaleidoscope (Poster)

26 October – Mr Mo’s Messengers and Sweet Rain (Poster)

27 October – The Pyramids (Poster)

I have no listings until end of November

29 November – Kaleidoscope and The Mojos (Poster)

6 December – The Herd and Electric Sun (South East London Mercury)

20 December – The Isley Brothers backed by Art Regis (ex-Jimmy James & The Vagabonds?) and The Brass Cannon (New Musical Express) The Isley Brothers UK tour was cancelled last minute

24 December – Johnny & The Rivals (South East London Mercury)

27 December – The Maddening Crowd (South East London Mercury)

28 December – Electric Sun (South East London Mercury)

29 December – Gun Hill (South East London Mercury)

31 December – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Information (South East London Mercury)

1969

I have significant gaps in this year and would welcome additions

10 January – The Greatest Show on Earth and The Pyramids (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

15 January – Alan Elsdon (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

16 January – The Count Lee Sound (South East London Mercury)

18 January – Evolution (South East London Mercury)

22 January – Bob Wallis & The Storyville Jazzmen (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

9 February – Moby Grape (South East London Mercury)

7 March – Ben E King and The Classics (Melody Maker)

26 March – Kaleidoscope (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser)

4 April – Desmond Dekker & The Aces and The Evolution (Melody Maker)

30 May – Nice (Melody Maker)

25 June – Ohio Express (Melody Maker)

18 July – Idle Race (Time Out)

6 September – Justin Tyme (South East London Mercury)

20 September – Listen (South East London Mercury)

1970

This is just a start for 1970 but welcome additions

2 March – Genesis (Melody Maker)

Categories: Country, England

The Blues Loft

July 29, 2016 Nick Warburton 3 Comments

The Blues Loft in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire became a notable blues venue when the UK ‘blues explosion’ took off in late 1967/early 1968. Many of the top blues-rock bands like Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown and Jethro Tull performed at the club.

I’ve started a list of acts, taken from the Bucks Free Press newspaper, which advertised gigs from 1968 onwards. Please leave comments with any memories and missing acts.

5 April 1968 – Champion Jack Dupree and Shakey Vick’s Blues Band

12 April 1968 – Savoy Brown Blues Band

19 April 1968 – Chicken Shack

26 April 1968 – Shakey Vick’s Blues Band (Chiswick group who play every Friday)

Bucks Free Press runs story on the club in its 24 April issue, page 2

24 May 1968 – Jethro Tull

31 May 1968 – Dynaflow Blues

7 June 1968 – Shakey Vick’s New Band

14 June 1968 – Doc K’s Blues Band

21 June 1968 – Black Cat Bones

28 June 1968 – Dynaflow Blues

5 July 1968 – Keef Hartley with His Good Good Band

12 July 1968 – Savoy Brown Blues Band and Wild Angels

19 July 1968 – Black Cat Bones

26 July 1968 – Doc K’s Blues Band

2 August 1968 – Bruno’s Blues Band

23 August 1968 – Pegasus

30 August 1968 – Champion Jack Dupree and Bruno’s Blues Band

6 September 1968 – Savoy Brown

13 September 1968 – Black Cat Bones

20 September 1968 – Doc K’s Blues Band

27 September 1968 – Keef Hartley

2 October 1968 – John Dummer Blues Band (Dave Kelly guest)

9 October 1968 – Ian Anderson

18 October 1968 – Steve Miller (Delivery not US band)

23 October 1968 – Doc K’s Blues Band

1 November 1968 – Duster Bennett and Smokey Rice

6 November 1968 – Pegasus (with guests)

8 November 1968 – Curtis Jones and Dynaflow Blues

15 November 1968 – Spirit of John Morgan

22 November 1968 – Bobby Parker and his band

29 November 1968 – Black Cat Bones

6 December 1968 – John Dummer Blues Band and Dave Kelly

13 December 1968 – John Lee’s Groundhogs and Tony McPhee

20 December 1968 – Duster Bennett, Killing Floor, Ian Anderson, Alexis Korner and Mike Raven

27 December 1968 – Savoy Brown

17 January 1969 – Black Cat Bones

24 January 1969 – The Killing Floor

31 January 1969 – Duster Bennett and John Thomas Blues Band

7 February 1969 – Jerome Arnold Band

14 February 1969 – Shakey Vick and Al Jones

21 February 1969 – Blodwyn Pig

28 February 1969 – Fish Hook

5 March 1969 – Freddie King and Steamhammer

21 March 1969 – Alexis Korner Blues Band

28 March 1969 – Jerome Arnold Band

4 April 1969 – The ‘New’ Black Cat Bones

The following gigs are from Time Out unless otherwise noted

11 April 1969 – Pegasus

18 April 1969 – Champion Jack Dupree and Shakey Vick’s Blues Band (Bucks Free Press)

23 April 1969 – Blodwyn Pig

25 April 1969 – Steamhammer (Melody Maker has McKenna Mendelson Mainline)

30 April 1969 – Mike Cooper (Bucks Free Press)

2 May 1969 – Killing Floor

7 May 1969 – Made In Sweden (Bucks Free Press

9 May 1969 – McKenna Mendelson Mainline (from Canada)

14 May 1969 – Lowell Fulson and Steve Miller’s Delivery

16 May 1969 – Keef Hartley (Bucks Free Press)

21 May 1969 – Howlin’ Wolf and John Dummer Blues Band

23 May 1969 – Black Cat Bones

30 May 1969 – Shaky Vic (Bucks Free Press has New Dynaflow Band and John Thomas)

4 June 1969 – Freddie King and The Killing Floor (Bucks Free Press)

6 June 1969 – Savoy Brown

11 June 1969 – Blodwyn Pig

13 June 1969 – Jellybread

18 June 1969 – John Lee Hooker and John Dummer Blues Band

25 June 1969 – Otis Span

27 June 1969 – Jo-Ann Kelly and Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts (Bucks Free Press)

2 July 1969 – Gordon Smith and Transfusion (Bucks Free Press)

4 July 1969 – Ashkan (Bucks Free Press)

18 July 1969 – Bakerloo

25 July 1969 – Sam Apple Pie

30 July 1969 – Juniors Eyes

1 August 1969 – Spirit of John Morgan

8 August 1969 – Gordon Smith and Errol Dixon’s band The Nighthawks (Bucks Free Press)

15 August 1969 – Liverpool Scene

22 August 1969 – Blodwyn Pig

29 August 1969 – King Crimson

5 September 1969 – Brett Marvin

12 September 1969 – Steamhammer

19 September 1969 – Clouds

26 September 1969 – Juniors Eyes

3 October 1969 – Bakerloo

10 October 1969 – Ashkan

17 October 1969 – East of Eden

24 October 1969 – Howlin Wolf

31 October 1969 – Juke Boy Bonner & The Nighthawks

7 November 1969 – Stone The Crows

14 November 1969 – Skin Alley

21 November 1969 – Mighty Baby

28 November 1969 – Third Ear Band

4 December 1969 – Steamhammer

12 December 1969 – Steamhammer

19 December 1969 – Liverpool Scene

24 December 1969 – John Dummer Blues Band

31 December 1969 – Clark-Hutchinson

2 January 1970 – Juniors Eyes

7 January 1970 – Mott The Hoople

Categories: England, London

Blaises, 121 Queen’s Gate, Kensington

December 2, 2014 Nick Warburton 24 Comments

Blaises was located in the basement of the Imperial Hotel at 121 Queen’s Gate in Kensington, west London, SW7 (now demolished) and was a magnet for musicians, agents, managers and writers.

Jim Carter-Fea, who later managed the Speakeasy and Revolution, was involved with the club.

The Byrds played here on their debut UK tour in 1965 and many top acts of the day performed on the stage in the mid-late 1960s, most notably Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Yes, to name just a few.

Blaises wasn’t consistently advertised in the music papers throughout the 1960s so it’s been difficult to find gigs.

The list below is a start but I’d welcome any additions and corrections plus any photos of the venue and posters of advertised gigs as well as band photos (all credited accordingly).

Although it’s not been possible to find exact dates the following musicians confirmed their bands played at Blaises during 1965-1966:

James Nairn (aka James Royal) says that his groups James Royal & The Hawks and The James Royal Set played at Blaises; the former during 1965-1966 and the latter from 1966-1968.

Drummer/singer Tony Richard says that his band The Fetish Crowd performed at the club during the 1965-1966 period.

1965

6 August 1965 (Thursday) – The Byrds (Record Mirror)

3 October 1965 (Sunday) – The Stormsville Shakers (website: http://www.stormsvilleshakers.com/bandhistory.html)

20 October 1965 (Wednesday) – The Riot Squad (website: http://brunoceriotti.weebly.com/the-riot-squad.html)

London Life magazine’s 30 October to 5 November 1965 issue notes that there is a live group changing weekly.

1966

London Life magazine notes in its 8-14 January 1966 issue that there is a different live group every night at the club. This is the same for every issue until the final London Life magazine issue is published on 31 December 1966.

4 February 1966 (Friday) – John Lee Hooker (Melody Maker)

24 March 1966 (Thursday) – Wilson Pickett (backed by The Statesiders) (Jeff Sturgeon’s gig diary)

6 April 1966 (Wednesday) – Martha & The Vandellas (Melody Maker)

10 May 1966 (Tuesday) – John Lee Hooker (Record Mirror)

Julian Covey & The Machine were probably Hooker’s backing band as they provided support for the blues legends on a tour this month.

Keyboardist Stan Marut, who left just before the tour, says his place was taken by Dave Greenslade, who then joined Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds.

30 July 1966 (Saturday) – The Fleur De Lys (Keith Guster’s gig diary)

3 August 1966 (Wednesday) – The Creation (Fabulous 208 and London Life magazine)

22 August 1966 (Monday) – The Artwoods (needs confirmation)

8 September 1966 (Thursday) – The In Crowd (they became Tomorrow in early 1967) (Fabulous 208 and Marmalade Skies website).

9 September 1966 (Friday) – The Fleur De Lys (Keith Guster’s gig diary)

23 September 1966 (Friday) – The Knack (London Life magazine)

Paul Gurvitz went on to The Gun while Graham Clay joined The New York Public Library (see below). Brian Parrish went on to Badger.

27 September 1966 (Tuesday) – She Trinity (Fabulous 208 and London Life magazine)

29 September 1966 (Thursday) – The Brian Auger & The Trinity (Melody Maker)

This is the date that Jimi Hendrix sat in with The Brian Auger Trinity.

According to the Hendrix website (and Vic Briggs and Kathy Etchingham’s recollections), The Brian Auger Trinity had played at the Scotch of St James the previous night where the waiter told Trinity guitarist Vic Briggs about an amazing black guitarist who had sat in with The VIPs the night before (27 September).

Chas Chandler and Hendrix walked in shortly afterwards and were introduced to the band who were playing a warm-up gig without singer Julie Driscoll. Brian Auger let Hendrix jam with the group and, impressed, invited the American guitarist to sit in at Blaises the following night.

On 29 September, Chandler and Hendrix arrived at Blaises after drinking at the Kilt Club where they met French singer Johnny Halliday. Auger introduced Hendrix to the crowd for a jam after the interval.

London Life has Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers for this date but it is possible that this was actually Friday, 30 September after a show at the California Ballroom in Dunstable.

3 October 1966 (Monday) – Robert Parker (Melody Maker)

4 October 1966 (Tuesday) – The Artwoods (Fabulous 208)

Future Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord was a member of The Artwoods.

5 October 1966 (Wednesday) – Robert Parker and Wynder K Frog (Fabulous 208)

11 October 1966 (Tuesday) – Garnet Mimms (Fabulous 208)

12 October 1966 (Wednesday) – Ike & Tina Turner (London Life magazine)

29 October 1966 (Saturday) – The Hush (London Life magazine)

Keith Fairhurst, singer with The Chosen Few, says the band played this venue about six times after moving down from Manchester and changing their name to The Hush. They also frequented the club on other occasions and he was there on 29 September when Jimi Hendrix sat in with The Brian Auger Trinity (see above).

Fairhurst adds that Blaises was only a small club and was an exclusive venue, which meant that normal club goers that frequented many of the other London clubs would not have attended; it was too expensive and licensed. Management insisted that they set up by 9pm and they never started before 9.30pm.

8 November 1966 (Tuesday) – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (Melody Maker)

9 November 1966 (Wednesday) – Jerry Lee Lewis (Melody Maker)

17 November 1966 (Thursday) – Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers (Tatler)

21 November 1966 (Monday) – Wynder K Frog (Fabulous 208)

22 November 1966 (Tuesday) – Ben E King (Tatler)

30 November 1966 (Wednesday) – The Young Rascals (Fabulous 208 and Melody Maker)

Melody Maker also has The Brian Auger Trinity on 30 November (see advert above). The two bands probably used the same equipment.

Guitarist Vic Briggs, who had moved on to join Eric Burdon’s New Animals by this point, says that all of the “in-clubs” were so small that you had to get your gear in before people arrived and wait until they left to move out. Also, they could not afford to pay more than one band per night. There may have been exceptions but that was the general rule.

1 December 1966 (Thursday) – The In Crowd (became Tomorrow) (London Life magazine) Nick Simper’s website has Bobby Hebb playing from 11.30pm

8 December 1966 (Thursday) – The In Crowd (became Tomorrow) (London Life magazine)

13 December 1966 (Tuesday) – The Farinas (became Family) (Record Mirror)

14 December 1966 (Wednesday) – Little Richard (John Warburg’s research)

20 December 1966 (Tuesday) – The Artwoods (needs confirmation)

21 December 1966 (Wednesday) – Jimi Hendrix Experience (Melody Maker)

23 December 1966 (Friday) – The Iveys (became Badfinger) (Tom Brennan’s research at: http://www.badfingerlibrary.com/)

30 December 1966 (Friday) – Deep Feeling (Melody Maker)

Deep Feeling featured future members of Traffic, Family and Spooky Tooth

1967

Jim Cregan, guitarist with Blossom Toes, says his band played at the club during 1967.

Chris Hunt, drummer with The Good Time Losers, says that his group performed at Blaises during 1967.

Mick Ketley, keyboard player with Bognor Regis version of The Motivation which became The Penny Peep Show in September 1967, says that his group played at Blaises which would have been after May 1967.

Pete Cole, bass player with The Trend, says that he played the venue. The most likely time frame is after September 1967 and may have been when the group backed visiting US soul acts.

Jim Carter-Fae, who managed the club, took over the management of Hull band, The Majority and the group played this venue during 1967.

7 January 1967 (Saturday) – The Knack (Melody Maker)

Paul Gurvitz went on to The Gun while Graham Clay joined The New York Public Library (see below). Brian Parrish went on to Badger.

13 January 1967 (Friday) – The Savoy Brown Blues Band (Melody Maker)

17 January 1967 (Tuesday) – Family (Melody Maker)

18 January 1967 (Wednesday) – Wynder K Frog (Fabulous 208 – needs confirmation)

Still from the film The Sorcerers showing a band playing live (in January 1967 or earlier). Poster on the wall lists Inez & Charlie Foxx. Thanks to Christopher Matheson for providing

25 January 1967 (Wednesday) – Inez & Charlie Foxx (Poster on wall in film the Sorcerers)

26 January 1967 (Thursday) – Jimmy McGriff (Disc & Music Echo)

According to Flashback magazine, Keith West and Steve Howe’s band The In Crowd were residents at Blaises around late January/early February and soon changed name to Tomorrow.

8 February 1967 (Wednesday) – Maxine Brown & The Q-Set (Disc & Music Echo)

The Q-Set will link up with Ronnie Jones after its tour with Maxine Brown.

Disc & Music Echo’s 11 February issue notes that Ike & Tina Turner had played at the club recently.

14 February 1967 (Tuesday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers (Fabulous 208)

According to Melody Maker in April 1967, Herbie Goins had a regular Tuesday night residency at Blaises so there may be more Tuesday dates between this one and the one below that they played. Future Bob Marley guitarist Junior Marvin was the keyboard player with the band at this time when he used the stage name Junior Kerr.

23 February 1967 (Thursday) – Chuck Berry (backed by The Canadians) (Melody Maker)

The Canadians’ keyboard player was future record producer and music executive David Foster.

28 February 1967 (Tuesday) – Pink Floyd and The Majority (Melody Maker)

If both bands indeed played on this evening, it would have been one of the rare occasions when more than one group played.

7 March 1967 (Tuesday) – Keith (Disc & Music Echo and Melody Maker)

18 March 1967 (Saturday) – The Hush (Melody Maker)

Singer Keith Fairhurst says that on one occasion when The Hush played Blaises on a Saturday night, a Canadian television crew filmed them but he’s never seen the footage.

Still from the film The Sorcerers. Thanks to Christopher Matheson for supplying. Judging by the gig poster on the wall, this performance was January 1967 or earlier.

Fairhurst adds that the inside of Blaises appears in the 1967 film The Sorcerers.

17 April 1967 (Monday) – Marmalade (Fabulous 208)

19 April 1967 (Wednesday) – Bo Diddley (backed by The Canadians) (Melody Maker)

David Foster was the keyboard player in The Canadians (see above).

1 May 1967 (Monday) – The Web (Melody Maker)

9 May 1967 (Tuesday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers with The Satin Dolls (Melody Maker)

Future Bob Marley guitarist Junior Marvin was the group’s keyboard player at this time (see above).

11 May 1967 (Thursday) – The Coloured Raisins and Jack Hammer & His Hammer Jammers (Melody Maker)

Future Sweet producer Phil Wainman was the drummer with The Hammer Jammers. If both bands played, this would have been one of the rare occasions when two groups performed.

16 May 1967 (Tuesday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers and The Web (Melody Maker)

If both bands played, this would have been one of the rare occasions when two groups performed.

23 May 1967 (Tuesday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers (Melody Maker)

30 May 1967 (Tuesday) – The Web (Melody Maker)

Record Mirror says Herbie Goins’ band has a Tuesday residency so may have shared the bill. They may also have continued to play more Tuesday nights as they appear again below on 12 September.

5 June 1967 (Monday) – Amen Corner (Melody Maker)

8 June 1967 (Thursday) – The Turtles (Disc & Music Echo, Fabulous 208 and Melody Maker)

14 June 1967 (Wednesday) – The Cliffons (needs source)

20 June 1967 (Tuesday) – The Coloured Raisins, King Ossie, Honey Darling and Earl Green (Melody Maker)

25 June 1967 (Sunday) – Jose Feliciano (Melody Maker)

6 July 1967 (Thursday) – Jefferson Airplane (cancelled) (needs source)

7 July 1967 (Friday) – Denny Laine’s Electric String Band (Disc & Music Echo and Fabulous 208)

14 July 1967 (Friday) – The Graham Bond Organisation (Fabulous 208)

25 July 1967 (Tuesday) – Amen Corner (Fabulous 208 and Melody Maker)

1 August 1967 (Tuesday) – Donnie Elbert (Melody Maker)

16 August 1967 (Wednesday) – Ten Years After (Fabulous 208)

18 August 1967 (Friday) – Granny’s Intentions (needs source)

26 August 1967 (Saturday) – Chicken Shack (Melody Maker)

6 September 1967 (Wednesday) – Max Collier’s Rhythm Aces (Melody Maker)

12 September 1967 (Tuesday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers (Melody Maker)

14 September 1967 (Thursday) – Big Maybelle & The Majority (Melody Maker)

20 September 1967 (Wednesday) – Max Collier’s Rhythm Aces (Melody Maker)

26 September 1967 (Tuesday) – Ten Years After (Fabulous 208)

4 October 1967 (Wednesday) – Max Collier’s Rhythm Aces (Melody Maker)

5 October 1967 (Thursday) – Vanilla Fudge (Melody Maker)

Disc & Music Echo has this gig down for 8 October, not 5 October.

18 October 1967 (Wednesday) – Max Collier’s Rhythm Aces (Melody Maker)

19 October 1967 (Thursday) – Freddie King (Melody Maker)

23 October 1967 (Monday) – Vanilla Fudge (Disc & Music Echo)

24 October 1967 (Tuesday) – Brian Auger Trinity with Julie Driscoll (Melody Maker)

2 November 1967 (Thursday) – The Coloured Raisins (Melody Maker)

3 November 1967 (Friday) – Deuce Coup (Melody Maker)

4 November 1967 (Saturday) – The Mike Stuart Span (Melody Maker)

6 November 1967 (Monday) – The Majority (Melody Maker)

7 November 1967 (Tuesday) – Ferris Wheel (Melody Maker)

8 November 1967 (Wednesday) – Ten Years After (Melody Maker)

9 November 1967 (Thursday) – Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation (Melody Maker)

10 November 1967 (Friday) – The Maze (Melody Maker)

11 November 1967 (Saturday) – Dr K’s Blues Band (Melody Maker)

14 November 1967 (Tuesday) – The Downliners Sect (Melody Maker)

25 November 1967 (Saturday) – Moon’s Train (Malcolm Penn’s diary – thanks to Peter Gosling for sharing)

28 November 1967 (Tuesday) – The Mike Cotton Sound with Lucas and Chris Clark (Melody Maker)

1 December 1967 (Friday) – Gladys Knight & The Pips (Melody Maker)

12 December 1967 (Tuesday) – The Vibrations (Melody Maker)

14 December 1967 (Thursday) – Eddie Floyd (Melody Maker)

31 December 1967 (Sunday) – The Warren Davis Monday Band (Del Paramor’s gig diary)

1968

Guitarist Paul Brett says that he played this venue during 1968, which would have been with Tintern Abbey.

4 January 1968 (Thursday) – Moon’s Train (Malcolm Penn’s diary – thanks to Peter Gosling for sharing)

17 January 1968 (Wednesday) – Moon’s Train (Malcolm Penn’s diary – thanks to Peter Gosling for sharing)

20 January 1968 (Tuesday) – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ gig diary)

9 February 1968 (Friday) – Taste (Rory Gallagher’s Fandom site: https://concerts.fandom.com/wiki/Rory_Gallagher)

30 March 1968 (Saturday) – Dr K’s (Blues Band) (Melody Maker)

3 April 1968 (Wednesday) – The Warren Davis Monday Band (Del Paramor’s gig diary)

5 April 1968 (Friday) – Dr K’s (Blues Band) (Melody Maker)

24 April 1968 (Wednesday) – The Warren Davis Monday Band (Del Paramor’s gig diary)

30 April 1968 (Tuesday) – Ray King Soul Band (Melody Maker)

Melody Maker’s 4 May issue notes that a fire gutted the Speakeasy on Saturday night (27 April), causing £20,000 worth of damage. Roy Flynn, co-owner, said that the club couldn’t reopen for about three months (it ended up being mid-December) and that gigs would be transferred to Blaises and billed as ‘Speakeasy at Blaises’. These are noted below.

Ike & Tina Turner were billed to play on Sunday, 28 April and Bill Haley & The Comets on 30 April. These may have been cancelled or transferred to Blaises. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who can add any further details.

1 May 1968 (Wednesday) – Bobby Goldsboro (Melody Maker)

This was billed to take place at the Speakeasy and may have been transferred to Blaises or alternatively cancelled.

5 May 1968 (Sunday) – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (Melody Maker)

Captain Beefheart was originally billed for the Speakeasy so most likely it was transferred to Blaises as the dates match.

8 May 1968 (Wednesday) – Ray King Soul Band (Melody Maker)

13 May 1968 (Monday) – The Byrds (Melody Maker)

This was originally billed for the Speakeasy so most likely it was transferred to Blaises.

23 May 1968 (Thursday) – Spooky Tooth (Marmalade Skies website)

29 May 1968 (Wednesday) – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ gig diary)

9 June 1968 (Sunday) – Fairport Convention (Melody Maker)

12 June 1968 (Wednesday) – Reparta & The Delrons (New Musical Express)

15 June 1968 (Saturday) – The Amboy Dukes (Fabulous 208)

16 June 1968 (Sunday) – PP Arnold (Melody Maker)

This was billed as ‘Speakeasy at Blaises’.

23 June 1968 (Sunday) – Reparta & The Delrons (Melody Maker – needs confirmation)

30 June 1968 (Sunday) – Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation (Melody Maker)

The Retaliation gig is another ‘Speakeasy at Blaises’ gig

3 July 1968 (Wednesday) – Ray King Soul Band (Melody Maker)

14 July 1968 (Sunday) – Tim Rose (see comments section below regarding this gig)

18 July 1968 (Thursday) – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ gig diary)

This was originally booked for the Speakeasy so if it wasn’t cancelled, it was most likely moved to Blaises.

20 July 1968 (Saturday) – The Sweet (the Sweet website: https://sweet.thesweetweb.com/gigs-1968-1981/)

23 July 1968 – The Cortinas (Paul Griggs’ gig diary)

Paul Griggs notes in his diary that Jimi Hendrix and Eric Burdon were in attendance that night. This was a 1 am show so probably early hours of 24 July.

28 July 1968 (Sunday) – Terry Reid & The Fantasy (Melody Maker)

17 August 1968 (Saturday) – Juniors Eyes (Melody Maker)

20 August 1968 (Tuesday) – Ben E King (Melody Maker and New Musical Express)

21 August 1968 (Wednesday) – Free (Alessandro Borri research – see comments section below)

27 August 1968 (Tuesday) – Jethro Tull (Greg Russo’s research)

Huge thanks to Paul Kane for supplying this

1 September 1968 (Sunday) – Mickey Finn (Poster from Paul Kane)

2 September 1968 (Monday) –July (Poster from Paul Kane)

3 September 1968 (Tuesday) – The Village (Poster from Paul Kane)

4 September 1968 (Wednesday) – East of Eden (Poster from Paul Kane)

5 September 1968 (Thursday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers (Poster from Paul Kane)

6 September 1968 (Friday) – Juniors Eyes (Poster from Paul Kane)

7 September 1968 (Saturday) – London (Poster from Paul Kane)

8 September 1968 (Sunday) – East of Eden (East of Eden website: www.eastofedentheband.co.uk/GIGS.html)

The website says that Jefferson Airplane sat in with the band at the show. Poster above suggests Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels played instead

9 September 1968 (Monday) – Keef Hartley (Poster from Paul Kane)

10 September 1968 (Tuesday) – Eyes of Blue (Poster from Paul Kane)

11 September 1968 (Wednesday) – Majority (Poster from Paul Kane)

12 September 1968 (Thursday) – Junior’s Conquest (Poster from Paul Kane)

13 September 1968 (Friday) – Kippington Lodge (Poster from Paul Kane)

14 September 1968 (Saturday) – Bruno Blues Band (Poster from Paul Kane)

15 September 1968 (Sunday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

According to Melody Maker and New Musical Express, Sly & The Family Stone were billed to play Blaises on 15 September. Apparently, they didn’t show and Roy Flynn asked The Nice’s manager Tony Stratton-Smith for help and he recommended Yes. Poster confirms Sly & The Family Stone were originally due to play

16 September 1968 (Monday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

This performance is unconfirmed and also poster says Bubble Gum

17 September 1968 (Tuesday) – Free (Poster from Paul Kane)

18 September 1968 (Wednesday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

Poster above lists The Majority instead

19 September 1968 (Thursday) – The Gods (Poster from Paul Kane)

20 September 1968 (Friday) – The Gun (Poster from Paul Kane)

21 September 1968 (Saturday) – Blonde on Blonde (Poster from Paul Kane)

22 September 1968 (Sunday) – Fairport Convention (Poster from Paul Kane)

23 September 1968 (Monday) – The Village (Poster from Paul Kane)

24 September 1968 (Tuesday) – The Web (Poster from Paul Kane)

25 September 1968 (Wednesday) – Glass Menagerie (Fabulous 208, Poster from Paul Kane and Time Out)

26 September 1968 (Thursday) – Eyes of Blue (Poster from Paul Kane)

27 September 1968 (Friday) – Dr K’s Blues Band (Poster from Paul Kane)

28 September 1968 (Saturday) – To be confirmed (Poster from Paul Kane)

29 September 1968 (Sunday) – Terry Reid (Poster from Paul Kane)

This was billed as Reid’s final gig before USA tour

30 September 1968 (Monday) – To be confirmed (Poster from Paul Kane)

13 October 1968 (Sunday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

15 October 1968 (Tuesday) – Blue Cheer (Bruno Ceriotti’s research and New Musical Express)

19 October 1968 (Saturday) – Mint Tulip (Melody Maker)

22 October 1968 (Tuesday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

23 October 1968 (Wednesday) – July (Time Out)

30 October 1968 (Wednesday) – Yes with Dream Police (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

5 November 1968 (Tuesday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

11 November 1968 (Monday) – Blonde on Blonde (Time Out)

17 November 1968 (Sunday) – The Show Stoppers (New Musical Express)

24 November 1968 (Sunday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

Yes’ gig on 24 November is unconfirmed

26 November 1968 (Tuesday) – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ gig diary)

1 December 1968 (Sunday) – Bandwagon (New Musical Express)

7 December 1968 – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

Yes’ 7 December gig is not listed on the Yes tours wiki site above.

15 December 1968 (Sunday) – The Flame (the South African band plays one week) (Melody Maker)

16 December 1968 (Monday) – The Flame and Mint Tulip (Melody Maker)

17 December 1968 (Tuesday) – The Flame (Melody Maker)

18 December 1968 (Wednesday) – The Flame (Melody Maker)

19 December 1968 (Thursday) – The Flame (Melody Maker)

20 December 1968 (Friday) – The Flame (Melody Maker)

21 December 1968 (Saturday) – The Flame (Melody Maker)

22 December 1968 (Sunday) – The Flame (Melody Maker)

26 December 1968 (Thursday) – Yes (Peter Banks’ website: http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/yes/)

1969

23 January 1969 (Thursday) – Yes (Time Out)

24 January 1969 (Friday) – The N’ Betweens (the band became Slade) (Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

25 January 1969 (Saturday) – Clouds (Time Out)

20 February 1969 (Thursday) – Majority Sun (Hounslow Post)

23 February 1969 (Sunday) – Affinity (Hounslow Post)

24 February 1969 (Monday) – Pendulum (Hounslow Post)

25 February 1969 (Tuesday) – Cymbaline (Hounslow Post)

26 February 1969 (Wednesday) – The New York Public Library (Hounslow Post)

2 March 1969 (Sunday) – Affinity (Kensington Post)

4 March 1969 (Tuesday) – Sarolta (Kensington Post)

5 March 1969 (Wednesday) – Ben E King (Kensington Post)

9 March 1969 (Sunday) – Terry Reid (Melody Maker)

11 March 1969 (Tuesday) – The Committee (Melody Maker)

12 March 1969 (Wednesday) – The Web (Marylebone Mercury)

16 March 1969 (Sunday) – The Pretty Things (Hounslow Post)

17 March 1969 (Monday) – The Majority (Hounslow Post)

In an interview with Stefan Granados for Shindig magazine, guitarist Pete Mizen says that The Majority were playing here when they were approached to move to France and record with the Pink Elephant label.

18 March 1969 (Tuesday) – The New York Public Library (Hounslow Post)

19 March 1969 (Wednesday) – The Spirit of John Morgan (Hounslow Post)

23 March 1969 (Sunday) – Marv Johnson (Hounslow Post)

24 March 1969 (Monday) – Affinity (Hounslow Post)

25 March 1969 (Tuesday) – Ray King Soul Band (Hounslow Post)

28 March 1969 (Friday) – The Majority (Hounslow Post)

29 March 1969 (Saturday) – Trifle (Hounslow Post)

30 March 1969 (Sunday) – Joynt (Kensington Post)

31 March 1969 (Monday) – The Flames (Hounslow Post)

4 April 1969 (Friday) – Affinity (Hounslow Post)

6 April 1969 (Sunday) – Explosive (Watson T Browne?) (Hounslow Post)

7 April 1969 (Monday) – Circus (Hounslow Post)

9 April 1969 (Wednesday) – Steamhammer (Time Out)

10 April 1969 (Thursday) – Spirit of John Morgan (Time Out)

12 April 1969 (Saturday) – Black Velvet (Hounslow Post)

13 April 1969 (Sunday) – Herbie Goins & The Nightimers (Hounslow Post)

14 April 1969 (Monday) – The Majority (Hounslow Post)

18 April 1969 (Friday) – Springfield Park (Hounslow Post)

19 April 1969 (Saturday) – Pure Gold (Hounslow Post)

20 April 1969 (Sunday) – The Flames (Hounslow Post)

21 April 1969 (Monday) – Jerome Arnold (Hounslow Post)

22 April 1969 (Tuesday) – The Web (Hounslow Post)

26 April 1969 (Saturday) – Village (Time Out)

28 April 1969 (Monday) – Village (Time Out)

4 May 1969 (Sunday) – King Crimson (Hounslow Post)

5 May 1969 (Monday) – Affinity (Hounslow Post)

6 May 1969 (Tuesday) – Spirit of John Morgan (Hounslow Post)

8 May 1969 (Thursday) – The Committee (Melody Maker)

9 May 1969 (Friday) – The Shades (Melody Maker)

10 May 1969 (Sunday) – Bob & Earl (Marylebone Mercury)

11 May 1969 (Sunday) – Black Velvet (Marylebone Mercury)

19 May 1969 (Monday) – Jerome Arnold (Time Out)

20 May 1969 (Tuesday) – The Majority (Time Out)

21 May 1969 (Wednesday) – The Milwaukee Coasters (Time Out)

22 May 1969 (Thursday) – The Committee (Melody Maker)

24 May 1969 (Saturday) – Belle Sebastian (Hounslow Post)

25 May 1969 (Sunday) – The Gods (Hounslow Post and Time Out)

26 May 1969 (Monday) – The Majority (Hounslow Post and Time Out)

27 May 1969 (Tuesday) – The Web (Hounslow Post)

28 May 1969 (Wednesday) – Affinity (Time Out)

1 June 1969 (Sunday) – Sarolta (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

2 June 1969 (Monday) – Methuselah (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

3 June 1969 (Tuesday) – Ambrose Slade (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

4 June 1969 (Wednesday) – The Majority (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

5 June 1969 (Thursday) – Jo Jo Gunne (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

Although advertised, Jo Jo Gunne didn’t appear as they were part through a three-month residency at the House of Lords club in the Bahamas.

6 June 1969 (Friday) – Blonde on Blonde (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

Hounslow Post confirms the Blonde on Blonde gig.

7 June 1969 (Saturday) – Exception (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)

Time Out has Black Velvet billed for 7 June. Hounslow Post confirms Exception.

8 June 1969 (Sunday) – Root and Jenny Jackson (Blaises gig poster at Don Powell’s website: http://www.donpowellofficial.com/)