Welcome to another posting of a series of gig listings for 1960s bands. None of these lists is exhaustive and my idea is to add to them in the comments section below over time. They are here for future researchers to draw on. I have also added a few interesting bits of information and will add images in time.
I’d like to encourage band members to get in touch to share memories, or for anyone to send corrections/clarifications to my email: Warchive@aol.com
Equally important, if you attended any of the gigs below or played in the support band, please do leave your memories below in the comments section for future historians to use. If you know of any missing gigs, please add them too, if possible, with the sources.
THE MACABRE:
Thanks to Peter Vernon-Kell and Chris Downing, I have been able to piece a bit of information together on this West London band, who apparently opened for The Who regularly on Friday nights at the Goldhawk Social Club. Incidentally, Vernon-Kell was an old friend of The Who’s, having been a brief member of its predecessor, The Detours. Ed Hamilton had previously worked with The Crescents with Harvey Hinsley. I would welcome any reader insights.
Peter Vernon-Kell – guitar/vocals
Ed Hamilton – guitar/vocals
Alan Oates – bass
Chris Downing – guitar/vocals (replaced Hamilton)
Carl Broadbent – drums
Downing recalls that he worked with the band for six to eight months (more likely to have been a year). Ed Hamilton, who Downing replaced and who succeeded him around July 1965 when the guitarist moved on, had left The Macabre around July 1964 to later work with Mike Berry & The Outlaws.
Downing remembers that The Macabre featured several bass players during his time with the group.
He also recalls that The Macabre opened for The Who and The Spencer Davis Group in Watford. On a separate occasion, they also played with The Rockin’ Berries in Watford.
Other dates that he recalls are a gig with The Who at Woolwich Town Hall (more likely to have been Greenwich Town Hall on 24 June 1965), several shows with Tony Rivers & The Castaways and a show with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in Forest Gate.
The band played regularly at the Goldhawk Social Club, which apparently only hosted bands on Fridays and Saturdays. Downing says that they supported The Groundhogs there, including one show where Jimmy Reed guested with The Groundhogs.
The guitarist also remembers The Macabre shared a billing with The Who (actually it was as The High Numbers) on the evening when Roger Daltry’s father-in-law turned up and fight broke up between them (Ed – this was Railway Hotel in Harrow on 11 August 1964).
When the band broke up, Peter Vernon-Kell became a member of the group that became The Hamilton Movement.
Selected gigs:
2 August 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette)
9 August 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette) Possible but not confirmed
16 August 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette) Possible but not confirmed
23 August 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette) Possible but not confirmed
30 August 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette) Possible but not confirmed
6 September 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette) Possible but not confirmed
13 September 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette)
20 September 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette)
28 September 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Harrow Observer & Gazette)
5 October 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette)
12 October 1964 – Ealing Club, Ealing, Middlesex (Middlesex County Times & West Middlesex Gazette)
19 October 1964 – Glenlyn Club, Forest Hill, London (Melody Maker)
9 April 1965 – Blue Rondo, Assembly Hall, Fareham, Hampshire with The Smokestacks (Portsmouth News)
10 April 1965 – Waterfront, Southampton, Hants (Southern Echo)
Thanks to Andy Neill for some of the information
Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, without prior permission from the author.
Alan Oates was bass player for a while
Hi, yes that’s right. I did a gig on a Thames river cruise with my old band “The Southbeats”. Got chatting to Pete Townshend of The High Numbers, as they were then. Went to Watford to see them at The Odfellows hall a week or so later. Meet Peter Kell, and was offered a chance to play bass for them. I started with the band, The Macabre. I was a bit young, and to suddenly become a professional bass player at 16, was a big adjustment to make. We played a lot with the Who. We were with Bob Druces agency, so got to play at a lot of the “classic” London venues. I left the band and later became roadie for Petes next band. I later became roadie for The Who, that lasted about 2 years. I did one gig for Hendrix, after his van broke down, the only time he stood on the left (Townsend’s side). I did other work for some touring Americian bands. I did my last roadie job was for Errol Brown and Hot Chocolate. I retired from bands at 19!!!. I now I live in Australia, I played bass for a band called Blues Experience in the late 90s. We did Cream, Hendrix etc. Just wasn’t the same as the good old days! I now live in Katoomba, which had a fantastic band scene here, just local guys, but what a fantastic place. Then Covid hit and that was the end of it all. It’s picking up a bit now, but just won’t be the same….. like everything else! Those famous words still echoe in my ears “hope I die before I get old” but just didn’t happen. Alan Oates aofa@bigpond.net.au
December 1964, Macabre played the Goldhawk Social Club, the other band on the bill was The Clique. They were also referenced in a 1964 article on Julie Arnold, who, apparently, was about to form a new band called The Three and Her. ‘She will play bass guitar with guitarists and drummers from Acton groups like The Detours and the Macabre.’
Can this be the “Macabre” that trekked down to the rough-arsed village of Roche, near St Austell in central Cornwall to play rivetting RnB at the Victory Hall one Saturday night c1975. I was 14/15 I think and elated at the quality and originality of the music.
I remember the band coming to our house later for payment (my father was Chair of the Committee) and one of the band emphasising the point that their van only did 9 to the gallon!!
What an intrepid, long suffering group of people. I’m glad they had some more glamourous gigs!!
John
Yep, that was us – slept in the van – and terrified ourselves when the headlights kept cutting out. That was an epic job – in those days it took all day to get there and all day to get back. Our old Dewhurst’s butcher’s van did us well!
Re Roche gig – I should have said c1965!!
I now live near Devizes and play in a band called Rockhoppaz if you feel like listening to the same stuff 60 years on!! https://www.rockhoppaz.com/
That’s me in the middle.