Thanks to Dave Clemo for providing the contents of this entry, including the extensive gig list at the end

This is the story of The Tin Hat, Kettering’s legendary music venue. Between 1967 and 1969 many of the UK’s finest bands performed there.

This account is taken from Back Street Genius by Dave Clemo, with Roger Kinsey and Mavis Tompkins.

The book is the first of two books about legendary recording studio owner/engineer Derek Tompkins.

The roll call of musicians and producers who had their first studio experience at Derek’s Shield and Beck Studios include Queen bass player John Deacon; Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden; and world famous record producers of the calibre of Max Norman, Trevor Horn and David Foster.

Copies of Back Street Genius can be ordered from Waterstones and Rough Trade. It is also available as an eBook.

The Tin Hat was a corrugated iron clad steel framed building that had originally been opened in 1900 as the Athletic Club. It was nestled in the shadow of the town’s football ground. The facilities were almost non-existent and eventually the decision was taken to open a new club along the road.

The new building had a large car park and the rear doors opened onto the stage which made loading in very easy for the groups that performed there. It opened for business in April 1967 and the old hut was consigned to history.

A few weeks later Derek Tompkins’ brother Brian reopened The Tin Hat as a music venue. He removed the old central bar and built a stage at one end. It proved to be very popular from the outset, so much so that both Derek and his wife Mavis came in most Saturday nights to help behind the bar.

The opening night was June 10^th, 1967. The club opened on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays with a live band (or two) on a Saturday night and discos on the other nights. This fitted in well with The Works, the other regular music venue in Wellington Street. Their live music nights were on Sunday and Monday nights.

Very few photos of the venue exist. The smell of the interior must have been a heady mixture of tobacco smoke and warm beer, and no doubt the floor would have been pretty sticky by the end of the evening.

The disco nights featured Brian (Tompkins Sound) and Mavis’ brother Alan (Allan D). They used Derek Tompkins’ hand built Shield disco gear and it wasn’t long before they were performing at other well-known venues like the Nag’s Head at Wollaston or the George at Wilby.

Mavis Tompkins wrote: “Brian used to book some of the most famous soul and Motown bands of the time. Most of the Tompkins family got involved, from Brian’s wife (another Mavis), on the door, to his older kids on the cloakroom and glass collecting duties.

Derek and I would help behind the bar with serving drinks and glass washing, which involved dunking empty beer glasses into an ice-cold sink full of murky water as fast as we were able.

Our tasks included sweeping the filthy debris and beer-soaked floors and toilets afterwards. Mavis, Brian’s wife, had to be a pretty tough cookie, dealing with clashes from mods and rockers etc., and was famous for knocking out one belligerent customer who ended up in hospital!”

Derek later wrote: “It was always full to capacity every Saturday night, supposedly with around 200-300 punters, but it was more like 600! Brian booked a host of big stars: including Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.”

Fake bands

In the mid sixties the Roy Tempest Organisation was one of the UK’s biggest music promoters and agents. The Canadians (featuring a very young David Foster on keyboards) signed with them in late 1966 and went to work backing visiting US acts like Chuck Berry.

However, there was another side to the agency. They regularly brought in unknown US acts and passed them off as Motown groups. The groups were tribute acts, sometimes but not always containing an original band member.

Tempest got around the law by subtly changing their names, calling them ‘The Fabulous Temptations’ or the ‘Original Drifters’.

Bill Pinkney was an original member of The Drifters dating back to 1953 and sang bass on many of their hit records. He and the group toured the UK three times in 1966.

Pinkney was back in the UK in 1967, this time accompanied by three singers who had never been Drifters at all. They were the unknown US band The Invitations. This was the line-up that played the Tin Hat on Friday September 29th.

The music press was soon up in arms. A reporter from Disc took it up with Tempest who argued that the promoters knew only too well they are not getting the real group. He claimed it was OK because he knew of five sets of Drifters touring the US at that time.

Tempest supplied several more acts for the Tin Hat in 1967/8, including ‘The Fabulous Temptations’ on September 15^th, 1967 (actually the Fantastics who had recently changed their name from The Velours).

James & Bobby Purify appeared on February 3^rd, 1968. It’s quite possible that the February 17th appearance by Edwin Starr was yet another tribute act.  Tempest also had a Mary Wells and a Fontella Bass act. They were the same singer.

My co-author Roger Kinsey remembers going to The Gaiety in Ramsey to see The Isley Brothers in February 1968. Were they the genuine article? Nobody knew what the genuine band looked like, and that was good enough for Tempest.

Motown eventually took legal action against him when they discovered that The Fantastics were being passed off as The Temptations and the resulting court case ended with Tempest’s bankruptcy.

Between 1967 and 1969 the Tin Hat was an important part of Kettering’s entertainment and night life. Every weekend the venue was packed to the rafters with people out to enjoy a good time. The acts that Brian booked covered almost every genre from Blues and Prog to Soul and Pop, and even jazz for a few weeks during the summer of 1967. The club was usually open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with live bands on Saturdays. Some of the descriptions of the groups make interesting reading half a century later.

People travelled to the venue from Rothwell, Desborough and Corby and from Christmas 1967 the club laid on late buses to get everyone home. The management of the club changed hands early in 1969 and an era was at an end. The venue continued for a few more years but mainly concentrated on Soul/Motown.

I looked through every back issue of the Kettering Evening Telegraph between 1962 and 1969 while researching Back Street Genius and photographed every advert for the Tin Hat.

Here is the complete list of shows

1967

Saturday, June 10^th Horatio Soul & the Square Deals Show plus, Yvonne the limbo dancer and the Q Men (opening night)

Sunday, June 11^th (Fontana recording artists) The Night People plus The Trax

Friday, June 16th (from Coventry) Inside Out

Saturday, June 17^th (from the USA) Winston G backed by The Set plus The Ironsides

Sunday, June 18^th (Top surfing performers) Deuce Coupe

Friday, June 23^rd Dimples plus Updown Round Sound (from Oxford)

Saturday, June 24^th (Surfing harmony group) The Symbols plus, The Swamp

Sunday, June 25^th Gravy Train (from Birmingham) plus Disco

Friday, July 1^st Disco

Saturday, July 2^nd Sean Buckley Big Set plus Stumbling and Falling plus Rio Moody Dancers

Sunday, July 3^rd (Radio TV and Recording stars) The Peeps

Friday, July 7^th Disco

Saturday, July 8^th (Coloured Colourful CBS Recorders) The Gass

Sunday, July 9^th Disco

Fri day, July 14^th Disco

Saturday, July 15^th Joyce Bond (Do the Teasy) Band Show

Sunday, July 16^th Jazz Disco

Saturday, July 22^nd (From London) Shell Shock Tamla Show

Friday, July 28^th Disco

Saturday, July 29^th Wynder K Frog & his Frogmen plus, The Plastic Dreamboat light show

Saturday, August 5^th The C.A.T. plus U.S.A. Flattop

Saturday, August 12^th The Syn plus The Friction

Friday, August 18^th Allan D Disco (Alan Dobson is Mavis’ brother)

Saturday, August 19^th P P Arnold with her Nice. A few weeks later they had split from her. Organist Keith Emerson later became a global superstar with Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Sunday, August 20^th Disco

Friday, August 25^th Disco

Saturday, August 26^th The Reg James Explosion plus Crash Landing

Sunday, August 27^th Disco

Friday, September 1^st Allan D Disco

Saturday, September 2nd Ebony Keys with the Hip Hooray Band (Cat Stevens’ former backing group), plus The Unit Six

Saturday, September 9^th John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with support from Pesky Gee

Friday, September 15^th The ‘Fabulous’ Temptations (this was The Fantastics) plus The Invaders

Saturday, September 16^th Root & Jenny Jackson with the Hightimers, plus Purple Barrier

Friday, September Sep 22^nd Deuce Coupe

Saturday, September 23^rd Disco

Friday, September 29^th The Original Drifters (one of Roy Tempest’s fakes)

Saturday, September 30^th Freddie Mac and the Mac Sound, plus The Survivors

Saturday, October 7^th Nite People plus Stumblin ‘n Falling Blues Band

Sunday, October 8^th Spencers Washboard Kings

Saturday, October 14^th Disco

Sunday, October 15^th Max Collie’s Rhythm Aces

Saturday, October 21^st Riot Squad plus the Triads

Sunday, October 22^nd Bill Nile’s Delta Jazzband

Friday, October 27^th Image (Kettering’s 1st and Only Light Show Scene)

Saturday, October 28^th The Gass supported by The Traxx

Friday, November 3^rd Disco

Saturday, November 4^th (From Detroit) Max Baer and the Chicago Setback support by Friction

Friday, November 10^th Allan D Disco

Saturday, November 11^th Mike Stuart Span supported by The Dream plus Rio Moody Style Dancers

Sunday, November 12^th Allan D Disco

Friday, November 17^th Allan D Disco

Saturday, November 18^th Rob Storme and the Whispers

Saturday, November 25^th Family with support from You Know Who

Saturday, December 2^nd Sugar Simone and the Programme & Mo Brown and Hellions People

Sunday, December 3^rd Allan Dee Disco

Saturday, December 9^th Pinkertons Assorted Colours plus The Heretics

Sunday, December 10^th Allan D Disco

Saturday, December 16^th P P Arnold with the TNT, plus The Crew

Sunday, December 17^th Allan D Disco

Saturday, December 23^rd Shevelles plus the Kobalts

Sunday, December 24^th Laverne West and the Fabulous Rangers Showband

Tuesday, December 26^th Swinging Q Men & the Spectre Powerhouse

Saturday, December 30^th King Ozzie, Earl Green, Honey Darling and the Coloured Raisings Show

Sunday, December 31^st Sweethearts & the Adlib Group

1968

Saturday, January 6^th Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac plus John James and the Swamp Band (from Northampton)

Saturday, January 13^th Amboy Dukes plus Surrealist Adventure

Saturday, January 20^th Triads plus the Ironsides

Saturday, January 27^th Milton James and the Harlem Knock-out, plus Sweethearts

Saturday, February 3^rd James & Bobby Purify plus Surrealist Adventure plus Rio Moody Dancers (Another Tempest fake?)

Saturday, February 10^th Bobby Johnson and the Atoms plus Vfranie

Saturday, February 17^th Edwin Starr plus Motiv (Another fake?)

Saturday, February 24^th Equals plus Magic Roundabout

Saturday, March 2^nd Guy Hamilton Sound plus Sweet Heart

Saturday, March 9^th Jimmy Cliff with Wynder K Frog, plus The Heretics

Saturday, March 16^th Pesky Gee! plus The Trade

Saturday, March 23^rd Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation

Saturday, March 30^th Chicken Shack with Christine Perfect

Saturday, April 6^th La Pelle Nero plus Howling Robin and his Cool Cats Girls a go go

Sunday, April 7^th The Symbols

Saturday, April 13^th Riot Squad plus Blue Magnum

Saturday, April 20^th Herbie Goins and the Nightimers, plus Howling Robin and his Cool Cats

Saturday, April 27^th Showstoppers plus Rupert’s Rick N Beckers (NO SHOW)

Saturday, May 4^th Nepenthe with backing group, plus The Trax

Saturday, May 11^th Hal C Blake plus Adlib plus Owlin Robin

Saturday, May 18^th Savoy Brown Blues Band plus The Friction

Saturday, May 25^th Skip Bifferty plus disco

Saturday, June 1^st Chantells plus Wild ‘n Silk Band, Sue Spencer, Kirk St James. Stage 2 Simon K and the Meantimes

Saturday, June 8^th Family

Saturday, June 15^th The Taste plus Soul Bucket Show

Saturday, June 22^nd Honeybus plus Art (from Leicester with John Deacon on bass)

Saturday, June 29^th Four Kents plus Submarines

Saturday, July 6^th Freddie Fingers Lee plus Bubblegum

Saturday, July 13^th Simon K & the Meantimers plus Trax

Saturday, July 20^th Dr K’s Big Blues Band, plus Rupert’s Rick ‘n Beckers

Saturday, July 27^th Pesky Gee! plus disco

Saturday, August 3^rd Jethro Tull

Saturday, August 10^th Vanity Fair plus disco

Saturday, August 17^th Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation

Saturday, August 24^th Freddie Mac & Mac Sound

Saturday, August 31^st Lloyd Alexander Real Estate plus Donnell Jackson & Broadway Crowd

Saturday, September 7^th The Taste plus the CAT Roadshow with US Flattop

Saturday, September 14^th Lucas and the Mike Cotton Sound

Saturday, September 21^st Billy Davis plus Bubblegum

Saturday, September 28^th Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, plus The Krisis

Saturday, October 5^th Cuby and The Blizzards (from Holland), plus Simon K and the Meantimers

Saturday, October 12^th Fearns Brass Foundry

Saturday, October 19^th Foundations plus The Market

Saturday, October 26^th Fantastics (USA) plus The Trax (They had previously played the Tin Hat as the Fabulous Temptations)

Saturday, November 2^nd Fleetwood Mac, Duster Bennett, plus Chris Shakespears Globe Show

Saturday, November 9^th Oscar Toney Junior plus Apex Big Roll Band

Saturday, November 16^th Flirtations plus Chris Bartley & group

Saturday, November 23^rd Black Cat Bones plus Bubblegum

Saturday, November 20^th The Taste plus Sonny Burke Show

Saturday, December 7^th JJ Jackson backed by Kippington Lodge

Saturday, December 14^th The CAT Roadshow feat US Flattop

Saturday, December 21^st Wynder K Frog

Tuesday, December 24^th New Formula

Saturday, December 28^th Ferris Wheel? (no separate advert)

Tuesday, December 31^st Bubblegum

1969

Saturday, January 4^th Simon K & The Meantimers

Saturday, January 11^th Radio1’s Mike Raven plus Hal C. Blake

Saturday, January 18^th Ray Williams and his Grenades

Saturday, January 25^th Sasparella

Saturday, February 1^st Plastic Penny

Saturday, February 8^th Paul Williams Set (Formerly the Alan Price Set)

Saturday, February 15^th 20th Century Show

From February 22^nd The adverts suggest that the venue had changed hands. The adverts have KAWMC printed on them. Had the club been taken over by the Kettering Athletic Working Mens Club? Within a few weeks the adverts had moved from the main entertainments page to the ‘Around the clubs’ page.

Saturday, February 22^nd (KAWMC) The Decoys & Disco

Saturday, March 1^st (KAWMC) Simon K & Meantimers

Saturday, March 8^th Closed for redecorating. Re-open April 5th

Saturday, April 5^th Soul Express plus The Ketas

Saturday, April 12^th Noel & The Fireballs plus Shelley Tane

Saturday, April 19^th Ruby James & Sound Trekkers

Saturday, April 26^th Freddie Noaks & The Rudies, plus Herbal Remedy

Wednesday, April 30^th Disco every Wednesday

Saturday, May 3^rd Status Quo

Saturday, May 10^th Killing Floor

Saturday, May 17^th The Ebonies

Friday, May 23^rd Sand

Saturday, May 24^th Jerome Arnold Band

Saturday, May 31^st Scorpions

June Mondays TTT Disco

Friday, June 6^th Disco

Saturday, June 7^th Mandrakes

Saturday, June 14^th Wellington Kitch

Saturday, June 21^st Moth

Friday, June 27^th Theodore Green

Saturday, June 28^th The Variations

July Fridays TTT Disco

Saturday, July 5^th Monday Morning Glory Band

Saturday, July 12^th Simon K & Meantimers

Saturday, July 19^th Ace Kefford Stand (former Move bass player)

Saturday, July 26^th The Axe with Rodger Bloom

Saturday, August 2^nd No Advert in paper

Saturday, August 9^th Cherry Blossom Clinic

Saturday, August 16^th Sand

Saturday, August 23^rd Ptarmigen

Saturday, August 30^th Killing Floor

Saturday, September 6^th Clouds

Saturday, September 13^th Lions of Juda (from Israel)

Saturday, September 20^th Herd (after Peter Frampton had left them)

Saturday, September 27^th Pink Cheeks

Saturday, October 4^th Epics

Saturday, October 11^th Moth

Saturday, October 18^th Max Romeo

Saturday, October 25^th Orange Bicycle

Saturday, November 1^st J J Jackson

Saturday, November 8^th Solid State Stereo Disco

Saturday, November 15^th Shirelles

Saturday, November 22^nd Freddie Mac

Saturday, November 29^th No advert in paper

Saturday, December 6^th No advert in paper

Saturday, December 13^th Diary

Saturday, December 20^th Disco

Wednesday, December 24^th Moth

Friday, December 26^th Smoke

Wednesday, December 31^st Barabus & Sand