[Pits Around Nottingham.]

I joined the No 6 Area as an apprentice fitter in 1965. Went to Arnold and Carlton College and the Training Centre at Hucknall. Was assigned to Linby and did surface stints there but never got as far as working underground. Moved into the Coal Board Labs at Cinderhill instead.

Did a visit down Ormonde before I left school. Only other pit I went down was the Hucknall Training Pit and much more recently I went down Parsonage Colliery near Leigh in Lancs. Part of the Parsonage/Bickershaw Golborne complex. Bloody deep and bloody hot. Lifting roadways and buckling rings everywhere.

My Dad, Grandad, Great Grandad and Great, Great Grandad all lived in Bestwood Colliery and all worked in the pit from around the time it opened in the 1860s. Great Great Grandad Samuel is still firmly planted in St Marks Churchyard. Died 1898. Makes you think.

Grandad later had the Bestwood Hotel in Bestwood Colliery Village.

Dad later worked at Linby before retiring with 'the dust'.

Brother worked at Linby and various others as the pits dwindled and is now a painter and decorator.

Uncle, Harry Johns was some sort of manager at Linby. Another uncle Frank Radford was a rope splicer.

Last time I was 'home', the refurb job on the Bestwood Headstocks was looking great, but the Bestwood Hotel was looking very sad.

It's a funny thing. Back in the 50s and 60s, there was such a sense of life about the area. Collieries and steam railways everywhere. I lived very close to Bulwell Common Station. Now, although the whole area is much more built up and the roads especially are much busier, it's just not the same. It feels empty and dead.

Col

[360 Club Bulwell]

I DJ'd there in the 60s

We were called 'The Magic Roundabout Disc Show! ( posh eh?)

I was the handsome one.... !rotfl!

There was Dave Pickering ('Manager') Dave Cartwright, and yours truly (DJ's) Also Tony Hay. Still in touch with both of them but 'Picko' seems to have dropped off the radar.

A lad called 'Patch' Prewit (Sp?) from Hucknall also used to guest DJ. Sadly, I'm told he passed away some time ago.

The Manager of the 360 at the time was called Don Cleaver.

We useter book in many of the local bands too. Sometimes we would have up to three bands on in one night.

We also did stints at Robinson's Hill Social Club and the Carlton Hotel, as well as the usual '1 off' bookings.

Some of the best days of my life and I really miss those times.

[Aahhdooo]

Thanks folkss!

Did a search for 360 last night but couldn't find it so I started a new thread.

[Hi-Fi old and new]

I'm currently (no pun intended) using a pretty much all valve set-up, but modern .

I have a Linn Lp 12 turntable with a Linn Lingo Power supply. (It provides a clean power supply to the motor for accurate and smooth running. Also allows for electronic speed change.)

An Esoteric Audio Research all valve phono stage.

A Papworth Audio Technology PPA6 pre amp.

A pair of Papworth M100 all valve mono power amps.

and a pair of Rogers Studio 3 Speakers.

Also use a TEAC P-30 CD Transport, with a Benchmark DAC 1 Digital to analogue converter.

I used to have a Rogers Cadet 3. With the right speakers it is a little gem.

When I was DJ ing at the 360 club, we used a pair of Leak 50 mono valve amps in 'dual mono' configuration.

The best of the old hi-fi can easily compete with modern stuff. The Garrard 301/401 and Thorens TD150 and TD124 decks. Leak TL12, Stereo 20, etc., amps. Quad II amps etc. Tannoy 'Dual Concentric' speaker units also superb.

Little known fact: The run of 'Quad II Celebration' amps marketed in the late 90s, were in fact manufactured by Papworth of Cambridge whose products I useter distribute. Some were manufactured in Gold Plate finish, and fitted with Solid Silver ameplates. They were supplied in Red Velvet Bags, inside substantial boxes.

Very nice.. if you had £6k..

Col

[Carl's Fables]

Coming back on topic.....

We useter book Carl's Fables into the 360 Club Bulwell regularly. In fact at one point, probably about 1969/70, they had a regular Sunday night spot. They had a fan who followed them about and would get up and sing Sam Cooke's 'Another Saturday Night', and also 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

As I recall, Carl was originally from Birkenhead.

Last time I saw them , I wandered into the Rose at Strelley, with my girlfriend. (Also from Merseyside. We've now been married for 38 years..)

Carl made a bit of a show of me!

I'll get him back one day.

Col

[The Penguin Cafe]

I used to hang around the Penguin Cafe in the early/mid 60's I knew the name Elijah Day, but he was more of a legend and belonged more to the 50s than the 60s I believe. I was 16 in 1965 and hung around there on my not so special Royal Enfield Crusader. Names I remember from that time are Everett Kirk ( Another great name!) who ISTR had a C12 and later an A10. My still very good friend Dave Cartwright who rode a 350 Ajay and then an A10. (Now riding a very posh Harley) Johnny Mills ( Now passed on I believe), who was famous for laying his Ariel 'Golden Arrow' so low around the market place that he left a white stripe from his fairing.

There was a deaf mute chap who used to turn up on a very smart Velocette. Viper? Venom? I forget the difference.

Somebody had a Square Four and another guy had an Ariel 600 Twin.

Our friend Roy Hardy used to ride to work on a BSA 150 Bantam Major, with a home made seat and expansion box and the biggest SU carb you've ever seen. Roy bought a luvverly Red 250 Dot and went scrambling on weekends. (I think the youngsters call it 'Moto Cross' now...) I have some pictures of him somewhere, racing at Teversal

My second cousin Pete Chambers, whose parents had a grocer's shop opposite the Black Horse (closed down even then) on the Coventry Road/Hempshill Lane junction, used to ride a stripped down Beeza with a ZB32 Goldie engine on the old Sankey Tip. We had great fun being dragged by Pete's bike, up the concrete pad in an old tin bath.

One of the saddest and funniest things I saw: Two chaps who I knew only by sight. One rode, I think, a C15 and the other a Tiger Cub. C15 guy passes test and buys a beautiful Super Road Rocket. Tiger Cub chap 'mithers' him all night for a ride. Road Rocket man eventually gives in but with strict instructions to 'take it easy'. Tiger cub man takes Road Rocket, with its owner on pillion slowly from the Penguin Cafe to the Youth Club, turns round and is heading back when inexplicably he winds it up, totally fails to negotiate the slight dogleg coming back to the market place and takes out a couple of bollards. In less than a minute all wreckage is hidden up the alley at the side of the Penguin, two very shaken bikers are sitting on the step trying to look casual and the police, who only live yards away on Highbury Vale are asking questions about who broke the bollards. They never found out.

I have many other memories of that area and those times.

Col

[cafes and pubs for old Rockers]

Brian Exton had his own Motorcycle shop on Coventry Rd Bulwell and later moved to Carey Rd/St Albans Rd next door to the railway crossing, he has had many a pound note off me in the past. He also built an all alloy/chrome BSA 500cc Gold Star and sold it to a Johnny Harback who wrecked it not long after, best looking Goldie I have ever seen!!

Hi!

I remember Brian Exton well, both his shop in Coventry Road and the later one in Carey Road. I bought various bit off him for my Royal Enfield Crusader Sport.

I well remember the Goldie. Everything that wasn't either rubber or leather was polished alloy or chrome. I lusted after that machine but since I only had a prov license and no money it was all a bit pointless. The story I heard was that it was built for show purposes (though not, as I understood it, by Brian.) I was told he acquired it and was selling it on, but wouldn't swear to that.

What I would swear to though is that it was a 350 goldie, not a 500. I know it was damaged in an accident shortly afterwards. The story I heard was that he was pulling out of a sidestreet and parked delivery wagon or summat reversed over him/it.

Col

[360 Club Bulwell]

Surely somebody here must remember the great nights at the 360 in the late 60s/early 70s?

I was one of the DJs with the Magic Roundabout Disc Show. We did weekends and a couple of week nights at the upstairs room at the 360. Dave Cartwright also DJd and Dave Pickering was our 'Business Manager' . Dave ran a few 360 reunions at Bestwood Miner's Welfare in the late 90s. We also used to book in lots of local bands like The Clockwork Toys, Sons and Lovers, Nerve, Carl's Fables, Whichwhat and many more, including the curiously named 'Lambs of the World' who included Mick Vaughan, later famous in Paper Lace.

Also bands from further afield, Like Mickey's Monkeys (Sheffield?) Tiny Davis Soul's A Go Go and Samson, from Darn Sarf...

We even had Root n Jenny Jackson once, but we lost a fortune because nobody believed we'd got them and very few turned up.

Love to hear from anyone who remembers those days and would be delighted if anyone has photo's.

Col

[Aahhdooo]

New 'ere mesen!

Dragged up on Bestwood Est. Went to High Pavement as a near contemporary of Fred Shipman. Worked at Coal Board Labs Cinderhill, Whitely Read, various bulding sites and factories. Also DJ with the world renowned ( ) Magic Roundabout Disco in the late 60s with residencies at the 360 Club Bulwell, Robinson's Hill Social Club, Carlton Hotel etc. Great days...

[Nottingham clubs in the 60s - 80s]

Hello folks! I'm new here, but I'm an ex-pat Nottinghamian living in Merseyside for the last 30+ years.

Well remember the Belvedere Club, the Three Boat Clubs and the Beachcomber. Saw loads of bands including: Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull Jeff Beck Band feat. Rod Stewart, Cliff Bennet and the Rebel Rousers, Long John Baldry, Cream (At the former Nottm. Tech) Jr Walker and Geno Washington, both at the Palais. Pentangle at the Albert Hall and most memorably Ray Charles at the Odeon when I was about 13.

Worked briefly with Alvin Lee's Dad. He was a site engineer of some sort on tunnelling projects putting in sewers around Bestwood/Bulwell.