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Hey Scriv, re the fire brigade at horse and jockey, that was one of my promotions, booked them with their original singer and later with that crazy one who was great singer, at a later booking said singer took some lead of mine at end of night by accident, asked others in band where he lived and they said didn't know, they just phoned him and he came to bookings on the bus! think him and wayne vizard went off on some cruise ships when DT/FB ceased to exist? Also booked Dawn Trader at Tiffany's in town, at that gig Graham Neale asked my mate (our band's manager who didn't know who or what Graham Neale was) what he thought of them, his reply of "be alright once they learn to play" didn't go down well!

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That's the pub!

Nah Heart of the Midlands is now Rock City Sherwood rooms changed to the Astoria then MGM and now called Ocean not to be confused with the old Palais / Ritzy now Oceana

Oh I say! not on to describe the fair maidens thus,

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on about old rock venues or similar things well most people know that i was the rock jock at the palais but thats another story ,i remember seeing sassafrass (too many s's i think) at clarendon collage with barry foster's wheels,then the week after i saw gong and some other band then i saw the sensational alex harvey band with the heavy metal kids at notts university and then to round off the year i went so see a band called home and supporting them at the last minute was judas priest and didn't keith white drum for dawn trader or abk? sorry if i'm being boring

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Re The palais, the revolving floor was in the downstairs room, my dad was one of team who fitted it pre ww2 when he worked for furse, my own "claim to fame" workwise was the gates at wilford hill crem,the ones that closed as coffin went through! (now maybe removed?)When we stated with our band Sovereign it was our greatest ambition to play The Imperial! we finally did ( a few times) Remember once there we had a "fan" who would go mad headbanging during a certain solo, often on his own and arranged (with him) for 2 guys in white coats to come and take him away! Anyway alot got up this particular night and what with the lights, strobe and fog machine they got the wrong guy! they thought "he" was acting for effect when he started shouting "ger off" "leave me alone" etc!

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@ metal_micky

I remember the gig Barry's band played at Clarenden - it was Ian Dury's old band Kilburn and the High Roads they supported.

Home were a brilliant band, had a great guitarist called Laurie Wisefield who later joined Wishbone ash and is now doing the War of the Worlds gig.

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Yes Keith was in both those, mentioned elsewhere Andy Keeley played with Noel Redding of hendrix fame, another good guitarist played for matarka, think he later had fame with a band maybe called "Room 101"? One of best local players I ever knew is a guy called Mick, never really played with a band but nearest thing to hendrix I heard, actually played in front of Jimmy's dad at an hendrix convention

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  • 1 month later...

Hi new to the forum and thought I would add some memories here. I used to frequent some of the rock 'venues' in the 80's

The Boat, brilliant on a Fri/Sat nights

The Imperial - I think only one night a week when there wasnt some form of rock music on.

Potters Bar, Beckhampton Road (although I dont think it was called Potters Bar at the time can anyone remind me what it was called?)- Tuesdays

Morts - what ever happened to Vern (I think his name was spelled Werner)

Rock City - some great bands

Bierkeller - cosy!

Nice to meet you all.

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Talkin of rock city i am going there on 12th september to see Livewire(ac/dc tribute band)and Limehouse Lizzy who i have seen a couple of times before and they were great. Is anybody else going? Chrissy. x

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on about old rock venues or similar things well most people know that i was the rock jock at the palais but thats another story ,

The most sensational band that I recall seeing at the Palais were the Kinks in the early 70's, Ray Davies, out of his head and wearing a white suit was something else. I remember him doing 'Ceegretes and Whisky and Wild Wild Women' and spraying bottles of Nut Brown all over the audience, unbelievable performance, were you DJ that night.

I watched a programme about the history of the blues on BBC4 the other night and noted Keith Richards taking the p1$$ out of '10 Years After'. I recall going to see their 'triumphant' Palais concert following their Woodstock moment and thinking 'Hmmmm I've seen better bands at the Imperial'.

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Anybody remember Status Quo at the Palais? I think there were more people behind the bar than in the audience, I don't think more than 50 people turned up.

I thought the Ten Years After gig was ok but you're right, there were also some great bands playing at the Imperial.

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That reminds me of when we put "Becky Bondage" on at the Mardi Gras, 10 barstaff , 5 bouncers, 3 glass collectors, 2 kitchen staff, 2 cloakroom attendents, 5 paying customers !!!!!!!

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Saw Judas Priest at Grey Topper Jacksdale, full light show, the big gong etc, were about 8 people there, later after becoming multi millionaires saw a feature on them in NME I think, guess what was "worst gig ever" according to them!

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I can think of a few empty gigs in Nottingham.

'The Average White Band' at Nottingham University, nobody, including us, had heard of them at the time and I don't think that their brand of Soul Classics went down very well. It made a change though and about half a dozen of us had an empty hall to bop around in. A few months later and they were selling out in the USA.

John Martyn's performance at Trent Poly, much to his annoyance he was shoved in a side room next to the bar where about 30 of us had the luxury of actually having chairs to sit on. Unfortunately there were far more people in the bar who kept drunkenly wandering past him to get to the toilets. At one point JM threatened to leave, don't blame him.

Worst attended concert was for 'Thunderclap Newman' featuring Roger Ruskin Spears Kinetic Circus. Again in the Portland Building, it was so poorly patronised that they were shoved in a small lecture theatre. After bumbling through 'Something in the Air', RRS, formerly of the Bonzo's, was thrust apon us with his robots that kept breaking down, the few people that were in there all walked out, my pal refused to leave as he felt so sorry for the band, but unfortunately started having a row with the departing audience, which made matters worse. In the end I seem to remember one of the robots caught fire and we had to vacate the room anyway.

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Thinking of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band has reminded me of another 'classic' performance.

Following the break up of the band, and if you never saw them live, you never lived, Viv Stanshall formed his own group of lunatics, except they weren't very funny.

Somebody had the bright idea of putting them on as support to Procul Harum at the Albert Hall.

On came Stanshall, absolutely out of his head and proceeded to be an embarasment.

When Procul Harum eventually came on, all went well at first until Viv Stanshall appeared at the side of the stage, lay on his back and proceeded to chain smoke joints.

When it was time for the grand finale of Whiter Shade of Pale, Stanshall and his cronies grabbed a mike and attempted to sing along to it, Gary Brooker was not impressed, if looks could kill!! Eventually an army of roadies tried to remove Stanshall from the stage and it all became rather chaotic, good fun though.

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yes "Ashley Promotions" failed miserably on more than one occasion putting bands on late 70's/early 80's! worst was at Regency Rooms Ilkeston when I was sent wrong band! same name but instead of long haired barstewards from hell, it was nice boys in pink suits type of thing! nearly a riot! Another was Paralex at Tiffany's in Nottingham, on both occasions loads there but poor reactions

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Were you the one that organised the Pink Floyd gig at Trent Poly Ashley.

All the gear was onstage in the gym, but no band. After a very long wait and much slow handclapping, the band eventually turned up. Roger Waters explained that the promoter had told them to be at the Nottm Uni Portland Building by mistake. He said that the Nottingham Uni people were most impressed when they walked in, but couldn't really play without their instruments. I could imagine an accoustic version of The Dark Side of The Moon taking place in the Buttery Bar, it would have been interesting.

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  • 3 months later...

Some of the band members from Dawn Trader are still going strong but in different directions -

http://www.carnabyrocks.com/about%20us.html

http://www.krusadeclassicrock.co.uk/

I used to work at the same place as Mick Preston.

Dawn Trader have reformed. Check out their website. www.dawntrader.net. Appearing live at The Greyhound Pub, Beeston on the 23rd Dec. 09. Not to be missed.

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  • 10 months later...

Saw Judas Priest at Grey Topper Jacksdale, full light show, the big gong etc, were about 8 people there, later after becoming multi millionaires saw a feature on them in NME I think, guess what was "worst gig ever" according to them!

Hi Ashley

I’m a writer from Jacksdale and am just putting the finishing touches to a book about the Grey Topper

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/united11/Topper_Cover.JPG

You put the following on the forum

‘Saw Judas Priest at Grey Topper Jacksdale, full light show, the big gong etc, were about 8 people there, later after becoming multi millionaires saw a feature on them in NME I think, guess what was "worst gig ever" according to them!’

Wondered if you could tell me a bit more about this? What was the full light show? And what was the big gong? Sounds like you’re saying they put on a stadium show for 8 people! Be typical Topper.

Best wishes

Tony

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re Judas Priest probably about 1975? yes full light show, strobes, much 4 x12's, remote mixer desk etc, the big gong? not sure of proper name but you can see such in promo pics of band from that era, sort of massive (5ft across?) cymbal that hung vertically at back of drums, as mentioned hardly anybody there but they went through full stage act, with no complaints etc, guess getting paid anyway and treated as a rehearsal? Never did book Priest, they were regular at Plough and Harrow Hucknall 1973/74 saw them as 3 piece there first time and you could tell going to be good, though Halford a then shy young man! but of course with that voice, about same time a more popular band at plough were Sweaty Betty, real power! At one time they lived with Black Sabbath in same house in Birmingham, all were evicted as couldn't afford rent!

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That's great Ashley (what's your 2nd name I'll quote you in the book?)Just looking at the Grey Topper booking list for 1975. Yep Judas Priest on there 3 times! And I can tell you they got paid £125 (for the whole band!) or 60% of the attendance figures, so guess they opted for £125 if there was only 8 people there.

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Hi Ashley, I remember Sweaty Betty at the Plough and Harrow,they also played the Premier, Ilkeston. In 1973/4 these were known as punk rock bands, now they would be called thrash metal.

So know you all know, punk rock was alive and well at biker's pubs long before Mclaren hijacked the name.

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We always knew such as rock, there were punk bands about at that time, I recall seeing one called Bethnal at Hucknall Miners Welfare, much gobbing on the audience, but also great version of Baba O Riley c/w with electric violin, did mention Parachute as my worst booking, just remembered another, "Factory" at Regency Rooms Ilkeston, much hype etc but not v good, (never book an unseen band)

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