OK Tony - Were there any
strange or unusual gigs ?
Some crazy nights stick in my memory. Not least, has to be the all-nighter we
did at The Sea Cadet hut in Cambridge during the miners strike where we coped
with a standby generator.
Then there was the all-nighter we did on a boat called The Vicountess of Bury.
That was great, but every time we slowed down to go through the locks, the
generator lost power, so we heard several 45’s at 33rpm - that was funny.
In 1975, I was DJ’ing at places like The Civic Hall Whitchurch, The Carlton Club in Warrington and EASC gigs at Cleethorpes. Driving through the Lincolnshire fog was terrible. Sometimes, we wouldn’t even get to the venue before 4am for a late set on the pier or at the Winter Gardens.
Right,
tell us about JJ Barnes and how that came about
Well, it was just one of those - right place, right time things
"JJ Barnes Was Coming To The UK"
Tina and I were in London at Contempo records (home of Blues and Soul magazine)
when we overheard a telephone call revealing that JJ Barnes was coming to the UK
to perform a few dates.
Ten minutes later I was talking to the tour operator regarding a booking at The
Howard Mallett. He told me that JJ Barnes was appearing at some local American
air bases and there was a spare slot in his schedule.
"I'll Never forget that Night"
I got back to Cambridge and put the idea to Dennis
Maxted who was running the Mallet - he turned it down flat. Anyway after another
hours discussion, I agreed to go 50/50 with the club and the deal was done.
I’ll never forget that night, arriving at 6pm and the queue was already 50 yards
long. By 8pm the place was packed to the rafters and it was one of the best Soul
Nights we ever had in Cambridge.
JJ Barnes has always been a firm favourite and Please Let Me In, Real
Humdinger & Our Love Is In The Pocket are three records I’d never want to be
without.
Further acts followed - Robert Knight and Johnny Johnson and The Bandwagon. They
were great days and The Mallett was the “spiritual” home of northern soul in
Cambridgeshire and to some extent throughout East Anglia at that time.
Tell
us about some of your early favourite Northern Soul Records and where you got
them
There were so many great sounds around in those days, particularly some from the
Twisted Wheel that we started playing in Cambridge.
The Parliaments, Jackie Lee, Bob Relf, Dottie Cambridge, Donald Height and Dobie
Gray. Great tunes that have stood the test of time.
I remember meeting Alan Day at Bletsoe All Nighter in 1971 and he introduced me to some belting sounds like Chubby Checker, Mamie Galore, Fred Hughes and Sandi Sheldon.
He
had a shop in Burton on Trent, so that was a regular haunt. Soul Bowl in Kings
Lynn were major suppliers of rarities to collectors and DJ’s The Charades,
Superiors, Roy Hamilton, James Barnett were all early purchases.
"You were lucky to get paid ten pounds for a gig"
How’s this for a memory? One night at The Torch I bought Robert Knight and Lenis Guess for the combined total of eleven quid, that was a lot of money then, bearing in mind you were lucky to get paid ten pounds for a gig!
Above : Jackie Lee - Oh My Darlin'
Left : Sandi Sheldon's You're Gonna Make Me Love You
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