I probably shouldn’t dwell on the past quite so much but I think I’m just trying to make sense of the times we’ve lived through because at the time, I took them for granted as the way things were and, I thought, always would be.
Today I’d like to talk about all the venues we used to go to to see bands which are no longer there. Places that many of us only saw on the tour listings or on live albums. Familiar locations that we took for granted until one day they were not there. I’m sure this is a common experience. I know America has a habit of mercilessly knocking down much-loved stadiums, which must feel like having a bit of your life rubbed out.
Many venues are still there, of course, but so many places have disappeared that you were once familiar with. Take an obvious one like The Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park. It is part of British rock’s heritage and where many live albums were recorded, like Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert. It’s now a Brazilian Pentecostal church, ironic really since it used to echo to so much holy rock n roll.
Down in the southwest was Cornwall Coliseum at St. Austell which is now demolished but was on most comprehensive tour schedules in the 1970s. It was one of the largest indoor venues of its kind during the 1980s. It had a licensed capacity of 3,400 standing. A huge structure nearby the beach, it must have heard some rock n roll.
Earls Court in London was a major venue which we all probably went to at some point. It was a bit knackered in the 80’s. Famously it hosted Led Zeppelin in 1975, but it was apparently pulled down in 2014. I didn’t even know that. I thought it was still there.
Friars in Aylesbury, a small unassuming market town, was famous for years. Genesis played there and Marillion lived nearby. Tangerine Dream played too as well as at a range of cathedrals, which are very much still there.
West Runton Pavilion was on most bands' tour list. It was an out of the way, off the beaten track place on the North Norfolk Coast It was demolished in 1987. The Pavilion, originally a sports hall, began hosting dances during the Second World War and I seem to recall was popular in the punk years.
Klooks Kleek was on the first floor of the Railway Hotel, West Hampstead, north-west London. Named after "Klook's Clique", a 1956 album by jazz drummer Kenny Clarke, the club opened on 11 January 1961 with special guest Don Rendell (tenor sax) and closed nine years later on 28 January 1970 after a session by Keef Hartley’s group. Such clubs saw the birth of the touring circuit. Ten Years After recorded Undead here and I think John Mayall made ‘John Mayall Plays John Mayall' there too.
Redcar jazz club hosted Cream, Free, Yes, Curved Air and Pink Floyd among others in the ballroom of the Coatham Hotel, a grand Victorian building. The ballroom, which was the location of the weekly concerts, occupied a later extension to the building on the unfinished east end, the original builder apparently having run out of money in the 1870s. It was owned by Charles Amer, who was the jazz band leader of the Charles Amer Orchestra.
In the early 1970s, bands became too large, both for the small audiences which could fit in the ballroom, and the small stage which had to accommodate ever larger amounts of equipment. The club folded, and the hotel has been renovated into luxury apartments, under the name Regency Mansions. Such places did well at the start of the rock era when places to play were not yet an established circuit.
Similarly, Redcar Coatham Bowl hosted conferences and gigs in the 1970s and served what I thought was the ultimate in sophistication; chicken and chips in a basket. I saw Racing Cars and Tiger there and an ill-advised Penetration gig where Mr Longhair (me) was surrounded by punks . It was pulled down 10 years ago.
Glasgow Apollo was initially known as Green's Playhouse, the 4th side of Humble Pie’s Eat It was recorded there, before it became the Apollo. It was a crumbling edifice from the start. Because audiences were so raucous, a lot of live albums like AC/DC’s If You Want Blood, Quo Live and bits of Gary Moore’s We Want Moore…were recorded there. The stage was high up and lumps of plaster fell off the ceiling. Everyone who was anyone played there and a lot who were nothing. It was demolished in 1987. Last gig? Style Council.
Cinema’s were popular venues. In my hometown of Stockton, it had two big ones the Odeon and The Globe, later the ABC, which hosted the Beatles on the day Kennedy was shot. Birmingham Odeon was one such big picture house which became legendary in the 1970s and is still there in changed form. It used to be a major venue for the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Who and ELP but in 1988 it was made into a multiplex cinema.
Mothers in Erdington, Birmingham, was a significant club gig for three years. It opened in 1968. The club, run by John Singer, John 'Spud' Taylor and promoter Phil Myatt and closed its doors on 3 January 1971. Between those dates more than 400 acts performed there, many of whom went on to great success.
Well-known live recordings made in Mothers include those released by Pink Floyd on Ummagumma, recorded on 27 April 1969 and parts of "Facelift" by Soft Machine, released on Third, recorded on 11 January 1970.
Rory Gallagher's band Taste played regularly, The Who performed their rock opera Tommy there. Traffic's debut took place at the club, and fledgling heavy metal bands like Deep Purple, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath played some of their earliest gigs there.
You wouldn’t expect to see Cream, Pink Floyd and Hendrix on the same bill in Spalding, a little market town in the east midlands but in 1967 you could. They’d put on shows for anyone who paid. These days it auctions flower bulbs and has a blue plaque on the Red Lion where Hendrix stayed. I’ve had a meal in there. It was a pound and held in what is effectively a giant shed on a sunny Spring Bank Holiday. 6,000 was the capacity but double that came.
Kirklevington Country Club, or The Kirk, near to where I grew up, near Yarm, did food and was thought to be very sophisticated and posh. It put bands on from the mid 60s to mid 80s before it was demolished after going through several refurbs. Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Moody Blues and many, many more all played. It was so posh they sold cans of imported Fosters lager, which is terrible stuff. Initially, it was a converted petrol station and in fact kept a forecourt selling petrol into the 80s! One of the owners managed Chris Rea!
There are dozens of places that used to put on gigs, perhaps it’s amazing so many still do exist. Often the only reference to them is on live albums and old gig posters. As a kid I poured over tour schedules and wondered what these almost mythic places were like. I’d go as far as to say that, along with football, it educated me geographically.
