But going to hear live music was even better

One of the first things that my brother did for me in a meaningful way was to take me to Wimbledon Town Hall and to The Royal Festival Hall to see The Chris Barber Jazz Band, live. This set the tone for me once I started work and had some money. I was also fortunate that my best friend loved jazz as I did and, although he was 16 months younger than me and thus still at school, was keen to join me in my trips.

The visits started to 100 Oxford Street - Jazzshows as it was known then. This was a famous jazz club in Oxford Street in central London. Now, think about it. We were 16 and 14 so what did we do every Saturday night, plus any other night that we could - meet  at St. Leonard's Church in Streatham, get on a 159 bus to Oxford Circus and then a 3/4 mile walk down Oxford Street - on our own. Try that nowadays!


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Who did we see? Not Chris Barner, funnily enough - his band only seemed to do big concerts. The list we saw included Acker Bilk, Mick Mulligan - with George Melly, Terry Lightfoot, Alex Welsh very occasionally and, best of all, The Mike Daniels Delta Jazz Band - oh how we loved Mike Daniels - especially when they played with two trumpets and two trombones on Maryland, My Maryland. I can't find Mike Daniels playing this but here is the Chris Barber version:



A lot of what were called 'beatniks' used to go and do some very strange leapy type of dance to the music but Roger and I were there for the sounds. As I used to say - there is nothing like sitting on the edge of the band stand with the drips from Acker's clarinet coming down your neck!

There were two big extras that used to happen. Sometimes they would get a guest band in. Three I remember particularly:

The Back O'Town Syncopators from Manchester. I saw them live when I was in Manchester - at the Three Coins Jazz Club - where - in Fountain Street of course. They were great because they had two banjos - remember I was playing the banjo at this time.

Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band over from Norway - I had some records of theirs so that was a great evening.

Best of all and rarely to be beaten was the visit by The Dutch Swing College. What a night! In fact when the DSC came to Ipswich some years ago I reminded them of that night. Of course, there is no one in the band now who was there but still I made my point. Funnily enough, they didn't show a lot of interest. I suppose that every old buffer like me tells them of such occasions. Mind you - a half hearted Wow would have been nice.

The other extra that we always enjoyed was when someone else dropped in to join in. I am sure that this happened quite often but there are only two particular people I remember - Long John Baldry, who was a top class blues singer at the time. He used to drop in quite regularly and sing a few songs with the band.



The other particular regular 'dropper in' was Beryl Brydon who was a huge woman that specialised in the sort of raunchy jazz songs that Bessie Smith used to do. She often had her washboard along so it got very noisy.



I did go to a few other clubs but not seriously. I had a few good nights at Ken Collyer's Club just off the Charing Cross Road but he was a bit to strictly New Orleans for me.

Eventually girls and things put a stop to such gallivanting and we moved on a bit with our music - well I did anyway. By now I was with the girl of my dreams (I hope she is reading this) and going to Jazz Clubs with Roger wasn't really on the agenda. Also, I was heavily into Rhythm and Blues so it was the Marquee club for me on a Wednesday night - oh and of course I dragged her along!

The Marquee was originally in Oxford, just over the road from Jazz Shows but it moved to Wardour Street when the cinema above wanted the basement for another cinema.

Our evenings started by listening to Alex Korner's Blues Incorporated who were the biggest exponent of Rhythm and Blues in the UK. Eventually, they got too big for the club and off they went. However, their Harmonica player - Cyril Davis, broke away and formed his own band to fill the slot now empty. The new band - The All Stars included Long John Baldry as singer and Dick Heckstall-Smith on Saxophone.



The All Stars with Long John Baldy Singing

These were great evenings. However, we arrived one evening to be told that Cyril Davies had died and a band from Richmond - The Rolling Stones would play. We didn't know these and were unsure if they were any good! The permanent slot was taken over by a young group called The Yardbirds - including Eric Clapton. We had some great nights but it became obvious that the love of R&B wasn't a joint love so we found other things to do.

The other big live event in my life came on the Saturday night before my first date with Valerie. I went to the Royal Festival Hall, on my own, to a memorable concert given by Count Basie. If you only hear the UK National Anthem played once, then this is the band to play it!

During the period before Valerie (BV in biblical terms) I also went to a couple of memorable plays at The Mermaid Theatre. Both were written by Spike Milligan. The Bed Sitting Room was immortalised in a film and "The Royal Commission Review was memorable for having The Temperance Seven included - they were very big in jazz at that time. There were 9 in The Temperance Seven as they were "always one over the eight". For those not aware, that was a sixties euphemism for being drunk. A fitting end to the episode: