...Friday nights and Saturday nights

 
   
St Ives Corn Exchange
 
St Ives Corn Exchange always live bands no discos back then
 
Press advertisment for the Gaiety Ramsey

 
...St Ives Corn Exchange Top Twenty Club
 

Dances were held on Friday nights in St Ives Corn Exchange. The dances were organised by promoter from Bedford known by the unlikely name of Rocky. Rocky was always accompanied by a woman that used to wear a fur coat draped across her shoulders. There was a licensed bar upstairs on the first floor. There is an interesting report in the local press published on December 1st 1962 about Rocky Rivers. This is what it said: "A pop singer who trades as Rocky Rivers of the Rocky Rivers Top Twenty Club, Corn Exchange, St Ives was fined for displaying advertising posters in Cambridge without permission. The City Council were concerned with the spread of such unauthorised posters. ‘Rocky Rivers’ claimed they’d been put up by rival groups to get him into trouble. He’d given posters to people at the club but did not know where they had been stuck." I do not think that the description pop singer is quite right. Impressario would have been a more accurate description. Rocky was always walking about keeping an eye on things but he certainly did not get up on to the stage and perform. The groups that were hired to play were often local semi pro groups. The Drifting Strangers played at the Corn Exchange on at least one ocassion for example. On other occassions the groups were full time professionals. Neil Christian and The Crusaders is one such group that I remember.Also Screaming Lord Sutch and Savages, Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, and many more.
 
   
Neil Christian and the Crusaders
 
...The Gaiety Ramsey

I never got round to going to the Gaiety, but it was a popular venue. Unlike the St Ives Corn Exchange the Gaiety was a dedicated entertainment centre. The Gaiety for example was also used for bingo sessions and roller skating amongst other things. Pictured on the right is a group that played at the Gaiety in April 1964: Jeff Curtiss and the Flames. In the sixties there were many similar groups that played all over the country. These groups were often had quite a big following, but for some reason never really made the big time. Later on in the sixties the Gaiety hosted some of the big names from the 1960's. The Who played there on three occasions. Other groups that played the Gaiety at that time included The Troggs, Peter Jay and The Jaywalkers, Led Zepplin, and many others. The Gaiety no longer exists it burnt down in the 1970's.
 
   
Jeff Curtiss and the Flames

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