The Flamingo Club in Wardour Street

You may remember that here in the news section soul source recently featured word of an article by Del (soul source member Nubes) titled "From Bebops to Backdrops" that was published in a ebook type magazine. If the london in the 60s aspect of this article was of interest then you may be interested to know that Del's passed on words that a Flamingo Club related article can be found on the " Nickel In The Machine" Website which is titled

"The Flamingo Club in Wardour Street and the fight between Johnny Edgecombe and 'Lucky' Gordon" ..

this is an 500 chrs clip of the article - use link below to view the article in full (images, video etc)

Click here to view the soul article in full

Went there once as a 15 year old teenager, bizarre place....................would have been around 1968-ish

MIKE

All I can say about the Flamingo, I have already said, however what I can't say in words was the electric atmosphere, that hit you as you entered Wardour St, the same is true for all the West End Clubs, and I suppose to some degree similar to those who go to the 100 CLUB for the 1st time, however, Today's SOHO is nothing like how it was in the 60s.

Again I have written about that,

The Flamingo differs from most clubs of the time as it was Cosmopolitan

dave

have you got the link to your posts as sure be of interest to anyone reading this

cheers

mike

Yeah, put the links up please!

Yeah, put the links up please!

I,d have thought the only links you,d be able to get would be googled stuff available to anyone. It was the 60,s! I know blokes a bit older than me who used to go there and and the one thing in common they said about the place was it was extremely dodgy.

This is how it looks today. Was bored at work so went for a wander!

I went to the Flamingo,back in the 60s-also" The Roaring Twenties"(Carnaby Street).Both Clubs were excellent,but,you had to watch yourself.

i went to an alniter as a 15 year old taken by older mates, in wardour street , the marquee club even got the membership card somewhere , i was treated as an alien with my broad yorkshire accent. lot of very flash women and heavy duty broad shouldered west end criminals -very evil ,kray twins stomping ground, a bottle of coke was 10 shillings ! a weeks pocket money!

my parents used to go to the flamingo from norwich in the 50s and early 60s...aswell as ronnie scotts...finished by 62 as my older brother (a yate,st ives go-er) was born...so im third generation of niter go-er!!

my auntie and mums best friend were both seeing black american servicemen..auntie got married to one sadly we are no longer it touch..especially from a record buying point of view!! :-)...i can remember in the 70s when we were in touch my parents would be clubbing with them again at the usaf bases around norfolk...where they would have soul bands flown in from the states to perform...sadly she cant remember any names

they were the bessed dressed teens in norwich with the clothes they got from london and it was the first place she'd seen drugs...although she never took them....

dean

Interesting. Lots always written about the black american servicemen attending the Flamingo, but this is the first time I have come across

a family link such as yours. Great.

HI I Will try and get more stuff for this thread. as Chief has stated and I written, i agree that my reasons for attending are from a 17 year old BB in SOHO, for a in depth insight I know the right people but lost contact years ago the LAWRANCE TINS GRAHAM & MICHEAL, come to mind John MacCellycot a razor boy, shot a copper on the corner with sawn of double barrel, derrick Smedley who was a regular at the SCENE, NIGEL KILWORTH my older brother TILES FLAMINGO NIGHT OWL, UPERCUT RAM JAM, all the people were recognised fighters with reputations the truth is the SOUL SCENE AND THE WESTINDIAN CLUBS attracted as stated the underworld and in the main was run as a place to consume DRUGS and alcohol, they all had a link to gambling, and a large percentage of the females wanted one thing your money, This rule was in place even at Stevenage MECCA the CALI, Dunstable and the ROYAL TOTENHAM, The typical chat would be excuse me fancy a dance, the girl would always have a mate and if you did not have someone to dance with her you got turned down but the 2 questions no matter what they did would be have you got a motor and aren't you gonna buy me a drink, if you fell for that one, ok yeah what do you want? the reply was brandy & babycham ok followed don't forget my mate oh Ill have a merrydown and can you put a vodka in, if the girl was black it was a Pony & rum

9i went through phase of knocking handbags as I sussed out that only girls committed this crime most bags had the same stuff in and most purses just had bus fair or half the taxi fair, these are just normal girls, the whole night was spent trying to get the most of a bloke and never be there at the end, this is what took me by surprise when I went to the early norther allnighters people would say sorry if they bumped into you, if that happened at the FLAMINGO and you did not challenge you where suspected of being an iron from Old Compton street?