do any of you rememember a allnighter in Willenhall called St Giles, lasted for about a year and was held in a church hall, Pep and Searling played there ? and for the older pepes do any of you remember the lads from the torch , Tildesly , Big Willy , Booper , Smokey, Bob Lacey , Bob Dryden, Ponney Haywood (R.I.P). How about the Cats Rats (Catacombs) Ric Tic , Eggy , Jerry stack , Aggy , et al , .are these lads still about ? or do any of you ever see them now.

  On 22/04/2010 at 20:20, joecool said:

do any of you rememember a allnighter in Willenhall called St Giles, lasted for about a year and was held in a church hall, Pep and Searling played there ? and for the older pepes do any of you remember the lads from the torch , Tildesly , Big Willy , Booper , Smokey, Bob Lacey , Bob Dryden, Ponney Haywood (R.I.P). How about the Cats Rats (Catacombs) Ric Tic , Eggy , Jerry stack , Aggy , et al , .are these lads still about ? or do any of you ever see them now.

There's a thread somewhere about allnighters and I mentioned that St Giles was my first, think it ran for at least 2 years though just into 1977. The building is still there but derelict I think. Of all the people you mention, Aggy is on here as Agentsmith, who of course DJ'd at Sammies with Swoz, Max, Pep and loads of top name guests.

  On 23/04/2010 at 07:40, Pete S said:

There's a thread somewhere about allnighters and I mentioned that St Giles was my first, think it ran for at least 2 years though just into 1977. The building is still there but derelict I think. Of all the people you mention, Aggy is on here as Agentsmith, who of course DJ'd at Sammies with Swoz, Max, Pep and loads of top name guests.

Ian " Ric Tic " Popple is also on SS , but for the life of me I cannot remember what he logs in as .

Malc Burton

Edited April 23, 201015 yr by Malc Burton

Slightly off topic but what ever happened to Pep?

  On 23/04/2010 at 08:03, BIGSOULMAN said:

Slightly off topic but what ever happened to Pep?

Went to run a hotel in Wales.

  On 23/04/2010 at 08:06, paulg said:

Went to run a hotel in Wales.

  On 22/04/2010 at 20:20, joecool said:

do any of you rememember a allnighter in Willenhall called St Giles, lasted for about a year and was held in a church hall, Pep and Searling played there ? and for the older pepes do any of you remember the lads from the torch , Tildesly , Big Willy , Booper , Smokey, Bob Lacey , Bob Dryden, Ponney Haywood (R.I.P). How about the Cats Rats (Catacombs) Ric Tic , Eggy , Jerry stack , Aggy , et al , .are these lads still about ? or do any of you ever see them now.

AGGY IS YOUR'E MAN!! AGENTSOULSMITH I THINK!!

REMEMBER DOING THE ODD NIGHT THERE!! THEY WERE GOOD TIMES!!

ALWAYS A PACKER!! MOST OF THE BIG WELL KNOWN DJ'S PLAYED THIS

WONDERFUL LITTLE VENUE!! SEE SMOKIE QUITE OFTEN! HE AYE CHANGED

ONE BIT!!

MAX..

  On 23/04/2010 at 07:47, Malc Burton said:

Ian " Ric Tic " Popple is also on SS , but for the life of me I cannot remember what he logs in as .

Malc Burton

Yes, I saw Ian Popple a couple of years ago. He's still the same as ever!

Now look at this for a pic you lot!

(I dunno quite what happened there, but it's so good I had to post it twice!)

Edited April 23, 201015 yr by mel brat

spoke to pete smith this afternoon and he mentioned this thread, and thanks to max as well. as youre probably aware ,ive added comments to the pics which, inthe light of so many years passing, are quite amazing.....max and a young, wet behind the ears, greenhorn bazil(paul) from mr.tees neck of the woods. never forget him...he took me to the royal hospital(now demolished) on THAT infamous wednesday night when i had an arguement with the support beam by the stage, whilst backdropping to psychedelic soul!!.

YES,...im still here...its probably old news but our friend, steve powell, is compiling a book about soul in the west mids and i would imagine its near to completion,....waiting to see if he posts regards this. the long acres was where i first started and although i never met jerry stack or saw him, he was reputed to be a fantastic dancer who went to the torch and frequented the acres as well. st.giles was a great experience....djs of note: blue max - swoz - pep - brian s. - bazil - niel rushton - dave evison - kieth minshull - barry smith( who discovered muriel day.......SO NOW YOU KNOW WHO TO BLAME!!!) and colin curtis, especially for the first anniversary tune after tune of blinding brilliance, all super rare and THE TWANS.....at the time (76) the only copy in the country....it cleared the floor....shame on you all!. sammies all-nighters lasted less than two years as the guy who ran the club, suffered a haemorrage and never returned, needless to say, the other members of the committee didnt have the stomach to get involved and as a result it finished....we did have THOSE BADGES though with the SAINT on.....bet you dont see too many of them around now, although swoz may have liberated a box at some point, they would be highly collectable now!.

the catacombs was unique,...and they certainly dont build clubs like that now( of course you'll realise it wasnt purpose-built). the closest thing to nostalgia now is brighouse ritz, proper art-deco, before that, the nautical william, which just so happened to be an art-deco creation as well. photo's at the cats are, as they say, like hen's teeth. amazing isnt it, that bearly a year later wigan provided a deluge of pictorial evidence,...guess we just weren't streetsmart in those days, to bolster our history, even written testimonies are in short supply...the fact is we were all young and only interested in the music and so it should be.

i hope steve's edict to our area is fitting and meets with the approval of our close knit community, it is a missing piece to the nationwide puzzle, afterall, the northwest has somewhat, left us trailing in its wake,...its where all the big venues are, what all the talk is about...its scant consolation that the big breaking tunes are provided by the big hitters, mick.h and butch who are based in the midlands. there are lots of great djs with painstakingly-put-together collections right here who are doing their level best to keep the scene ticking over but venues that really stamp their authority, are literally non-existant...(in my opinion, you'll understand), certainly in the west-mids and,IMO, bog standard oldies are not going to impress anyone, other than converts to the scene.

as a postscript to this thread, again today i drove past the now defunct, lea manor hotel in albrighton and what a sad enditement it is, boarded up and vandalised....only a few years ago it was still pumping out the tunes...in its heyday with lynne and tait at the helm, it was a beacon for the unwashed, to cleanse their souls and believe in REAL music again. i pride myself that dear friend, dave rimmer, still has the entire LAST NIGHT PLAYLIST compiled by me, over 10 hours, on his site.

so...onward and forwards, to the KINGS HALL and THE TOWER, where you will find me opening proceedings on the friday night.

anyone wanting to converse with me, only too glad to respond....you know now where to find me...IM AGENTSMITH......AND THIS IS THE MATRIX...

Nice write up Aggy good one , still would like to know why you never made the night you aranged at the Ponderosa in willenhall but hey ho just keep on dancing kid.

Saw Pete Tildsley about three days ago, older but still the same Pete. Always, even when doing his shopping carries his bag over his shoulder.