Roburt

Footage of a few of the 60's London soul clubs still exists, some being up on Youtube (clips from an old German music TV show for instance). Clubs were also featured (briefly usually) in 60's UK movies. For instance there's a clip of Max Baer & the Chicago Setback performing in one club that appears 45 mins 20 secs into the film SEBASTIAN (see youtube clip & shoot forward to 45mins 20 secs ) .... shots taken at Blaises were also used in the 1967 UK horror movie THE SORCERERS (see poster below) ...

Many of the 60's soul clubs were located in basements of run down buildings ... So many of the venues are long gone due to redevelopment. But of course there were a number of different types of clubs .... There were the member's only clubs, some only accepting folk with money. There were the clubs that were where music biz celebs / record label types hung out. Many of these were also difficult for normal teenage mod types to get into. Luckily, many of the clubs were open to anyone & everyone ... so if you wanted to be one of the in-crowd in those clubs, it was more than possible. Blaises was in the basement of the long since demolished Imperial Hotel ...

Some more London gigs in 1967 .... ... this was when the London live gig scene was changing quickly, lots of UK beat groups / R&B groups were reinventing themselves as blues / progressive rock outfits. Thus the likes of Alan Bown, Zoot Money and more were fropping soul tracks from their playlists & changing to all sorts of rubbish. Lots of venues tried to reinvent themselves too & new ones sprang up ... one of the prominent new venues was the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm (an old British Rail steam loco shed that had been sold off & transformed into a music venue). This place soon established itself as a top London 'progressive' act haunt .... though in it's early days it did stage a few soul / R&B themed shows ... not a venue that the soul / mod crowd frequented.

A record label associated with the Cue Club ... a B & C label ...

More related pics / ads from me ... seems the Fantastics were everywhere back then (though they had to leave the UK & play gigs in Europe for 6 months when their UK work visa ran out) ...

Jackie Lee made loads of 60's dance related records ... the Duck, Shotgun & the Duck, Temptation Walk, (African) Boogaloo + Harlem Shuffle of course.

Another couple of US 60's dances ...

A few more ads for 60's London soul venues (including another for the Scene) ...

Back to the opening post ... this is the shirt company that placed the ads ... guess they were targeting their product at young US white males ..

Seems that when this package tour hit DC in mid Nov 67, the management of the Howard Theatre staged a special dance contest on the Monday night ... wonder which of the live acts they got to perform the music during the contest & who got to present the prize ...

A top dance invented in the St Louis / Chicago area ... the Crawlers (Alvin's brothers) were just a dance group really, so they would dance around the stage for the outfit's entire show (they visited the UK in early 67 and did London / Sheffield / Manc shows & more). In the mid 60's t'up north ... we used to do the 'Freeze' to Alvin's "Philly Freeze" track .... just doing the current moves of the time but 'freezing' (stopping in our tracks) when Alvin shouted out FREEZE. Also used to pretend to be walkin a tightrope when Inez & Charlie's cut was played.

Another ad for a top London mod club ... back to 63 ...

Ads for the Ricky Tick were included in the 2nd post of this thread ...

Yet another mid to late 60's venue ... I believe this had links to the guys involved with the Cue Club & the New All-Star Club ...

A few more trailblazers ... I guess the duo of Chuck Jackson & Carla Thomas were a fake line-up as I'm sure they would never have toured together. The Impressions on the same bill were really the Topics. The FAMOUS Birdcage Club was down in Portsmouth (maybe this one took its name from the Portsmouth venue).

Talkin bout the Flamingo ... plus a pioneering club ...

Another ... this ones still going ...

Joe 90 ....

Another short lived "in" club ...

A short lived "in" club owned by the boxer, Billy Walker ...

A few more ....

There are loads of threads on here that have flyers / ads for 70's NS venues but not too many that deal with the London based clubs in the 60's ...

BACK TO 1963 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMRLrf4pNn4

The Knight Beat Club was located in the Sir John Hotel in the Overtown (black) area of Miami. Most of the black acts visiting Miami for live shows would stay there, even the acts playing the big white hotels on Miami Beach (black acts could perform there in the 60's but not actually stay there) ... I'm currently just a few miles north of it's old location (like much of Overtown, it was demolished to make way for new Freeways in the early to mid 70's).

A local 1967 booking (in Miami) for Johnny & his band ... this was at one of the top black venues in the area back then (mid 60's) ... Johnny ran the place & booked lots of top national acts as well as local outfits ...