Beat Town (including Top Twenty Club & Newmarket Discotheque)

1st January 1972THE PIONEERS The Pioneers received another tremendous welcome when they returned to the New Market Discotheque. Many of the songs associated with the group were included in the programme and they also sang their latest single “Give And Take” The break-up of Jimson Weed, Bridgwater’s longest running beat group and the end of dances at the Blake Hall under the banner of College Promotions was officially disclosed over the Christmas period. The College Promotions venture placed emphasis on hard rock attractions and began in late August with a bill comprising Blonde On Blonde, UFO and T2. Rodney Stoodley, who was involved in theRead More →

1971 began quietly for the New Market whilst the Sydenham Community Centre continues to tamper with it’s presentation. Organisers of the Psyco Discotheque, Sydenham Community Centre, which has been struggling for survival lately on Friday’s due to low attendances, are considering if it would be possible to switch it to Wednesday’s following the excellent support for the Christmas dance. (5th January 1971) Rumours that Somerset’s top contemporary band, Marsupilami would be splitting up were denied this week by their road manager Mike Dennison of Bridgwater. But he confirmed that the outfit had monetary problems and would have to sell their transit van. The release ofRead More →

3rd January 1969THE RUDIES The Rudies had played Bridgwater before of course. In fact their previous performance had occurred only 6 weeks earlier, as support to, and as a backing band for, Max Romeo. But they were a group in their own right and had at least 3 hits in the UK charts, one of them a Top 10, either as The Rudies or as Greyhound. Danny Smith and Freddie Notes were the core members of this band, who also operated under the names The Tillermen and the Des All Stars. They issued covers of the Clarence Carter hit “Patches”, whilst Bobby Bloom’s “Montego Bay”Read More →

7th January 1969American coloured group, The Bandwagon, who rocketed to fame with “Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache”, come to the New Market Discotheque on Friday for the first show of 1969. The Bandwagon are led by 23-year-old Johnny Johnson, although each member of the unit is able to sing lead. He is joined by Arthur Fullilove (21), Terry Lewis (22) and Billy Bradley (23). Talking about their act, Johnny says, “We really like to get into a groove because we feel that when people pay to see us they want to see a good gig. Something really visual. We have most of our movementsRead More →

1st January 1968 The Safety Catch 1968 didn’t exactly start with a bang. Another local group making a 2nd appearance in quick succession. 8th January 1968 COLOURED RAISINS At least with this group, we can provide some information. They were billed as “Britain’s No 1 Coloured Soul Show Live!” and were formed in South London in 1966. Featuring Brian Clarke on vocals, David & Keith Gamport on guitars, Peter Nelson on organ & Lyndon Steel on drums, all apparently originated from the West Indies. They enlarged their line-up to an 8 piece by incorporating Honey Darling, King Ossie and Earl Greene on vocals with OssieRead More →

JANUARY 1967 Now that the Top 20 was officially over after a hugely successful 6 year run, the Bridgwater Mercury’s redoubtable journalist Mike Guy busied himself with his regular pop column, obtaining an “exclusive” interview with Graham Nash on the 10th January concerning the future of popular music. “Pop music at the moment is progressing by leaps and bounds, but this is not such a bad thing. I am quite sure that in the future there are going to be a lot of beautiful things happening. Look how far it has gone in 10 years. Play a Rick Nelson L.P. and then an album byRead More →

3rd January 1966THE PACK The Pack were a band who were not so much obscure but temporary. They appear to have released one solitary single on Columbia in 1965 – a version of The Lovin Spoonful’s debut “Do You Believe In Magic”? and after receiving extensive airplay on both Radio’s London & Caroline (to whom the song was presented whilst the band were reclining on Mickie Most’s yacht) they briefly threatened to outsell the original recording, reaching a peak of No.22 on the pirate charts. However neither The Pack or The Lovin Spoonful’s version of this song cracked the official BBC Top 40 and afterRead More →

5th July 1965DOUG GIBBONS & THE OUTSIDERS Gibbons is something of a mystery man with information regarding his career not only scarce but slightly contradictory. He was born in Shepherd’s Bush and during the period 1965 to 1967 hob-nobbed with some of the industry’s major movers and shakers but his career, despite a change of image in 1966, never really took off. He was initially signed to Decca Records and in 1965 released his debut single, “I’ve Got My Tears To Remind Me”, a ballad written by Jackie De Shannon & Jimmy Page. The Page connection was strengthened when Gibbons backing band The Outsiders alsoRead More →

4th January 1965WAYNE GIBSON & THE DYNAMIC SOUNDS Wayne Gibson and the Dynamic Sounds were the brain-child of Shel Talmy, a freelance producer born in Chicago but who worked predominantly in the UK and whose artist roster was particularly impressive. He produced early hits for both The Kinks & The Who and also worked, at one time or another, with Manfred Mann, The Easybeats, The Creation and a very young David Bowie before entering into the world of folk/jazz fusion with the unique Pentangle. Talmy was apparently responsible for putting The Dynamic Sounds together back in 1963 but it’s hard to see where they fittedRead More →

And so the Top 20 entered it’s 4th year and due to it’s increasing popularity this 12 month period saw one major change in the itinerary. Previous years had always seen the concerts broken up by the inclusion of a 3-month recess period lasting from June to the beginning of September. In 1964, this period of inactivity was shortened to just 1 month (July) which meant there were now more live gigs in Bridgwater than you could shake a stick at. 6th January 1964CARTER-LEWIS & THE SOUTHERNERS By 1964, most of our major UK cities had developed a healthy local music scene and with theRead More →