Sixteen or so years ago I wrote a brief article on Ready Steady Gone about one of Newcastle’s iconic sixties clubs – the Club a’Gogo. Back then the website was in an embryonic stage. The website was based on my own diaries and memories of the bands I’d played with and the venues that I’d performed at in the northeast between 1965 and 1972.
At the time I felt that I should publish an article about the Club a’Gogo. Not just because I’d played there in 1965, 1966 and 1968 with several local bands but also because I was aware of the club’s rich history. Most music buffs will know that The Animals started their life at the Club a’Gogo. Their name will always be inextricably linked to the club in the same way that the Beatles will always be associated with the Cavern in Liverpool. Similarly, the names of certain individuals such as Eric Burdon and Alan Price continue to be linked with the club. Also Jimi Hendrix who, under the management of former Animal Chas Chandler, performed at the Club a’Gogo in 1967 at one of his very early UK gigs.
My Club a’Gogo page started off mainly as a history of the club based on my own memories, information I’d gleaned from the internet and old newspaper archives. (There wasn’t too much about the Club a’Gogo on the internet at the time.) However, after a short time visitors to the page who knew about the club in the sixties began feeding me information. They included musicians, ex-Gogo staff, club goers plus others with information that wasn’t already on the page. The page began to expand and with it the number of daily visitors.
While this was going on the legend of the Club a’Gogo was also growing on a global platform. The club was being mentioned in books, magazines, TV and film documentaries in particular in connection with Mike Jeffery, the club’s owner who was later to become the manager of Jimi Hendrix. A few years ago Newcastle City Council erected a commemorative plaque on the building that replaced the original Club a’Gogo premises.
Static web site pages containing historic information tend not to attract repeat visitors and for that reason I added material to the page whenever I came across something new. But the thing that really kept the Club a’Gogo page alive and active was when I opened it up to comments in 2013. Ex-Club a’Gogo members and others began to post their memories of the club and also communicate with each other via the Comments Section at the foot of the page. Between 2013 and 2020 over 750 comments and messages were posted.
A prolific commenter on the page was Michael (Mick) Dunn. His comments stood out amongst others because of his detailed recollections of Club a’Gogo events, bands and even the names of the individual people he knew from the club over fifty years ago. He didn’t keep a diary or memorabilia from those days. He didn’t need to – his memory is all he needs. To say he has a phenomenal recall of his own experiences at the club during its heyday would be an understatement.
After his days at the Club a’Gogo, Mick had a very busy career working his way up from an engineer to chief engineer, mainly in the oil and gas industry. He travelled extensively all over the world working, amongst other places in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Gabon, UAE, Turkey, Qatar, Italy, Taiwan and Japan. Eventually he worked as a senior manager for one of the largest contractors in the world before retiring.
As a teenager Mick first started going to the unlicensed Young Set at the Club a’Gogo around 1962. In 1965 he started venturing into the licensed Jazz Lounge, the part of the club designated for over 18s. In spite of a very active and interesting career Mick regards his time at the Club a’Gogo as a very important part of his life. As he says – “We had our moment and it lasted forever.”
I’ve been fortunate to connect with Mick Dunn recently and ask him about his memories of the life and times of the Club a’Gogo as seen through his eyes. Memories that he’s kept fresh in his mind for over five decades. Here’s what he had to say: –
Why do you think the Club a’Gogo was so special for you and others?
Why was the Club A’Gogo so special? Well, it was a culmination of many factors. It wasn’t just about the music, it was primarily about us, the former teenagers, who had so much enthusiasm for life and we interacted accordingly. Anyone who was a regular knew everyone else and you could always go there and meet up with someone you knew, be it the Haymarket crew, those who drank in the Bridge on folk nights, the Olde George, and the long-gone pubs such as the Adelaide, the Bacchus, Burgoyne’s and the Plough. Let us not forget this was THE era of the last century and we were all privileged to be a part of it and to make it what it was. We were the first ever teenagers with the freedom to enjoy being young.
A while ago I wrote an article on Ready Steady Gone called Stairway To Heaven about how getting into the club was all part of the Gogo experience. Let me ask you about your memories of that.
There used be a girl on the door who took money and sat behind a counter, she had a calliper and a stick and had short black hair in a Cilla Black type style and she wore a slide too. She was around for most of 1967. The other girl who took money was Sandra Young. Tommy Crum was on the door looking distinctly like ‘Oddjob’ with his bald head and tightly belted black leather coat. Along with Keith Gibbon there was a tall guy called Terry with a pock marked face. The membership cards were a ‘yellowish’ colour and you had to sign it. It had your date of birth on, which some would scratch out. I had mine laminated by my old friend Johnnie Bell who at the time was working in the CA Parsons drawing office and had access to a laminator. Apparently, they brought out a red booklet type membership card after some time, but I never had one.
I understand there were sometimes long queues to get into the Club a’Gogo.
Queues were often quite long and sometimes stretched around the corner of Leazes Park Road. In the queue you would invariably see someone that you were familiar with to chat to or even make a new friend. One not so wholesome aspect of the queue was the Skinyard (not a slaughterhouse as some would have it) with its creaky, split wooden gate held closed by a chain through two heavy iron rings set in the wood and a heavy padlock. The gate was about a foot off the cobblestone entrance, which was made for 19th century carts with the blood running through the cobblestones at the entrance. If you leaned against the gate (and many did) the gates would go into a ‘Vee’ and you would move into the gate by around a foot.
Unlike some I never walked to the front of the queue but just waited with the others chatting/smoking or whatever. Waller Morton and Kenny Langlands would roll up in front of the club in a taxi from the Labour Club on Leazes Park Road, maybe 300 yards away around the corner, wearing three-piece suits and ties complete with pocket watches and chains. They would go straight in without queueing. Waller thought this was great, so he told me. The only other person I ever saw wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch was Dave Slattery.
What do you remember about the Club a’Gogo DJs and staff?
One of the DJs was older than us, maybe around 20? However, in those days it was not an age gap – it was more like a chasm. I remember him playing the Beatles first album in its entirety and as I recall the only album that he played. I once came up from down south in ’64 the week the Stones Not Fade Away was released and I asked him if he had it. He hadn’t even heard of it – age chasm! I think his name was Dave. As to Mary Kegg, another DJ (not Cegg or Clegg as some would have it). I always liked her she was more for guys than girls). Sorry she is no longer with us. I last had a drink with her in Carters around ’74 time.
What do you remember about the Club a’Gogo’s manager, Meyer Thomas?
I saw a post elsewhere recently that Meyer Thomas was seen as ‘scary’. Total nonsense, he was a gentleman of the old school and I remember him as being so.One Saturday afternoon it was quiet in the Young Set and I saw Meyer Thomas coming over. He just came to say hello and asked me if I knew where he could get his double breasted dinner suit remodelled to single breasted. I have no clue as to why he would ask a kid dressed entirely in Levi cord such a question. I didn’t know and told him so. I always addressed him as ‘Mr Thomas’ as did another Gogo DJ, Brian Hetherington (Hethers).
And Keith Gibbon?
Keith is a part of the very social history of Newcastle itself and not just the Club a’Gogo. I first met him when I was 15 or so and he was on the door of the club taking the money from us all. His belted black leather coat being a prominent feature. He was never less than polite, and I knew him on and off for many years. I saw him in the mid-seventies when he was on Shields Road eyeing up a row of shops to buy. So we had a chat and it was nice to see him. Some years later he was coming out of Grey’s Club in the afternoon. I just happened to be passing the archway entrance where he had his Jaguar parked. To his dismay he had been awarded a parking ticket. We had a chat and off I went. The last time I saw him to chat to was just after his hotel and Amigos opened just on the corner of Grey Street. He was standing outside Amigos. Keith always the gentleman, never brushed you aside, made time to chat and for me was one of the best. He was always thought of by many of us with nothing less than fondness and good memories.
One Club a’Gogo character that is frequently mentioned is the late Dave Findlay – the floor manager, bouncer, enforcer whatever you’d care to call him. What are you recollections of Dave?
One Saturday afternoon in 1964 I was dancing with a girl called Daisy; big blue eyes, long blonde hair same age as me at the time -16. Her then boyfriend came over to talk to us. It was Dave Findlay who was always pleasant to me (except once years later). We chatted for a while and he told me about his time in Durham jail some time after the Percy Street business. He told me about ‘pottying out’ and looked at me as though I should know what he was talking about. For those who do not know, prisoners jails in those days were given a chamber pot in which to deposit whatever during the night. In the morning they then had to go and empty it out – hence the term ‘pottying out’.
The Club a’Gogo was split into two discrete rooms; The Young Set for the under 18s and the Jazz Longe for slightly older clientele. How do you remember the layout of the Young Set?
As I recall the Young Set had two stages. The high one for major acts and the low one to the right of the DJ box for lesser acts. The Von Dykes used to perform on the lower stage. It was good to get to speak to their chubby lead guitarist who would chat with us. He liked it when we asked him to play an instrumental they had written around 1962. (We were refugees from the Shadows!)
The layout of the Jazz Lounge changed somewhat over the years, in particular when the Gaming Room from the early days was removed. I believe the position of the bar changed several times. How do you remember the layout of the Jazz Lounge?
I’ve done a sketch of the Jazz Lounge. I remember standing on a plastic chair to the right of the stage to make me level with it and “singing along” with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins when he was doing ‘I Put A Spell On You.’ The bar was on the left and there were fruit machines on the back wall. The mural was on the back wall past the stage.
I can picture me talking to Eric Burdon, Mike Jeffery and Sonny Boy Williamson in the Jazz Lounge in front of the stage and I seem to think that there were some more chairs like the one I stood on. I also think the wall in front of the bar had the same type of chairs fixed to the floor tables in front of the long couch that maybe ran along the wall up to the Steak Bar entrance.
What bands do you remember seeing at the Club a’Gogo?
I saw Alex Harvey perform to about twenty of us in the Young Set. I did not know such a truly skinny guy could have such a powerful voice! His ‘baker boy’ hat was nearly bigger than him! I saw Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions one night and they stayed with a friend of mine in Heaton. I believe Rod Stewart was in the band then. They put graffiti on my friend’s walls saying things like ‘looning can be sussed’.
One night when Spencer Davis was on they carried a worse for wear Stevie Winwood through the crowd to his organ. What a great performance from him! I had a friend called Jimmy who lived across the street from my friend’s place where I used to stay when visiting Newcastle.Jimmy played bass and organ and Spencer Davis asked him to join his group, but he only wanted him to play bass, so Jimmy refused his offer.
I also remember seeing the Bee Gees at the club. I had no clue who they were and they left no impression on me.
Which bands did you particularly like?
Easy to say who I liked best. John Mayall, Spencer Davis, John Lee Hooker, Steam Packet and its many derivatives, which included at one time Rod Stewart and a young Elton John on piano (or Reg Dwight as he was known back then), Geno Washington and Sonny Boy Williamson (best harmonica player I ever saw).
Are there any you didn’t like or weren’t popular with you and your friends?
Did anyone see any bands at the Club that they didn’t like? Apart from The Invaders. I stood in front of Roger Chapman when he was ‘singing’ with his band Family on the corner low stage. I thought he was dreadful. I also didn’t care for Alex Harvey. I saw him twice.
I believe you had a few encounters with various artists that performed at the club. What do you remember about the occasion when you met these people?
One Saturday in the summer of 1964 I was up from down south for the weekend and went to the club for the lunchtime session via Jeavons where I had just bought the new Chuck Berry single. Maybe it was ‘No Particular Place to Go’? Anyway, when I came up the stairs the doors to the Jazz Lounge were just closing and I saw Eric Burdon, Sonny Boy Williamson and Mike Jeffery with his full-length tie belt black leather coat on. So, I went in and said hello to Eric and asked Sonny Boy to sign my record – it was on a yellow label so it could be done. He looked disgusted when he saw the name of the artist on the single and said “Do you expect me to sign this sheet [sic]?” But he did! I later loaned that single along with many others to one of a well-known set of twins. I never ever got them back.
I asked Mike Jeffery if I could run the Southern branch of The Animals fan club, but he said that they already had someone. So I made to leave. The last words that I heard were Mike Jeffery telling Eric to keep Sonny Boy away from the kids (he was very fond of his bourbon). An enduring memory!?
Sonny Boy died the following year and to date he is still the best harmonica player I have ever seen.
One summer Saturday afternoon (1965 or so) I was just about to enter the Gogo when Graham Bond came out. He looked ‘spaced’ as the expression used to go. He looked around maybe trying to decide which way to go. I walked past him and on up the stairs. I’m not sure where he went. I liked his band very much and saw him quite a few times. I even tried to emulate his facial hair but being only sixteen or so it was a heroic failure. His band had the great Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Dick Heckstall-Smith. John Mcaughlin.and Jon Hiseman followed after Ginger Baker’s departure.
In 1974 Graham Bond threw himself under a train at Finsbury Park underground station. He was 36 years old.
I understand you sat quite close to Eric Clapton at some of his great performances at the Club a’Gogo?
When my old friend Brian Hetherington (Hethers) was DJ in the Young Set I sat in the DJ box with him a few times. I watched Eric Clapton play his white Fender Stratocaster from three feet away when he was in the Bluesbreakers. Over the years I saw many great guitarists but none as accomplished as Eric Clapton. I have always been eternally grateful to Hethers for affording me the opportunity to witness greatness at such close quarters. I last saw Brian in The Three Bulls when he was visiting Newcastle in 2017 and I told him that I had always been grateful to him for that.
A lot of people went to the Club a’Gogo, not necessarily to see the bands, but for the records that the DJs were playing and for the dancing. What can you remember about the dancing at the club?
The Twizzle was popular in the early days it consisted of standing with your feet at an angle and driving your right knee backwards and forwards whilst swinging your dangling arms loosely around your body. Some would jump and change their position. It was a dance done well to the Rolling Stones ’Come On’.
The Prince Philip consisted of holding your hands behind your back whilst bending from your midriff and doing some pecking motion – bizarrre or what!
There is always conjecture as to who was the best dancer – Kenny James maybe. Seeing him dancing to Lou Christie’s ‘Lightnin’ Strikes’ at the Club a’Gogo is something I’ve always remembered. When I hear the track on the radio all I see is Kenny getting right down to it. Let’s not forget Louie Lumsden and Ernie Bell too along with Tony Cook who apparently picked up the beat from the floor vibrations as he had a hearing problem. I remember Paul France dancing with his hands in his combat jacket too.There was one dance where the girls would fold their arms out in front of them and raise themselves up on the balls of their feet whilst sticking their lower halves out, it was usually done slowly.
Can you tell me something about the fashions at the time and what you and other people were wearing at the Club a’Gogo when you were a regular there?
My Levi cords were khaki, stone and bottle green. I used to wear pink towelling socks with this pair along with my Eliott’s burgundy slip-ons and used my brass buckled belt that I had punched holes in all-over. I usually wore my brown leather Levi jacket and one of my Ben Sherman shirts with my Levi cords or one of my Levi cord shirts. And not a Fred Perry in sight. Although my socks were a little outre on occasions, I never went in for garish clothes/cheesecloth shirts/Jesus sandals/kaftans/Afghan coats and the like.
As to trousers I used to love Sta-Prest (not “stay pressed” as some would have it). You can still buy them, but I wonder about the quality these days. The navy blue Sta-Prest were a fluff magnet. I bought my first pair of Levi’s from the Army & Navy stores in Victoria round May ’64 for the princely sum of 49 shillings and sixpence.
Shirts – well mostly Ben Sherman. Some used to have ‘Brighton Cut’ on the label which is homage to Ben Sherman’s hometown of Brighton. He was not American contrary to popular belief. They produced a huge range. His real name was Arthur Benjamin Sugarman. I bought most of mine from Marcus Price. Others from Carnaby Street in London as they had different models to the one’s sold by Marcus. At one point I owned over forty.
I had many leather and suede jackets and coats including a full-length bottle green leather coat, a full-length navy-blue suede coat, a black leather jacket, a brown suede jacket, a brown leather Levi jacket, light tan and green suede Levi jackets with matching leather collars, cream hunting suede safari style jacket ruined by my local cleaners in Essex.
There isn’t much mention of shoes. They were a big part of our fashion. I bought most of mine from Elliots on Bond Street or from Ravel. I favoured burgundy leather slip-ons with a metal bar across the front from Elliots or black penny loafers (not the one’s with the tassel though) from Ravel or the occasional pair of beige slip-ons. I bought one pair of brown suede Hush Puppies. I changed the laces for red ones and also wore red towelling socks which I bought in London. When I was 14, I bought a pair of chisel-toed light brown ’shadow’ shoes with side lacing from Timpson’s on Northumberland Street for less than three pounds and thought I looked great – cringe.
I was very fond of Dormeuil Tonik mohair and had a few suits in grey, pale green and beige. I also had quite a few pairs of black Tonik trousers. I had many other Levi jackets; white, denim and two corduroy ones. Also many Levi shirts, including a blue paisley one and three or four corduroy and two denim shirts.
We wore what we wore and not what some picayune thinks we wore or should have worn.
When people talk about their days at the Club a’Gogo in the sixties some names crop up time and time again – the regulars that were “personalities” – Arthur Wong, for instance.
I first met Arthur Wong in Burgoyne’s when he was 14. He was sitting with a drink on his own and I’d just bought a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. He came over and sat with me. He was the first person I ever met with a Rolex (mine is 56 years old this year). He was wearing a light green full-length leather coat. We hit it off. He lived above the Blue Sky Chinese Restaurant on Pilgrim Street. Sometimes we would go to The Kings Head on the corner of Blackett Street and Percy Street. Saturday afternoons we would go to The Brunch down the Bigg Market along with many others. We were friends for many years but lost touch due to my being away most of the time.
When I visited Newcastle after a month or so I met Arthur. He looked quite ill. He told me had been in hospital with peritonitis for three weeks and that he was recovering. I last saw him in Paddington around August ‘73 time along with Bob Walls, Jed and Jane Gardner. He was found dead in his takeaway in Wallsend no doubt paid for by his doting father. He was just 32.
Arthur supposedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his Wallsend takeaway round 1976. To this day I do not believe he killed himself. He did not die from drink and certainly not from drugs as he did not do drugs.
Another person sometimes mentioned is “Frenchie” (real name Tommy Gascoigne). What do you remember of him?
As you probably know, most kids didn’t associate with those outside of their age group. As I was only 18 or so at the time I doubt if a 21 year old would have even spoken to me. Frenchie was the exception. He always had some young girl on his arm. He was 12 years older than us.
I remember once when I was with a group of friends sleeping on the pavement in Saville Row in October 1963 just outside what was the Labour Exchange office. We were in the ragbag queue hoping to obtain tickets for the Beatles the following month. I knew Frenchie from the Club a’Gogo. He was passing by with his latest “welly-top” on his arm. It was the early hours and I sat up when I saw him. He was a bit worse for the wear and I called out to him. He was quite belligerent and wanted me to stand up. I said to him – “Why? So you can knock me down again?”. Anyway he left with his young welly-top. Next time I saw him he was fine with me.
Another Gogo “character” was Kenny James. You’ve already mentioned him dancing to Lou Christie’s “Lightning Strikes”. What else do you remember about him?
Yes, Kenny’s dancing was great. We went to the now defunct Banqueting Hall in Jesmond Dene a few times together too and it was the same scenario. He usually wore his famous green tartan jacket. Sometimes there were altercations but we didn’t get involved. I hoped to bump into him again but that was not to be. The last time I saw him was at the top of the Bigg Market when it was raining heavily, and I was waiting to cross the road he was moving quickly, and I saw him out the corner of my eye as he passed behind me with two friends. I said ‘Ken – but he was gone, and the lights had changed then he was away. Thanks for the memories, Kenny.
There would have been lots of people who went to the Club a’Gogo that you didn’t know – students, casual visitors to the club and non-regulars. But of your group of friends, which ones do you remember most?
I have fond memories of many including Pam Hazel, my boyhood friend Ernie Bell, Kenny Richardson and Brian Robson to name but a few.
In the summer of ’66 I came up from down south for the weekend and went to the club. I was standing by the front of the first booth on the left from the entrance close in enough to be seen by those arriving. It was not too busy as yet. Then in comes a guy who was a friend at the time with a girl who I didn’t know. We chatted for a while then he left the girl with me and did not come back. I spoke with her for a while then left her as I did not want him thinking I was hitting on her. It was starting to get busy now.
Next time I saw the guy he said that the girl was his sister, Pam Hazel and not his girlfriend. I saw her several times after that. We were only ever friends. Sometimes I saw her up at Seahouses in the Schooner Inn with her friends (they stayed in a caravan in North Sunderland). I believe she was in a long-term relationship with Bob Render by then. She was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
Years later when I came to spend some time in Newcastle I would see her in town-usually with her mother in Boots and we would stop and chat for a while. When Hethers came back to Newcastle a few years ago I met up with him and a friend of Pam’s other brother. We exchanged emails as I was in the process of selling all my vinyl. A month or so later I received an email from him telling me Pamela had passed away and when her funeral would be. So I attended and found it to be a very upsetting experience.
Ronnie Shanks was another Gogo regular. I went to the Jingling Gate ‘Discotheque’ in August ’66 with Ronnie and Billy Guthrie in Ronnie’s car. I only went the once as it was a bit out of town and buses were not so frequent in those far off days. Ronnie was a draughtsman and he had a Ford Anglia convertible. (I’m not sure if Ronnie or Billy are still with us.)
At the end of August many of us went up to Seahouses for the last bank Holiday of the year and I remember Ronnie drinking Smirnoff out the bottle whilst eating fish and chips. He offered me some Smirnoff the next day but it was full of bits of fish so I declined the offer. As with all good weekends it went over quickly.
I was talking to Ronnie’s sister just before it was time to head home. She said the girl Ronnie was with was only after him for his money which he hadn’t got. I’d been drinking with this guy called Keith over the weekend and we were both spent up so we decided to try and get a lift back to Newcastle and started walking. We went through Beadnell and had walked about eight miles when Ronnie went zooming past us with the top down on his car. He made no attempt to stop as he had that girl with him. So on we trudged. However, we did get a lift shortly before we reached the A1.
There was also Pat Larby. In mid ’67 I travelled back down south with Pat and another girl I won’t mention. By coincidence my next-door neighbour down south was working with her in a bank in the City of London.
I saw Pat off from Kings Cross a few months later. This was the last time I saw her. The late Kathy Hunt told me some twenty years ago that she was happily living in Essex and had a fondness for GTi cars. Pat was always pretty and very pleasant and she is remembered with fondness.
Are there any other Club a’Gogo regulars you particularly remember?
There was Alan Hind of the Haymarket scooter crew. He once brought a monk dressed in a brown robe (complete with rope ‘belt’ and the obligatory sandals) into the backroom of The Haymarket. He sat and talked, had a pint and left after a while. My incredulity levels were totalled. Next day some of us went to the Kard Bar and had badges made saying things like ‘HIND is a Monk’, ‘Get BeHIND Me’, LeftHIND Drive’ amongst others. They went down a treat – not! Seemed like fun at the time though. Alan once asked me ‘Do I have a reputation as a hard hitter?’ There is simply no answer to that! The last I heard he was working as an accountant in Chester le Street.
Are there any other people from the Club a’Gogo days you want to mention?
I found out that Marcus Price died in September 2018 aged 84. I thought that as he was a part of our young lives and he clothed many a Club a’Gogo regular (including me) that he deserves a mention. I used to come up from down south and I would visit the Percy Street store. Marcus was always very amiable. His father was sometimes there. He was a true gentleman and liked to chat with us young folks.
Alan Hull had a band that played at the Gogo maybe twice? I personally never saw them. His band was The Chosen Few, who later evolved into Skip Bifferty minus Hull. I did see Skip Bifferty at the Gogo though. Mick Gallagher from The Chosen Few replaced Alan Price in The Animals in 65 prior to his Skip Bifferty days. When Skip Bifferty split they went on to become The Blockheads (Ian Dury’s band),Mick Gallagher later went on to join The Animals and Friends.
Alan Hull later formed Lindisfarne and his Winter Song was considered by Elvis Costello to be the finest song ever written. I am not so sure about that, as music is very subjective.
Years later Alan Hull became the mentor to my former stepson who plays for Stiff Little Fingers (SLF) and has done so for over twenty years. One time I decided to clear out my garage at my former home and put two cycle frames up for sale. So this beardie-weirdie guy came to buy them. Amongst the things due to go to the dump was a tea chest full of reel-to-reel tapes brought home from a now defunct recording studio in Carliol Square (Mortonsound) by my former stepson. The guy was quite excited about the tea chest and asked if he could have the tapes. So I gave them to him. Among them was the original Winter Song tape, which mentions Felling School Choir on the label.
There was also the original ‘Gascoigne Tapes’ which featured Paul Gascoigne from when he did his version of ‘Fog on The Tyne’ along with some comments and ramblings which would never be aired.
Alan Hull was a frequent visitor to my former home, mostly when I was living in Holland in the mid-eighties. We were not exactly each other’s favourite persons. I will leave it at that.
Are there any other particular Club a’Gogo memories that stand out?
One Christmas I was in the club and had a lengthy ‘snogging’ (I hate that word) session with a cute blonde girl (who shall be nameless) against the left side of the cloakroom ‘cubby hole’. Zoot Money and his band went by into the door to the right of the ‘cubby hole’. ‘SOS’ by Edwin Starr was playing. I saw the blonde girl a day or so later and asked to see her again. But all she said was that she wanted everyone to have a nice Christmas. So no! I doubt that she would even recall or admit to any of what I’ve said. I asked her once – she didn’t remember.
There will be visitors to this page who will be interested in the names of the people you knew that were an integral part of the Club a’Gogo. Can you tell us who they were?
This is done from memory. There are certain parties that I have left off by design – quite a few in fact. These are the ones I remember:
Brian Anderson, Bob Atkinson, Eddie Badger, Gloria Barker, Angie Barron, Margaret Bates, Christine Bell, Johnny Bell, Joannie Bosomworth, Robin Black & Pam, Bill Blundell, Jimmy Bracken, Rosemary Bradney & Penny, Chris Branch, Lorna Brewis (Toogood), George (Bumper) Brown, Margaret Bunch, Keith Burdis, Chriss Burn, Jan & Kath Burrage, Peter Burrage, Ann Butcher & Helen, Mac Cameron,George Carr, Lydia Carr, Margie Carson, Tommy Catherall, Brian (Sonny) Chamberlain, Val Chambers & Malcolm, Pat Chapman, Howard Christie, Olivia Churchill, Elizabeth Clasper, Rosina Clewes, Jennifer Conbury, Margaret Crosby, Elizabeth Clasper, Sheila Clements, Tony & Doris Cook, Kenny Cooper, John Crawford, Tommy & Matty Crum, Evelyn Cullis, Carol Cummings, Terry Daley & Ros, Dave Davidson, Denise Delphi, Matty Dodds, Christine Dodgson, Paula Dryden, Denise Easton, Mick Emerson, Veronica (Ronnie) Ferguson, Margie Ferguson, Tommy Findlay, Micky Finn, Elaine Forster, Pam France, Paul France, Yvonne France, Ged Gardner, Brenda Gate (Greaves), Jimmy Gatherer, David Gee, Joannie Gould, Ian Greenup, Heather Griffiths, Billy Guthrie, Alan Hall, June Hannah, Anne Harper, Auriole Harvey (Brown), Caroline Henderson, Ken Hill, Alan Hind, Dave Hollis, Michael Holloway, Christine Hollows, Kathy Hunt,
Margie Hunt, John (Johnna) Johnson, Gordon Johnson, Brian Jones, Terry (Texy) Joyce, George Kettle, June Knox (Law), Bob Lamb, Stan McCabe, Maureen McCubbin, Irene McCumisky, Kathy McGeary, Maureen McDonald, Michelle Majewski, Jane Milburn (Gardner), Michael Miller, Ray Nearney, Tom Noble, Pat Larby, Rob Liddell, Pauline Lyons, Paddy & Brian O’Neill, Alex Patterson, Micky Patterson, Ronnie Pattison, Malcolm (Pepe) Peppiatt, Pat Prince, Gerald (Gev) Pringle Jean Pringle, Pat Purchase, Brian Redden Bob Render, Paul Reynolds (Ren), Chris Robinson, Kevin Robson, Ann Roy, Mac Rutter, Margery Rutter, Sandra Sanderson, Geoff Sarginson, Charlie Scholar. Harry Shafto, Ronnie Shanks, Dave Sharp, Jimmy Sheldon, Jennifer Sherwood, Ray Simpson, Gail Sisterson, Dave Slattery, Lynda Southern, George Spence, Allan Stephenson (Steva), Robert Stephenson, Maggie Stewart (Burdis), Len Stoddard, Norman Stoddart, Sylvia Stothard, Chris Taylor, Evelyn Treece-Birch, Irene Tonks, Denise Tully, Alma Turnbull, Jess Turner, Phil Tweddle (Skinny Phil), Jimmy Wakefield, Bobby Walls, Don Walsham, Brenda Watson, Brian Webb, Jeff Webster, Dennis Welch aka Ginger Dennis, Carol White, Martin Winch, Ralph Williamson, Mickey Wilson, Lorraine Wood (Shafto), Phil Woodward, Rob Wright, Sandra & Barbara Young
Although I remember many full names, there are some who I just knew by the first name or by their nickname. Examples being Feg, Nab (a drinking partner and friend of Don Walsham and Kenny James), Jock, a pair of clown brothers who called themselves Pepsi & Cola (one of them still owes me £1 for a navy blue nylon mac I ‘sold’ him), Wendy and Bongo, Kirk (who went to live in Montreal with Marie-Laloup Jose), Ken (went to live in Glasgow and was a G-Plan furniture salesman), Wolf (Wilf),Nash (a red-haired girl), Nick (supposedly the Bishop of Newcastle’s son), Scottie.
There are some that are gone but are not forgotten: Jean Annan, Billy Batey, Ernie Bell, Pauline Bertram, Barbara Brown, Tommy Burness, Arthur Carr, Mick Carr, Colin Charlton, Matty Charlton, Tommy Crane, Keith Crombie, Terry Crozier, Chris Dale, Ian (Isaac) Davison, Bob Dorner, Jimmy Edgar, Dave Findlay, Sandra Finlay, Julie Fulthorpe, Tommy (Frenchie) Gascoigne, Keith Gibbon, Peter Greaves, Pam Hazel, Dave Heads, Les Henderson, Brian Hetherington (Hethers), Brian Hurst (Geronimo), Terry Jacobson, Kenny James, Mary Kegg, Kevin Kell, Tony Kirk, Joe Lowery, Tommy Luscombe (Tab), Lys McGarrow, Colin MacLachlan (Actor), Billy McLean, Peter (The Painter) Marshall, Keith Maxwell (Max), Waller Morton, Jimmy Mowberry, David Stewart Osborne (Ossie), Ronnie Pattison, Jim Pearson, Kenny Richardson, Alan Robinson, Brian Robson, Neville (The Devil) Scott, Roy Toogood MBE, Hilton Valentine, Pauline Wells, Margaret Williamson, Les Wood and Arthur Wong.
Mick’s memories of the Club a’Gogo days are clear, concise and paint some great images of what the club was like in the mid-60s and what it meant to be part of one of the groups of friends who were regulars there. These are the people who made the Club a’Gogo what it was.
Of course there would be many Club a’Gogo visitors that Mick didn’t know. For instance – casual attenders, students, visitors to the Newcastle area, different groups of friends and people out ‘on the town’ in Newcastle. Amongst those there will be people who have their own memories of Newcastle’s iconic club.
Many Club a’Gogo members and others regularly used to post comments on the main Club a’Gogo page. These comments became less frequent at the outset of the Covid pandemic in 2021.
There were probably two reasons for this. Firstly, most people only have a limited recall of past times and events. Perhaps their stories or memories about the Club a’Gogo were drying up and they had no more to say. However, I think the main reason was that a Facebook page in honour of the Club a’Gogo was set up at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Through social Media the organisers traced people who had previously contributed to the comments section on this site’s Club a’Gogo page. These people were contacted and invited to join the new Facebook group. Many took up on the offer and began posting their memories on the Facebook group rather than on Ready Steady Gone.
Facebook is clearly a better medium for communicating online in real time than a comments section on a website such as Ready Steady Gone. However, anything posted on Facebook tends to ‘disappear’ after a few days and is not always easily accessible at a later date. Consequently, some cherished memories of the Club a’Gogo have now been lost. For this reason both Mick and I hope that people will begin to share their memories of the Club a’Gogo again, either on this page or the main Club a’Gogo page on this site.
The post Club a’Gogo Remembered As It Was appeared first on Ready Steady Gone!.