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Stairway To Heaven
For many Newcastle teenagers in the mid-sixties, the Club a’Gogo was their own piece of Heaven. The unlicensed part of the club, known as the Young Set was an exciting place to go to get away from the...
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The Soul Deceiver
Many of us who were around during the mid-sixties through to the early seventies will look back on the music scene of that period with great affection. Some of us will particularly remember the great...
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Unveiling the past – Amanda, Mike and the plaque
What was it that drew an American jazz pianist over from New York to a city street in Newcastle upon Tyne for the unveiling of a plaque honouring a long lost local music venue? On the morning of 8th...
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Remembering Mike Jeffery – 50 Years On
My previous blog on Ready Steady Gone was about the unveiling of a heritage plaque commemorating a Newcastle venue called the Club a’Gogo – a club that came to an end in 1968. This article features...
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That Geordie Beat
Back in the sixties the best ways of keeping abreast of what was happening in the world of popular music was either through radio or by reading weekly or monthly music papers. Sometimes these musical...
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Pop Parade
I suppose the phrase “Pop Parade” sounds a bit outdated these days. The word “Pop” has many meanings but in the sixties, when the world of popular music was expanding and becoming more accessible to...
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Brian Johnson
In the vast landscape of rock and roll, few voices resonate as powerfully as that of the northeast’s own Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson’s journey from small venues in Newcastle and County Durham to the...
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Sunderland Venues In The Sixties
As someone who was a brought up in Sunderland and who played in several Sunderland bands I thought it was high time I wrote about some of the Sunderland venues that were around in the mid to late...
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Jimi Hendrix – Deadly Secrets Uncovered
In a blog last year about the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix’s manager, Mike Jeffery, I mentioned that an author friend of mine was researching the life and death of Jeffery. I also...
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Club a’Gogo Remembered As It Was
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...
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The Who On Teesside
The Who’s first gig on Teesside was at Mister McCoy’s in Middlesbrough on 7th January 1966, a couple of months after the release of the band’s first big hit single – “My Generation”. It was a memorable...
View ArticleSome sad news
It’s with a very heavy heart that I must share some sad news. Roger, who had been battling cancer for the past year, passed away on Monday, 21st October. Ready Steady Gone started simply as a list of...
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