Gigging in the North East 1965-1972. A personal perspective by Roger Smith
This section feature a handful of people I remember from the period that I was gigging in the northeast (1965 to 1972). Some are musicians who have made their mark while others, including some non-musicians, have helped shape the history of northeast music in some way.
One of my most enjoyable periods in North East bands was the stint with Jazzboard between 1965 and 1967. Jazzboard was fronted by the talented Bruce MacDonald Lowes, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who continues to perform in several North East…
The first twenty three years of Bryan Ferry’s life were spent in the north east of England. For three of those years he was busy gigging in local north east bands and would have played at most, if not all…
In the second half of 1968, four elements came together and changed the face of live music in the northeast for at least the next four years. This amalgamation would bring enjoyment to thousands upon thousands of music fans and…
Some time ago I had the idea of including some pages on Ready Steady Gone about non-musicians who were part of the sixties north east music scene; managers, promoters, agents, studio owners etc. While I was doing some research on…
I learned of the death of ex-Jazzboard organist, Jimmy Hall just after Christmas 2005. A news article on Sky News reported that a 57 year old Sunderland businessman named James Hall had been murdered on Christmas Eve in Thailand. At…
Not long ago, an old friend recommended that I should read Jimmy Nail’s autobiography suggesting that I may find some interesting stuff about local north east bands at the beginning of the book. I looked the book up on Amazon…
One of the most gifted young drummers on the scene in Newcastle in the late sixties and early seventies was Keith Fisher. I got to know Keith in 1969 when I was a member of Sneeze but regrettably never got…
Michael Meade burst onto the Newcastle music scene in 1969 with a driving ambition to be a successful band manager. After running a small studio in Sunderland named Torino Sound, he also wanted his new studio in Newcastle, ‘Studio 1’,…
If you’ve landed on this page via Google or the Ready Steady Gone menu, you probably already know something about Mike Jeffery. For the uninitiated, he was the man who introduced Jimi Hendrix to the world and turned him into…
