Decca Studios and Klooks Kleek: West Hampstead's Musical Heritage Remembered

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In the early eighties Ade joined The Vibrators (Mark IV) and he has played and toured with many bands. As a session guitarist he played with Joe Egan, B.A Robertson, Maggie Bell, and Oleta Adams. He is currently in the band ‘Dakota Red’ with singer-songwriter Sara Eker. She also lived locally in Dennington Park Road. April 1965 – Birdcage, Kimbells Ballroom, Southsea, Hampshire with Brian Auger Trinity (Dave Allen research)

March 1968 – Redcar Jazz Club, Coatham Hotel, Redcar, North Yorkshire with The Friendly Apple (Dennis Weller, Chris Scott Wilson and Graham Lowe’s book/Middlesbrough Evening Gazette) October 1966 – Paris Olympia, Paris, France with The Alan Price Set (Disc & Music Echo) Clashes with Birdcage gig above so may not have happened

Notes

November 1965 – Armco Sports & Social Club, Letchworth, Hermitage Ballroom, Hitchin, Herts with The Various Others (Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire Express) Colin Jamies, bass player with The Various Others, got in touch to say his group was called The Various Others November 1965 – Kirklevington Country Club, Kirklevington, North Yorkshire (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette) June 1968 – Nags Head, Motown Club, Wollaston, Northamptonshire (Northamptsonshire Evening Telegraph) The Mike Cotton Sound's 45 appearances were made mostly on Thursday where they were effectively the house band. Jordan often liked to share amusing stories about Klooks. As he tells it, one evening two Decca Records executives entered the club and asked for opinions on two songs recorded by a contract singer of theirs named Tom Woodward. One song was greatly preferred over the other, and when it was released in 1965 under the artist’s new stage name, Tom Jones, “It’s Not Unusual” went to Number 1.

Edric was a pioneering calypso singer from Trinidad who came to England in 1944. In 1951 he brought the Trinidad Steel Orchestra to the Festival of Britain. In 1952 with his band Edric Connor and the Caribbeans, he recorded the album ‘Songs from Jamaica’. This included ‘Day Dah Light’ a version of which became Harry Belafonte’s big hit, ‘Day-O’, or ‘The Banana Boat Song’, in 1957. The owners appropriated the club’s name from a 1956 jazz album by drummer Kenny “Klook” Clarke called Klook’s Clique. You’ll note Clarke’s album title is appropriately punctuated in the singular possessive, while the club’s name (Klooks Kleek) is devoid of any punctuation, to the dismay of English teachers everywhere.July 1964 – Galaxy Club, Haymarket Lounge, Basingstoke, Hampshire (Hampshire & Berkshire Gazette) Photo: Boyfriend magazine, 15 August 1964 The Mike Cotton Sound’s 45 appearances were made mostly on Thursday where they were effectively the house band. Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames played 22 times within the first two years of RnB at KK. Commercial success then took them into larger venues, but spin-off bands, e.g. The Night-Timers who played 21 gigs, kept the genre going at smaller clubs like KK. December 1965 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire with Jimmy Cliff, Ayshea, Pete Hodges and The New Generation and The Tribe (Evening Sentinel)

March 1967 – Nottingham Tech College, Nottingham with Robert Hirst & The Big Taste, Our Young and The In Crowd (Nottingham Evening Post) April 1967 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Wynder K Frog (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live) December 1968 – Malvern Winter Gardens, Malvern, Worcestershire with The Basin Street Jump Band (Malvern Gazette) Live at Klooks Kleek, the Graham Bond Organisation recorded live on 5 October 1964. Released long after recording and the reservoir for several later releases in different countries, some as recent as 2006. March 1965 – Klooks Kleek, West Hampstead, London (Geoff Williams research: Decca Studios and Klooks Kleek book)Singer Robert Palmer lived in a basement flat in Dennington Park Road in 1972. Robert moved out of after the flat was flooded, destroying most of his belongings. He married and moved to New York. Then about 1976 he moved to Nassau in the Bahamas. September 1966 – Salisbury City Hall, Salisbury, Wiltshire with The Impacts (Frogg Moody and Richard Nash’s book Hold Tight!) September 1968 – Carlton Club, Warrington, Cheshire with The Curiosity Shoppe (Warrington Guardian) Keyboard player Jeff Bannister lived in Holmdale Road in 1972. He had worked with Alan Bown in the John Barry Seven who had supported visiting American acts such as Brenda Lee. When Barry disbanded the group in 1965 because of his increasing film work, Jeff joined Alan in the Alan Bown Set. Jeff sang and played organ and piano on the first singles produced by Tony Hatch, and then Jess Roden became the vocalist. When the Alan Bown Set split up in 1970 Jess Roden formed Bronco and Jeff played on their first album. In the mid 70s he joined The O Band and then toured with Charlie Dore and latter Gerry Rafferty. He continued writing songs and played on Joan Jett’s ‘Bad Reputation’. He also wrote the books, The Multichord for All Keyboards, and a history of The Alan Bown Set. Jeff is still performing today as a member of The Swinging Blue Jeans, which originated in Liverpool in the 1960s.

September 1966 – Beat Festival, Scunthorpe United Football Ground, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire with Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, The Troggs, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas, The Ram Jam Band, The Creation, The Mindbenders and The Fenmen (Grimsby Evening Telegraph) January 1968 – Alex’s Disco, Salisbury, Wiltshire (Frogg Moody and Richard Nash’s book Hold Tight!) January 1966 – Kirklevington Country Club, Kirklevington, North Yorkshire (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette)Here’s a faster loading set list, photos of the entrance as it looks now, and an extract from the NME about the impending refurb of the club. There were over 1200 sessions at Klook’s Kleek, around 300 of them featuring jazz and the remainder rhythm ‘n’ blues. Zoot Money, Ten Years After, John Mayall and Graham Bond recorded live albums at KK. The British blues and rhythm and blues boom of the early 1960s brought to the club many living legends. Yet it drew crowds from far and wide every week with a reputation for having its finger on the pulse of up-and-coming talent. January 1967 – Crystal Bowl Ballroom, Castleford, West Yorkshire with The Mydnites and The Squeeze (Wakefield Express/Yorkshire Evening Post)