Memories of Days Gone By

Mon, 25th April 2016

It's been a while since I posted something, but this morning I was thinking about the days when there were countless places for bands, or groups as we called them, to play in and around South Wales?  I'm sure those in other parts of the World who are about our ages will have similar memories

Looking back through our 60s gig diary, we were getting bookings (gigs for the young ones) on every night of the week, in numerous venues from pubs to large dance halls and they were always packed. 

These days, you are lucky if you play at the weekends, usually Friday or Saturday night and it's mainly pubs and clubs. Sometimes the pubs get a few in and the clubs are packed until they finish bingo. 

A large proportion of the venues in our diary have disappeared, either demolished or they no longer have music. 

As we in the band are coming to the sunset of our musical lives, I often wonder where the youth of today are going to be able to develop their musical talents. It can't just be in those music academies that seemed to have sprung up in the major cities. They need to be able to perform at the 'grassroots' level before getting booked for some blues/rock/jazz/indie/reggae/etc festival in Timbucktu.
 

The West End Ballroom, Birmingham. Demolished to make way for the Bull Ring


 Porthcawl