Rocking the Joint

By Hazel Plater and contributors.


The Cooperage, on the Quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne has a long history.  Built in the 14th Century, it was used as a cooper’s workshop (hence the name) in the 18th Century, and only became a public house in the 1970s.  Although reputed to be haunted, this did not put people off and a large number of our North East Music History Facebook group members recall attending, or playing gigs in the upstairs venue.


Robert John Waters: “That's where I played my first gig in Newcastle.  One of my favourite looking buildings anywhere in the world, especially from outside.”


Martin Craig: “The Sabrejets had a 15-month residency there in the late 70s.  We took over the Monday slot from our Blueport label mates the Young Bucks when they left for London.  The longest running line up was us on Mondays, the Famous Five (AKA The 45s) Tuesdays and The Junco Partners on Wednesdays.  There was a volume point at which the building's timber frame vibrated in sympathy with the music and dancing; literally 'rocking the joint.'  Fabulous venue, should never have closed.” 

The Sabrejets at The Cooperage, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978.  
L-R: Carlos Magee, Sandie LaRocque, Diesel , Mad Dog Lupé & Antoine Legris. 
Photographed by Rik Walton for Blueport Music

Jude Murphy: “I played in a post-punk band, a jazz-funk band, and a folk duo (not all at once) in there.”


David Mooney: "I saw Otway & Barrett play there in 1980 on their DK50/80 tour; the gig was free but you had to bring along a copy of that single (another Otway idea to get them into the charts). They underestimated the turnout, and there were loads who couldn`t get in, so they put on two performances."

Tim Readman: “Arthur 2 Stroke and the Chart Commandos did Thursday nights there in the early 80s for a couple of years. Packed to the gills every week. the audience were literally in our faces but what a great atmosphere!”

Lucy Falkenau: “I used to dread setting up the gear at the Cooperage - we had a residency with the band Fat Chance in the late 70s.  The stairs were a nightmare to take cabinets and instruments up, and worse to bring back down.   Inside was usually heaving.  It was a great venue with a fantastic atmosphere.   It was possible to generate a lot of feel good music there as the crowd was always very supportive.   Superb nights.  A lot of people met their life partners there.  Happy times.”

The Cooperage, Newcastle upon Tyne, March 2012

The Cooperage did close, but recently reopened.  The picture here was taken in March 2012 and while the bar was closed by day, a poster was in the window for a forthcoming dubstep/drum 'n' bass night.  For many more recollections of The Cooperage and other North East venues, please see the North East Music History Facebook group.

References:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory/
http://www.pubsnewcastle.co.uk/TheCooperage.html

Red Wedge at Newcastle City Hall, January 1986

By John Hardy 


"The Red Wedge gig at Newcastle City Hall was one of the best things we ever did.” - Johnny Marr


On a cold Friday night in January 1986, the Red Wedge bandwagon rolled into Newcastle upon Tyne for what was to be the final night of a week long series of concerts aimed at raising political awareness amongst the UK’s young voters.  Also on the agenda was the drumming up of support for Mr Kinnock’s ailing Labour Party: a sort of Band Aid for the proletariat.

Red Wedge ticket - Newcastle City Hall, January 1986 - photo  by John Hardy

Refreshed by The Farmer Rest’s finest and resplendent in our GPO issue overcoats recently purchased from the Army & Navy Store in the Handyside Arcade, my mate and I thought we were the embodiment of disenfranchised working class youth when in fact what we really were was a couple of immature, nerdy sixth formers with big hair, fresh out of the country, little fish in a big pond.  I do believe that we were aware though, that this was to be no ordinary evening at the City Hall.


The 7.30 start caught many of the gig-goers on the hop and Billy Bragg was already partway through his set of firebrand rhetoric as we took our seats in the stalls.  The evening passed by in a bit of a haze, as act after act were wheeled out to do a short two or three song set, such were the time constraints in place.  Chart acts such as Junior, Dee C Lee and The Communards went shoulder to shoulder with up and coming groovers like Lorna Gee, who delivered her memorable tune ‘Three Weeks Gone Mi Giro’ with great aplomb.


The North East was well represented too, particularly by the Kitchenware acts The Kane Gang and Prefab Sprout, whose two song set consisted of ‘Dublin’ and ‘Cruel’.  Paddy gave a little tease of what was to come when he introduced ‘one of the Smiths… Wendy Smith!’


Local hero Alan Hull was introduced as ‘probably one of the most political acts on the bill tonight’, since he was at that time standing as a Labour party candidate for Gateshead Council.  The late Lindisfarne leader took us through an acoustic set which featured the topical ‘Cruisin’ to Disaster’.  Another highlight was Tom Robinson performing a couple of his own excellent acoustic numbers.  Red Wedge was the brainchild of Bragg, Jerry Dammers and Paul Weller; another memory that remains was the latter two jamming on a great version of The Style Council’s ‘Walls Come Tumbling Down’.


Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke had played on several of the previous Red Wedge dates and, after encountering what they felt was indifference and hostility from several of the other acts, had returned to Manchester to rally the troops and, with Morrissey and Mike Joyce in tow, headed forth to Newcastle for an unannounced surprise appearance.


“The other bands were a little bit perplexed as to what we were doing there.  We had no instruments, so we borrowed The Style Council's equipment and just tore the roof off the place.  In the middle of the set we just walked on to this announcement and the place went bananas.” - Johnny Marr.


Morrissey and co. delivered a rocking four song set featuring ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’, ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’, ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ and ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’.  For once, the ever quotable Morrissey was not exaggerating when, in a 1986 interview with NME, he remembered;


“We made a very brief, but stormy appearance.  When we took to the stage the audience reeled back in horror.  They took their Walkmans off and threw down their cardigans.  Suddenly the place was alight, aflame with passion!"


With the chimes of ‘Bigmouth’ still ringing through the auditorium, the band exited stage left, Morrissey’s shirt, or rather blouse tossed to the baying hordes, leaving my mate and I, the pretend postmen, astonished and open mouthed: did that really just happen?  January 31st 1986 was one of the final Smiths appearances as a classic four piece line-up.  Things were never to be this pure or spontaneous again.


 Anything that was to follow was to be an anti-climax, for myself at any rate, although I do remember a Band Aid style finale of ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ as a fitting end to a wonderful evening.    My mate and I, along with 2,000 fellow Thatcher’s Children, left the City Hall that night uplifted by the thought that we could make a difference, all through the power of rock music… the heady wine of youth.  I wish I knew where I put that postie’s coat… 

Red Wedge Tour Programme, January 1986 - photo by John Hardy

Reference: http://www.passionsjustlikemine.com/live/smiths-g860131.htm 

Beach Blonde - Deborah Harry live in South Shields

By David Mooney

I took this photo of Deborah Harry onstage at Temple Park Leisure Centre, South Shields on 1st June 1990.

Deborah Harry at Temple Park Leisure Centre, South Shields 1st June 1990 copyright David Mooney.

The support act were Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, featuring singer Shirley Manson, who would go on to have further success with the band Garbage.  I didn't see them though, as I was in the bar!

I don't remember too much detail about Deborah Harry's set but I do recall her doing a lot of Blondie numbers.  I remember that there was a lot of interplay between Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on the night, and you could tell that they were still pretty close.  He had played a big part in her last album, Def, Dumb & Blonde, which had been released about 8 months previously.



Set list (from http://www.deborah-harry.com/dh/setlists/060190.html)

01. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
02. Dreaming
03. Rapture
04. I Want That Man
05. The Tide Is High
06. Bugeye
07. Heart Of Glass
08. End Of The Run
09. Maybe For Sure
10. Kiss It Better
11. Danger
12. Comic Books
13. Detroit 442
14. Bike Boy
15. Cautious Lip
16. Brite Side
17. Hanging On The Telephone
18. Call Me
19. Stroll On
20. In The Flesh
21. One Way Or Another

Consett in Concert

By Hazel Plater


It’s not just red dust from the steelworks that has blown out of Consett, County Durham.



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A discussion on our ‘North East Music History’ Facebook group recently, highlighted THREE fascinating stories of talented performers from the town.

• Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee

Born around 1940, Blackhill, Consett’s Frederick Cheeseman became a professional musician at the age of 15, starting with skiffle, then becoming successful as rockabilly recording artist Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee. He played piano, inspired by the legendary Jerry ‘Lee’ Lewis. He also sang but, as is commonplace in the genre, you wouldn’t recognise a North East accent in his faux-American drawl. Firstly performing around the cinema circuit, he did a stint as the keyboardist in Screaming Lord Such and the Savages around 1962/3. Following this, he became part of the house band at Hamburg’s The Star Club, where The Beatles had earlier cut their teeth. From there, he went on to play in the bands of such luminaries as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Gene Vincent.
No stranger to stage or television in the 70s, he starred, alongside Bill Haley, and Ray Campi, in the 1980 rockabilly documentary Blue Suede Shoes, where he is featured taking an axe to his piano towards the end of a live set.



In 2003, an article on Teddy Boys, The Guardian found Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee in Consett, still recording and gigging in Europe, but planning to retire.

• Ruth Copeland

Back in the late 60s/early 70s, word has it that it caused quite a stir locally when, blues/folk singer/songwriter Ruth Copeland from Consett, hooked up with the now legendary Parliament-Funkadelic ‘P-Funk’ collective. At around just 20 years of age she co-wrote and recorded songs with Parliament, including tracks from their 1970 debut album, ‘Osmium’ and subsequent singles ‘Come in Out of the Rain’ and ‘Breakdown’.
She was also a performer under her own name, releasing three albums. Her debut ‘Self Portrait’ was produced in collaboration with George Clinton of Parliament and was released around the same time as Osmium. Many have said that the two records are similar in style and feel. She married Motown music producer Jeffrey Bowen, who had brought her to the Invictus label, initially recording as part of the unsuccessful vocal group, New Play.




Interestingly, she recorded with then toured with the line up of Funkadelic for her second album, ‘I Am What I Am’, after the group had officially disbanded. On this tour she was the opening act for Sly Stone, who, after some difficulties, told her to leave the tour or lose the band. She lost the band. She later signed to RCA and released a third, lighter sounding album, ‘Take me to Baltimore’, which was not the hit that RCA had hoped it would be.

• Susan Maughan 

Although she moved to Birmingham as a teenager, 60’s pop singer Susan Maughan was born and brought up in Consett. She reached #3 in the UK singles chart with her version of the Marcie Blane song ‘Bobby’s Girl’ in 1962. Although this song was a cover, she, unusually for a female singer at the time, also released a number of songs which she had written herself, having learned to do so while with the Ronnie Hancox Dance band, prior to meeting her agent. She released a great number of singles and albums in the 60s and 70s and was a popular guest on television shows such as Ready Steady Go! and The Morecambe and Wise Show. She continues to tour the 60s nostalgia circuit.

References:

Lee:

http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/freddie_fingers_lee.htm

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/archive/2001/09/12/The+North+East+Archive/7098962.Veteran_star_will_return_to_his_roots/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2003/jan/26/features.magazine47

Copeland:

http://www.answers.com/topic/ruth-copeland-1

http://pc-pdx.com/bands/ruth-copeland

Maughan:

http://www.readysteadygirls.eu/#/susan-maughan/4530652976

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Maughan

With thanks to: Gary Chaplin, Tony Stephenson and Steve Wallace from the NEMH Facebook group

The Anson = Love Shack

By Hazel Plater




You couldn’t make it up.  In the early 1970s, New Jersey born Kate Pierson, the glamorous, bouffant redhead front woman of band The B-52’s, was a barmaid in working class boozer, The Anson pub and hotel, in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, UK.

The Anson, Wallsend, as it looks today. Image by A McCarron via geograph.com 

Wallsend?  The former shipbuilding town at the end of Roman Emperor Hadrian’s Wall?  Yes, that Wallsend.


She had mentioned this little gem of pop trivia to the music press in the late 70s and early 80s.  Smash Hits magazine, on 6th September 1979 revealed: “Kate Pierson, petite keyboard player and vocalist, had also travelled in Europe.  She once worked as a barmaid in Wallsend in North East England.  "I just wound up there with no money and that was the only job I could get," she recalls.  After six months pulling pints in a foreign land, she returned to America and ended up in Athens”.


In a Rolling Stone interview in 1980 the tale appears again.  Kate is quoted as saying, "I was a barmaid in Newcastle."  Newcastle upon Tyne is the nearest city to lowly Wallsend town.


I knew nothing of these articles however.  I was told this story by my co-author, Carl Taylor, as we drove to an event, promoting our book about Newcastle’s historic Riverside music venue, which was being held in Wallsend library.  I grew up in Wallsend and my grandfather was a regular in The Anson so I was intrigued.  Carl, my senior by several years, used to work in Wallsend in the 1980s.  He remembers that a friend, who he is sadly no longer in touch with, told him Kate Pierson, of The B-52’s had worked as a barmaid in The Anson.  Even then it sounded far-fetched but he remembers going into the pub back then and discovering that the management kept a photo of Kate behind the bar.  They were aware that their former barmaid had gone on to bigger things!


January 2012 and I can’t get this story out of my head.  I urge Carl to try to get back in touch with his friend for more info.  I go for lunch at The Anson and find that the current management have no idea about any now-famous former staff member.  In fact, I get some very strange looks.  I tell Carl this and he looks to investigate further, having not managed to hook up with the friend.  He finds the Rolling Stone article online and then Kate Pierson’s Facebook.  He posts on her wall:


“Hi Kate Did you work in a bar here in Newcastle before the B52's formed? Can you remember which one?”


And just over a week later, we’re into February now, she replies (it appears her ‘n’ key isn’t working):


“The a son hotel a d pub in wallsend on Tyne”.


So, from the horse’s mouth, so to speak!  I ring the The Anson pub and tell them.  They are amazed.  I post this lovely little tale on in the ‘North East Music History’ Facebook group, on my own Facebook timeline and on Twitter.  The crowd goes wild.  This then leads to me tweeting Kate, @THEKATEPIERSON.  Her ‘n’ key is working again, or she’s on a different device:


Me:  "What do you remember about The Anson pub in Wallsend? Did you actually live there? Thanks x"

A: "yes! First I lived with “ old Mary” -she was a real character -then had “bedsitter” apt"

Me: "What year was this? I'm from Wallsend and my grandfather drank in The Anson in the 70s!"

A: "it was 1971 or 1972? Was his name Gus? There was a Gus -t"

Me: "No, he was Dick Bowden. I was born in 73 so I just missed you! Thanks for the info - North East Music History!"

Kate Pierson, of the B52’s. Image by aresauburn via Flickr

I didn’t hear back if she remembered my grandfather, so I guess not. 

So there you go Wallsend. Some much needed glamour for you.  And a lost snippet of pop trivia rediscovered.

The North East Music History Facebook group is at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory/

References:

Smash Hits : http://www.archive.org/stream/smash-hits-1979-09-06/smash-hits-1979-09-06_djvu.txt
Rolling Stone:  http://www.btinternet.com/~roc.lobsta/rstone2.html
Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/katepiersonfanface/posts/300513613329703

What We're About

Welcome to this brand new blog!  We are North East Music History - a group of people who are interested in preserving the history of music in the North East of England, UK.  We share our knowledge and information informally via our North East Music History Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastmusichistory/  .


We seek to improve knowledge and understanding of North East music history, educating local residents and other interested parties about North East music venues, the bands that played, the record stores and other hangouts and the culture associated with them, across all musical genres and eras.  


Blog posts covering some of the fascinating stories brought to light in our Facebook group will follow here soon. 


I, Hazel Plater, admin of this blog, don't intend to write all the posts myself.  See, it says 'we' up above!  Please send your well written and fully researched blog posts (please see my first posting for a style guide) via Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/hazel.plater   and you will be given full credit for your contribution. Look forward to reading your submissions!