Web Page 1110
5th January 2013
Top Picture: Verrechia’s in the Guildhall Square
Bottom Picture: 1950’sWoolworths window (that’s over 60 years ago!!!!)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Panto Time and The Spinners
About this time of year when we
were kids it was off to the pantomime (Oh! Yes it was!) to see modern stars and
some of the Music Hall stars who were still performing. I do not remember being
taken to the Kings or the Theatre Royal very often but my father and mother
took me to the Dockyard Pantomime every year which featured the HMS Vernon
Band.
Back
in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s all sorts of people appeared in Portsmouth,
no soap stars then! Way back in 1957 two up and coming performers appeared in
Puss in Boots at the Kings Theatre, these two were Charlie Drake, who had
relations in Southampton and had his own television show at the time and Bruce
Forsyth who had just started presenting ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’.
The
following year the same theatre put on Babes in the Wood and featured two other
very popular comedians, Mike and Bernie Winters whose agent was Joe Collins the
father of Joan and Jackie Collins. Also on the bill was the Morton Fraser
Harmonica Gang a very popular musical act at the time.
When
it came to the starring role in the 1959 pantomime, Cinderella, the management
turned to the musical world for its headliner and John Hansen appeared as the
top of the bill.
From
here until about 1964 pantomime in the Kings Theatre died. But the other side
of the coin was the summer shows and these were the showcase for all sorts of
talent. Who do you remember from this list?
Cyril
Fletcher, Monswer Eddie Grey, Arthur English, Peter Sellers, the Three
Monarchs, Audrey Jeans and Joan Regan. Tommy Trinder, Flanagan and Allan,Norman
Vaughan and George Melly. Even Davy
Kaye appeared in the theatre on South Parade Pier! Portsmouth in the 1950’s was
a good place to be to see the stars of the day. And I do actually remember
waving to Billy Cotton as he crossed the road outside the Kings Theatre back in
1958.
The Spinners
The Spinners were a very popular 1960’s folk group
from Liverpool.
They formed in September 1958 and originally consisted of Hughie Jones, Cliff
Hall who was born in Cuba, Mick Groves, Tony Davis, Joan Davis, Beryl Davis; although
as they progressed in the musical world the group became a quartet dropping the
two girls.
Cliff Hall was born in Cuba, brought up in Jamaica,
and came to the UK to serve in the Royal Air Force.
The group was unusual for its time in having a multiracial membership. John
McCormick was the group's bassist and musical director for the final seventeen
years.
The band actually began as a skiffle
group with a mainly American repertoire until they were prompted to include sea shanties
and other old English folk songs. They started out as The Gin Mill Skiffle Group,
which included guitarist Tony Davis and washboard player Mick Groves. The group
played the Cavern Club, Liverpool for the first time on Friday 18 January 1957,
with The Muskrat Jazz Band and The Liverpool University Jazz Band. They played
there subsequently on several occassions. They became The Spinners in September
1958 and founded a folk club in Liverpool, the 'Triton Club', but soon were
performing in London at places such as 'The Troubadour'. Their first album, Songs Spun in
Liverpool, was recorded by Bill Leader from live performances. In 1962 Peter Kennedy
of the English Folk Dance & Song Society recorded an album called Quayside
Songs Old & New. In 1963 Philips Records
signed them, and they recorded eight more albums over the next eight years.
They signed for EMI Records in the early 1970s.
They became popular by reviving some of the greatest folk
music and singing new songs in the same vein. Although sounding like
traditional English folk songs, some of their material was in fact composed by
Hughie Jones, such as "The Ellan Vannin Tragedy" and "The Marco
Polo". One of their best known songs, particularly in their native Liverpool,
was "In My Liverpool Home", written by Peter McGovern
in 1962. Cliff Hall also introduced traditional Jamaican songs to their
repertoire.
They produced over forty albums, and made numerous concerts
and TV appearances. In 1970, they were given their own television show on BBC One
that ran for seven years. They also had their own show on BBC Radio 2.
They retired in 1988, after thirty years together, although they led the
community singing at the 1989 FA Cup Final
and played some Christmas shows in the early 1990s. Some members of the group
still perform, although Cliff Hall retired to Australia, where he died in 2008.
Their version of the Ewan MacColl
song, "Dirty Old Town", was included in the Terence Davies'
2008 documentary of Liverpool, Of Time and the City.
Stay in Touch
Peter
You Write:
News and Views:
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