47 YEARS
OF JFK
CLICK ON A YEAR
TO TAKE YOU THERE:
1977
1978
1979
This young
chap didn't know what he was letting himself in for when he embarked
on a course that would carry him through the next 47 years.
On February 18th 1977 he promoted a show at the Grand Theatre, Leeds and one thing led to another. He never did learn... |
This is an attempt to chronicle 47 years of promoting in the Leeds area, running
through from 1977 to present day.
Commencing with the gigs at Leeds Polytechnic
and the formation of the ‘F’ club leading on to the Futurama Festivals, Leeds
Astoria, Leeds Irish Centre.
and,
eventually, 12 years of The Duchess, 15 years at the New Roscoe, 8 years at Korks,
currently promoting at The Brudenell, Leeds, for last 11 years.
Eventually I hope to outline the basic gigs in venue / date / acts format and then to flesh them out with my experiences of the events including any pictures or mementos I can find.
Some
of the early gigs are a bit sketchy and I only have a few records to go on,
having lost loads of ephemera in a cellar flood.
If anyone has photographs,
memories or background information on any of the early shows please email me
If I use anything I will credit you on this site.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.f.keenan1
This year I celebrate 47
years of promoting, mainly in and around Leeds. Some of the
acts from Leeds: |
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
The first show I ever promoted, in 1965
aged 16, was at Southport Art College where I tentatively held the post of
Social Secretary. It was a renegade Arts Ball at an old dancehall, The Moulin
Rouge, Ainsdale. The Principal had banned us from putting on an event due
to an incident involving the caretaker, who told a few tales against the
students to save his skin. The main act was John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
supposedly
featuring Eric Clapton, but he was replaced at the last minute by Peter Green
(who was unknown at the time) and Mick Fleetwood's place was taken by
Aynsley Dunbar... support ably provided by top Liverpool band The Mojos
with Lewis Collins (Lewis took up acting and later gained fame in TV
cop drama,The Professionals).
First on was my neighbour Max Lunt’s band, The Crusaders. The event
lost money, £20, so I offered to work it off in the cloakroom of the Moulin
Rouge, where I had many a happy time being cosseted by the ladies and
gleaning glimpses of the glamorous glitterati of Liverpool...footballers, bands and
entertainers. I suppose that’s where I developed my taste for being a backroom
boy in the wonderfully varied world of show business, a position I seem to have occupied for most of my adult
life.
By the way, the second major band I was involved in promoting was …Pink Floyd!
I didn’t start promoting again for
over 10 years.
In 1977, married with two
children, working freelance at YTV and fed up with the lack of good acts coming
to Leeds, I made inroads into the rock business. I phoned an agency, looking for
acts such as Iggy Pop and Lou Reed and I got…Alan Price.
Agents like to start you off with
something you have to work at, with a naive confidence I thought I’d start at the
top…I booked the Leeds Grand Theatre. The support provided,
which I had to take, was Lamplight, a proficient harmony rock band containing, I believe, Alan
Price’s cousin. In order to spice it up a bit, I gave the opening spot to a
friend of mine from our teenage years in Formby, Tymon Dogg. (Under the name
Timon he had recorded with the Beatles and The Moody Blues. He had lived in
squats with Joe Strummer, Sid Vicious and Ari Up and had taught Joe
Strummer to play guitar. He was a major mover in that London punk scene and played
a big part in Joe Strummer’s Mescaleros). It was classic to see the
faces of the theatre audience, dressed up to the nines, confronted by this
folk-punk busker manically accompanying himself on fiddle with his sardonic ditty
'Dog Dirt On Your Shoes (It's The Latest Fashion, The Latest thing To Do)'.
The Yorkshire Post sent an aged journalist (who, I was reliably
informed, had spent most of his time in the backstage bar) to review the show,
he commenced his piece with a comment that ‘Mr Price had entered from the
wrong side of the stage’…it was downhill from thereonin.
Having worked for the Grand Theatre in the late Sixties, I thought that I would be given a favourable rate… nothing of it! Not only did I pay full whack, but the Theatre Manager also handed me a bill for £20 for programme sellers. I informed him I hadn’t asked for any, as it was a one-off concert there were no programmes. Then he brought the contract out of the office and pointed to a clause, which read ‘Programme sellers - £20’. My defence...because there was nothing to sell and nobody purveying anything, I had thought the clause would not apply...didn’t wash. As he was in possession of all the box-office money I wasn't in a position to argue. A lesson learned, I’ve never trusted contracts…or employees of corporations ever since.
Needless to say, the Grand Theatre is one venue I haven't promoted a second time.
John Keenan - Leeds / February 2002
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1977
1978
1979
THIS SITE IS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY JOHN KEENAN
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFO YOU
WOULD LIKE TO ADD CONTACT:
JFK@LiveInLeeds.com