Newcastle University’s weekly publication, the Courier, carried advertisements for the Club A’Gogo between 1964 and 1968. Here are some of those adverts (copied from The Courier Archives ).
Newcastle University’s weekly publication, the Courier, carried advertisements for the Club A’Gogo between 1964 and 1968. Here are some of those adverts (copied from The Courier Archives ).
Because I was too young to frequent the Go-Go, I never realised the Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band were regulars back in the mid ‘sixties. My first encounter with the band was due to the – soon to be ubiquitous – album “Hand-Clappin, Foot-Stompin, Funky-Butt: Live!” It seemed as if every youth-club I visited, during the second half of the ‘sixties, played nothing but that during band breaks. I recently went in search of Geno’s history, only to discover that the Ram Jam band were not only the product of an Englishman – Pete Gage – but also that the name, which to me evoked all kinds of Black American R&B overtones, was actually taken from a well-known coaching inn on the A1; down in Lincoln (I believe); how remarkable. Pete, who went on to form Dada with Elkie Brooks, Robert Palmer and Paul Korda (bet no-one remembered his name), then formed Vinegar Joe and featured our own inimitable legend of the drumming fraternity: John Woods of the Junco Partners. So, to get to the relevance of this script: what’s the probability Pete Gage met John Woods at the Go-Go back in the mid-‘sixties when the Juncos were resident there. Apropos of John: I’ve studied a hell of a lot of drummers in my time, but I have to confess, Woodsy is the one drummer whose magic I was never able to fathom or reproduce: a true master of the drumbeat, never to be equalled.
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ps
Beefheart at the Go-Go! I never would have believed it.
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