Decca Studios and Klooks Kleek: West Hampstead's Musical Heritage Remembered

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In the end, the economics of a small club for 400 to 500 patrons just wasn’t sustainable. The Keef Hartley Band was the club’s last performer in January 1970. At the time of the club’s closing, membership had grown to 58,000. In early May, Dave Greenslade left to join Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band. Ian Hague departed about the same time to join PP Arnold & The Nice. Carl Palmer took his place on drums. November 1967 – St James’ Spectacular, Chesterfield, Derbyshire with The Shape of The Rain (Derbyshire Times)

November 1965 – Kirklevington Country Club, Kirklevington, North Yorkshire (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette) June 1964 – Klooks Kleek, West Hampstead, London (Geoff Williams research: Decca Studios and Klooks Kleek book) October 1967 – At the Union, Manchester with The Waterboard (Manchester Evening News and Chronicle)

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November 1963 – Long’s Ballroom, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts with Brian Poole & The Tremeloes (Steve Ingless book: The Day Before Yesterday) Following this Klooks show, Ten Years After continued to play an average of three gigs a week throughout England until June, when they made their first trip to the United States. The seven-week tour was by personal request of promoter Bill Graham. They did a few days of shows at the Cheetah Club in Venice, California before a big show June 24 at the Whiskey A Go-Go, where the opening act was Alice Cooper. Undead came out a few weeks later. June 1967 – Tiles, Oxford Street, central London with Syrian Blues and All Night Workers (Melody Maker)

January 1966 – Kirklevington Country Club, Kirklevington, North Yorkshire (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette) December 1968 – Malvern Winter Gardens, Malvern, Worcestershire with The Basin Street Jump Band (Malvern Gazette) March 1967 – Nottingham Tech College, Nottingham with Robert Hirst & The Big Taste, Our Young and The In Crowd (Nottingham Evening Post) October 1966 – Finsbury Park, London with The New Animals, Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band, Eyes of BlueJuly 1963 – Marquee, Oxford Street, London with (Mann-Hugg) Blues Brothers (Tony Bacon book: London Live) Born Norman McPhail Blair, Elwin’s obit in the local paper described him as, ‘one of the most recorded artists in the world.’ He made hundreds of 78rpm recordings under no less than 30 pseudonyms. He began in his native Glasgow singing ballads, moving on to popular songs and composing. In the 1920s and 1930s he regularly appeared with the Savoy Orpheans, the hotel’s big band led by the American Carroll Gibbons. There’s a short film of the band on British Pathe, http://www.britishpathe.com The Moonlight was also on the small circuit of London clubs that hosted the occasional southern forays by the new wave of Manchester bands. The Dark Circle Room blog has some of the recordings from Joy Division’s Factory by Moonlight gigs (note the spelling mistake in the sleeve notes of the live album).