Hit on the head by Van Morrison's maracas!

FIFTY years ago Radio Caroline was a bouncing baby, just a few months old and in fine health. The station by now had ships broadcasting from either end of this sceptred isle, and its popularity was continuing to grow in phenomenal fashion. Caroline’s excited bosses spent the summer of 1964 racing around like lunatics, overflowing with new ideas and projects for their new station. World domination beckoned!

Nix Nomads - R'n'B Ipswich-style!

Caroline was undoubtedly ruling the (air)waves, but it wanted to gain a firm footing on dry land too. A series of Caroline ‘Disc Nights’ were launched at ballrooms and clubs across the nation to promote a major search for new, undiscovered songwriting talent.

Every day during the station’s ‘Caroline Club’ show, announcements were made asking songwriters to submit original unpublished work on demo discs. The best of these would be played at the composer’s nearest ‘Disc Night’ event. Those that proved most popular with the punters would then be offered to record companies and artists via Caroline’s own publishing subsidiary, Roar Music.

There was great excitement up and down the country, especially in Eastern England where Suffolk and Essex folk already had special affection for Caroline since her ships dropped anchor off Felixstowe and Walton-on-the-Naze earlier that year. A Disc Night took place exactly 50 years ago at the Savoy Ballroom in St Nicholas Street, Ipswich (previously the Hippodrome, later a bingo hall and demolished in 1985), another was held at the Royal Hotel in Lowestoft, and there was one at The Trend Club, just off Colchester High Street (now a snooker club).

The first disc jockeys to come ashore to compere these events were Simon Dee and Chris Sandford. Dee was already well on his way to becoming a household name, while Sandford was dabbling in a number of areas of showbiz, having already launched careers as a singer and actor. He appeared as Walter Potts in Coronation Street and in 1963 had a Top 20 hit with the song ‘Not Too Little Not Too Late’. He was the son of well-known TV comedian Sandy Sandford, who was playing the 1964 summer season at Great Yarmouth, so nipped down to Ipswich to watch his lad in action behind the turntables. Chris would later quit the pop industry to find success as a voice-over artist, and as a presenter and writer on angling.

The management of the Savoy Ballroom had to do a nifty bit of footwork when Radio Caroline came to town. They had a clash of bookings because popular local rhythm’n’blues outfit Nix Nomads were scheduled to appear on the same night. Fortunately an amicable solution was found and the two events merged and appeared on the same stage together.

Nix Nomads, earlier known as Nick and the Nomads, had recently turned pro and had a devoted mod following. They released one single, ‘You're Nobody (Till Somebody Loves You)’ which is nowadays highly sought-after by R&B collectors. Their line-up included Nick Wymer, Ben Foster, Ron West, Dave Cutting and Roy Clover. When they played the Caroline show they’d only just returned from a stint in Hamburg and had just landed a residency at The Top 20 Club at Felixstowe’s Forum.

Shortly after this, a wealthy American apparently offered them a five-year sponsorship deal. The future looked bright but they subsequently split after Nick answered an SOS from well-known Colchester band The Fairies, whose own lead singer had been sent to prison. Nick is still going strong nowadays and has a fine voice that bears comparison with the likes of Joe Cocker, Roger Chapman and Steve Marriott.

Back in 1964 most of the Caroline Disc Night audience acclaim was reserved for Simon Dee, who had become so popular by now he needed a fan-club secretary. He’d given this job to Mrs Olive Burgess of Second Avenue, Chelmsford. Olive had volunteered her services after meeting Simon when he turned out to crown the Basildon Carnival Queen. Olive, a mother of five teenagers, had listened to Caroline at home and been hugely impressed by the heart-throb DJ.


Colchester's Trend club in 2014: now a snooker hall.

Shortly after the Ipswich date, Disc Night came to The Trend Club at the top of George Street in Colchester. This week I mentioned this on social media and opened up a floodgate of memories! Janet Malseed remembers hitchhiking out of London that day with a friend - and the car that stopped and gave them a lift all the way to The Trend Club was none other than Simon Dee himself!  Janet also recalls other great gigs there, including appearances by Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Other Colcestrians recall the Moody Blues, John Mayall, Georgie Fame, Hawkwind and Wishbone Ash all playing there. Heather Rankin recalled one night at the club when Van Morrison hit her on the head with his maracas! She didn’t mention whether this was accidental or not, but no doubt had a rather more enjoyable night on the occasion Keith Relf of the Yardbirds bought her a Coke!