May 1965 saw the end of Aylesbury Bluesville, and with it the link with promoters Ron and Nanda Lesley, who had begun the Aylesbury Jazz Club at the Grosvenor Ballroon in January 1961. The Lesleys also promoted in London and other towns, and in particular in Ipswich on Monday evenings, where they continued with the local Bluesville for a few more years.
The list of artists appearing at Aylesbury Bluesville in 1965 typified those who had been promoted by the Lesleys in previous years: from the world of trad jazz there was Kenny Ball and Chris Barber, and from R&B there was the Spencer Davis Group, Rod Stewart and the Soul Agents and the Yardbirds.
Rod Stewart had previously appeared at Aylesbury Bluesville many times with Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men – and some say that it was the Lesleys who first billed Rod Stewart as “Rod the Mod”. In an interview with Geoff Bradford in 2002, Long John Baldry recalled: “They were the people who nicknamed Rod the Mod – they started putting it on posters, Rod the Mod Stewart.”
Aylesbury Bluesville 1965:
Date | Club | Artist 1 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
5/1/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Tony Knight and the Chessmen | |||
19/1/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Spencer Davis Group | |||
26/1/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen | |||
2/2/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Art Woods R&B | |||
9/2/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Rod Stewart and the Soul Agents | |||
16/2/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Spencer Davis Group | |||
23/2/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Downliners Sect | |||
2/3/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Chris Barber's Jazzband | |||
9/3/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Yardbirds | |||
16/3/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Cheynes | |||
6/4/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Downliners Sect | |||
13/4/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | T-Bones | |||
20/4/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Shevelles | |||
27/4/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Zoot Money and his Big Roll Band | |||
4/5/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | The Downliners Sect | |||
11/5/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | John Mayall's Blues Breakers | |||
25/5/1965 | Aylesbury Bluesville | Garry Farr and the T-Bones |
My membership card for Aylesbury Jazz Club
At Grosvenor Ballroom
is date stamped 29 DEC 1959
I met Nanda and Ron Lesley at the Norfolk Arms Wembley that year.
Last membership card for Aylesbury Jazz Club 9/1/62
Venue: The Town Hall Aylesbury
Supervised by Nanda and Ron Lesley
That’s fantastic, Richard. Would be interesting to see a photo of the membership cards. Do you have any special memories of the Aylesbury Jazz Club?