Eddie Friday, who held the lease on the Grosvenor Ballroom, continued to promote rock gigs there on Saturday evenings throughout 1961, usually featuring a headline group plus support. The Sunday club also carried on, with one group playing each week. Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, who had been regulars in 1960, continued to appear – […]
Author: Stephen Daglish
1960 Aylesbury Jazz Club
In 1960, the Aylesbury Jazz Club continued to present top-class trad jazz at the Grosvenor Ballroom every Tuesday evening. The fans continued to flock in – the Bucks Herald reported a record attendance of 950 for Terry Lightfoot on 24th May. Micky Ashman and his Ragtime Jazzband topped the number of appearances during the year […]
Syncopating Sandy – marathon piano man
In 1957 Syncopating Sandy came to Aylesbury. Sandy (otherwise James Strickland, or Strickleton) built a reputation as an endurance piano player, travelling the country trying to set records for playing the piano without a break. He seems to have been at it for quite a while – there are reports from as early as 1932 […]
Granada Aylesbury 1960 stage shows
The first of the 1960 Granada stage shows starred Gene Vincent with Wee Willie Harris and Al Saxon. Also on the bill were The Rockets, The Bachelors (not the Irish group that later achieved chart success), Keith Kelly, Max Seymour and Lance Fortune. The compere was Don Arden. This was Gene Vincent’s first visit to […]
All night jazz comes to Aylesbury
In November 1959, the first all night jazz event was held at the Grosvenor Ballroom, Aylesbury. Such events were nothing new to the jazz scene – they had been going on in London for many years – but this was definitely something new for Aylesbury. The Bucks Advertiser reported on November 6, 1959: The first […]
Rock Around The Clock film
In February 1957, the film Rock Around The Clock was shown at the Odeon, Aylesbury. The film had opened in the UK on 20 July 1956 at the London Pavilion, and in other towns there had been reports of problems with “teddy boys” destroying seats and dancing in the aisles – so some extraordinary measures were […]
1960: Rock ‘n’ Roll comes to the Grosvenor
February 1960 saw rock ‘n’ roll come to the Grosvenor Ballroom on Saturday nights. Until then, Saturday evenings had featured dance bands. For the first three weeks Stanley Dale is shown as the promoter, but after this the adverts are under a heading of Eddie Friday presents – though it seems likely that Stanley Dale […]
Granada Aylesbury 1959 stage shows
Following the 1958 shows, a further seven shows were staged in 1959. Again these offered a range of headliners. The first show was in February and bought Cliff Richard and the Drifters to Aylesbury. The Bucks Advertiser reported that 2,800 people were there – which seems alot, given the normal seating capacity of the Granada […]
1959 Aylesbury Jazz Club
On 13th January 1959, the Chris Barber Jazz Band played at the gala opening night of the Aylesbury Jazz Club at the Grosvenor Ballroom. The formation of the new jazz club was the idea of Eddie Friday, manager of the Grosvenor, and Ron Lesley, who had run the Harringay Jazz Club, Ron and his wife […]
Granada Aylesbury 1958 stage shows
1958 saw the start of regular stage shows at the Granada Aylesbury. These often resembled variety shows, and might include a compere and comedians as well as musical acts. The packages generally toured a number of Granada cinemas (or theatres as they were correctly known) as “Granada One Night Stands”. The removal of entertainment tax […]