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© Stan Laundon
THE RINK
The Queens Rink Ballroom in Clarence Road, Hartlepool was one of the places to visit during the 1950's and 1960's. During its heyday people would dance the night away to their favourite pop group or big band. For me personally I have fond memories of the old place - dancing there as a youngster and, in later years, playing on stage with The Trakkers. Therefore, it was particularly special when local lady Pamela Swift invited me to take part in a Rink Reunion on April 23, 2005, which took place at the Borough Hall, in Hartlepool, to re-live some of those happy days we all enjoyed at the Rink - which had long been demolished.
This was taken just before the afternoon rehearsals at the Borough Hall - a beautiful Fender guitars collection owned by Ron Blair of The Plainsmen - a 1962 Stratocaster, a 1957 Stratocaster and a 1988 Telecaster.
Our thanks to The Panthers lead guitarist, Rowland Taylor, for providing these photographs which were taken at the Rink during the early 1960's. He says he can't remember who took them, but all he found were small 2"x2" prints - black & white of course, poor quality, but they capture a moment in time long gone, but not forgotten. The dance photo shows Neil Kendrew, Jeff Beall, Brian Fletcher and Rowland Taylor. On the stage close-up is Neil, Jeff and Rowland.
The guitar solo (above) shows Jeff Beall on bass guitar, Rowland Taylor
on lead, Brian Fletcher on vocals with Neil Kendrew on bass. The poor
drummer usually gets left out of photographs - or hidden by the front men
- but, thankfully
drummer John Lowe and Rowland can be seen goofing around just above.
This must be "FBI" with Jeff, Neil and Rowland.
It is good to see the audience enjoying themselves on the dance floor and it is also nice to see just how smart youngsters were back in those days. A Saturday night out at the Rink was a night out!
Mark Lewis (above left) of the Tony King Sound, playing at the Queens Rink Ballroom, in Hartlepool, in November 1967. He played the Hammond organ in the band – but this was taken during the only song he played on guitar. He remembers it well he says - it was "Love Is All Around" by the Troggs. These days Mark is a resident in Spain and lives on the Costa Blanca. Kenny Allen (right) at the Rink playing Mark's Hammond organ. He was the bass player in the Tony King Sound and an excellent vocalist, too!
When you do a search on the net about the
Rink it's sad to see that not much appears. The only snippets I could
find was that Benny Nelson and the Blue Rhythm Boys were resident band
at some time. It was also
I did, however, receive email from Paul Flush who says:
"I played in the
resident band at the Rink from around 1962 to 1967 when we left to take
up a full time professional job at Tito's nightclub in Stockton."
"I was not quite 13 when I joined the band – very exciting for me working alongside all the big groups, national and local, while still at school. The Rink band was then run by Russ (Harry) Nicholson who'd been a well known trumpet player with some major big bands of the 50's - Johnny Dankworth and Eric Delaney to name two. The band consisted of guitar, bass, drums, organ, trumpet, tenor sax, baritone sax and two singers. I don't remember all the names but I still have contact with Terry Metcalf, our singer who still lives in the area. Julie Lewis was the female singer for the last couple of years and when we all left she continued singing at a nightclub in Hartlepool, finally going to Australia around 1968/9 where she was apparently quite well known for a time. The bass player was Peter Trundley who joined us from The Hartbeats. Peter and I worked together for another six years after the Rink but we've lost contact now. I've tried to find him but been unsuccessful. He was last heard of working in London as a taxi driver, though still playing bass."
Photograph from Paul Flush
This photograph was taken at
Tito's Night Club in Stockton, August 1967, and shows, in the back row, Terry Metcalf
(vocals) Peter Trundley (bass) and Paul Flush (organ) with Russ Nicholson
(Trumpet/Bandleader) Johnny Blackham (drums) and Al Flush (piano) in
the front.
Paul says: "My father, Al, helped me out at the club by playing piano
for a while since my music sight reading wasn't that good yet and we had
some pretty big acts to play for. The first week was Billy Eckstine so
you can imagine, at sixteen, I was very nervous!"
"Interestingly, the grey jackets we are wearing in the photo were the
band jackets from the Rink for the previous five years!"
"It's
a pity that more photos of the Rink don't exist – they were exciting
times in the pop music world, those kinds of venues providing major
outlets for the groups of the day. The equivalent of stadium gigs now,
perhaps!"
"The only major group not to play there were the Beatles. If I remember
the story correctly, they were booked but not contracted and pulled out
due to some probably much better offer."
Paul also recalls another quick story about the Rink: "In 1966 I was
very excited because Lulu was playing on one of the Friday 'name' group
nights - she had just had her hit with "Shout."
"Naturally all the boys at school fancied her and I thought I would get to meet her, of course. Her over-protective management wouldn't let anyone near her backstage though, so it was a big disappointment for me. In all these years playing professionally with all kinds of artists our paths never crossed again until New Years Eve 2005 when she was co-hosting a TV special in Belfast. I was MD for Tony Christie on the show and our tour manager (who also works for Lulu occasionally) promised to finally introduce us. Unfortunately, in the chaos at the end of the show she left very quickly and I thought that, once again, I had missed my chance. Luckily however, we were on the same flight the next morning and she recognised me from the show - so after a 40 year gap, since that night at the Rink, I did finally get to meet her!"
This press cutting came to us courtesy of Barry Cox and was featured in Hartlepool Mail on November 2, 1989. It features Russ and the Nichols with Tony Kindlan, ex-Rock-Avons on guitar, Russ Nicholson, the Queens Rink band leader, Keith Berry on bass and Barry Cox on drums. The other members in the photo with brass instruments are from the Queens Rink Band - the baritone player on the left is Billy Codling and the tenor player, on the extreme right, is Jack Carter - brother of former drummer George Carter. It was after this time that other members came on the scene - female vocalist Heather, wife of bass player Keith Berry and Terry Metcalfe.
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