THIS column is always open to the popular music of yesterday (the 1960s) and sometimes the day before yesterday.
Over the next five weeks or so Idle & Thackley Conservative Club’s Top 20 Club is rocking back to the 1960s with two shows that reflect the best of that era.
The first one, next Saturday night (May 16), is a 1960s cabaret and dance with the sounds of the Beatles, the Searchers, the Kinks, the Merseybeats and others, provided by the band Beatles For Sale.
DJ Dizzy Dave will be spinning discs from the 1960s and 1970s and local Rock stalwart impresario Garth Cawood will compere.
Garth Cawood said: “Beatles For Sale are all from West Yorkshire. They are all very competent musicians with great harmonics. They try to play like the Beatles rather than look like them, They don’t wear wigs.
“The whole idea is to try to re-invent what the Top 20 Club was all about in the 1960s.”
The Top 20 Club opened on May 12, 1964, just over two months after the Beatles conquered America and Liverpool bands were all the rage.
To reflect this Beatles For Sale will be performing hit songs by other Merseyside bands in the second half of next Saturday’s show.
“It’s nostalgia for people of our age group but you’d be surprised how many younger people come to these shows.
“About 400 went to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival show at the Bradford Hotel on April 17. I know that people from that will be coming to the Top 20 Club,” Garth added.
He said he wants to put on four shows a year at Idle & Thackley Conservative Club and would be satisfied to cover costs.
The second Top 20 Club show on June 20 stars former Drifters front man Roy G Hemmings. He was the second voice to Johnny Moore for many years and took over after he died before cutting loose for a solo career The Top 20 Club, which has a capacity of about 120, will resound to a cavalcade of great songs – Get Ready, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, Under the Boardwalk, Can’t Help Myself, My Girl, Save the Last Dance for Me, and Love Train.
“Roy is a friend of mine. We have worked together for 15 years. I met him when I first booked the Drifters for Pennington’s on Manningham Lane,” Garth added.
Next week’s 1960’s style cabaret and dance at Idle & Thackley Conservative Club - the place where Tom Jones and The Kinks have performed - starts after 7.30pm. Tickets are £7.
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