Hi everyone in Bedlington!

I've just joined this site because a great friend of mine told me a couple of guys had commented on here about the ex resident band at the 'Top Club'.

I was the keyboard player of 'Stag' and we played there from January 1981 till April 1982 but and we played a couple of weekends in September '82.

By far this was the best workingmen's club I've ever worked and I think I speak for the other guys in the band too. Great people and truly magic times. Does anyone remember us??

Did Stag become Prism, (or vice versa) or was Prism a completely different band?

PRISM....The wee scott John Craig on vocals, Tommy on drums. Those were the days...

Heh heh!

That's jogged a memory or two for me...the top club!

In the mid-sixties, i played every other weekend at the old top club,what used to be a few properties down the street,not the ones that were burnt down,or pulled down,i'm talking about a little dive 20yards down the street tucked among the shops..anybody remember that one?

I have some of the entertainment posters what i used to take out of the glass case after the night was over,cos i was always the historian in the group....[we weren't called "bands"in those days....we were "pop groups,or rhythm groups.."]

"beat combos..."

Nah,Malc.!...no such thing as a beat combo in the 60's that i ever heard,apart from the Bill Black Combo,but that wasn't

rock n' roll as we know it!...Beat Groups,later on,but in the early 60's we were billed as "Fantastic Rhythm Groups"....or

"Pop Groups"....the Evening Chronicle enternainments page was full of every Working Men's Clubs in Northumberland,with lots of clubs putting groups on four or five nights a week.

We had Communities then,before thatcher-the-hatcheter festered the country..

I actually saw Marty Wilde at the top club in the late 70s - early 80s. (where Morrisons is now) He was doing some kind of revival stint I think. He turned up late then had the club move all the gear off the stage and onto the floor!!! Weird night that. I was with Paul Kane and Kevin Miller.

Edited March 15, 201313 yr by keith lockey

I remember the top club they had to pull it down due to it being unsafe. It had some great nights there. The resident group Prism were excellent. I remember one new years day they had to stop the broth being served as they had cooked it in the boiler and it had gone rancid so no one could eat it everyone was so disappointed. Oh happy days.

So,up ti noo,nae body knaas aboot thi little terraced top club wat aam on aboot!!

The stage was aboot six feet wide,and a foot high!,but that was aareet,cos wor guitar amplifiers,in them  happy days,of rock n roll pioneering,were only eight watts,and stood aboot a foot high and nine inches wide,with an eight - inch Elpico elliptical speaker inside the cabinet!![smaller than a hi-fi speaker!]

Sum of thi aad-timers,who were aal pitmen,like aa was,[but aa was only 18-or19 years aad!],complained,saying,"Ya areet,lads,but can yi torn it doon a bit,cos it's a bit lood at thi front here.....!!!"

..................LOOD!! , EIGHT WATTS!!

Jimi Hendrix came alang in later years,and set a precedence for having 200-watt Marshall amp stacks,with EIGHT 12-inch speakers...[4 in each cab,standing six feet taall.!!!!!

Aye,definitely happy days!

I think a reunion of your band is in order HPW.

I remember that 'Top Club' HPW. I played there in the 60's with a group called Merlin. We didn't go down too well with the regulars who were really only there for the 'Housey'. The concert chairman kept telling us to turn it down but it was difficult with 200 watt Marshall stacks you mentioned & a Hammond organ. so they eventually had to pay us off.

 

I have no idea why we were booked there, we were playing what was called in those days, Underground or Progressive music. No wonder they just didn't get the Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge stuff. Never mind, we on to play some great places, we just treated it as part of our apprenticeship. It didn't deter us either, the band lasted 7 years together, although some of the personnel changed over time. Happy days though.