Georgie Fame, Tremeloes and Unit 4 + 2 at Upper Cut

Over the coming months we'll feature the flyers and artistes appearing at the Woodgrange Road club, about which we've already provided a very brief history.

So, after the summer holiday break in 1967, the club, which only lasted a year was back in business.

The first week of September featured the Tremeloes, see advert, below:

Upper Cut gig list for
 early September 1967

 

The Tremeloes came from Romford and by the time of the Upper Cut gig had parted company with Brian Poole, their former front man and ex-Dagenham butcher.

A publicity photo of the band,
 soon after their Forest Gate gig

 

Their Forest Gate gig came just months after their biggest hit, a one-time Four Seasons B side - Silence is Golden. The You Tube clip below gives a flavour of what the Upper Cut attendees may have heard.

The Tremeloes: Silence is Golden

By mid September 1967 the Upper Cut club was featuring "Sweet Georgie Fame", at a gig on Saturday the 16th.

Upper Cut advert
 for mid September
 gigs, 1967

Georgie Fame was born in Lancashire and later married into the aristocracy.  He is currently a prominent member of the Countryside Alliance. He is still on the music circuit, playing solo and also accompanying the likes of van Morrison and Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings.

Publicity photo of Georgie Fame,
 soon after Upper Cut gig

Fame had a number of hits, solo and with his band, The Blue Flames, in the 60's, including the jazz-influenced Yeh, Yeh, Sunny and the Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.  His appearance in Forest Gate came months after his hit Getaway, which undoubtedly would have featured in Woodgrange Road 46 years ago.

Not sure whether the song is a reference to Forest Gate, itself, or whether the train journey featured in the video, below is "Sweet Georgie" on his way from Forest Gate to Liverpool Street.

Georgie Fame: Getaway

The end of September saw a gig featuring Unit 4 + 2.

Upper Cut gig list
 for late September
 1967, featuring
 Unit 4 + 2

 

The group toured between 1963 and 1970, when they were disbanded, never to play, together, again. Most of their members subsequently faded into musical obscurity.

Publicity shot of Unit 4 + 2
 taken soon after Forest Gate gig

 

The band's appearance in Forest Gate came soon after their biggest hit, Concrete and Clay, featured in the You Tube clip, below.

 Unit 4 + 2: Concrete and Clay

 We will feature monthly updates of Upper Cut gigs (1966 - 67) over the coming months and eagle eyed readers will see that Forest Gate hosted Stevie Wonder in October 1967.  The delights of which, and details to follow... !!

Back catalogue

This site has published a number of articles on the history of the Upper Cut club: the first detailing the time when Otis visited it, in March 1967. This post was followed by two, recording the first six months and the final six months of the club's existence.

These posts were followed by almost monthy updates on who played at the club, that month, 47 years previously. The final blog is a record of a recent meeting with former boxer, Billy Walker, the name under whom the club exisited, on his memories of it and Forest Gate almost half a century ago.

Below is a list of those blogs: the hyper links are the titles of the articles, and when hit upon should give access to them. The dates (in italics) are the time covered by the blog and the date in bold are the months the blogs were posted.

Although the content, and some of the comments on the individual posts, is pretty definitive, we'd love to hear any memories readers may have of the gigs, or corrections they could make to the copy. Just post in the Comments box, below.When Otis played Forest Gate (March 1967) May 2013Upper Cut (1) - a summary of the emergence of the first six months of the club (December 1966 - July 1967) July 2013Upper Cut (2) - a brief survey of the second, and final half year of the club's existence (August 1967 - December 1967) July 2013Georgie Fame, The Tremeloes and Unit 4 + 2 - (September 1967 at the Upper Cut) October 2013When Stevie Wonder played Forest Gate - (October 1967) November 2013Mouthwatering musical fayre on Woodgrange Road - (November 1967) December 2013Club bills for the Upper Cut's two Decembers - (Decembers 1966 and 1967) January 2014The Upper Cut beds down - (January 1967) February 2014Essex comes to Forest Gate - (February 1967) March 2014Stax comes to town - (March 1967) April 2014A mixed bunch at the Upper Cut in April (April 1967) May 2014Upper Cut - May 1967 (June 1967) June 2014Summer of Love in Forest Gate (Summer 1967) August 2014

Golden Boy, Billy Walker's Forest Gate memories September 2014