May was a bumper month at Woodgrange Road's finest. Continuing our monthly series on the gigs that Woodgrange Road's upper Cut club hosted, 47 years ago - in May 1967
The month kicked off with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (6th). Manchester born, Fontana, took his stage name from Elvis Presley's drummer. Early hits for the band included Roadrunner, Love Potion Number 9 and Duke of Earl, but the band they had their biggest hit The Game of Love, just before their Upper Cut gig.
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| Wayne Fontana, an early May attraction |
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| Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders |
Like many of the bands who played Woodgrange Road almost 50 years ago, Wayne Fontana and his group are still on the scene. He made his most infamous recent appearance, however, in the dock rather than on the stage, and has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Terry Reid followed the next Saturday (13th). Reid is the great nearly man of British Rock, having turned down the singer role in Led Zep, because he was touring, to be replaced by Robert Plant and having almost become the lead of Deep Purple, only to be pipped at the post by Ian Gillan.
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| Terry Reid - still good value at under £20 at the 100 Club, these days |
Reid has supported most of the great popular music acts of the last 50 years, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Rolling Stones etc. Like many others of his era, he is still on the road and can be still be seen in some of London's smaller clubs knocking out a great night for under £20!
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| Bill Wyman, way back when! Drug free Stones promoter |
The Stones never played the Upper Cut, but nearly ... On 14 May Bill Wyman made an appearance, as the accompanying publicity stated "To celebrate their latest Columbia disc, a personal appearance by Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman". Admission price? 5/- (25p!).
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| Bill Wyman, for five bob! |
May 19th saw a return of Sounds Incorporated, who had already played the Upper Cut on 20 January.
Another, publicly-caught-up-in-drugs accusations, at precisely this time, was the Scottish, heavily Dylan-influenced Donovan. He appeared at the Upper Cut six days later (the 20th), performing for the "12's - 17's ... absolutely free", as the publicity says. Surely this wasn't the encouragement of drug use to under aged Forest Gate youngsters?
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| Hurdy Gurdy man - Donovan, admission-free, if not drug-free |
Donovan had already had a hit with Sunshine Superman and was moving up the charts with Mellow Yellow at the time of his Woodgrange Road gig. Like many of the troopers who played the Upper Cut, he is still on the music scene and was inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
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| Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers |
Donovan supported Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers on his Forest Gate outing. That band's biggest claim to fame was that they opened the bill on the Beatles final European tour, the year before the Woodgrange Road show. They had a number of minor hits (One Way Love, Gotta Get You Intta My Life etc) and effectively disbanded in the early 1970's. Bennett, himself, however, has been back on the road over the last few years on 60's package/nostalgia tours.
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| Donovan for free, and the Kinks, for not much more! |
In the evening, having been warmed up by the Beatles warm-up band, came The Kinks. One of the great acts of British popular music over the last half century, with beautiful lyrics that paint such great pictures of many aspects of English life (even Lola??).
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| The Kinks, one of the finest bands to emerge from the 60's |
These Muswell Hill boys are perhaps as well known for the tempestuous relationship between the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, as some of their quixotic hits. Time slots of gigs at the Upper Cut were short. There would been barely enough time for the Kinks to have played their hits-to-date on their set before time ran out. They had already recorded: You Really Got Me, All Day And All of the Night, Set Me Free, Tired of Waiting, See My Friends, Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Sunny Afternoon and Dead End Street.
They had just released the quintessentially London track Waterloo Sunset when they appeared in Woodgrange Road. What a pleasure it would have been to have been there!
But the month wasn't done yet! The following weekend (26th) saw the Graham Bond Organisation an early jazz/rock fusion band -and the Troggs. Although Graham Bond was never big, commercially, the band did spawn Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, who were later to constitute two thirds of Cream - who were to play later at the Upper Cut, in 1967. The Organisation dissolved in 1967, soon after the Upper Cut gig, as a result of an inability to handle drugs misuse and disharmony within the ranks.
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| Graham Bond Organisation - short lived, but influential |
The Troggs were an altogether different kettle of fish (appearing on the 27th). Lead by Hampshire-born vocalist Reg Presley, who died a little over a year ago, the band had four huge hits - three before the Woodgrange Road gig - which would undoubtedly have had an airing (Wild Thing, With a Girl Like You and I Can't Control Myself) and one after (Love As All Around), which got far greater recognition when covered by Wet, Wet, Wet, and provided the theme tune to Four Weddings and a Funeral.
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| Wild Things - The Troggs |
The Troggs have been cited by many as the godfathers of punk. Presley used much of the royalties he gained from the Wet, Wet, Wet version of his song to fund his interest in crop circles, alien spacecraft and lost civilisations!
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 2013
Upper Cut (1) - a summary of the emergence of the first six months of the club (December 1966 - July 1967) July 2013
Upper Cut (2) - a brief survey of the second, and final half year of the club's existence (August 1967 - December 1967) July 2013
Georgie Fame, The Tremeloes and Unit 4 + 2 - (September 1967 at the Upper Cut) October 2013
When Stevie Wonder played Forest Gate - (October 1967) November 2013
Mouthwatering musical fayre on Woodgrange Road - (November 1967) December 2013
Club bills for the Upper Cut's two Decembers - (Decembers 1966 and 1967) January 2014
The Upper Cut beds down - (January 1967) February 2014
Essex comes to Forest Gate - (February 1967) March 2014
Stax comes to town - (March 1967) April 2014
A mixed bunch at the Upper Cut in April (April 1967) May 2014
Upper Cut - May 1967 (June 1967) June 2014
Summer of Love in Forest Gate (Summer 1967) August 2014
Golden Boy, Billy Walker's Forest Gate memories September 2014
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