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The Austral Club, Longlands Road Sidcup. 1960's

Anyone used to go, or to its sister club in St Mary Cray, The Iron Curtain? I remember a lot of the fellas were Valley regulars. Great Mod hang outs. Sublime music, where I first heard "Harlem Shuffle"

Comments

  • Yeah! I started going to both The Austral and the Iron Curtain in around 1965 - the atmosphere was amazing with wall to wall crumpet, and I saw Lee Dorsey live at the Iron curtain (RIP Lee).
    A lot of my mates from Sidcup Boys School were Austral and Valley regulars and that started my interest. The Austral was very mod with rows of Lambrettas and Vespas parked outside and on some Friday /Saturday Nights it was a real crush on the dancefloor and no shortage of willing young ladies.

    There was another club in the same era in Woolwich I can't remember the name of, that played a lot of Ska and Bluebeat music - can anyone help with the name?

    Ah, nostalgia...!
  • The Iron Curtain....where I first saw and fell in love with Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band....a hot sunny Sunday afternoon.....packed out with wall to wall mods.
    How little I realised that the journey there from my home in Catford that day on my Vespa 160 would steer me down a road in the music business in which I still work to this day!
  • ValleyMax, that was the Ska Bar in, I think, Spray Street. Owned by my friend Jim Carroll, who also ran the Austral and the Iron Curtain with his brother John. I used to do the cloakroom there in '67 & '68, for a while, after the Austral closed. Long gone now. Great days.
  • The Iron Curtain....where I first saw and fell in love with Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band....a hot sunny Sunday afternoon.....packed out with wall to wall mods.
    How little I realised that the journey there from my home in Catford that day on my Vespa 160 would steer me down a road in the music business in which I still work to this day!. SoundAsa£ quote......

    What do you do in the music business ? My first job as a reporter in the High courts in London led me to the music press Melody Maker/sounds and so on.......

    Remember Geno well, all my mates were into the SKA stuff, remember his posters being up nearly every week in Woolwich.

    Progressive rock / Blues/for me I am afraid.....
  • Ken:
    You were a "Sounds" Man ?
    Only last year I gave my collection of Every copy of Sounds to a fellow Addick (wanted to keep them, but space was lacking..........).
    When were you at Covert Garden mate ?
  • I worked for them as a freelancer and they were part of spotlight publications. went to the office New Oxford Street which I think IPC took over then moved from to Kings reach Tower.

    I mainly worked for Melody maker and used to cover the bootleg record market, and my big 'scoop' was the break up of the Beatles in the High court.

    I was never staff and used to do bits and pieces for Melody Maker. In fact the news editor Chris Charlesworth now runs Omnibus books and I am submitting a book for consideration on 60s/70s music .

    I moved over to photography as I went to art school in the very early 70s.

    When I retire next year I am hoping to turn my hand at publishing this sort of thing, or set up a website or both. Really enjoy music like football, but like all 'hobbies' having a passion for something does not always pay the bills.
  • Which art school, Ken. I went to the Ravensbourne annexe 1966-69 in Wharton Road just round the corner from Bromley North.
  • Croydon
    Foundation and then
    3 year Graphic design....
    I failed to get into Ravensbourne, but got into Goldsmith's but Croydon was easy to get to 12 minutes from New Cross gate as I moved to Brockley, and in those days as well as getting grants I got my fares paid.
    went on to Coloma to do a postgraduate teaching, but went into the media and been there ever since.
  • Ron once from Bexley.
    I have only just found this web site after searching on the net for any info on the Austral and any other clubs I once frequented back in the 60s,and it was great to see some of the comments made back in 2009 about in particular the Austral.The Iron Curtain was also a great place, lots of rooms on different levels,I used to go there on the back of my mates Lambretta.
    Valley Max mentioned a club in Woolwich where only bluebeat and later ska were played,I went there and if my memory serves me well it was called the Black Cat club--great atmosphere. Getting back to the Austral [ was it once a cinema] I met my first serious girlfriend there, a local girl from nearby Faraday Avenue.The Motown/soul music was great to dance to but I guess I slowly got a little bored with it and started to enjoy more British R and B and I suppose early rock.Im sure I saw the Small Faces twice there and realized that was my kind of sound. Another band I saw about that time was the Graham Bond Organisation,at a large pub in Woolwich, where I got my first taste of drumming Ginger Baker style.
    Coming from Bexley originally I lived just a few minutes from that fantastic music venue the Black Prince. I worked there in the early to mid 60s,as a pot lad,when the South East Jazz and Blues festivals were held there-I got fed and watered,watched the bands and got payed! The Prince then had good quality bands playing there on Sunday nights, the Kinks and the Moody Blues spring to mind,Thursdays records and Tuesdays live jazz----N I I I I C E----,and
    as rock progressed bands such as John Mayall ,Stray,Arthur Brown and Thin Lizzy etc etc and on up to Roxy Music entertained us.
    The Prince was then sold,done up and died a death,tragedy.


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