How did the nights run then, between records and bands? What was the running order?
There’d be record from about three till six, then the quartet would come on and do half set, then the stage would turn – all the places had revolving stages – the big band would come on, then there’d be half an hour of records and then another short set from the quartet and another set from the band. Then we’d close the evening with records. I presume the bands were playing the hits of the day? Yeah, on those nights in particular they’d only play the pop hits of the day and most of them were the real trashy ones, because they thought that’s what the kids wanted. Maaan. Of course, by that time, with all the influx of black imports and R&B it was a bit different. Cyril Stapleton, I’ll give him his due, was very keen to please the younger audience and wanted to know every new record that came out each week. As soon as anything came, that we thought was any good, he’d have the band play it. Did they use vocalists? Yeah, they used four vocalists and I became one of them as well. I used to d
