Legends
On Tour - The Pop Package Tours Of The 1960s
by
Martin Creasy
Double
click on images to enlarge photos.
CAT Stevens’ amazing 1967 UK tour
with The Walker Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and
Engelbert Humperdinck, is one of the highlights
of a new book about the touring days of
the 1960s.
Legends On Tour - The Pop Package Tours
Of The 1960s - features seven UK tours that
took place between 1965 and 1967 and includes
the memories of 21 pop stars, dozens of
fans and with more than 150 never before
seen pictures.
Author Martin Creasy said: “The tour
pictures were taken by local newspaper photographers
and there are some wonderful shots from
Cat’s tour. It took place as I’m
Gonna Get Me A Gun was climbing the charts
and there are pictures of Cat on stage and
being mobbed by the fans.
“In one photograph Cat is crouching
and taking aim at the audience with a pistol.
The crowd are going ballistic! Other photos
show hard-pressed cinema security staff
attempting to extricate him from over-excited
fans.
“By contrast there is a beautiful
shot of Cat relaxing in his dressing room
with an acoustic guitar.
“The pictures are incredible and they
have never been published before. There
are photos of all the stars on stage and
relaxing in their dressing room and backstage.
The one photograph published from dozens
taken that night didn’t have any of
the stars in it. It simply showed a girl
fan being manhandled off the stage by security
people.
“The thing is, local newspapers didn’t
rate pop music as important in those days.
In researching the book I quickly discovered
that many newspapers only sent photographers
along if The Beatles were in town, although
the concerts usually made a few paragraphs
in the paper.
“Among the people interviewed for
the book was Engelbert, who had memories
of Cat and Jimi from that tour, and the
music writer Keith Altham who was at the
opening night at the Finsbury Park Astoria
and played a key part in Jimi setting his
guitar alight for the first time that night.”
Keith recalled Cat becoming a regular victim
of a water pistol fired from the wings night
after night by Noel Redding, and there were
many water pistol fights on the tour.
Engelbert recalls Cat trying to keep up
with him drinking before one show.. . with
embarrassing results for Cat who dropped
his gun on stage during the song that night.
“So many people these days have little
idea about what these tours involved,”
said Martin. From the stars’ point
of view they were hard work. A month or
more on the battered old tour bus, bedding
down at basic guest houses, slogging up
and down the roads of Britain endlessly
for just 20 minutes in the spotlight.
“From the fans point of view, however,
they were magic. Just imagine, three or
four acts from the top ten on the same show
- and all playing in your local high street.
You didn’t even have to travel to
the big cities. The concerts were almost
exclusively in cinemas or town halls - or
local concert halls like the de Montfort
at Leicester and the Colston Hall at Bristol.
“Entrance cost just a few shillings
and the fans, carried away with seeing their
heroes at such close quarters, would scream
themselves hoarse. If you got there early
enough, you could get lucky and meet your
favourite star too.
“There are several Walker Brothers
fans in the book who hung around to meet
them… and ended up meeting Jimi instead!
These were truly amazing times and they
could never happen again.”
The seven featured tours all have one thing
in common - they all included the ABC cinema
in Aldershot.
Martin is a journalist on the Aldershot
News and he had already started work on
the book when the negatives from the 1960s
pop shows were discovered in 2001 when the
newspaper moved offices.
“What
a find. The pictures were in danger of being
thrown away for space reasons when the newspaper
moved, but fortunately virtually all of
the newspaper’s old photos were saved
and taken to the Aldershot Military Museum.
“The pictures included Cat’s
tour, plus three others from 1967 - including
icons like Roy Orbison, The Small Faces,
Gene Pitney and The Troggs.
“There are pictures from other newspapers
in Legends and a special section devoted
to the UK pop package tours of The Beatles.
The whole thing was very much a labour of
love for me.”
Legends On Tour - The Pop Package Tours
Of The 1960s - is published by Tempus Publications.
It is on sale at all good bookshops and
is widely available on the internet. Legends
at Amazon.co.uk
More information is available at Martin’s
website at www.martincreasy.co.uk.
Aldershot
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