“If this was circa 1982, it was also the early days of the CB breakers' clubs, and Smugglers was the venue for one of these called 'The Downtown Breakers Club'. Run by a shady character known as "Liverpool Lad" I was approached to DJ there in my guise as "Starman" one night per week for it. Many more of these CB clubs soon sprung up at other venues supported by the proliference of 27mg broadcasting, 10-4 for sure good buddies Lol...”
“Johnny! Good afternoon and welcome along... Great to hear from you matey, and no you didn't miss it - once again it didn't happen! Ah well one of these days although quite a few of us are back in touch with each other now. Wish I could get in touch with Phil Ellis and find out if he still has all that footage from the video shoots in the studio and the roadshows, that film needs to be finished...
So far as the high tech studio at the mill, do you remember how many Piccadilly jocks were queuing up and waiting to defect to KFM at that time? Halcyon days mate!”
“Sorry guys, but I was working Sachas, Saturdays, Jennies and Kicks at that time and it definitely wasn't for Kicks on Portland Street! Looks like we have a mystery on hand here... Isn't that the "Special K" logo?”
“I knew this place so well! Prior to it's opening by the Teretmeister as Ray's Place, it's last previous life was as "The Downtown Cabaret Club" opened in 1976. It was where I first turned pro, and worked six nights per week with Big Al Rockwell standing in on the Sundays... We had the legendary Dennis Cotterell & Co on the door and every Friday night was blood and snot everywhere and every man for himself! These were the days of Greengage, The Ivy League, a very young Jimmy Cricket, Reg Coates Experience etc . I'm sure I still have the old press cuttings somewhere, I'll have to try and dig them out...”
“So the old brigade are all still alive and doing well? Thanks for that Ged, we'll have to put a reunion together and have a night in town. Now where could we go? Pips -gone, Tiffs - gone, The Italian Stallion, Rotters, Fagins, Herriots, Blueberries, Brubakers, Saturdays, Sachas, Kicks, Jenny's,Cellar Vie, Deno's, Mr Smiths, North Westward Ho, Belle Vue, hell where did it all go? Now where did I put my password for Facebook? Hello? Gail?”
“Oh Ged... Some of us are still living at that pace now! The girl jocks used to do early week nights on the boat and me and a guy called DJ Duke Ozzy (no not that one) used to do weekends. How the hell did you find that out about Gail Clough? Confession here guys, I was the one who re-invented her as Cherelle when she came on our books at Deejays in Hazel Grove and worked Kicks in town for us, I always had a soft spot for Gail. You mentioned Placemates on Tuesdays, Chris Lesser was the manager there before he opened Saturdays on Portland Street. It was Chris who took me on there, initially to work with Paul Anthony and to be honest was one of the best club managers I ever worked with!
Oh, and in answer to sbilts re the fate of Westward Ho - the comet jet on the car park which was the restaurant was closed after Granada TV went in there to film for something and they ripped all of the interior out and re-fitted it. That never opened again and the boat fell into major disrepair and was eventually sold to be re-fitted and opened somewhere else although I never found out where.”
“eeee! Ged Foley, now that name conjures up some memories... Tell you what Ged, you're dead right! The up and comers these days will never experience townie life as it was in those halcyon days... We didn't actually meet up until much later, but If I remember correctly - at the same time as you were at Tiffs I was mis-spending my youth down at Pomona docks gigging on Westward Ho. Let's keep this thread going, anyone remember the old boat?”
“The above comments were all pretty accurate, the girl pictured was in fact Jeanie Ellis, she also had a sister called Sue (both drop dead gorgeous). Dave Ellis (of MDS) sadly is no longer with us - and big brother Phil was both in and,worked with and managed various bands on the local scene at the time. Some of which were absolutely massive abroad. The last band I knew of him being in were called "Heartbreak Force" who in a fair world should have gone a long way. Phil was also behind the filming of a documentary on KFM Radio (the pirate one) which sadly never saw the light of day...
He was later a media lecturer at Stockport College before departing to, I think, Manchester Uni to work.
Oh! and before I forget, Chris Little didn't just go in there, he actually worked on the door... In those days he was in training as a boxer...”
“Incidentally, note the frequency readout (94.2MHz), this was from the very early days of KFM when we initially broadcast on FM only. After we moved to Goyt Mill we switched to a much bigger transmitter and broadcast on 1017KHz MW!”
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