Beckenham Junction, nightclub in 1966

[nigel]

About the time of The Bromley Court Hotel gigs I kept seeing posters with the printed word SKA, a new word for a 15 year old .
The Penthouse was unique for a couple of years ,basically a dark one room affair with 12 inch speaker sound systems thumping out American imported Bluebeat and SKA tunes from Jamaica and the West Indies . I am looking a photo of a girl called Carol who turned up at a Penthouse 'allnighter' , she had decided to visit the place on hearing the bass or seeing the name while passing through Bromley on a train from the Kent coast ...... off topic nevermind ....

The Mistral club owners name escapes me but someone once mentioned to me that he owned a dark red Jensen so could have been into cars but don't remember the Roller when I was at the club. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/1959.jensen.541r.arp.jpg/800px-1959.jensen.541r.arp.jpg

Like member boogieknight said Lee did DJ at the Mistral. I knew Lee previously because he had played his collection of SKA records at the Penthouse .Located down the side road next to Bromley south station above a meat wholesalers ,The Penthouse club was licensed to open all night on Saturdays like the El Partido at the same time in Lewisham. At an ' allnight blocker ' alcohol was not the stimulant of choice , I remember guys who swallowed 20 or more 'dubes' wandering out into the morning air tonic suited and stupefied usually heading for the soup machine at Bromley North.

The Mistral on the other hand emulated a London style nightclub with an all important alcohol license, it wasn't down and dirty and I remember seeing Lee behind the deck when club tunes like "I heard it through the Grapevine " were out. Steve was another guy who worked there who I also knew from the Penthouse days ,he let me use the upstairs dance and stage area for a band audition in about 1969. That was the last time I saw the club.

Steve and Lee were both friends of Dennis Littley, I teamed up with Dennis who regularly hired the Three Tons back room with his sounds, about 1967 Dennis and I went off to Bristol securing a regular gig from Pat the manager at the Dug-out Club in Park Row , driving the van back at weekends for an unlikely cafe gig in London W1 at Tinkers Fair . I went to India in 1968 meanwhile in Beckenham the Three Tons became synonymous with the arts lab .
mcleanmuir.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=mem&action=display&thread=100
The last I heard of Dennis was late 1973/4 when he ran a greengrocers shop in Beckenham high street just up from the Regal / ABC with his brother Barry before moving to Holland , his family were from Penge .

[nigel]

Mistrale [sic]
easier to search with the correct spelling ;D
www.georgwa.demon.co.uk/mistralefly.htm
reference: www.georgwa.demon.co.uk/60flyers.htm
& www.georgwa.demon.co.uk/

[Pete]

Some good stuff there re. the nightclub Nigel, although I can't elaborate on that further I'm afraid. I can't help with Carol either, unfortunately... I've got a few of those myself though, we must share some notes!
;D

Coincidentally, you have brought up another name 'lost in time' and something else you might be able to clear up for me...
You mention The Penthouse at Bromley South....
I went to a place down the side of the station (in 1965, I think) and saw Lulu and The Lovers - I remember to this day standing (underage) at the very front of the stage drooling over Lulu... do you think this could have been The Penthouse?
My mate who came with me reckoned it was in a place over a pub, but I'm not so sure, I don't seem to recall a pub down there.
Thanks.

[nigel]

Definitely no pub down the side of the station . The club had an iron fire escape to asses the entrance door from the pavement ,prapps that will jog your memory.

The Penthouse's management prior to it's name change to 'Peyton Place' had circuit connections so maybe Lulu did play there. From google maps it appears the two story building is no longer standing ,the station wall opposite is the same though.

I remember hearing something the Penthouse described as a "teenage hotel"; called the Shoreline Club" Bognor Regis. Search

' the Shoreline Hotel (the only teenage hotel run by teenagers for teenagers in Bognor)'

also found searching Bowie gigs www.bowiewonderworld.com/tours/tour58.htm ...way off topic but web spiders pick this stuff up like there was life on Mars.
The Shoreline Club was a ground floor dance area (several rooms knocked into one)and hotel rooms above ( not mixed sex ) . I had no money for such things and slept rough on the beach, meanwhile after that escapade some months later I had to appear at Bow street Magistrates court the result of being caught bleary eyed at Victoria station trying to avoid the train fare back from Bognor . Timeline here is 1966 "good vibrations" by the Beach Boys .

The Marquee club London was another Penthouse 'connection'. The Penthouse management handed out free promotional tickets from the Herd's management designed to swell the audience at early Herd gigs . The Herd > www.frampton.com/herd.html Andy Bown had the mickey taken out of him by the audience at an earlier Penthouse gig because he'd dressed in what looked like pajamas and the same mickey taking catcalls came from the Penthouse (free ticket crowd) at London's Marquee . 'Andy Pandy' was a children's TV marionette of the 50's and 60's who dressed in stripy pajamas. Lee of 'Little Lee sounds' started the phrase A-n-d-y ! P-a-n d-y !! and others joined in.
I bumped into Peter and his girlfriend in the interval but our conversation never really took off, while we both had just turned 15 I worked for 8 quid a week filling shelves at Caters supermarket Bromley , and he played in a band that made hit records, appeared on TV wearing funny clothes and had an attractive girlfriend.

Around this time I started commuting to a new job in London , bought an acoustic guitar and started wearing funny clothes .

[Pete]

Yes, the iron fire escape does ring a bell; I'm sure it wasn't a pub anyway so I think we are both talking about the same place.

Re the Bowiewonderworld site... Yes, I found that site, I think I mentioned that on the Wickham Goes Pop post though (must check, at the risk of getting boring!)... He (Dave!) has all his early gig dates there and our name (The Aces) is shown at the same gig, which was nice; not many people can say they played on the same bill as Sir Dave!


Love the Bognor bit - been there, done that, but usually at Brighton or Southend... always seemed a good idea at the time, but come 4am when the sea mists came down it somehow lost it's apppeal!

I can relate to the Victoria Station bit too, although my experience was at Charing Cross, having missed the last train home from an early initiation to Soho! Slept in a phone box, me in one and my mate next door... fine 'til we got woken up by the station Bobby and packed on our way... ended up walking home, it must have taken us hours, but who cares at that age.... timeline here 1965, The Kinks, Bob Dylan etc.. good days, when nothing else mattered!


Re. Andy Bown of The Herd... Our band (by now, The Unattached) played support to them at The Drum in Penge (17th September 1966), and I recall my shock at Andy's make-up bag, eye liner, the lot.... I decided it probably best to look the other way and pretend I hadn't noticed... hard to believe he's with the Quo now!
I remember Peter's girlfriend, later to become his wife if we are talking about the same one... we were at school together and I always remember being attracted to her myself (along with just about everyone else!)... seems the best man won.


Ahhhh, Caters, I'd forgotten about them.. I worked at David Greig's in the Market Place!
Good days, all good fun, just the bike and the girlfriend to worry about, in that order of course.

[appendix]

I know if you remember the 60's you weren't really there,but I have memory of KIng Crimson, and possibly the Pretty Things performing SF Sorrow(with liquid light show) at the Mistrale Club as it was known in '69!All the guys I went with were 16-17 then and are dead now (I think)...Neil Holmes,Steve Jeffries,Mick Udell etc.

[penthousedave]

I can fill you in with some more details about The Penthouse/Peyton Place club.
The iron staircase was there until 1966 then it was covered over when Peyton Place opened in about the spring/summer of 1966
Bill Gaff productions ran the place. We often got free tickets for the Marquee club in Wardour street.
Rod Stewart was then the resident singer on Tuesdays. Long John Baldry also.
The Cream played at Peyton place on 12 August 1966, about 6 weeks before they broke into the charts. I was the dj that evening.
As we primarily only played soul and ska music the Cream's music sounded very alien to the regulars.

[penthousedave]

The club adjoining the Beckenham junction railway station used to be called the Beckenham Ballroom(s?)
Then it was completely refurbished and renamed The Mistrale.
One thing stands out was the fact that it was the 1st club I knew of that had stereo speakers. This was played from the Rolls Royce in the middle of the ground floor. The DJ who sat in the Rolls was so cramped and hot, poor guy.
Many top soul artists performed here.
From a flyer I have of December 1968
6th Dec......The Herd
13th Dec.......Dave Dee Dozy Beacky Mick & Tich
20th Dec.........The Isley Brothers
24th Dec............Johnny and the Rivals
27th Dec...............The Pretty things
resident group was Gun Hill
resident DJ on Thursdays was Count Lee aka Little Lee whom I often assisted.

[The Historian]

penthousedave,

Is there any chance of a scan of the flyer so I can put it on this site?

Gun Hill played at The Beckenham Free Festival along with other local bands including Penge based Appendix Part One.

[penthousedave]

I see the max size for attachments is only 1gb so if you want a decent scan how can I send it?

[nigel]

Hi Dave
try me on a spare email >
I can delete the above email addy if you let me know when you've read it.

[penthousedave]

hi Nigel read it

[nigel]

Ok ;D

[The Historian]

I was in Croydon High St yesterday near the Flyover and I thought of Dr Jim's Nightclub and wondered where it was. I seem to remember walking in via an alley or shopfront (never remembered coming out). Does anyone know what number High St it would have been back in the day? I did notice that the large pub further down that is now called the Tree is still there, I think the club upstairs used to be called Busby's. Further down the road was The Red Deer and even further was The Purley Orchid, now a fitness club. The Orchid seemed like it was massive inside. I wonder if the is a photo of it around?

[nigel]

From searching the web it seems thousands of people remembered the Orchid including me, trouble is, indoor photos seem to be as rare as hens teeth from the period 50's to the mid 70's .