Paul Romane's Upper Cut exhibition - for the record

Forest Gate Arts' stalwart, Paul Romane, recently curated an excellent exhibition on the Upper Cut club, fifty years after its brief sojourn in Forest Gate, as part of the second council Heritage Week programme.

Above and below left, some of the exhibits curated for the exhibition.  Below right - also in the exhibition - a Forest Gate 'mod' of the era - a typical Upper Cut patron

The exhibition was held in the temporary headquarters of Forest Gate Arts, in Upton Lane, and this post is an on-line record of the fine show. Paul, a long time devotee of the club, and in particular some of the Soul acts that played there, had spent a great deal of energy drawing together exhibits for the week-long show.

The Upper Cut club on Woodgrange Road later
became the Ace of Clubs  (above)
and an outside shot of the gallery
hosting the exhibition (below)

A poster advertising the club, preserved
from the era and on display in the exhibition.

Paul collected mementos and memorabilia from a wide range of sources - including Small Faces roadie and brother of band member Ronnie - Stan Lane, and this website, together with many of his own souvenirs, to provide a fascinating, evocative and inspiring exhibition.

Left one of the display boards in the exhibition showing adverts for the gigs appearing at the Upper Cut (loaned by this website). Right, some modern posters in 60's psychedelic style by Forest Gate artist, and sister of modern singer, Plan B, Lauren Drew.

This post is being published to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the club - to make way for a bingo hall - in the last week of 1967. The artifacts embraced in many of the photos here are reproduced for the first time on this site, and add to the considerable collection already here. See below for details of other blog articles on the club.

An original poster, featuring acts
 appearing during the club's opening
 week (note mis-spelling of Jimi Hendrix's
 name - he was little known in the UK at
 the time, hence the Boxing Day 
matinee gig).

A flyer for one week's
shows at the club,
on display in the
exhibition

The curator - Paul Romane

Paul is a Newham boy; born in Plaistow in 1960, he has spent his whole life - bar the decade of the 1970's - in the borough. He moved to Forest Gate in 1981 and has developed a fascination with the briefly existing Upper Cut Club ever since. Such is his love for the music it featured, that he named his only son Otis after one of the venue's greatest performers. 


He has spent most of his working life in and around the arts, as a singer, musician, video maker, recording studio owner, poet and local music archivist.

The club

We have written extensively about the club, which lasted for only a year - from December 1966 until New Year's Eve the following year. (see footnote for details of previous articles ).

Insignificant-looking, but historic,
 scrap of paper. Kenny and Eddie
 Johnson (who ran the Lotus Club
 and Stratford's Two Puddings) had
negotiated with Aronsohn to take
 over the empty building that was
to become the Upper Cut, and 
shared  with him their business 
plans.They feel that he duped
  them, when the club opened with
 an identical set of objectives, run
 by Walker Brothers, Billy and George.

The Upper Cut was located in a building on land next to Percy Ingle's, on Woodgrange Road. The building was originally opened in 1902 as Forest Gate Public Hall, and served a variety of roles over the next century - hosting a theatre, cinema, skating rink, the Upper Cut Club (briefly), a bingo hall, The Ace of Clubs club, and an electrical warehouse, until its demolition, in the early years of this century, to make way for a ventilation shaft for the Eurotunnel rail link, which remains today.

Left - adverts for gigs at Upper Cut club, right - coverage of the club - all from the New Musical Express, at the time.

The location was awarded a plaque by Newham Council five or six years ago, in recognition of the fact that it was there that Jimi Hendrix wrote and first performed  Purple Haze - widely regarded as being one of the greatest rock numbers of all time - on Boxing Day 1966. The sign has subsequently been removed, as developers Mura have taken over much of the surrounding land.

The owner - Billy Walker

The club was owned and named after British boxer, Billy Walker, seen as a 'glamour' figure at the time of 'Swinging Britain'. Billy was very much the front man for the club, with his brother, George, the brains and businessman behind it. See here for details of Billy's local associations and views on the club, based on a personal interview with this website.

Above, programmes and Boxing magazines featuring Upper Cut owner, Billy Walker's boxing career, and the corner devoted to him in the exhibition.

Entrance and cloakroom of Upper Cut on
 night of Stax performance, March 1967, 
with large poster of Billy featured
 in the reception area.

Billy, in a staged photo, surrounded
 by "adoring fans" at the club, in the
 midst of the 'Swinging Sixties' .
(photo: copyright Getty Images)

Billy (right) with Lord Bath previewing an
 exhibition of his lordship's controversial artwork
 on the walls of the club.
 (photo copyright of Getty Images)

The performers

Although the club was opened for just one year, it attracted almost all the prominent UK bands of the day (excluding, notably, the Beatles) and some American black acts who were struggling to get recognition at home.

Most notable among them was Jimi Hendrix, who appeared at the club twice.  

Possibly the biggest night in the club's short life was on 18 March 1967, when the so called Stax tour appeared. They performed one of their four UK gigs at the club, as part of a European tour. The star of the show was Otis Redding - who was dead months later following a plane crash. He was supported on the bill by Sam and Dave, The Mar-Keys, Booker T and the MG's, Arthur Conley and Eddie Floyd.

Left - waiting outside the club for the Stax gig, Right - poster advertising the gig

Above and below, the programme
for the night for the Stax gig

New Musical Express coverage of  the Stax night at the Upper Cut club

Ronnie Lane

One of the biggest UK acts to perform at the club was local band, The Small Faces. The lead, Steve Marriott, was brought up in Manor Park, while bass guitarist, Ronnie Lane, spent his youth in Forest Gate's Romford Road.  See here for this site's biography of Ronnie.

Left - a cut-out of Ronnie Lane, with guitar - loaned to the exhibition by his brother, Stan.  Right - a poster advertising one of Ronnie's later projects - Slim Chance

Left - one of Ronnie's jackets, right the label inside from 60's famed 'pop culture' retailer, King's Road's  'Granny Takes a Trip' - loaned to the exhibition by Stan Lane.  Below - one of Ronnie's "country jackets", as Stan calls them.

Paul was able to track down Stan Lane, Ronnie's brother, who was for a while the band's roadie. He now lives in Essex and has a considerable collection of Ronnie's possessions and artefacts. He kindly lent some of these to Paul, and they formed a central part of the exhibition.

What's next?

It is a great pity that at the end of the carefully curated exhibition, its contents had to be returned to their original owners, as there is no location on which to house a longer show in Newham - the borough being one of only seven in London without its own museum.

Newham has a very rich musical heritage - particularly at the popular end of the spectrum.  Other venues in Forest Gate alone worthy of public exhibition and recognition include: the Lotus Club (see here for details), The Princess Alice, as host to the first Rock against Racism (see here), The Tonic Sol-Fa college in Earlham Grove (see here). 

Beyond these narrow geographic boundaries is Canning Town's former Bridge House (see here) and pubs such as the Ruskin Arms in Manor Park (another venues for the Small Faces), Stratford's former Two Puddings pub (along with the Forest Gate's Jive Dive, home to perhaps Britain's first disco), Maryland's Cart and Horses (home, as the poster outside proclaims, of Iron Maiden) and Stratford Angel Lane's Railway Tavern (home of a sixties blues club).

Posters advertising events at Kenny Johnson's Forest Gate's Jive Dive (Earlham Grove) and Lotus Club (Woodgrange Road)

In addition to the Small Faces band members, other prominent musical performers with significant Newham connections include: Dame Vera Lynn, Lonnie Donegan, Joe Brown, David Essex, Forest Gate's Plan B (Ben Drew), and a very lively current Grime scene.

Future shows and dedicated exhibition space devoted to the rich history and locations outlined above would make a significant statement about Newham's pride in its musical heritage. But will the council be prepared to recognise this and facilitate the celebration?

This site's back catalogue

Previous articles on this site related to the history of the Upper Cut club can be found here:

When Otis played Forest Gate (March 1967) May 2013

Upper Cut (1) - a summary of the emergence of the first six months of the club (December 1966 - July 1967) July 2013

Upper Cut (2) - a brief survey of the second, and final half year of the club's existence (August 1967 - December 1967) July 2013

Georgie Fame, The Tremeloes and Unit 4 + 2 - (September 1967 at the Upper Cut) October 2013

When Stevie Wonder played Forest Gate - (October 1967) November 2013

Mouthwatering musical fayre on Woodgrange Road - (November 1967) December 2013

Club bills for the Upper Cut's two Decembers - (Decembers 1966 and 1967) January 2014

The Upper Cut beds down - (January 1967) February 2014

Essex comes to Forest Gate - (February 1967) March 2014

Stax comes to town - (March 1967) April 2014

A mixed bunch at the Upper Cut in April (April 1967) May 2014

Upper Cut - May 1967 (June 1967) June 2014

Summer of Love in Forest Gate (Summer 1967) August 2014

Golden Boy, Billy Walker's Forest Gate memories September 2014

Thanks

To Paul Romane for curating the exhibition and to Sophie Rigg from Forest Gate Arts for allowing us to use some of her photos of it.

He's one of our own - Ronnie Lane

This post is published to celebrate what would have been Ronnie Lane's 70th birthday - on 1 April.

Forest Gate youngster, Ronnie Lane's life (1 April 1946 - 4 June 1997) was perhaps best summed up by one of his greatest hits, penned with Steve Marriott:  All or Nothing.

Ronnie, as a
 mod, with the
 Small Faces

Ronnie was a key figure in two of Britain's most influential bands in the 1960's and 70's (The Small Faces and The Faces), yet died in poverty and obscurity aged only 51 in a remote town in the American Rockies.  This is his story.

Ronnie was the son of a Forest Gate lorry driver, Stan, and his wife Elsie, and spent his childhood at 385 Romford Road - see photo. Stan was the main influence on his early life and took responsibility for raising Ronnie and his older brother, Stan junior, as his mother began to suffer from the same debilitating disease - Multiple Sclerosis - that was to end Ronnie's life, prematurely.

385 Romford Road, today

Brother Stan referred to their mum as a "cold fish", and Ronnie always spoke of his dad in revered terms, barely mentioning his mother, in later years.

Encouraged by his dad, Ronnie picked up a guitar for the first time aged 14.

Soon after he left school (which he detested) he signed up to an art course at what was later to become Lister school. He subsequently drifted around a series of mundane jobs (electrician's mate, pipefitter's mate, scooter messenger, fairground worker etc) until he got his first musical break, as a guitar tester for Selmer's.

Looking to form a band, c 1964

He soon got the music bug and was quickly putting up adverts in local shop windows (see photo of an example)looking to recruit band members. This lead to the foundation of his first band, The Outcasts, with local drummer Kenny (later Kenney, of Who fame) Jones.

The band quickly fell apart, however, but the pair of them teamed up with fellow local boy Steve Marriott (brought up at 26 Strone Road, Manor Park, opposite the Ruskin Arms), and Jimmy Winston on keyboards. Ronnie switched from playing lead guitar, to bass and Marriott gave him the nickname, Plonk, as a result.

Ronnie recording, and in his element

The four of them were snapped up by Don Arden, the notoriously aggressive manager, who promoted them as a band to appeal to Mods.

Ronnie was a friend of Kenny Johnson, who later went on to run the Lotus Club on Woodgrange Road. Kenny had the band playing at the club a few times and arranged for them to rehearse in his brother, Eddie's, Stratford pub, The Two Puddings.  See here.

The Small Faces, as they were to be called - they were all under 5' 5" tall - had their first hit: Whatcha Gonna Do About It - in October 1965.

They were widely seen as being cheap imitations of The Who, at first. They rapidly ditched Jimmy Winston and replaced him with a Ronnie Lane -look-alike, Ian McLagan, on keyboards.

The Marriott/Lane song writing duo penned a dozen hits for the band over the next three years, including All or Nothing, a number 1 in September 1966.

They played twice at Billy Walker's Upper Cut Club, on Woodgrange Road (see below for the adverts and the Stratford Express report).

Advert for the first
 Upper Cut gig,
 January 1967

Stratford Express,
 6 Jan 1967

Add caption

Stratford Express 13 Jan 1967

The controversial Arden had the band on wages, without passing on the royalties for their songs, claiming that they were " too high on alcohol and drugs the whole time" to be able to handle more money.

Second Upper Cut gig, July 1967

... and the trouble that followed

The band eventually disentangled themselves from his clutches, and from the Decca label they recorded on.  They then teamed up with Andrew Loog Oldham - then manager of the Rolling Stones - and signed up to a new record label, Immediate, that he launched in 1967.

A stream of hits followed, including Itchycoo Park. The location of the park has been one of pop music's long running obsessions, but in the autumn of 1967, Ronnie called it "A place we used to go to in Ilford years ago (a bombsite, next to a railway line, according to Kenny Jones). Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it was full of nettles and you keep scratching".

Press profile (Valentine's magazine)
 of Ronnie in 1967

Other successes followed, like Lazy Sunday Afternoon and the seminal Ogden's Nut Gone Flake album, which topped the charts for six weeks.

Ronnie (centre) at recording of
Ogden's Nut Gone Flake album

Then - the almost inevitable, for the time:  members of the band turned to LSD and Indian mysticism and tensions mounted over "musical differences"; Marriott left and went on to form Humble Pie; the Immediate label went broke - and it took over two decades for the band members to get their royalties from the remnants of the company.

Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, both formerly of the Jeff Beck Group joined the rump of the Small Faces, and because these new pair weren't particularly short, the "Small" in the band's name was dropped - to become The Faces.

Stewart was to prove to be another Marriott, as far as Lane was concerned - more interested in going his own way.  He soon had huge hits with Maggie May and the Every Picture Tells a Story album, as a solo performer; so Ronnie dropped out of The Faces, in protest, in 1973.

It was to be largely downhill, in music, health and money terms for Ronnie Lane from now.

He had an unsuccessful spell at running a sheep farm in Fishpool, in Wales - he was no farmer. He put together another band, perhaps by way of prediction, known as Slim Chance, which had a spectacularly badly managed and financially disastrous tour, and bankrupted Ronnie.

By this time, his health was starting to deteriorate. At first he put the clumsiness he was developing down to the long-term effects of drink and drug abuse. Slowly the realisation dawned, however, he was struck by the same debilitating MS that was to kill his mother.

Around this time he developed close friendships with both Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend (of The Who), both of whom were later to help him financially, in trying to treat his disease.

Ronnie went to Florida in the early 80's and in desperation began experimenting with some quack remedies to address his MS. 

His musical allies (Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Kenney Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Andy Fairweather-Low etc) rallied and helped support his charity ARMS (Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis) and raised over $1m. in benefit concerts for the cause.

A branch of the charity was set up in the USA, but 90% of the proceeds were frittered away in "administrative costs", with long-standing litigious repercussions.

Ronnie relocated to Austin, Texas in 1987, where he met his third wife, Susan Gallegos, of  Hispanic/North American heritage (her father had been an Apache chief). As his condition deteriorated, he began to withdraw socially.

Ronnie in Austin c 1987

In 1994 the couple moved to the relatively remote settlement of Trinidad in the Colorado Rockies (pop 5,000). By now Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood were beginning to take care of his medical bills, and royalties from the music he had created over two decades earlier began to trickle in.

Ronnie with stick at Faces benefit
 reunion for MTV, with Bill Wyman,
 far left, deputising for him for the gig

His mobility and speech rapidly deteriorated and he died of the same disease that killed his mother, in 1997. He was buried in a private ceremony, just hours afterwards.

The inscription on his grave indicates that in his later years he turned his back on his rock 'n roll hell-raising, and in his final interviews denounced the use and effects of alcohol and drug abuse.

Ronnie's grave - Trinidad, Colorado (1)

Ronnie's grave, Trinidad, Colorado (2)

His memory lives on, but not just through his music.

In a rare moment of wry humour, Newham Council recognised him around the turn of what would have been his 55th birthday by naming a road after him in Manor Park (see photo).

Newham's tribute: Ronnie Lane, Manor Park.
 Was it wit, or co-incidence that the choice of
location is one of the shortest streets in the borough?

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

A tribute to the Small Faces, All or Nothing,  has recently been put together by former East End Actress, Carol Harrison, and it runs at the Vaults Theatre, Waterloo until 30 April this year.

Footnote: We are indebted to Mojo Magazine for an article authored by Wayne Penne on Ronnie Lane, in September 1997 for much of the material and insight in the above post.