Fact #102239
When:
Short story:
Chuck Berry (backed by The Nashville Teens) starts his first UK tour at Finsbury Park Astoria, London, supported by Carl Perkins (also backed by The Nashville Teens) and The Animals, Kingsize Taylor and The Dominoes, and The Swinging Blue Jeans. The Rolling Stones are in the audience and thus arrive late at their own show for this evening.
Full article:
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF CHUCK BERRY'S FIRST UK TOUR
John Steel (drummer, The Animals] : That was one of those package tours where everybody was on a bus together, great fun.
Our keyboardist, Alan Price, didn't endear himself to people on the road. He was very abrupt and even rude to people, which didn't make him a very popular person. Alan and our bassist, Chas Chandler, had a flat together, and that was the start of a division in the band. Hilton, the guitarist, and I would go out before the gig and say we were going to the pub, first on the left, and then we'd scoot off to the right so he couldn't find us.
Joe Boyd (visiting US tour manager) : I went to Hammersmith Odeon where, because I was a keen photographer at the time, the manager said I could stand in front of the stage for the Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Animals show which was going around.
When Chuck Berry came on there was this big rush of teenage kids, not like the intellectual college kids who'd come to the blues concerts I just been tour-managing. Anyhow, I'd read in Melody Maker that there was a tour about to start with John Lee Hooker, and I noticed him in the backstage. I just said, to nobody in particular, 'Oh, there's John Lee Hooker.' And all these kids started saying, 'John Lee! Where, where?' and this whole kind of chant started. Chuck Berry was quite taken aback. 'We want John Lee! We want John Lee!" He had to come out and take a bow.
9Source : not known)
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CARL PERKINS MEETS The Nashville Teens by Johnny Black
To back him, Carl Perkins had picked up a dynamic Newcastle band on the verge of success, The Nashville Teens. Their first meeting and rehearsal went well, although the band noticed what seemed to be an undue concern on their hero's part about the tour's transportation arrangements. Knowing that Perkins had suffered in two major car smashes, losing his brother Jay in one, they assured him that their van had never yet let them down.
Still, Perkins persisted. "How easy is it to contact the AA?" he repeated. "Have you got their number?"
The Teens assured him that their driver was a member, and that it was a jammy doddle to call the AA from virtually anywhere on the major roads of Great Britain. Perkins seemed relieved but told the band he wanted to ring that very evening.
With the van in good working order, this hardly seemed necessary. The band talked him out of calling immediately but, the following night, before the first show at Finsbury Park Astoria, a somewhat distraught Perkins harped back onto the AA. "Listen Carl," said one band member. "The AA has special call boxes every mile along the main roads. If anything goes wrong, they send out a little man in a yellow van and he fixes you up right away."
"Hell boys," declared Perkins, "you take good care of your drunks here. Back home we have to go to them."
What they hadn't known was that, after his brother's death, Perkins had sought refuge in the bottle but had fought back, and was now a fully paid up member of the AA - Alcoholics Anonymous.
(Source : not known)
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Guy Stevens (record producer) : I was at a session with Phil Chess in 1964 with Chuck Berry when he was doing Promised Land and Nadine. I was at the session! I was taking photographs! I got Chuck Berry out of prison! I put tremendous pressure on Pye Records, who had Chess and Checker over here, and the head of the company at the time was Ian Ralfini.
I put pressure on him to get Memphis Tennessee released as a single. It was out as a B-side, with Let It Rock. They taped all the Chuck Berry tracks off my records! Not from master tapes but from my records!
(interview with Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 22 December, 1979)
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John Steel (drummer, The Animals] : That was one of those package tours where everybody was on a bus together, great fun.
Our keyboardist, Alan Price, didn't endear himself to people on the road. He was very abrupt and even rude to people, which didn't make him a very popular person. Alan and our bassist, Chas Chandler, had a flat together, and that was the start of a division in the band. Hilton, the guitarist, and I would go out before the gig and say we were going to the pub, first on the left, and then we'd scoot off to the right so he couldn't find us.
Joe Boyd (visiting US tour manager) : I went to Hammersmith Odeon where, because I was a keen photographer at the time, the manager said I could stand in front of the stage for the Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Animals show which was going around.
When Chuck Berry came on there was this big rush of teenage kids, not like the intellectual college kids who'd come to the blues concerts I just been tour-managing. Anyhow, I'd read in Melody Maker that there was a tour about to start with John Lee Hooker, and I noticed him in the backstage. I just said, to nobody in particular, 'Oh, there's John Lee Hooker.' And all these kids started saying, 'John Lee! Where, where?' and this whole kind of chant started. Chuck Berry was quite taken aback. 'We want John Lee! We want John Lee!" He had to come out and take a bow.
9Source : not known)
----------------------------------------------
CARL PERKINS MEETS The Nashville Teens by Johnny Black
To back him, Carl Perkins had picked up a dynamic Newcastle band on the verge of success, The Nashville Teens. Their first meeting and rehearsal went well, although the band noticed what seemed to be an undue concern on their hero's part about the tour's transportation arrangements. Knowing that Perkins had suffered in two major car smashes, losing his brother Jay in one, they assured him that their van had never yet let them down.
Still, Perkins persisted. "How easy is it to contact the AA?" he repeated. "Have you got their number?"
The Teens assured him that their driver was a member, and that it was a jammy doddle to call the AA from virtually anywhere on the major roads of Great Britain. Perkins seemed relieved but told the band he wanted to ring that very evening.
With the van in good working order, this hardly seemed necessary. The band talked him out of calling immediately but, the following night, before the first show at Finsbury Park Astoria, a somewhat distraught Perkins harped back onto the AA. "Listen Carl," said one band member. "The AA has special call boxes every mile along the main roads. If anything goes wrong, they send out a little man in a yellow van and he fixes you up right away."
"Hell boys," declared Perkins, "you take good care of your drunks here. Back home we have to go to them."
What they hadn't known was that, after his brother's death, Perkins had sought refuge in the bottle but had fought back, and was now a fully paid up member of the AA - Alcoholics Anonymous.
(Source : not known)
-----------------------------------------
Guy Stevens (record producer) : I was at a session with Phil Chess in 1964 with Chuck Berry when he was doing Promised Land and Nadine. I was at the session! I was taking photographs! I got Chuck Berry out of prison! I put tremendous pressure on Pye Records, who had Chess and Checker over here, and the head of the company at the time was Ian Ralfini.
I put pressure on him to get Memphis Tennessee released as a single. It was out as a B-side, with Let It Rock. They taped all the Chuck Berry tracks off my records! Not from master tapes but from my records!
(interview with Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 22 December, 1979)