Fact #105445

Jeff Dexter (deejay) : It was opposite the 100 Club. It was turned into an aquarium after Tiles. Corner of Chapel Street and Oxford Street. Either Chapel or Dean. The entrance was further along, but Tiles had its own Tiles Street, which was like a mini Carnaby Street. You'd go in the club, the club was a huge open space, and one end was a big coffee bar and off to the side was Tiles Street, where they sold clothes and paraphernalia. And also a tiny little record shop.
I had a thing at Tiles called the Jeff Dexter Record And Light Show, which was basically my record show - a good crossover of soul, R'n'B and bluebeat. And new records of the day, the new psychedelic records. This was every Wednesday.
It was an incredible place, Tiles. It was the only place that had its own real PA system. One of the backers of the club was a guy called Jim Marshall who owned Marshall PA and there were something like 40 columns of speakers that ran all along the dancefloor. And they had a proper sound system and proper amplifiers. ??The sound was low-fi, it wasn't hi-fi, but it worked incredibly well. It was the only place where things didn't break down as well. The Marquee never invested in a proper PA system. In Tiles, everything was laid on, all the equipment was installed by Imhoff's.
The decks were direct drive. Garrard was the only one you could buy then. I've got a few other picture of Tiles here from when I was in magazines. The only Sunday supplements Tiles featured in were for drug raids. Tiles was raided regularly on its all night sessions. Hundreds of police would come, because it was supposed to be a drug den.
Yeah! Well, kids always took pills to dance on didn't they? They came up to London to have a good time, so there were always plenty of pills.
I was doing five lunchtimes a week, and three nights. It was a coffee bar and sandwich at Tiles. The Doors opened at 12. Taped music would play until 12.25 and then I'd put on my intro record. 12.30 the curtains would open and there I'd be playing to almost a full lunchtime crowd. And of course there were a bunch of kids who never went to work anyway. And we'd spend the next three hours doing this. ??Dance records. Bluebeat, ska, because we had plenty of ska by then. I played then all the new records of the day. Bit of psychedelic, but very little at Tiles, because the audience was mainly tight-arse, pill-chewing Mod kids. The Late-on Mods.
I also did the midnight to 6am shift. There were a selection of DJs and styles. Clem Dalton, Mike Quinn, and Sammy as well. I was still working at Mecca ballrooms. I was doing Hammersmith Palais, Empire Leicester Square. Prior and simultaneously. I got the sack from Mecca, my main gig was still Orchid Ballroom up to the summer of '66, Sammy had gone the year before and I was doing all the shows there. Sammy had gone back into writing and producing. He'd fallen out with the Mecca. ? ?1966 to '67. Well, I went on holiday to Majorca in the summer of '66. I was asked to come and open a club called Snoopy's. I sent a guy called Pete Sanders in my place. There was too much going on here, to spend a summer in Spain. In some ways I wish I'd done it because when I arrived there it was just incredible, because I took with me a bunch of acid. The Animals were there; Tom Jones was there, and in those days Tom was quite acceptable. ? ?There was a whole new generation of people who there in Spain at that time. Not only the club entrepreneurs, and the bands, but there was this great influx of British going there for their Summer Holidays. You could go for a week all-inclusive for