Fact #82544
When:
Short story:
Irish r'n'b group Them, including 18-year-old vocalist Van Morrison, make their first live appearance at The Maritime Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Full article:
Van Morrison : I started out playing parties and local dances where people would jive a lot, jump around and sweat. I liked it.
Then there were the obscure blues things I liked. John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters. I was listening to that stuff since I was two or three. To me, blues seemed better than rock 'n' roll. I remember, I was in London playing in a show band, and I went to this club and a band came on, and all they played was Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. I said, "Well, if they're getting away with it, I can, too."
So I went back to Belfast and started an R'n'B club at the Maritime Hotel, which had been a dance hall for sailors. But we turned it into an R'n'B club, and somebody showed up from Decca and we made a couple of singles. That was with the group Them. The song "Gloria" came from listening to those old blues records.
Van Morrison : The R'n'B movement (in the UK) was actually an anti-establishment stance against The Beatles. This is something that didn't happen in America. It was against that silly image. It was in no shape or form meant to be be a commercial entity at all. Well, this was later picked up by the record companies and regurgitated into something that was called 'rock'. But when it started it had nothing to do with rock. It was actually against the rock/pop movement.
(Source Unknown)
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Then there were the obscure blues things I liked. John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters. I was listening to that stuff since I was two or three. To me, blues seemed better than rock 'n' roll. I remember, I was in London playing in a show band, and I went to this club and a band came on, and all they played was Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. I said, "Well, if they're getting away with it, I can, too."
So I went back to Belfast and started an R'n'B club at the Maritime Hotel, which had been a dance hall for sailors. But we turned it into an R'n'B club, and somebody showed up from Decca and we made a couple of singles. That was with the group Them. The song "Gloria" came from listening to those old blues records.
Van Morrison : The R'n'B movement (in the UK) was actually an anti-establishment stance against The Beatles. This is something that didn't happen in America. It was against that silly image. It was in no shape or form meant to be be a commercial entity at all. Well, this was later picked up by the record companies and regurgitated into something that was called 'rock'. But when it started it had nothing to do with rock. It was actually against the rock/pop movement.
(Source Unknown)