Jump to content

Surreal


jam66

Recommended Posts

Anybody else remember seeing 'The Real Thing' at the Torch? Blocked off me head and a group from Liverpool with strobe lighting singing 'Plastic Man', which i think was the single they were promoting at the time. It's always stuck in my head as a rather surreal moment, the strobe lighting totally freaked me, gear was new to me then! Definitely the strobe lighting that did it for me, anybody else with those sorts of moments.

Link to comment
Social source share

Guest sharmo 1

About 28 years ago I watched Hawkwind doing silver machine at stonhendge summer solstice with full light show as the sun was just breaking whilst tripping out on lysergic acid and magic mushrooms all the best Sy.

Link to comment
Social source share

One day back in 1975, we were given an afternoon of school for some reason, me and my mate decided to go up town (Wolverhampton) and we saw tthree things so odd that they stayed with me all this time; first, the bus we were on had to stop to let a dog use the zebra crossing. All the traffic stopped and the dog crossed the road. When we got into town, I saw a man walking along hitting himself on the head with a large book. We followed him and he kept it up until he was out of sight. On the way back, and this was the main one, we were going along the duel carriageway on the bus, and we overtook an old man in a bath chair, propelling himself along with a walking stick, he must have been doing 20-25 miles an hour.

I'll never forget him, old bloke with grey hair, big grey moustache, and a dressing gown, I bet he'd escaped from an old peoples home :yes:

  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
Social source share

Remember being at the casino,off me head and round about 5.00 - 5.30am wandering up to mr m's,walked in the doorway and there's these two guys in those old man rubber face masks complete with long hair,really freaked me out,people who I was with took the piss for ages.

Link to comment
Social source share

About 28 years ago I watched Hawkwind doing silver machine at stonhendge summer solstice with full light show as the sun was just breaking whilst tripping out on lysergic acid and magic mushrooms all the best Sy.

How weird is this :yes: ? Went to the same Stonehenge (summer '83?),was talking about it at Lifeline last night.Poison Girls on as well ,i think.

Firts time i'd mixed the two above...next to the last Stonehenge?

Edited by KevH
Link to comment
Social source share

Guest sharmo 1

Blimey Kev are we both having a shared psycadelic flashback ?.I'm sure Macca was there on that one was this the one with the looney's in the army truck racing 'round with no brakes ? shouting get out the way we can't stop. trip out man ,Sy. (Psy!!)

Link to comment
Social source share

One night I thought was a bit weird, was in 1974. I think it was the week after the Wigan first anniversary, and I went to a nighter at The Centre, Newton Aycliffe. One room was the Northern room, and in the other they were showing Diamonds are Forever. Very strange.

Paul

Link to comment
Social source share

Never went the torch but I think it was 3rd or 4th anniversary Wigan a soul group was on can't remember thier name them? that? they? Just remember people on the big floor all sitting down !!

If it was the 4th anniversary, the group was The Chants.

Link to comment
Social source share

Blimey Kev are we both having a shared psycadelic flashback ?.I'm sure Macca was there on that one was this the one with the looney's in the army truck racing 'round with no brakes ? shouting get out the way we can't stop. trip out man ,Sy. (Psy!!)

The Mutoid Waste Company. Absolute nutters, like Mad Max on a bum trip. I 'witnessed' them at Glastonbury where I think they'd been engaged by Eavis to take care of refuse collection for the duration of the festival. Truly feral lot. I never did Stonehenge, sadly...

Link to comment
Social source share

Anybody else remember seeing 'The Real Thing' at the Torch? Blocked off me head and a group from Liverpool with strobe lighting singing 'Plastic Man', which i think was the single they were promoting at the time. It's always stuck in my head as a rather surreal moment, the strobe lighting totally freaked me, gear was new to me then! Definitely the strobe lighting that did it for me, anybody else with those sorts of moments.

In the November of 1972 , The night after Jr Walker had played The Torch , I went with several others to see him at The Fiesta in Sheffield .

On the same bill , were Lenny Bennett the alleged comedian , a Richard Clayderman type pianist and a Juggler .

Malc

Edited by Malc Burton
Link to comment
Social source share

Sorry to disagree but it was the 3rd in 76

The 3rd anniversary was my first anniversary niter

Must have been then that the chants were on

Was it the exciters @ the 4th anniversary ???

Or were they on some other time round about then at the casino ??

Link to comment
Social source share

Guest martyn

The 3rd anniversary was my first anniversary niter

Must have been then that the chants were on

Was it the exciters @ the 4th anniversary ???

Or were they on some other time round about then at the casino ??

Snap , the 3rd was my first aniversary nighter too which is why I remember it vividly . Wasnt at the 4th so cant help mate :D

Link to comment
Social source share


When I lived in Leeds in 1960s , I worked with a guy call stuart Frais . Out of work hours , Stuart was a small time concert and club promptor , who had aspirations of grandeur with those ventures .

One of Stuart's ventures was to start a venue ( upstairs in a building behind the Thomas Danby College ) which would feature live acts , playing what is now termed as " Progressive Rock " .

For the opening night , he told me that he had booked a " brilliant act " from London , and pestered me into helping him out as a favour ( sitting on the door , which I never got paid for ) .

When the act he had booked turned up , I looked on in bewilderment as it was two hippies with a guitar , a set of bongos and a carpet , which they laid out on the floor .

The duo was Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrine Took , playing one of their first gigs as Tyrannosaurus Rex .

Malc

Edited by Malc Burton
  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
Social source share

Guest DeeJay

Anyone remember seeing a coach load on the stage at wigan singing along to "Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues" Richards old Lee Valentine c/u

DJ

Link to comment
Social source share

One day back in 1975, we were given an afternoon of school for some reason, me and my mate decided to go up town (Wolverhampton) and we saw tthree things so odd that they stayed with me all this time; first, the bus we were on had to stop to let a dog use the zebra crossing. All the traffic stopped and the dog crossed the road. When we got into town, I saw a man walking along hitting himself on the head with a large book. We followed him and he kept it up until he was out of sight. On the way back, and this was the main one, we were going along the duel carriageway on the bus, and we overtook an old man in a bath chair, propelling himself along with a walking stick, he must have been doing 20-25 miles an hour.

I'll never forget him, old bloke with grey hair, big grey moustache, and a dressing gown, I bet he'd escaped from an old peoples home :lol:

Yes! :(

I had a burger and chips at Stafford during Eddie Holman's PA. I have no idea what possessed me to order food - I was totally out my head - and had never done that before or since. I finished the thing, too. That was pretty surreal!

Link to comment
Social source share

  • 1 month later...

Remember being at the casino,off me head and round about 5.00 - 5.30am wandering up to mr m's,walked in the doorway and there's these two guys in those old man rubber face masks complete with long hair,really freaked me out,people who I was with took the piss for ages.

Hi

I remember those two guys in the masks, they were a couple of dudes from Ilkeston (Notts) "Flabs and Mick. Gave me a good tingle up the spine too. Strangely enough I also encountered them outside Mr M's.

Yule

Link to comment
Social source share

Saw Captain Beefheart in Manchester once that was surreal !

Pink Floyd at Leeds Town Hall in 1969 was strange too.

The Marvelettes at a gay bar in Leeds in late 70's, trying to sing for a drunk, gay crowd with about a dozen of us who were there for the right reason, being heckled..they were excellent despite all that..

- One Sunday lunchtime me & my mate Dave Maltas had just got off the train in Leeds on way back from Manchester after the Casino, when we heard loads screaming. We turned round to see hundreds of screaming girls running straight at us!!!! Then we realised they were chasing a mini bus with the Bay City Rollers hanging out of the windows, just for a minute though things were a little bit weird !!!

Link to comment
Social source share

Off at a bit of a tangent but ... ... Going back home to my parent's following a nighter passed through Dalton-in- Furness and was somewhat surprised to see what appeared to be a couple of rhinos in a field next to a dual carriageway. Spot on, they'd just opened a wildlife park although I didn't know that at the time. You can still see em to this day but it doesn't freak me out quite so much now as it did that morning.

(It may be an urban myth but I'm led to believe that one of them subsequently got out and ran amok in Dalton which, for anyone not familiar with the place, is hardly a jewel in the UK's entertainment crown at the best of times. I'd have paid to see p*ssed people encountering that little scene at chucking out time. WTF ... :thumbup: )

Link to comment
Social source share

Guest Polyvelts

Sometime in the mid 8os at the 100 club in the summer months,( remember this was when night clubs closed at 2 and the west end was DEAD by 3), I popped upstairs to have a breath of fresh air about 5/6am and there was a full blown cricket game going on in the middle of Oxford st - out fielders and all. I know I was always smashed but I swear I didnt imagine this !!!

Link to comment
Social source share

Off at a bit of a tangent but ... ... Going back home to my parent's following a nighter passed through Dalton-in- Furness and was somewhat surprised to see what appeared to be a couple of rhinos in a field next to a dual carriageway. Spot on, they'd just opened a wildlife park although I didn't know that at the time. You can still see em to this day but it doesn't freak me out quite so much now as it did that morning.

(It may be an urban myth but I'm led to believe that one of them subsequently got out and ran amok in Dalton which, for anyone not familiar with the place, is hardly a jewel in the UK's entertainment crown at the best of times. I'd have paid to see p*ssed people encountering that little scene at chucking out time. WTF ... :huh: )

was the Rhino called Neal by any chance ??

Tony

Link to comment
Social source share

  • 2 weeks later...

My first TRIP to Wigan

End of march 76 been going to sammys for about 10 -11 weeks still at school but already on the slippery slope of the soulscene ie gear and doing any type of work to pay for my new lifestyle!

At this point myself and two brothers who at that time my best mates had only dabbled with powder. Heard lots of things about bombers green n clears blues ect but never had any.

We decided Wigan was our next venue THE CASINO!

We planned to catch the 6pm bus with the rest of the Chesterfield soul crew to get to Manchester then on to Wigan,one of the brothers had been searching through his mums bathroom cabinet (cos we'd been told that lots of mums had chalkies and bombers for slimming!) He brought some pink and clear capsules to us "hayfever remedy"'he said "great we said " "they must contain dexadrine or summat good"

I took 4 before I got on the bus to Manc god knows how many they had!

The fun started when I tried to get off the bus at the Apollo cos I though it was the casino!

Got to Manchester followed the others who by then wanted nothing to do with these three divvy kids who were clearly off thier heads tripping like foook!

Got the bus to wigan one of us decided to get off the bus swinton I think? Police later found him in just his underpants having fell into a brook he said that he was sat round a pile of sticks thought he'd made a fire to dry out his clothes.

The remaining two of us got to wigan but were in such a state that one of the older lads wanted to get us to hospital big thanks mona you were the only one prepared to put yourself in trouble to help us!

Got to the casino saw the queue I thought it was a q for a cinema and decided to walk back to Chesterfield (72 miles)

Made it to

Bolton where i got split up from my one remaining mate don't know how but got on an allnight bus back to Manchester Piccadilly and woke up on a cardboard box at the back of chorlton street bus station!

Can still see vividly some of the weird stuff I saw in my head that night

Keep away from stuff you don't know!

Link to comment
Social source share

  • 2 weeks later...

wirrina all-nighter, peterborough circa 75/76 Limmie & Family Cooking!!!!!!! :hatsoff2:

nobody at all was interested in the act sound wise although most of the lads in there seemed to be transfixed by the lead singers' see-through blouse!!!!! :hatsoff2:

THEY were an act that looked better than they sounded :ohmy:

Link to comment
Social source share

Guest Matt Male

About 28 years ago I watched Hawkwind doing silver machine at stonhendge summer solstice with full light show as the sun was just breaking whilst tripping out on lysergic acid and magic mushrooms all the best Sy.

I saw Hawkwind at Demonfort or Leicster Uni (can't remember which) around mid 80s. They were brilliant. The set looked like it had been built by a Sunday School playgroup and I got stoned just by breathing in the air around me, but Dave Brock and the boys delivered on every level. One of the best concerts i've been too. Unfortunately the huge breasted dancer they used to have had retired by then... :ohmy:

Link to comment
Social source share

  • 1 month later...
Guest roggert

Remember being at the casino,off me head and round about 5.00 - 5.30am wandering up to mr m's,walked in the doorway and there's these two guys in those old man rubber face masks complete with long hair,really freaked me out,people who I was with took the piss for ages.

probably a youth from sheffield called glenn froggatt used to do it an scare shit out of you white hair an wrinkled face mask

Link to comment
Social source share


probably a youth from sheffield called glenn froggatt used to do it an scare shit out of you white hair an wrinkled face mask

Whoever it was,it worked on me,after staring at them for what seemed ages,a state of panic set in and just needed to get out of the doorway,my mates who were laughing at them,caught up with me at the entrance back to the main room,and explained they were in masks,and took it in turn to call me a twat,was always wary when going back into M's after that :thumbsup: KTF Gigs

Link to comment
Social source share

I saw Hawkwind at Demonfort or Leicster Uni (can't remember which) around mid 80s. They were brilliant. The set looked like it had been built by a Sunday School playgroup and I got stoned just by breathing in the air around me, but Dave Brock and the boys delivered on every level. One of the best concerts i've been too. Unfortunately the huge breasted dancer they used to have had retired by then... :D

Correct : Stacia Blake stopped prancing around ( and displaying her 52" chest ) with Hawkwind in 1975 .

Malc

post-5097-0-50492900-1309538206_thumb.jp

Edited by Malc Burton
Link to comment
Social source share

Fad Gadget at the Porterhouse Retford.Banged his head on the electronic drums till his head bled.

Wayne County ( and theElectric Chairs),coming out of the ladies at the Sandpiper Nottingham during his/her sex change period,sporting a 2 day growth.

Link to comment
Social source share

Guest gordon russell

Remember being at the casino,off me head and round about 5.00 - 5.30am wandering up to mr m's,walked in the doorway and there's these two guys in those old man rubber face masks complete with long hair,really freaked me out,people who I was with took the piss for ages.

hey l saw that as well..........one of the fellas was smoking a fag through the mouth hole

Link to comment
Social source share

Speaking of prosthetics Mick Nicholson (many of you must know his brother George) from Bradford once told me he was was walking up one of the set of stairs to the balcony at Wigan and somebody had tucked their leg underneath them and put a big hairy prosthetic in it's place. Can't describe it the way he did but in Armley at the time it had us in stitches.

Link to comment
Social source share

Since we seem to have broadened the thread into surreal experiences I'll add this one 'cos Derek Pearson has a thread going about the Cat's Whiskers in Burnley and I'm many percentages sure this is where this happened. Trouble is no one has mentioned that there used to be some sort of transfer that happened at some point of the day. we went from the main room to another room except I never made it to the other room oh nooo. Or did they have nighters and that was when this happened. Tell you the truth I only went once whether dayer or all nighter. Anyway shite gear, can't remember what crap I had, not good that's for sure. So being a bit iffy with life in general and those around me. Wherever my psyche was at and whatever I'd had I got fascinated with the Disco mirror ball and got myself convinced that I'd been hypnotised. As the other room opened the rest of them from Bradford disappeared. Now as I had now convinced myself I was hypnotised my legs froze up. So eventually either somebody noticed my distress or I called the bouncers over and they helped me out of the chair. To be deposited on the streets of Burnley at yea round about midnight or too late for a bus home or couldn't have found the bus home if I wanted to. So was does a paranoid pill head presuming he's hypnotised do. You got it you head straight for Burnley's central police station to ask them if you can sit there for the night 'cos you've missed your bus home?? No one ever said Northern soulies were logical.

All well and good. As you sit, or sat no doubt it's all changed now in the Burnley police station at the time opposite where I sat there was a glass window, the sort reinforced with wire. Anyway it's all going good paranoia under controll when there's quite an explosion of noise behind the scenes. In amongst that noise it sounds like a number of pill bottles being spilled. I'm sure they'd arrested some soulies for chemists that night and that put me on edge. However what seemed to make it more surreal was that behind that glass was a set of steps and I could hear people laughing at one stage including it seemed to me the lads draggedv in for chemists. Almost certain they'd brought the lads they'd captured to have a look at the cracked up divvy. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. lol

Link to comment
Social source share

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Keep the Boy Happy

I'll add this one 'cos Derek Pearson has a thread going about the Cat's Whiskers in Burnley and I'm many percentages sure this is where this happened. Trouble is no one has mentioned that there used to be some sort of transfer that happened at some point of the day. we went from the main room to another room except I never made it to the other room oh nooo. Or did they have nighters and that was when this happened.

Yes thats true, at the time of the Burnley Cats Whiskers Alldayers, there was times when there was to be a live act on, the day would be split between upstairs in the Rose Room and we would all be shepherded down the narrow backstairs into the main Ballroom.

I do remember seeing Chairman of the Board and 100% Pure Poison there-although not on the same day. I don't ever remember there being any all nighters at the 'Cats' in Burnley.

Link to comment
Social source share

Guest roggert

had many surreal events sitting in doncaster railway station after almost dying of a ponderax overdose at the attic niter 1968 , watched steve maslin is wonderful float up and down the wall for several hours,

talking to jimi hendrix at the mojo when it had gone Flower Power , an all he could say to me an my mate kenny was got any dope kid about 30 times !then a fuckin fireman turned up to search him for drugs cos the d,s werent working sunday!!! and a few weeks later helped carry pink floyds drummer off stage cos he was still drumming 20 minutes after the band had finished -still trying to drum all the way to the dressing room!!!

Link to comment
Social source share

talking to jimi hendrix at the mojo when it had gone Flower Power , an all he could say to me an my mate kenny was got any dope kid about 30 times !then a fuckin fireman turned up to search him for drugs cos the d,s werent working sunday!!! and a few weeks later helped carry pink floyds drummer off stage cos he was still drumming 20 minutes after the band had finished -still trying to drum all the way to the dressing room!!!

now them's surreal moments :lol:

I only have one..... Womack & Womack at Nottm Royal centre...... both sitting on the stage spouting a load of bollocks. possibly the worst gig i'd ever witnessed.

or Edwin Starr in the early 80's at Yarmouth scooter rally :huh: . changed the lyrics to his tune 'smooth' " Smoooooooooth , the SCOOTER is smooth"

a surreal (or cringeworthy) moment indeed

Link to comment
Social source share

How weird is this :yes: ? Went to the same Stonehenge (summer '83?),was talking about it at Lifeline last night.Poison Girls on as well ,i think.

Firts time i'd mixed the two above...next to the last Stonehenge?

Treehugger !!

Link to comment
Social source share

Went to see Hawkwind in 73 Cambridge corn exchange well just wonderd in with an old mate Ivor Whitehead .Prior to him going on holiday for a few years for taking some bits and bobs from Boots without paying well it was out of workig hours and all staff had pissed off lol .Dont belive wot you here when the Purple Haze kicked in Silver Machine just dident sound the same. We always said we must see them again one day for old time sake .Some 37 years later we went to see them at the Jcn in Cambridge acid free i may say but i begain to wonder when ther supporting act came on Mr Psychedelic himself and the most Surreal fuker on the planet The Crazy world of Aruther Brown he dident even sing Fire his only ever hit but beleave me the act was rather strange along with his red, orange, purple, green blue hair and clothing to boot . grt nite though got well bladderd .

Fun and frolicks

Irish

Link to comment
Social source share

Now this would have been a Surreal Act. Early 70s was off to an all dayer Soul Sam was Dj. I was with my old wolvo mates Jethro, Squeek & Gonk and a few from Cambridge etc. Some how we ended up in Dudley Zoo i was totaly lost But the lads knew where to go as we walked through the zoo Gonk points to a Poster outside the Elephant house. The elephant was called Toto it was in there having a tooth pulled or somthing the trainers name was Tanya one fit looking lass i can tell you . The poster reads {Come see Tanya & Toto preform there amazing act.} now thats wot i call Surreal the mind boggles .

Your a long time dead make the best of wot you have left.

Irish

Link to comment
Social source share

  • 1 year later...
Guest manusf3a

Surreal?to me many things come to mind,one of them being in Norwich about 77 time.having recently (that night found some gainful employment myself and K went round the one and only Georginas flat to sort bag tag etc,Georgina had moved to Norwich from Cambridge and had a flat in unthank road close to Kev fev and round the corner from where I was sofa surfing at the time.After sorting all the gear we took a selection of caps ,pills and a few dikes each to last a couple of days and stashed the main haul some distance away in a safe place(past experience made this a sensible course of action).So all three of us get blocked and we are up all night listening to records verbaling etc,next day more of the same,the bag of gear in my pocket getting smaller but still plenty in it,went clothes shopping bought some things some way to small(due to impaired judgement) back home and then getting ready to go to a soul night with K s landlord "moody sean burke dj ing at the samsons.So I thought to myself I am wobbling with all this gear in me why not have a few dikes to smooth it all out ,bad idea!

I am opening my eyes and I am lying on the couch in the house I am staying at,no ones about and I slowly feel all the gear starting to kick in again Looking at the clock its saying just gone five so I think Oh plenty of time it doesnt start till eight ,so I am sitting there and I hear someone coming in the back door its Geogina as I get up to go she tells me I have been out of it all night since yesterday afternoon(this is on a bucketload of caps and pills)so it only five in the morning .I put my hand in my pocket to have some more gear and its empty so Iam shouting and swearing,"who was here and took it etc theres no one else in the house but us now.So we decide to go over to Ks (who will still be up to see if he knows anything ,took them for safe keeping etc.As we go out the house the early morning sun is amazing and the air really clean,the smell of traafic not about yet and I am getting a really good buzz by now,still going on about whos had my gear though.Ks staying near by across the other side of unthank road so as we are heading to the zebra crossing (strange with no traffic but that what we did)Georgina says " foo ken hell look at that on the floor in front of us some black and whites,theres a trail of them leading on to zebra crossing and that trail starts turning multi coloured ,red and brown caps and what seemed the bluest blueies I had ever seen.Now thats surreal the way the black and whites led on to the black and white striped zebra crossing!and from there led the way to the rest of the gear!I must have gone out during the night to see where K or Georgina ,etc were but they would all have been at the samsons listening to moody sean burke plying his sounds so I must of just had a little wander and I had spilt my gear while out of it before going back to where I was staying.Well we just picked up the gear and I gave a mix from it to Georgina and on with the day.

I am certain Georgina found the scene confronting us both on that brilliant summer morning as surreal as I did especialy the trail of black and whites on the path as if they were an extension to the zebra crossing in the way they led to it and the rest of my gear.Good job none of the many non scene dope heads who liked a bit of speed that lived in that area at the time(Quite a bloody few)went out for an early morning walk

Ps Sean Burke did have some good records but it still wouldnt let me speak any good of him,Kev Featherstone had got the measure of him and was there when moody had his first interaction with me and it wasnt all matey matey soul brother?not on my part he came at me snarling after an all nighter and later tried to blame it on "he has bad come downs,it was his age,so much older than us know nothings,one of Norwichs soul royalty.Mind you he wasnt as bad as the two former soul princes of Norwich who grassed up Ivan Miles and Keith.I say former as one died not all that long after and the other disapeared for ever off the scene.

Edited by manusf3a
Link to comment
Social source share

Guest manusf3a

probably a youth from sheffield called glenn froggatt used to do it an scare shit out of you white hair an wrinkled face mask

Most people I saw just walked past as if not even noticing them
Link to comment
Social source share

Get involved with Soul Source

Add your comments now

Join Soul Source

A free & easy soul music affair!

Join Soul Source now!

Log in to Soul Source

Jump right back in!

Log in now!


×
×
  • Create New...