“Tours were completely different in those days. Instead of a headliner and maybe a special guest, we had six or seven artists on the bill and a compere, and we used to do two shows a night, mainly Odeon cinemas, Granada theatres and concert halls. The equipment would roll up at 5 o’clock in the afternoon for a show which would start at 6.30pm, with a second house at 8.45pm, and the whole six or seven acts would comprise a two hour show, of which the headliner, being someone like the Beatles, would do about 20 or 25 minutes.
“The equipment would come in with one roadie, who would probably have a pal with him, and they’d set the stuff up, and that’s what it was – although with all the screamers there, you’d hardly hear a word that the bands were singing about anyway! Then the equipment would go with one of the roadies in a Transit van and the other roadie would probably drive the boys in another van. The groups would work seven days a week, going from ballroom to ballroom. They’d be travelling all through the day, staying overnight at a B&B and moving on the next day to wherever the next show was. You’d never get that today!
“In late ‘63/’64, after the Beatles started breaking in America, some of the other British bands followed them. We looked after Herman’s Hermits who were probably second to the Beatles and had this enormous success over there as well. Again, the daft thing was, they’d go out, trek around America for perhaps two or three weeks, come back and the day after they got home, they’d be playing a ballroom in Bognor Regis or somewhere like that! It was a completely different world!”