As I said previously, my office in Old Compton Street was above a strip club and in the basement was what was then called a ‘clip joint’, where men pay loads of money for a glass of apple juice which is supposed to be champagne. One morning when me and my secretary Ursula got to the office, there were police vans and cars outside, because the place had been firebombed by rival gangsters!
I started doing P.R. for Gary Farr and the T-Bones, which was quite interesting, because the T-Bones were also managed by the Yardbirds’ manager Giorgio Gomelsky who is a real character. He looked a bit like Svengali or Rasputin. He was from Georgia but had a Swiss passport, and he discovered and was the original manager of the Rolling Stones until Andrew Loog Oldham came along.
One of his other passions was motor racing. I went down to Brighton with him and his business partner Hamish Grimes for a concert at the Dome with the Yardbirds, the Animals and a band called the Cheynes, which was the first band I ever did any P.R. for. Their leader was a guy called Peter Bardens who unfortunately died a few years ago; he went on be the keyboard player in Them, and Mick Fleetwood, later of Fleetwood Mac, was also in the band. The concert was put on by Harvey Goldsmith, who was then an unknown young promoter.
Unfortunately, a couple of the Animals had got themselves rather sloshed and were unable to appear. Either Giorgio Gomelsky or Hamish Grimes got up on stage and said to the audience, “Look, we’re awfully sorry, but the Animals were involved in a car crash and unfortunately, they’ll only be able to appear in a limited form”, but it worked out rather well, because right at the end, there was a fantastic, spontaneous jam session with the remaining Animals, the Yardbirds and the Chains.
After this rather strange concert, I had dinner with Giorgio Gomelsky and Hamish Grimes. We consumed a huge amount of wine and he mentioned this new band of his called the T-Bones with the lead singer Gary Farr. He was the son of Tommy Farr, a really famous boxer who’d fought Joe Louis in the Thirties for the world championship. I’d had a few drinks and signed a contract to do the band’s P.R. on the back of a paper napkin. As I said, one of Giorgio Gomelsky’s hobbies was motor racing, and we then drove back to Chelsea from Brighton in about 29 minutes!
I started on the P.R. for Gary Farr, and thought I’d utilise Tommy Farr’s involvement, but when I got him on the phone and said, “Would you like to speak about your son who’s becoming a bright star in the rock business?”, before putting the phone down he basically told me to eff off. He didn’t think much of it at all!
Were you at that Animals/Yardbirds show? Did you go to see bands perform at the Brighton Dome in the Sixties? Share your memories here!