Unfortunately, the R’n’B club had to fold after about three months, because the club which ran in the venue on a Saturday night - which was nothing to do with us - ran a lax security policy and had lots of fights, so after a stabbing, the police closed everything down. We pleaded with the police and eventually, they told us we could go back to doing the jazz night, because we only got a hundred people there who were well-behaved, but they felt that the R’n’B club attracted a similar crowd as the Saturday night club and we could have trouble there in future.

But while we were running that night, I had to ring up agents and find other bands, so I got to know a few of them and then I started to book bands into local colleges. One of those bands was called the Artwoods, which had Jon Lord (who went on to form Deep Purple) as their keyboard player. They were being represented by a little agency called the London City Agency – two guys, Johnny Jones and Barry Dunning, who used to lead the London City Stompers, which was a trad jazz band.

They realised the trad boom was over around ‘63/64, came off the road and formed the agency.  They used their contacts in places like Poland where they had played to bring in blues musicians who are now legendary, but in those days were going out for £30-50 a night – John Lee Hooker, John Hammond Jr, Chuck Berry, Jesse Fuller… The Artwoods would often go out as their backing band and one day, after booking the Artwoods into a college in Bromley, I got talking to Barry Dunning.

I was working up the road to the agency as office manager in a computer company in Newman Street. One of Barry’s bookers was moving over into management, so they had a vacancy and asked if I was interested and if I would go in to see them, so I walked down to their grotty little offices in Wardour Street. At that time, I had a sort of modern jazz beard and an Ivy League haircut, and when I went in, there were these two guys with beards, so I thought, ‘I’m obviously in the right place here!’

They offered me the job and I replaced Steve O’Rourke, who then moved into management, and then it wasn’t long before Bryan Morrison offered him a job at his agency/management company. He ended up working Pink Floyd and became a millionaire!

Did you see the Artwoods perform in the Sixties? Share your memories here: