When I first arrived at Bron in January 1968, I was thrown in the deep end really. Sometimes Gene Pitney would come over and tour cinemas, theatres and concert halls, but he had decided he would do some cabaret, so the promoter Arthur Howes had booked him into a series of Northern clubs. I remember one of my first jobs was to rent a car, go up there and make sure that Gene got from one club to another – I think it was from Club Fiesta in Stockton-on-Tees across to Batley Variety Club in Leeds!

Gene was very easy-going and friendly when he was offstage, but I remember how stringent he was to get things absolutely right onstage. His shows were always right on-the-nail and he was a complete, total, utter professional, in every sense of the word.

His backing band was the Mike Cotton Sound, who used to play trad jazz, but had evolved (as did many other such bands) into a more mainstream style. They were very professional, but you didn’t dare make any mistakes while Gene was working!

And he was so smart when he went onstage – knife-edge trouser creases and highly polished shoes. Of course, now that’s all dated, but in those days, it was what people expected in a cabaret club – you couldn’t get away with jeans or anything like that.

When Gene wasn’t working, he was the nicest guy in the world, so my overall experience with him was a good one and I was very sad to hear that he’d died a few years ago, virtually in harness.

I also worked with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who were great, albeit a tad unpredictable! They had a weekly TV appearance on ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’, a children’s programme that was watched by adults too, which helped to break them into the lucrative college and university circuit.

However, Jon Hiseman contacted me in April or May of that year, telling me he’d left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and was going to form his own band with Dick Heckstall-Smith and Tony Reeves, which was Colosseum. He was looking for someone to manage the group, which I did until they folded in November 1971. In that time, they became one of the first successful British jazz/rock groups, recorded three albums and toured extensively in the UK and Europe.

After Colossum split, I continued to work in the music industry; you can read about it on my website: http://colinrichardson.vox.com I’m currently editing a book about Jon Hiseman’s life as a musician, which has been written by a guy called Martyn Hanson. We’re 75 per cent of the way through now and the book will hopefully be published next year. Keep checking my website for announcements!

Did you visit the Northern clubs during the Sixties? Share your memories here: