1966

87 recorded events from 1966.

12

Wednesday

'Midland Beat Championship Finals', De Montfort Hall

Farinas

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Rondos, Chelsea Set, Shellies, Invaders, Broodly Hoo

Six-band beat-competition all-nighter (8 p.m. – midnight) at De Montfort Hall featuring four named finalist groups — Rondos, Chelsea Set, Shellies, Invaders — with Farinas and Broodly-Hoo billed as guests. Late bar, light buffet, late buses laid on. Tickets 7/6 at the door. The Farinas were not the headline draw; this was a standard mid-1960s Leicester ballroom format with the Farinas slotted in as the locally-known guest act below the regional competition finalists. Broodly-Hoo featured a pre-Family Rob Townsend on drums.

(Leicester Mercury, 12 January 1966.)

22

Saturday

King's Lynn Corn Exchange

James King & The Farinas

King's Lynn, Norfolk, England

+ The Pentad

Billed as James King & The Farinas — the only card of the year to carry the compound billing, preserving the Jim-King-fronted identity before Chapman's arrival tilted the front line. Support: The Pentad. The King's Lynn Corn Exchange — a Norfolk market-hall dance venue on Tuesday Market Place — was programmed for Saturday-night R&B through 1965–66 by local promoter Jack Woodroffe. The Pentad were a local Norfolk beat group.

26

Saturday

Lucky Stars Club

Farinas

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England

The Lucky Stars Club — a Wellingborough Friday-and-Saturday R&B room in the High Street basement of the old Royal Hotel — was run by the Martin family's Northamptonshire entertainments group through 1965–67. The Wellingborough News and Northants Evening Telegraph carried the weekend advertising.

26

Saturday

Elbow Room / Carlton Club

Farinas

Aston / Erdington, Warwickshire, England

+ Lee Stevens & The Satellites

Support: Lee Stevens & The Satellites. A double-venue card: the Elbow Room at 146 High Street, Aston — one of Birmingham's R&B cellars run by the Morden family through the mid-60s — paired with the Carlton Club at Slade Road, Erdington, a north-Birmingham members' club that ran Saturday-night R&B on rotation through 1965–67. Lee Stevens & the Satellites were a Birmingham Shadows-style instrumental outfit. (See also 22 December for a standalone Elbow Room booking.)

8

Friday

South Bank Jazz Club

Farinas

Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England

+ The Rumble Band; The Modern Jazz Unit; The Vanguard Jazz Band

The Farinas topped the South Bank Jazz Club’s Great Easter Rave on Good Friday, with the Rumble Band, Modern Jazz Unit and Vanguard Jazz Band. The newly found advert fixes the date at 8 April 1966 and captures the club’s lively mix of R&B and jazz.

⤢

9

Saturday

Carlton Club

Farinas

Slade Road, Erdington, Warwickshire, England

+ The Capitols

A Saturday booking at the Carlton Club on Slade Road, Erdington, part of the Farinas’ repeated spring 1966 run there. Ric Grech had already replaced Tim Kirchin on bass in 1965; Roger Chapman had not yet joined the group at the beginning of 1966.

11

Monday

The Corn Exchange

Farinas

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Broodly Hoo, Invaders, Brian Henry and the Saints, The Pat Gissane Showband

Easter-Monday 'Marathon Dance' at the Corn Exchange — 10 hours non-stop, 3pm–1am, licensed bar till 12. Five groups on rotation: Farinas · Broodly-Hoo · Invaders (billed 'Midland Beat Winners 1966') · Brian Henry & The Saints · Pat Gissane Showband, with Tony Esquire between sets. A Ronnie Toplis Corn Exchange production in the 'New Scene' lineage. (The 10 April Easter Sunday all-nighter across town at the Burlesque opening is a separate booking — see companion card.)

16

Saturday

Burlesque

Farinas

158 Humberstone Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Broodly Hoo, Mozzeltoff

Support: Broodly Hoo, Mozzeltoff. The Burlesque Club at 158 Humberstone Street — George Neal's Humberstone Road cellar, opened 10 April 1966 with Don Covay (see companion 10 April card). The Farinas were one of Mozzletoff's two regular Leicester home rooms alongside the Casino. Saturday 16 April was Roy C ('Shotgun Wedding') night — the Farinas' second Burlesque appearance inside a week (per the 24 June Leicester Chronicle retrospective by David Sandison: 'the attractions featured on the Saturday night–Sunday morning all-night sessions have improved — without the use of American "stars"').

21

Thursday

Station Inn

Farinas

Pershore Road, Selly Oak, Warwickshire, England

The Station Inn at Pershore Road, Selly Oak — a pub-function-room R&B venue in the south-Birmingham university belt — ran Thursday-night sessions through 1966 on the same circuit as the Rum Runner and the Elbow Room. Birmingham Post / Birmingham Evening Mail carried the weekly advertising.

22

Friday

Rum Runner

Farinas

Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

+ Waikiki Islanders

Support: Waikiki Islanders. The Rum Runner on Broad Street — owned by Paul and Michael Berrow, the brothers who would re-launch the club in the early 1980s as the Duran Duran rehearsal home — was in 1966 still a cabaret room programming R&B alongside its soul-import nights. The Waikiki Islanders were a Birmingham Hawaiian-guitar novelty act — a vivid reminder that mid-60s provincial R&B billing still carried cabaret adjacency.

23

Saturday

Carlton Club

Farinas

Slade Road, Erdington, Warwickshire, England

+ The Sombreros

The Farinas’ third documented Carlton Club appearance in five weeks, with the Sombreros also listed. The working lineup included Charlie Whitney, Jim King, Ric Grech and Harry Ovenall; Roger Chapman joined later in 1966.

26

Tuesday

The County Arms

Farinas

Blaby Village, Leicestershire, England

+ The Matadors

The County Arms at Blaby, on the A426 south of Leicester, was a pub function-room booking on the Leicestershire village-hall circuit — a smaller home-county date in a month otherwise heavy on the Birmingham R&B cellar run. Support The Matadors, Leicester covers locals who also open on 17 May; pub bookings of this kind paid in half-measures compared to the Carlton Club dates but kept the band active on their home patch while the Casino and Lancaster Hall Mecca slots cycled.

1

Sunday

The Casino Ballroom

Farinas

London Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ The Smokestacks, The Facts

Support: The Smokestacks, The Facts. The Casino Ballroom on London Road was one of Leicester's two primary ballrooms alongside Il Rondo — owned by the Kemp family and programmed by son Bruce Kemp, who would run Leicester R&B promotion through the late 60s. Capacity around 1,000 on the main floor; a Farinas home room that recurs repeatedly through the year.

⤢ ⤢

6

Friday

76 Club

Farinas

34 High St, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England

The 76 Club at 34 High Street, Burton upon Trent had been running as a Staffordshire R&B cellar since 1963 and had hosted a young David Jones (Bowie) with the Lower Third in November 1965 — one of the lesser-known Staffordshire rooms on the Midlands circuit.

13

Friday

The Catholic Hall

Farinas

Broad Street, Syston, Leicestershire, England

+ Tony Esquire

Support (DJ): Tony Esquire. The Catholic Hall on Broad Street, Syston — the parish social hall of St Peter & St Paul's. Friday-night dance, licensed bar. Leicester Mercury advert preserved: 'THIS FRIDAY DANCE · THE FARINAS AND TONY ESQUIRE'.

14

Saturday

Burlesque

Farinas

158 Humberstone Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

Return to the Burlesque room at 158 Humberstone Street, Leicester — the town's promoter-branded weekend R&B dance at the address that also housed other Leicester club nights through 1966 (see 16 April for full venue context). A Saturday slot on the Mecca-off city-centre pub-club alternate to the Casino.

17

Tuesday

The County Arms

Farinas

Blaby Village, Leicestershire, England

+ The Matadors

Support: The Matadors (Coventry). 'Leicester's Greatest Tues. Session' at the County Arms, Blaby — Inter-City Beat Scene Matadors (Coventry) + Farinas (Leicester). Groups booked in by Friars Promotions Ltd. (Coventry 72000) — the agency was also booking John Mayall's Bluesbreakers into the same room for Thursday 19 May, an early sighting of the Peter-Green-era Bluesbreakers on the Midlands circuit.

22

Sunday

South Bank Jazz Club

Farinas

Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England

Return to Cleethorpes Road — the South Bank Jazz Club (see 8 April) — on its Sunday-evening R&B programme. Second 1966 Grimsby visit, ahead of the 18 December return that would close out the year.

25

Wednesday

Orford Cellar

Farinas

Norwich, Norfolk, England

The Orford Cellar on Orford Place, Norwich — East Anglia's pre-eminent R&B cellar under Billy Bailey's management since the early 1960s, capacity around 250 and an obligatory stop on any serious Midlands-to-East-Anglia gigging week. The Farinas would be back on 22 May 1967 as Family. The Cellar sat directly beneath the Orford Arms pub on a pedestrianised alley leading off the market place — cramped, sweat-dripping, jazz-then-R&B programming since 1961.

27

Friday

De Montfort Hall

Farinas

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers (headliner), Broodly Hoo, Mozzletoff, Tony Esquire, The Cataracts

P.S. Promotions presented an overnight dance bill (8 p.m. – 10 a.m., five hours of continuous dancing, late bar and buses) at De Montfort Hall, headlined by Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers — at the height of their post-Got to Get You Into My Life period — with five further acts billed under "The Hot Air Packet" umbrella, of which Farinas were one (alongside Broodly-Hoo, Mozzletoff, Tony Esquire and The Cataracts). Advance tickets 7/6 from the Municipal Box Office. The Farinas appeared as the fifth-tier name on this bill, four months before they would record their final single as the Farinas and rebrand as the Roaring Sixties.

(Leicester Mercury, 27 May 1966.)

27

Press

Leicester Chronicle · Article

Quite a 'beat' package!

De Montfort Hall

Read full article →

2

Thursday

The Latin Quarter

Farinas

28 Belgrave Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

Opening night of The Latin Quarter Cellar Club at 28 Belgrave Road — the basement club in Leicester's African-Caribbean / Italian quarter. Leicester Mercury advert proclaimed 'NOW OPEN From 8 p.m. till 2 a.m. — THE LATIN QUARTER — 28 Belgrave Road — TONIGHT: THE FARINAS · THE FARINAS · THE FARINAS and supporting groups'. The following night (3 June): Makin' Sound + The Mozzletoff. Not to be confused with the later Latin Quarter reggae club at a different address.

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11

Saturday

The Lion Hotel

Farinas

Bridge Street, Warrington, Lancashire, England

The Lion Hotel on Bridge Street, Warrington — function-room R&B on the Cheshire / Lancashire border circuit, a smaller booking than the nearby Carlton Ballroom on Winwick Road (which the band played on 2 January 1967). The Lion was typical of the pub-hotel-ballroom pattern that the Farinas worked across the North-West in 1966 — small function rooms under R&B-club branding rather than standalone club venues.

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24

Friday

Rialto Club

Farinas

Osmaston Road, Derby, Derbyshire, England

The Rialto at Osmaston Road, Derby — a converted cinema-into-dance-hall on the city's southern arterial road — was programmed through the mid-60s by local promoter Rob Marchant. Not the same Derby venue as the Clouds / London Road Ballroom (see 17 December).

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24

Press

Leicester Chronicle · Article

Another club to brighten up Leicester's night life (Burlesque opening retrospective)

by David Sandison

Burlesque Club opening

Read full article →

25

Saturday

Syston Barbeque, Threeways Farm

Farinas

Melton Road, Queniborough parish, Leicestershire, England

Support: The Tarrans. A one-off outdoor booking — the Syston Barbecue at Threeways Farm, Melton Road, Queniborough parish — a Midsummer-weekend village barbecue that kept provincial R&B bands in petrol through the summer months. 'Gigantic Marquee · Dance Floor · Free Car Park · Licensed Bar', 8pm–midnight, 7/6 admission.

26

Sunday

Casino

Farinas

London Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Mozzletoff, Road Runners, Class Five, Something Else

Support: Mozzletoff, Road Runners, Class Five, Something Else. Another Casino Sunday afternoon multi-act bill — five Midlands R&B regulars on rotation, 6.30–10.30pm. The advert notes the club 'Closed July 3rd and 10th' — a two-week summer break that partly explains the near-gap in the July 1966 gig diary.

6

Saturday

Burlesque

Farinas

158 Humberstone Street, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ The Calderstones

Support (DJ): Tony Esquire. Saturday all-night soul session — 'TONY ESQUIRE JOINS THE FARINAS FOR ANOTHER 12 HOURS LOOKING, 10pm till 10am, 7/6'. The Burlesque's weekend all-nighter format was by now the club's signature run — the Farinas as house band behind the house DJ.

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13

Saturday

The New Scene, The Corn Exchange

Farinas

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ The Alan Price Set

Headliner: The Alan Price Set. Support: Farinas + 'FREE L.P.'s from Barmy Barry'. Alan Price had left the Animals in May 1965 and was fronting his own R&B-organ outfit, three months from 'The House That Jack Built'. The Corn Exchange 'New Scene' Saturday — Ronnie Toplis's 1966 format — was at this stage rotating a London headliner with local supports and a disc-jockey between sets. Tickets at Advance Record Shop and Gear Shop, High Street.

18

Press

Leicester Mercury · Article

Classified: Farinas → 'Roaring 60's' name change announcement

Band rename

Read full article →

19

Press

Leicester Chronicle · Article

For The 'Roaring Sixties', Fashion Turns Full Circle (They Also Deserve A Change Of Fortune)

by David Sandison

Roaring Sixties rename feature

Read full article →

20

Saturday

Burlesque (early) / Dungeon Club (late)

Farinas (Leicester) / The Roaring Sixties (Nottingham)

158 Humberstone Street, Leicester / Nottingham, Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire, England

+ The Sands

Two engagements on the same night: an early Burlesque appearance in Leicester and a late set at Nottingham’s Dungeon Club. The contemporary Dungeon advertisement reads “Formerly the Farinas — The Roaring Sixties,” making this the earliest firm Roaring Sixties billing located in this audit.

22

Monday

Railway Club

Farinas

Hillmorton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, England

+ Moodoos

The Railway Club at Hillmorton Road, Rugby — the town's British Railways Staff Association social club — ran weekend R&B through 1965–67 as part of the Warwickshire circuit that also carried the Benn Memorial Hall (see 20 Feb / 14 May 1965) and the Rugby pop-circuit venues. Support Moodoos, a Rugby covers outfit. BR social clubs were a staple of the mid-60s R&B circuit: subsidised bar, fixed-door-take booking model, limited capacity, and a working-class audience the touring booking agents understood.

27

Saturday

The New Scene, The Corn Exchange

Farinas

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ The Warlocks

Second New Scene date of the month at Leicester's Corn Exchange — the Saturday-night R&B series run by promoter Ronnie Toplis through the high point of 1966, programming local and touring R&B into the neoclassical Exchange room. Support The Warlocks — the Midlands R&B group, not the San Francisco Warlocks who had renamed themselves the Grateful Dead that summer. (The name duplication is a recurring 1966 trap for discography writers.)

28

Sunday

Casino

Farinas

London Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Beat Donors

A Sunday Casino booking in Leicester with the Beat Donors. Ric Grech was already the Farinas’ bassist; Roger Chapman joined during 1966, but the surviving evidence does not establish this concert as the precise personnel-change date.

9

Friday

Benn Memorial Hall

The Roaring Sixties

Newbold Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, England

+ The Imagination

A Rugby advertisement lists the Roaring Sixties with the Imagination at Benn Memorial Hall on 9 September. The former card incorrectly merged this engagement with the Farinas’ Cream support at Hitchin one week later.

⤢ ⤢ ⤢ ⤢ ⤢

10

Saturday

The Royal Lido Ballroom

Farinas

Prestatyn, Flintshire, Wales

+ The Raynes

Support: The Raynes. The Royal Lido on Bastion Road, Prestatyn — the Pontins-adjacent dance hall on the Denbighshire coast — was a regular Farinas stop (see 14 January 1967). Capacity around 1,200. (The poster's 'Winners of last year's Melody Maker Beat Competition' and 'EMI recording artists' advertising claims are promoter exaggerations — the Farinas had not won a Melody Maker competition, and the 1964 Fontana single was not on EMI. Period promoter-talk rather than fact.)

⤢ ⤢ ⤢

16

Friday

Hermitage Halls / Hitchin Technical College

The Farinas

Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England

+ Cream

The Farinas supported Cream at Hermitage Halls in Hitchin on 16 September 1966. This is a separate engagement from the Roaring Sixties’ Benn Memorial Hall appearance in Rugby on 9 September; the former timeline card had conflated the two.

30

Press

Leicester Chronicle · Article

Stand By For Ike And Tina Plus The Family!

Granby Halls Ike & Tina preview

Read full article →

7

Friday

The Oasis

Farinas

45 – 47 Lloyd Street, Manchester, Lancashire, England

The Oasis — the Lloyd Street basement off Albert Square, in central Manchester — was a defining mid-60s Manchester R&B club; Alan Clarke and Graham Nash of the Hollies had been resident here in 1962–63 before graduating to national touring, and by 1966 Clarke and Nash (still in the Hollies, a year before Nash's emigration and CSN) were occasional hosts on nights when they were off the road. The club ran through mid-67 before Roger Eagle moved his Twisted Wheel operation north.

8

Saturday

The Witch Doctor, Lifeboat Hotel (early) / Le Discothèque (late)

Farinas

Cleethorpes / Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England

+ The King Bees

Support: The King Bees. Two shows, same night. The Witch Doctor at the Lifeboat Hotel — a Cleethorpes seafront R&B cellar. Le Discothèque at 51 Hamilton Street, Grimsby — the Tomlinson-family circuit's second Humberside room, with Friday: Union Blues Soul Band / Saturday: The Farinas / Sunday: The Pitiful as that week's rotation. 'Blackjack, Roulette and Poker nightly (for members only)' — an unusual casino-cum-R&B-cellar hybrid. The King Bees here are the Grimsby covers band, not Bowie's 1964 King Bees.

9

Sunday

The Cosmo Ballroom

Farinas

Crosby Street, Carlisle, Cumberland, England

The Cosmopolitan Ballroom on Crosby Street — 'the Cos' to Carlisle locals — was Frank Lynch's Border Entertainments flagship venue, a 600-odd-capacity two-floor ballroom that anchored the Cumberland and Border R&B circuit. Lynch's bookings brought in the then-touring London and Manchester acts on the weekend circuit — the Cos, the Winton (Kendal) and the Lyceum (Barrow) forming the three northern-tip rooms of the English ballroom grid. First of several Border Entertainments bookings for Family through late 1966 / early 1967.

10

Monday

Civic Hall

Worsley, Lancashire, England

A Bolton News advertisement bills “THE FAMILY (ex-Roaring Sixties)” with DJ Alan “Doc” Merwin at Worsley Civic Hall. It is the earliest documented public Family advertisement located in this audit and captures the name transition in real time.

11

Tuesday

The Place

Farinas

Bryan Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England

The Place at Bryan Street, Hanley — the Stoke-on-Trent R&B all-nighter opened in 1965 by Neil Chapman and Brian Chadwick — ran Wednesday and Saturday R&B nights through 1966–67. First documented Farinas date at the Place; the venue would become a Family home room well into the 1970s.

12

Wednesday

The Club A'Gogo

Percy Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England

The surviving North-East gig chronology lists Family at Club A’Gogo on 12 October 1966. This follows the Worsley advertisement two days earlier and is retained under the contemporary Family billing rather than retrospectively labeled Farinas.

13

Thursday

New Locarno Ballroom

Roaring Sixties

London Road, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

The Roaring Sixties played Mecca’s New Locarno Ballroom for a Thursday “Big Beat Night,” running from 7 to 11 p.m. The advert is a rare printed record of the short-lived name used between the Farinas and Family.

⤢

“That Dynamic Group — The Roaring Sixties” — Sheffield newspaper advert, 13 October 1966

20

Thursday

Locarno

Farinas

London Road/Boston Street, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

The Sheffield Locarno on London Road / Boston Street — the city's Mecca-circuit ballroom, capacity around 2,500, with R&B on Thursday nights and full pop-package weekends. One of the Yorkshire circuit's major mid-size rooms, carrying the same Mecca-programmed booking style as Leicester's Casino and the Birmingham Locarno. Thursday slot meant a less-prominent mid-week booking but a bigger room than most of the Farinas' usual cellars and pub function rooms.

21

Friday

The Granby Halls (early) / Burlesque (late)

Leicester, Leicestershire, England

+ Ike & Tina Turner (Granby)

Two Leicester engagements on the same night: Family supported the Ike & Tina Turner Revue at Granby Halls, then played a late set at Burlesque. A 30 September Leicester preview advertised the Granby Halls support under the Family name.

22

Saturday

The Beachcomber (early) / The Cavern (late)

Roaring Sixties

10 Mathew Street (Cavern), Bolton / Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Two engagements on the same night: the Beachcomber in Bolton and the Cavern in Liverpool. Transition-era sources use both Roaring Sixties and Family billing. The Cavern had reopened under Joe Davey and Alf Geoghegan on 23 July 1966, after Ray McFall’s bankruptcy earlier in the year.

23

Sunday

The Beachcomber

Farinas

Preston, Lancashire, England

The source gives “Beachcomber, Preston,” but no period Preston venue of that name has yet been verified. The town/venue combination may be confused with another North-West or Nottingham booking, so the card remains an explicitly unverified diary stub.

24

Monday

Unknown Venue

Farinas

Baldock, Hertfordshire, England

A Baldock booking is present in the surviving diary, but the venue has not been identified. Baldock is in Hertfordshire; the former Herefordshire region was an error. The card remains unverified.

30

Sunday

Nottingham Boat Club

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

The Nottingham Boat Club venue diary lists Family on Sunday 30 October 1966, a useful contemporary marker in the first month of the new public name.

5

Saturday

Beachcomber Club

Farinas

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

+ Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers

Support billing: Farinas — headliners: Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers. Return to Trent Boulevard — the Nottingham Beachcomber (West Bridgford, at the Trent Boulevard / Musters Road corner). Second Cliff Bennett bill of the year after 27 May De Montfort Hall. Bennett was on tour behind 'Got to Get You into My Life'.

10

Thursday

The Club A'Gogo

Roaring Sixties

Percy Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England

Performed as The Roaring Sixties but advertised as Family — second A'Gogo date in a month, and one of the clearest single-card documentations of the naming transition in progress. The contract still said Roaring Sixties but the Newcastle posters were already carrying the new name Fowley had been pushing.

11

Friday

York University

Farinas

York, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

York University's Students' Union — the university had been founded only in 1963 and was still building out its Heslington campus — ran student-hops out of Central Hall, the new open-plan SU building on the lakeside. One of the earliest of the new wave of 1960s university-SU R&B bookings that would fund Family's 1968-70 touring income.

12

Saturday

Unknown Venue

Farinas

Matlock, Derbyshire, England

A Matlock booking appears in the surviving diary, but the venue is unknown. Matlock Bath Pavilion is one possibility, though no period listing has yet confirmed it.

13

Sunday

The Beachcomber

Farinas

Bolton, Lancashire, England

Return to the Bolton Beachcomber on Bank Street — the compact Sunday-night R&B cellar run by the Harrison family (see 1 January 1967 for full venue context). One of the Farinas' most-played North-West pub cellars, rotating through a Sunday-evening residency that carried them through to Christmas.

14

Monday

The Tiles

Farinas

79 – 89 Oxford Street, Soho, West London, Greater London, England

First Tiles date. The Oxford Street basement had opened 23 February 1966 as a Mod showcase room and was in November still in its Mod / soul phase — the R&B-underground programming was still six months away (see 2 February 1967 for the expanded Tiles history).

21

Monday

The Quaintways

Roaring Sixties / Family

Chester, Cheshire, England

+ The Atwood's, Wall City Jazzmen

Support / co-bill: The Art Woods (headliners), plus Roaring Sixties, Family and Wall City Jazzmen. Cheshire Observer and Chronicle adverts (18 November) list both the Roaring Sixties AND Family billings — what the promoter Gordon Vickers (31 Cambrian-avenue, Chester) only realised on the night was that both were the same band. The story is told at length in the 25 November Leicester Chronicle: Vickers had booked 'The Roarin' Sixties beat group four months ago with an agent in Manchester. Two months later he booked The Family, another group with the same agent, to appear on the same night — or so he thought.' When Family arrived at 8pm they explained they were also the Roarin' Sixties; The Bo Lynx, a Chester group, were called in at an hour's notice to fill a three-hour phantom slot while Family played as themselves. The Wall City Jazz Club was the Monday-night promotion running at Quaintways (Northgate Street), Chester. One of the single clearest documented inflection points in the Farinas → Roaring Sixties → Family rename drama.

⤢ ⤢ ⤢

24

Thursday

Unknown Venue

Oldham, Lancashire, England

The surviving diary places the band in Oldham, but does not name the venue. The Thing Club on Henshaw Street is a plausible candidate, and became a known stop for the band the following year.

25

Friday

Top Rank (unconfirmed)

Sunderland, County Durham, England

This Sunderland booking remains uncertain. The Top Rank ballroom is the most likely venue, but no matching advertisement has yet been found in the surviving local press.

25

Press

Leicester Chronicle · Article

One of the groups did not exist!

Quaintways Wall City Jazz Club

Read full article →

26

Saturday

Unknown Venue

Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

Card flag: 'Unknown Venue, Birmingham' — part of the six-card 24–30 November 'Unknown Venue' cluster on this page (24 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 November). These are 1966 tour-diary entries where available period sources preserved the date and town but no venue name. Birmingham's late-1966 R&B circuit ran chiefly through the Carlton Club on Slade Road, the Midnight City on High Street Digbeth and the Elbow Room at 146 High Street Aston — all three are plausible candidates for this booking.

27

Sunday

Unknown Venue

Manchester, Lancashire, England

The diary places the band in Manchester without naming the venue. The Oasis Club on Lloyd Street is the likeliest possibility: the band played there before and after this date.

28

Monday

Unknown Venue

Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England

Card flag: 'Unknown Venue, Wolverhampton' — part of the 24–30 November 'Unknown Venue' cluster (see 26 November). Wolverhampton's main 1966 R&B venues were the Lafayette on Thornley Street and the Club Lafayette — either a strong candidate for this booking against the Express & Star weekly gig column.

29

Tuesday

Unknown Venue

Manchester, Lancashire, England

A second late-November Manchester date appears in the diary, again without a venue. The Oasis is a strong possibility, but the booking has not yet been matched to a period listing.

30

Wednesday

Unknown Venue

Loughborough, Leicestershire, England

Card flag: 'Unknown Venue, Loughborough' — almost certainly Loughborough University Students' Union (see 1 March 1967 for a confirmed SU booking), though local-circuit options also included the Limelight and the Town Hall diary.

3

Saturday

The Midnight City, underneath The Moat House

Digbeth, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

+ The Who

Family support The Who at Arthur Mence's small Digbeth cellar — the Midnight City, beneath the Moat House, held around 300. The Who were mid-tour behind 'I'm a Boy' / 'Happy Jack', six days away from releasing A Quick One (9 December 1966). Arguably the most significant bill of the band's entire pre-Liberty run.

Historical note on billing: the venue contract, signed earlier in the autumn when management was still settling the naming, still read 'The Roaring Sixties' — a lingering paperwork artefact from the August–October transition — while the poster, advert and audience had all decisively moved to Family.

8

Thursday

Lanchester College of Technology

Coventry, Warwickshire, England

Lanchester College — the Much Park Street polytechnic that would become Coventry Polytechnic in 1970 and later Coventry University — ran Thursday-night student dances through the mid-60s. The college's social secretary booked through the Arthur Howes agency.

9

Friday

The De Montfort Hall

Granville Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, England

A possible return to Leicester’s De Montfort Hall, following appearances there in January and May. Unlike those earlier dates, this December booking has not yet been confirmed in the local press.

10

Saturday

Town Hall

Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England

Hitchin Town Hall — the Victorian municipal hall at Brand Street — ran Saturday-night dances on the Hertfordshire circuit under the town clerk's community-hall booking calendar. Separate venue from the Hermitage Ballroom (see 9 September and 13 January 1967); the two Hitchin rooms programmed independent diaries through 1966-67, and the Farinas/Family worked both across the year.

11

Sunday

The Belle Vue

Gorton, Manchester, Lancashire, England

The Belle Vue pleasure gardens at Hyde Road, Gorton — Manchester's Victorian amusement park, site of the King's Hall (2,500 capacity), the Elizabethan Ballroom and a zoological garden — hosted Sunday R&B bookings in the Elizabethan and weekend ballroom events in the King's Hall. One of the larger mid-size Manchester venues.

⤢

13

Tuesday

Blaises, Basement of the Imperial Hotel

121 Queens Gate, Kensington, South West London, Greater London, England

First Blaises date — and Family's central London debut proper. The Imperial Hotel basement at 121 Queen's Gate had been running since early 1966 as one of the West End's first underground-facing rooms. The Manchester Independent's 13 December quote — 'Are you in The Family Way?' saturation-poster campaign — is dated to this Blaises night, the earliest documented use of the Family name in coordinated promotional context. Fowley and the management were running name-building publicity three months ahead of the band's first documented Marquee booking (21 March 1967).

“The Family generate a big sound with two vocalists and two tenor players. London's West End recently saw a saturation poster campaign with the catchline 'Are you in The Family Way?'. They are the latest trend group. They wear gangster clothes, and have current bookings at London's Marquee and Blaises clubs.” — Manchester Independent, Dec. 13, 1966

14

Wednesday

Reading University

Reading, Berkshire, England

Reading University's Students' Union had moved into its new purpose-built Student Union building on the Whiteknights Campus in 1964, and by 1966 its Entertainments Committee was programming R&B bookings through the Bryan Morrison agency — the same outfit booking Pink Floyd's summer-1966 residency at UFO. Reading SU sat in the same mid-60s university-Ents expansion as York SU (see 11 November) that would become the band's backbone 1968-70 touring circuit.

15

Thursday

The Club A'Gogo

Percy Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England

Third A'Gogo date in two months (12 October / 10 November / 15 December) — by mid-December 1966 the Tyneside following was already established, foreshadowing the Family Mk II returns of November 1967. Mike Jeffery's bookings rewarded a regular return — the A'Gogo's Percy Street basement gave you a full crowd on a Thursday if the club's membership-list took a liking to you.

16

Friday

La Cubana

13 Toward Road, Sunderland, County Durham, England

Earliest documented La Cubana date — the 13 Toward Road Sunderland R&B cellar run by local promoter Bob Dagnal since 1965. The Wearside venue would rejoin the 1967 diary (see 10 May 1967) and recur through the band's Mk II / Mk III lineups — part of the North-East's tight R&B triangle with the A'Gogo up the A19 in Newcastle and the Bay Hotel on Seaburn seafront (see 29 December).

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17

Saturday

The Clouds, London Road Ballroom

Derby, Derbyshire, England

The Clouds — housed in the London Road Ballroom near Derby Midland Station — was a short-lived late-66 / 67 R&B club in the converted ballroom. One of two Clouds dates in December (see 31 December); the same room would mutate into the Kinetic Circus / Derby Locarno over the next few years.

18

Sunday

The South Bank Jazz Club

Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England

Third 1966 South Bank Jazz Club date (8 April / 22 May / 18 December) — the band's Grimsby rotation had effectively become a quarterly residency by Christmas. Ken Milburn's weeknight programme at Cleethorpes Road was consistent enough that the Farinas could plan three dates a year into the Humberside town without needing the Grimsby Evening Telegraph hype-column machinery that the touring-act bookings demanded.

21

Wednesday

The Tiles

79 – 89 Oxford Street, Soho, West London, Greater London, England

Second Tiles Club date after 14 November — the Oxford Street basement was becoming a reliable West End booking as the Family name rolled out through late 1966. Tiles — at 79-89 Oxford Street — had opened in February 1966 as a purpose-built mod club under promoter Wolfe Kravetz, combining a dance floor, a resident-DJ booth and a Carnaby Street clothes arcade on its ground level — the club's house sound ran from American R&B and soul into the emerging underground end of the Scene.

22

Thursday

The Elbow Room

146 High Street, Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

A standalone Elbow Room booking at 146 High Street, Aston — one of Birmingham's R&B cellars run by the Morden family through the mid-60s — rather than the Carlton / Elbow Room double the band had worked on 26 March. The Elbow Room's small basement took a harder R&B crowd than the Slade Road Carlton's soul-leaning audience, a differentiation that put the Family billing into a distinctly heavier context in the final pre-Christmas week.

23

Friday

The Oasis Club

45 – 47 Lloyd Street, off Albert Square, Manchester, Lancashire, England

Pre-Christmas return to Clarke and Nash's door at the Lloyd Street Oasis — the 45-47 Lloyd Street basement off Albert Square, run by promoters Rick Dixon, Danny Betesh and the Clarke-Nash management team since 1961. A Friday-night slot in the Manchester R&B room that had broken Freddie and the Dreamers and hosted the Hollies, Them and the Graham Bond Organisation across the preceding three years.

24

Saturday

The Britannia Boat Club (early) / The Midnight City (late)

Nottingham / Birmingham, Nottinghamshire / Warwickshire, England

Christmas Eve double-header — an early set at the Britannia Rowing Club's function-room dance hall at Lady Bay Lane, West Bridgford (Nottingham — see 22 April 1967), then a late set at the Digbeth Midnight City (see 3 December). Double-booking on Christmas Eve was a common pattern for touring R&B acts: the rowing club's early-evening teenage dance would wind up by 10 pm, leaving the band time to drive the 40 miles to Digbeth for a midnight-to-3-am slot at one of the Midlands' after-hours R&B cellars.

26

Monday

The Beachcomber

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

Boxing Day return to Trent Boulevard — the Nottingham Beachcomber in West Bridgford (see 5 November). The Sunday-night R&B cellar ran its festive-week programme through the Christmas bank-holiday period with in-town acts who could fill on short notice — by December 1966 the Farinas / Family billing had become one of the regular Beachcomber seasonal regulars.

29

Thursday

The Bay Hotel

Seaburn, Sunderland, County Durham, England

The Bay Hotel on the Seaburn seafront, north of Sunderland — a traditional coastal hotel with a function-room dance hall — ran Thursday-night R&B through the mid-60s on the same Wearside circuit as La Cubana (see 16 December) and the Top Rank (see 5 November). Ballroom-circuit booking on the Durham Coast, with the sea-fronted art-deco frontage of the Bay as a notable landmark of the old pre-war Sunderland summer-season holiday industry.

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30

Friday

The George Inn

Wilby Village, Northamptonshire, England

The George Inn on Wilby's High Street — a standalone village-pub booking on the Northamptonshire circuit — ran weekend dances in its function room and paired with the Farinas / Family again on 30 May 1967. A year-end rural booking of the kind that filled the week between the Bay Hotel (29 December) and the Derby New Year's Eve ballroom, the pub-function-room circuit paying less than the bigger R&B cellars but keeping the band on the road through festive week.

31

Saturday

The Clouds, London Road Ballroom

Derby, Derbyshire, England

A New Year’s Eve return to the Clouds promotion at Derby’s London Road Ballroom. By the end of 1966 the band was firmly advertised as Family; Ric Grech had joined in 1965 and Roger Chapman during 1966.

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Formation of Family

1966

Farinas → Roaring Sixties → Family

Roger Chapman joined Charlie Whitney, Jim King, Ric Grech and Harry Ovenall during 1966, giving the Farinas a five-piece lineup with Chapman and King sharing the front line. The public name changed in stages: a 20 August Dungeon advertisement identifies the Roaring Sixties as formerly the Farinas, and a 10 October Worsley advertisement bills “The Family (ex-Roaring Sixties).” Older contracts and advance notices continued to use the earlier names during the transition.

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