Brighton Beach Memories

[Brian Cady]

>From The Argus:
http://tinyurl.com/pgj6v

The Who, Brighton Centre, Brighton, Sunday, June 18
by Leilah Nicola

Back in the early Sixties, a little-known London band
called The High Numbers rehearsed every Wednesday
night in a Brighton club called The Florida Rooms. 

Punters would pay 10p to watch them at work and the
gatherings would sometimes turn chaotic - often at the
instigation of their bonkers drummer. 

In 1964, they renamed themselves The Who and went on
to become one of the biggest bands in the world. 

Their love affair with Brighton has now spanned five
decades and they return next week for a gig described
by their PR people as a "public rehearsal" for their
world tour - their first without original bassist John
Entwistle, who died in 2002. 

Joined by Zak Starkey, son of Ringo, on drums, Pino
Palladino on bass, Rabbit Bundrick on keyboards and
Simon Townshend on guitar, original members Roger
Daltrey and Pete Townshend are expected to play
several songs from their new album, their first in 25
years, out in October. 

Many Brighton fans can still recall the early days. 

"I'd pay my ten pence, get a chair and sit right at
the front of the stage," says Alan Morris, aka
Portslade DJ King Jerry. "They were mad. 

"We'd never seen anything like it. They'd finish their
set and then smash all their gear up, all while
wearing these suits." 

Jerry, himself just starting out as a Motown DJ, saw
The Who at the Florida Rooms about five times. 

"I remember Roger and his wirey hair very clearly and
John Entwistle, who used to play his bass with a fag
in the top fret. 

"Keith Moon was just off his trolley. The drums would
get a right bashing but he was wicked. They came just
at the right time." 

The Florida Rooms, at the Brighton Aquarium buildings,
was a premiere venue for bands. One of the main faces
at club was promoter Bonny Manzi, who now lives in
Patcham. Known as "Uncle Bonny", he was a colourful
character who booked hundreds of legendary acts, The
Who being among them. 

"They made one of their debuts with us," he says. "I
remember they got half the takings - £17.50. We took
just under £40 on the door that night, which wasn't
bad at the time. 

"I used to find bands after reading Melody Maker, that
was my bible. I would book acts about three months in
advance, so by the time they came to us, they were on
the up. 

"With The Who I hit the jackpot. They were a lovely
bunch of boys. They had to start somewhere and we
helped them on their way." 

As the Mod scene flourished, so did The Who's
popularity and, just a year later, they were playing
to crowds of up to 2,000. 

On nostalgic music website brightonbeats.com, one of
the Florida Rooms DJs, Roy Hatley, remembers 1,700
people "packed in like sardines" at an Easter Saturday
gig in 1965, and another 500 sitting outside on the
Aquarium steps. "I spent the entire evening wedged in
a corner about five feet from John Entwistle's bass
stack," he recalls. 

"My teeth ached for a week and I was deaf in my left
ear for three days. The Who were looked on as one of
their own by local kids." 

The next decade was a rollercoaster of highs and lows
for the band. With hit after hit, sell-out tours and
world adoration came inner demons, drug addiction and
tragedy. 

With them for much of the journey was Portslade-based
Doug Clarke, now a respected businessman and Brighton
and Hove Albion fund-raiser. He'll be backstage as a
guest of the band next week - and his son's band, Two
Choices, have been personally picked by The Who's
manager to support them. 

After hearing a demo, he said they were the best
unsigned band he'd ever heard. 

Doug, who owns Grate Fireplaces in Portslade, worked
as a personal assistant to frontman Roger Daltrey
between 1971 and 1984. He also worked closely with
Keith Moon, the mad-as-a-hatter drummer, and was once
sent to Los Angeles for an extended stay, supposedly
to "straighten him out". 

Doug and his wife were meant to remain with Moon in LA
for a couple of years, but ended up lasting just three
months. 

"I just couldn't take it," he says. "Keith was very
intelligent when you sat talking to him, but he felt
he had to be this crazed character. 

"We lived with Keith in Sherman Valley in the Canyons
and the house was at the bottom of the valley. 

Keith used to have fun getting gas canisters and
putting them under warming barbecues. The valley would
erupt in the middle of the night with all these
canisters exploding. The police used to come straight
to Keith. 

"There were also plenty of hotel incidents. One time
he was having a party in his room and guests were
complaining about the noise. The hotel eventually
pulled all the fuses, but Keith just moved everything
out of his room into the hallway and plugged in
again." 

Doug had somewhat calmer experiences with frontman
Daltrey, who lives on a farm in Burwash, East Sussex. 

"You get your wild rock stars but Roger certainly
wasn't one," he says. 

"When you're performing in front of 150,000 people it
can be very hard, with all that adrenalin flowing, to
go back to your hotel room with just one or two
people. 

But Roger would do that, have a massage and then go to
bed. 

"And he used to get up in the morning to go to the
gym." 

Doug has kept in touch with Roger, although this will
be the first time he's seen The Who live since the
Eighties. 

"It's going to be a big night - watching my son's
band, then seeing The Who. And it's Father's Day," he
says. 

In 1978, as the band released the album Who Are You,
Keith Moon succumbed to the excesses of rock and roll
and died in his sleep after taking a prescription
drugs overdose. 

Kenney Jones, of The Small Faces and The Faces, joined
the band as his successor and the new line-up went
back on the road. They returned to their spiritual
home in November 1979, when they played two sell-out
gigs at the Brighton Centre, coinciding with the
release of the film Quadrophenia - famously set in
Brighton and based on The Who's 1973 album of the same
name. 

Fans from all over the country queued outside for
tickets, with some arriving three days before they
went on sale. The queue, which stretched from the box
office (then accessed via Russell Road) to the front
entrance on Kings Road, was in places ten people deep,
and was the biggest the venue had ever seen. 

The centre expected a flood of touts, so fans were
limited to four tickets each - priced at £3.50 for
seating and £4.50 standing. 

On the day they went on sale, at 7.30am, fans were
treated to breakfast inside the Brighton Centre and a
DJ played music over the PA. 

The gig was a triumph. Daltrey began with the line:
"Hello Brighton, it's been too long." 

They were next at the Brighton Centre in February
1981, by which time the tickets had gone up to £5.
This time, Daltrey began with the words: "Hello
Brighton. It hasn't been too long has it?"

A true sign of the times, tickets cost £37.50 this
time around but original fans from the Florida Rooms
days are still expected to turn up en mass to relive
their Mod days with the era's masters.


-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com

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