Elvis's first show. 1969...or was it 1970?

Pretty self-explanatory
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johnfoyle
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Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 4:37 pm
Location: Dublin , Ireland

Elvis's first show. 1969...or was it 1970?

Post by johnfoyle »

Image

The Crypt, St Elizabeths , Richmond, London , 2011

https://www.stelizabethschurch.org.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Elizab ... gal_Church

https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/ri ... -portugal/

Elvis, 1989

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... _July_1989

Which club was this where you played in public for the first time?

That was the Crypt at St. Elizabeth's in Richmond, which was a well-established folk club. I used to go every week whether or not I played. I was just about turning 16 when I moved to Liverpool. It's funny — I'd completely forgotten this division there was at the time. Demon have just released a couple of compilations of early '60s guitar stuff... a couple of John Renbourn albums and things. I'm actually a little bit young to have been a fan of that kind of scene... they were the established heads that you didn't really see in the clubs — they'd already graduated to playing the Albert Hall before I started going to folk clubs. But you did have the Ewan MacColls coming around. I'd forgotten about this division between the two sides until somebody mentioned it on the sleeve notes to one of these records. It was like the trad. v. contemporary thing, I'd forgotten about all that.

So I had a traumatic first appearance with this old bloke falling asleep, or pretending to fall asleep during my song — as you can imagine, that was pretty crushing. But apart from that I was fortunate because I got to see some really good people. It was very open. I didn't go to that many clubs but you could get to see somebody like Noel Murphy, Tir Na Nog, Mike Maran, Sam Mitchell, Jo Ann Kelly, Mike Oldfield and his sister, The Sallyangie. If you played acoustic guitar you could basically get up there. This was all one summer — I had a great summer. I played when they let me and I made my first faltering steps — and then I moved to Liverpool.

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Elvis (2020)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/ ... ch-in-1966

By 1969.........That same year in the folk club in the basement of that same church I played music for the first time in public. The headliner, Ewan MacColl, was asleep in the front row. So I would look up and there is MacColl not listening to me, and I immediately forgot the next chord and the whole thing was a shambles.


There was a folk club in Richmond called The Hanging Lamp The club met every Monday in the crypt of St. Elizabeth's church .


Frank McConnell was one of the founders of the Hanging Lamp Folk Club and Resident there for some time before becoming a full time pro in the folk clubs as one half of Pisces with Richard Digance.

He has a blog.

http://www.frankmcconnell.co.uk/the-usu ... 3owvp26BBk

He has written a book .

Today he emailed me , following up on a query I sent him a few months ago -


'You may be pleased to know that my book is now finished and I am currently doing the rounds of agents etc in order to get it published.

I have continued my research at the British Library (which of course has been opening and closing with Coronavirus requirements) and whilst I am not finished with that, I do now know that Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger played at the Hanging Lamp on Monday the 14th of September 1970. The advert is in the 12/09/70 edition of the Melody Maker.

The last evening of the original (pre-refurbishment) club was 18 October 1969. The club was then closed until it reopened on the 18th July 1970 with John James. So Elvis played there in its repainted suit.'
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krm
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Re: Elvis's first show. 1969...or was it 1970?

Post by krm »

well researched!
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verbal gymnastics
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Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2003 6:44 am
Location: Magic lantern land

Re: Elvis's first show. 1969...or was it 1970?

Post by verbal gymnastics »

I agree.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
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