Author Topic: The Castaways Club  (Read 47813 times)

Mary8790

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The Castaways Club
« on: August 13, 2008, 12:36:50 PM »
Does anyone remember the Castaways Club in Bradford Street.  What sort of club was it?  I used to work in Bradford St. in the 60s and can remember the cast of Crossroads used to rehearse above the club.

Phil

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2008, 02:54:09 PM »
Hi Mary

John2000 is the bloke you need to talk about with reference to the Castaways as he used to get in there. It was not my type of club, I preferred the rougher end of the market and it was quite posh in there when it first opened, or so they say.

I had a mate who had a mens hairdressers over the road and up the hill a bit. I spent quite a bit of time in there during the early sixties.

I have this photo of the resident trio at the Castaways the "Waikiki Islanders" taken in 1996.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Mary8790

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2008, 09:58:31 PM »
Hi Phil. Thanks for the picture.

john2000

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2008, 10:52:07 PM »
Phil... Is the club still there. ?? I used to go in that lift every morning, with Noel Gorden, ( she had a flat in town some where, but her house was in Glostershire area,) great time I had in that lift, met the love of my life there, but I was too young, forgot her name now, but she was nice to talk to and to look at, ;),
Anyway, I did some work there, built the ship, cut the beautiful floor, so they could have a stream ( water ) around the boat, the little bridge that you walked over to get to the bar, was a bit Micky Mouse, but thats what they wanted.we had a guy who did all the plaster work palm trees and bamboo ( all out of plaster,) he was bloody good at it too, later he did a of of film work both in the UK and down under,  he had a workmate who was a thicky, cooked a can of beans on a primer stove, and forgot to open the lid, it went off like a bomb, beans everywhere, god, what a mess.... J2.. :D
Growing old is mandatory..........Growing up is optional

Phil

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2008, 11:25:21 PM »
John

The Castaways went dead rough towards the end and finally closed down, before the eighties I think.

I think Noel Gordon's house was  on Hamstead Hill or Handsworth Wood Rd in Handsworth Wood and she lived with her mother there until her mother died.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

frederick

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2008, 12:03:46 PM »
i used to go into that club has it always been called the Castaways i used to go in there with a band called the Midland all stars.    8)
Failure to Prepare is to Prepare to Fail

basil Henriques

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2009, 06:02:59 PM »
     

This picture of the Castaways main room was taken from the stage end, and if you can imagine, the balconies extending to the side of the stage and at the end of the balconies 2 LARGE 40 foot palm trees with the bottoms on the back of the stage extension.
Well :-
One evening whilst  Mat was singing his finale ‘Born Free’, Dave Allen (Who was appearing just ‘round the corner at the “Talk of the Town”) had hatched a cunning plot and slid down from the balcony on one of the palm trees (Accompanied by a suitable glissando from me) landing directly behind Matt just as he was going to hit the last note.
The fun had only begun..
They huddled together for a couple of seconds planning the next move, Dave jumped up on the beautiful white grand piano (Much to the consternation of the club owner John Reeve) and the launched into a sketch they regularly do together at pantomimes. The Nelson-Hardy routine.
Maybe you’ve seen it but just in case you haven’t, I’ll describe it.
Dave says “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the starboard bow”
Nelson (Mat) replies “ Hardy, my good man, Fetch me my Red Velvet Jacket”
Hardy “Why do you want your Red Velvet Jacket ?”
Nelson “So the men won’t see the blood if I’m shot”
Hardy runs off and come back with said jacket.
Hardy “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the port bow”
Nelson “ Hardy, my good man, fetch me my Brown Corduroy Trousers”
Mat and Dave were very close friends and often appeared on TV on the same show, being complimentary to each other, Dave as a superb comedian and Mat as “Mat”

We played 6 night a week starting at 8:00 pm and finishing at 2:00am. Before each show at the casino/reception and then moving upstairs to the main ballroom to play after the show. Back downstairs to greet the second show audience and then upstairs to finish the night.
Over the 4 years we were resident at the Castaways we got to meet some of the nicest people in the business, none more ‘down to earth than Mat Monro’ he never forgot that he was once just a London ‘Bus driver.
Some of the other artists that we met at the castaways included :-
Tom Jones
Engelbert Humperdink
Mat Monro
Liberace
P.J. Proby
Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine
Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth
Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramont Jazz Band
Val Doonican
The Bachelors
Rosemary Squires
Judith Durham
Lynn Rogers
Sandy Shore
Cilla Black
Diana Dors
Dave Allen
Max Bygraves
Tommy Trinder
The Dallas Boys
Jack Hammer
Susan Maughan
Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang
Earl and Vaughan
Los Zafiros
Jean-Jacques Jordane
Malcolm Mitchell
Bob Monkhouse
The Bonzo Dog doo-Dah Band
The Maori Castaways
Mark Wynter
Eve Boswell
Clinton Ford & The Manhattan Brothers
Cy Grant
The Barron Knights
Ken Goodwin
The Jones Boys
The Other Brothers
The Chants
Duke Hazlett
Mikki and Griff
Craig Douglas
Ronnie Carrol
Dennis Lotis
Kathy Kirby
The Temperance Seven
.....................................................
The Group at the Castaways       

     

The newspaper adverts for the shows can be found here :-  http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/

           

           

           

           

Just looking at the clippings I notice that Liberace is 4gns including 'Dinner'
and the Waikiki Islanders for Christmas lunch was 4gns
And we didn't have 'Brother George' to feed.. !!

4gns (Guineas = 21 shillings or £1.1s 0d) in 1964 would be at least£50 now !!.
I know why the Liberace show was sold out, but on Christmas Day we had a full house also..

The only reason it's not still going is that someone absconded with half a million of the profits and let the company go bust.. such a pity we would be just eligible for a nice retirement pension now !!

denise

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2009, 06:17:01 PM »
What a great post.I enjoyed reading about your memories.You must have had so much fun.Happy days. :)

I notice you mention Kathy Kirby,what a great voice.In fact The whole list has the wow factor.

frederick

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2009, 09:30:27 PM »
was the castaways club at the bottom of Brabford st on the right up a long flight of stairs.

Hardy was the Captain Nelson was the flag Admiral :)
Failure to Prepare is to Prepare to Fail

john2000

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2009, 09:38:21 PM »
What a great post.I enjoyed reading about your memories.You must have had so much fun.Happy days. :)

I notice you mention Kathy Kirby,what a great voice.In fact The whole list has the wow factor.
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I remember she asked if there was a song we would like her to sing,,,,and knowing she always asked this, 10 of us shouted "seven drunken nights", but sadly she did'nt..J2
Growing old is mandatory..........Growing up is optional

denise

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2009, 09:50:32 PM »
Remember her singing Secret Love ;D


 

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