Welcome to another posting of a series of gig listings for 1960s bands. None of these lists is exhaustive and my idea is to add to them in the comments section below over time. They are here for future researchers to draw on. I have also added a few interesting bits of information and will add images in time.
I’d like to encourage band members to get in touch to share memories, or for anyone to send corrections/clarifications to my email: Warchive@aol.com
Equally important, if you attended any of the gigs below or played in the support band, please do leave your memories below in the comments section for future historians to use. If you know of any missing gigs, please add them too, if possible, with the sources.
RONNIE JONES & THE Q-SET:
Ronnie Jones – lead vocals
Arthur Pereira – guitar
Tony O’Malley – Hammond organ
Chester Simon – bass
George Lee – tenor sax
Lloyd Smith – tenor sax
Herschell Holder – trumpet
Byron Ly-fook – drums
1967
The group started working with Ronnie Jones in mid-March after they’d supported Maxine Brown on a UK tour. The group had been singer Malcolm Magaron’s backing band in mid-late 1966.
10 March 1967 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel) Billed as The Q Set so possibly just before link-up with Ronnie Jones
17 March 1967 – Ram Jam, Brixton, south London (Melody Maker) Most likely the debut show
19 March 1967 – Beau Brummel Club, Alvaston Hall Hotel, Nantwich, Cheshire with Phil Ryan & The Scorpions (Crewe Chronicle)
23 March 1967 – Stoke Hotel, Guildford, Surrey with Top of The Tree (Surrey Advertiser) Billed as Ronnie Jones & The Blue Jays but fulfilled with The Q-Set
26 March 1967 – Birdcage, Kimbells Ballroom, Southsea, Hampshire (David Allen research) Billed as The Q-Set
26 March 1967 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, south east London (South East London Mercury) Billed as Ronnie Jones & The Blue Jays but fulfilled with The Q-Set
31 March 1967 – Starlite, Greenford, north west London (Melody Maker)
2 April 1967 – Ram Jam, Brixton, south London (Melody Maker)
9 April 1967 – Central R&B Club, Central Hotel, Gillingham, Kent (Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham News)
14 April 1967 – Gaiety Ballroom, Grimsby, Humberside (Grimsby Evening Telegraph)
15 April 1967 – Golden Torch, Tunstall, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel)
23 April 1967 – Union Rowing Club, Trent Bridge, Nottingham (Nottingham Evening Post)
13 May 1967 – Cue Club, Paddington, central London (Melody Maker) Billed as The Q-Set Band
14 May 1967 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, south east London (Melody Maker)
21 May 1967 – Starlight Ballroom, Crawley, West Sussex with Prince Buster & The Bees (Crawley Advertiser)
28 May 1967 – Kirklevington Country Club, Kirklevington, North Yorkshire (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette)
29 May 1967 – Cue Club, Paddington, central London (Melody Maker) Billed as The Q-Set Band
4 June 1967 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel)
10 June 1967 – Faculty of Tech Union, Student Union Building, Altrincham Street, Manchester with The Water Board (Manchester Evening News and Chronicle)
11 June 1967 – Swan, Yardley, West Midlands with The Gass (Birmingham Evening Mail)
13 June 1967 – Bag O’Nails, Kingley Street, Soho, central London (Fabulous 208)
18 June 1967 – Central R&B Club, Central Hotel, Gillingham, Kent (Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham News)
22 June 1967 – Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield with The Drifters, Alan Bown, The Amboy Dukes and The Pitiful (The Star)
24 June 1967 – Toft’s, Folkestone, Kent (Melody Maker)
25 June 1967 – Ram Jam, Brixton, south London (Melody Maker)
1-16 July 1967 – Canasta Club, Biarritz, France (Photo)
There appears to have been a temporary split as The Q-Set backed Maxine Brown on a second UK tour in September-October 1967
13 October 1967 – Beaconsfield’s Youth Club, Beaconsfield, Bucks (Bucks Free Press)
14 October 1967 – Polytechnic, Great Titchfield Street, central London, W1 with The Soul Foundation (Melody Maker)
15 October 1967 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, south east London (Poster)
16 October 1967 – Bluesville ’67 Clubs, St Matthew’s Baths Hall, Ipswich, Suffolk (Ipswich Evening Star)
20 October 1967 – Hairy Bob’s Cavern, Scarborough (Scarborough Evening News)
21 October 1967 – Cosmo, Carlisle, Cumbria with The Mayfayre (Cumberland News)
22 October 1967 – Cosmo, Carlisle, Cumbria with The Cobwebs (Cumberland News)
29 October 1967 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel)
30 October 1967 – Staffordshire Yeoman, Stafford (Stafford Newsletter)
3 November 1967 – Central Pier, Morecambe, Lancashire with John St John and Ugly Doug (Lancashire Evening Post)
10 November 1967 – Gaiety Ballroom, Grimsby, Humberside with Jackie & The Atlantics (Grimsby Evening Telegraph)
11 November 1967 – Burton’s, Uxbridge, west London (Melody Maker)
26 November 1967 – Starlight Ballroom, Crawley, West Sussex (Crawley Advertiser)
2 December 1967 – Taggs Island, Hampton Court, Middlesex (Melody Maker)
2 December 1967 – Cue Club, Paddington, central London (Melody Maker)
3 December 1967 – Central R&B Club, Central Hotel, Gillingham, Kent (Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham News)
16 December 1967 – Brave New World, Eastney, Southsea, Hampshire with The Errol Bruce Soul Show (Portsmouth News) Says he’s just returned from the USA. This is the grand opening of the club
21 December 1967 – St Joseph’s Disco, Swindon, Wiltshire with The Promis (Swindon Evening Advertiser)
25 December 1967 – Cue Club, Paddington, central London (Melody Maker) Ronnie Jones guests with The Tonicks, Herbie Goins, Owen Grey and The Youth
26 December 1967 – King Mojo, City Hall Ballroom, Sheffield, South Yorkshire with Bonnie & Clyde and The Jamaicans and The Chicago All Stars (The Star)
29 December 1967 – Bluesville, Manor House, north London (Melody Maker)
30 December 1967 – Chelmsford Corn Exchange, Chelmsford, Essex (Essex Chronicle)
31 December 1967 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, south east London with Alan Elsdon’s Band (Poster)
1968
7 January 1968 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel)
14 January 1968 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, south east London (Poster)
19 January 1968 – California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire with Canal St Philharmonic (website: www.california-ballroom.info/gigs/)
27 January 1968 – Burton’s, Uxbridge, west London (Melody Maker)
27 January 1968 – New All-Star Club, 9a Artillery Passage, east London (Melody Maker)
28 January 1968 – Ram Jam, Brixton, south London (Melody Maker)
3 February 1968 – Civic Hall, Guildford, Surrey with Modes Mode (Surrey Advertiser)
18 February 1968 – Hotel Leofric, Coventry, West Midlands with The Midlands and In Sound (Coventry Evening Telegraph)
19 February 1968 – Bluesville ’68 Club, St Matthew’s Baths, Ipswich, Suffolk (Ipswich Evening Star)
23 February 1968 – Bluesville, Manor House, north London (Melody Maker)
Tony O’Malley says Ronnie Jones & The Q-Set spent four months playing in Italy and then two months in Greece (see comments below) before returning to the UK around July 1968.
Thanks to Tony O’Malley for sharing the band photos
Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, without prior permission from the author.
a couple of dates for the Q Set without Ronnie Jones –
04/03/67 – Rub-A-Dub Club, London St., Reading
08/08/67 – Town Hall, Torquay supporting The Kinks
Played at Leofric Coventry in 1967/68 with Ronnie Jones Q set, we supported them Soul Party, brilliant band, remember the little lead guitarist think he was Mexican, good timesJeff
Ronnie Jones & The Q Set
Tuesday 28 March 1967 – Klooks Kleek, Railway Hotel, West Hampstead (Disc & Music Echo)
Note that entries saying ‘Grimsby, Humberside’ should say ‘Grimsby, Lincolnshire’ as it was in the ’60s and is again (though now administratively divided into Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, with Grimsby in the latter). Humberside was a temporary blip in the history of the people north and south of the Humber.
From around the middle of January 1968, Ronnie Jones & The Q Set spent four months playing in Italy then two months in Greece.
George Lee left the band in Italy and was replace by a sax player called ‘Boogis’ until we returned to the UK in July.
George, Herschel Holder, Lloyd Smith and myself then joined The Counts, probably around August or September of ’68.
George, Herschel, Lloyd and certainly Philip Chen, who played with Jimmy James & The Vagabonds before forming the Counts, may remember more about those auld days… 🙂
Whoops!
Sax player George Lee has just reminded me that Lloyd Smith and Herschel Holder didn’t play with the Counts!
The horn section in the Counts was George and trumpet player Ron Carthy, R.I.P.
Lloyd and Herschel went on to join Root Jackson and formed FBI.
Apologies for the mistake… x
How crazy to run across this, Tony! I’ve been reminiscing of music in Rome with my HS friends. I was there in the 60s and hung out with The Airedales (of Rocky Roberts fame) and through them I met the Q-Set. Chester and I used to hang out because he lived not far from me. My mother adored him! He was delightfully quirky. Are you still in touch with him? Whatever became of him.
I am an old friend of Herschel Holder who has lost contact with him. Does anyone have contact information on him?
I am visiting London soon and would love to meet up with him.
Would greatly appreciate help on this.
Thanks!
What a showman! The band played at Lancaster University in April or May 1967. Fabulous night.