Owned and run by John McCoy who had a great R&B band: The Crawdaddies. He discovered Chris Rea. Every band that was good came to the Kirk.
Often warming up before going on tour to big venues.
My job was to get the bar organised and stocked and do anything required before the doors opened. I did not get paid but was fed and had entry to all events.
The music area was small. About 25 x 30 yards. A small stage at one end and bar on one sie.
The BIG night was when John got Jimi Hendrix booked, he had just done two gigs in London and Beck and Clapton had called to rave about him.
John had told the press to come along and wanted it to be a special occasion. I got started in the afternoon working with a lass who worked behind the bar.
A big deal then was using Paris Goblets for serving gin and tonics etc and hanging them upside down above the bar was "really cool".
I even had six champagne flutes and eight Martini glasses to display.
I got hold of 84 glasses and a carpenter fixed the slots above the bar and had 60 on display. I had got lemons + nuts + crisps and loads of ice. A new mirror was fixed behind the bar and new lighting hung to create a great atmosphere.
By about 6pm the place looked terrific. John was impressed.
The band was due to start playing at 9pm and we expected them to arrive at about 7pm to get all their gear put up and be ready to go.
They turned up and I was told to help unload their equipment and bring it upstairs to the bar area.
We could not believe the size of the speakers. Two massive Marshalls made for stadium use. It took two of us to carry one.
John asked Chandler about these and he said they were at a 5000 seat venue the next night and would for this concert they would only use them on a low output.
They took up so much space we had to move some tables and chairs away and even then there was not much stage left
We had plenty of time before the start so John got the five of them some food and drinks
I was mesmerised by Hendrix, I had never seen such an exotic beast in my life.
He tuned up without amplification and said we should run a sound check and make sure everything was ready to go.
Their roadie was in charge of the amplification and sound levels.
Hendrix told Redding and Mitchell to just try an opening of Hey Joe and Chandler went to the back of the room to make sure everything was balanced
What happened next was just awesome. The roadie had turned the amplfication up to maximum in stead of minumum. There was just a huge explosion of sound;paralysing. Henrix had hit a full E chord on max. It only took the roadie a second to turn it all off, but the damage was done.
I did not recover my senses for a few seconds but almost in slow motion I witnessed total destruction. The lighting went low as the bulbs shattered and as the echo died away we heard the sound of breaking glass. Most of my Paris Goblets were shattered and pieces of glass were showering down..the mirror behind the bar had cracked and gradually started to collapse onto the back of the bar, taking spirit bottles with it. My pint glass next to me just disappeared ;leaving only the base.
The drummer had been in front of a speaker and he had rolled [or been blown] forward into his kit, hitting a cymbal on the way which slashed his nose and ear--blood was pouring around and he ended up face down among the wreckage.
No one said anything; I dont think the power of speech returned for a few seconds;not even a curse or moan. The sound of falling glass lasted at least 10 seconds . We were in a true state of shock. Time stood still. Even as the last bits of glass were falling behind the bar the first one to speak was John
"You stupid C* Chandler--you have just vapourised Dave's pint and he has worked all f***g day to get my place looking good."
"You will be paying for this"
Then "Hey Dave. Plenty of time to get tidied up. Use the plastic cups-ditch all the food bits and get someone to put new bulbs in the lights. Dont worry, we have about 15 minutes."
We all piled in and found that there were only 11 of the prized Paris Goblets left intact and no champagne flutes or Martini glasses. He asked me what I has paid for them so "f*g Chandler know what he owes."
I said I had borrowed them and they were due back in Middlesbrough in the morning
"Who from?"
"Your Mam's pub!!"
"S***t!! How did you persuade her"
"I didnt, she was out so I grabbed them from the store and knew there would be no problem"
"She has a wedding party tomorrow in the afternoon! What are you going to do?" " Dont worry John, my uncle runs Drakes Glassware--he will have them ready for her and she will be none the wiser"
To give everyone credit, we had the place looking good again in twenty minutes
Hendrix was just sitting on a stool laughing on the end of an enormous joint. Chandler was sympathetic and bought me a replacement pint. The drummer came round and we stopped the bleeding and one of the girls wrapped a nice silk scarf over the plasters as a bandana and he looked really cool. I believe he retained this image for a while.
The first of the press arrived a bit early, she was from the NME and made a big fuss of John
"How are things going ?" "OK really, we have had a smashing time so far".
The reviews were wonderful. It was an amazing night. We all remember it as very special. Those three musicians sounded like a seven or 12 piece band.
Luckily Henrix did not set his guitar on fire.
One of the old members of staff that managed the running of the club said to me later "It was just like in the war. We got bombed but everyone just joined together and got life going again. But we werelucky Hitler didnt have that black lad to drop on us"
We did get John's mother supplied with glasses. Sixty years later and whenever our old bunch meet up the night with Hendrix is always brought up.
