Once upon a time in Worcester; through the stage door.

Once upon a time in Worcester; through the stage door

The story of the Gaumont cinema and the music legends that appeared there...

 It was a sad looking building when I took this picture (above), one cold, damp morning in 2024. I had not ventured around the rear of this imposing structure for the best part of forty years. There was a somewhat strange feeling to be back in the spot which I had visited many times in my youth, as I was trying to catch a glimpse of  various singers and musicians. I had been more used to seeing the area in darkness, filled with excited teenagers, armed with autograph books, and roadies busy ferrying equipment between the stage door and their tour van. The venue had been unused for several years when I visited, with a plethora of weeds and shrubs growing beneath its exterior, the entrance strewn with litter, ivy growing rampant up waste pipes, but with the stage door still visible. The rear entrance to this once famous music venue retains a certain presence and mystique, perhaps the ghosts of entertainers past, or the crowds of young fans that once filled the car-park with their shouts and screams, trying to grab the attention of their idols inside on any particular evening. The metal-framed windows of the dressing rooms above are still intact, where decades ago such icons as John Lennon and many others would shout down to fans below. Between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s, the most famous, talented and in some cases iconic performers past through that door; hard to envisage, looking at it now.

We are now a couple of generations on from the last time this building would echo to the sounds of legendary singers and respected musicians of note. The young inhabitants of the City of Worcester and surrounding area now learn about this buildings past from their parents and grandparents, and the occasional feature in the local newspaper or perhaps a post on social media.For those of us raised in the 'Faithful City', in the 60s and 70s, this was the Gaumont Cinema, a traditional film-goers paradise, where we all went to immerse ourselves in the latest box-office hit. We also had the choice of the 'Scala Cinema' and the 'Odeon' within the City center, but the Gaumont was different. This was the cinema which would double as a magical music venue over three decades. That was until, like so many such film venues, it suffered the ignominy of becoming a Bingo hall. The majority of the stage which played host to the biggest names in music was ripped out, and the beautiful interior was almost unrecognizable, with art-deco features covered up with plywood boarding or ripped out completely.

It is certainly not the 'Hollywood Bowl' or the 'Whiskey a Go-Go' on Sunset strip but the musicians and bands who played the Gaumont stage were among the biggest names in pop and rock music history. The cinema opened in October 1935 and contained a 100-seater restaurant over the foyer, a stage measuring 70ft by 40ft, and an illuminated theatre organ. After forty years of entertaining locals with both films and live concerts, it became a Top Rank Bingo Hall in the mid-1970s. It was later owned by both Zetters and Coral Bingo before being purchased by Gala Bingo and finally Buzz Bingo around 2018. The venue closed in March 2020 due to the Covid lockdown and never re-opened. There was an 'action group' formed by members of the local community to re-launch the Gaumont as a live music venue, but there appears to be little progress made. I fear for its future, as it sits occupying a prime space in the City centre and it can only be a matter of time before developers confine the building to the history books. But in the meantime, let's focus on the joy which this venue brought to so many locals over three decades, when the interior came alive, and the greatest names in music belted out their latest hits.

He remains one of the biggest stars from the rock n roll era, and certainly one of the most recognizable, and he only made one concert tour of the UK, appearing on stage at the Gaumont on Tuesday the 11th of March 1958. Also on the bill with Buddy Holly and the Crickets were Gary Miller, The Tanner Sisters, Ronnie Keane's Orchestra, with British comedian/singer Des O'Connor as the compere.

A page from the tour programme featuring Buddy Holly, which was sold at the Gaumont and other UK venues.

The setlist used by Buddy Holly on the 1958 UK tour remained pretty much the same throughout, as seen below;

I believe that Buddy hosted an autograph signing session at Fletchers Dance Studios in the City, which was located just a short walk from the Gaumont (now a live music venue). Several of those present at one of the two Worcester evening performances by Buddy remember the show being very vibrant, with Buddy and the band on great form, and the live show sounding very much like the vinyl recording. There was not too much to note about Buddy's stay in Worcester, it was a whistle-stop tour of the country, but one young lady appears to have made an impression with Buddy, and she did make the local news. The link below is well worth a read;

Oh, boy! I’m Buddy Holly’s mystery girl | Worcester News 

After Buddy's death in a plane crash, the Crickets played on their own at the Gaumont Worcester on a couple of occasions.

Also appearing on the Gaumont stage during those rock n roll years in the late 1950s were; Lonnie Donegan, Tommy Steele, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Cliff Richard, The Drifters (later to become The Shadows), Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Vince Eager, and a young Gerry Dorsey (later to become Engelbert Humperdinck). Gerry played the Gaumont twice before he became Engelbert, famously enjoying a trip to 'Honky's Fish Bar' in Lowesmoor when in town. With pop music starting to overshadow skiffle and rock n roll by the early 60s, some more middle of the road acts would appear on stage, such as Kathy Kirby, Kenny Lynch, Joe Brown, Adam Faith, Brenda Lee, Frankie Vaughan, Ronnie Carroll, Helen Shapiro and The Batchelors. In addition to these new (ish) acts there were still some terrific appearances by established rockers such as Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and a certain Shane Fenton and The Fentones, who would appear a couple of times at the Gaumont, before he become Glam-Rock sensation Alvin Stardust. I recall being taken to one of Frankie Vaughn's appearances, a very popular British singer who had several hits in the 50s and 60s, and appeared opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1960 film , 'Let's Make Love'. Frankie took to the Gaumont stage for the first time, just one year after making that Hollywood film with Marilyn Monroe.

MOVIE PALACES #45 - The GAUMONT WORCESTER - 1935 (youtube.com)

All of the acts/stars mentioned already were of course headline acts in their own right, but 1963 will go down in Worcester's music history, notably for not one, but two appearances by The Beatles, on May 28th and September 4th. I won't go into great detail here about The Beatles appearances in Worcester, because I have already dedicated a blog to them all about their shows in Worcestershire

The Beatles in Worcester....shire 1963 (camperfanatic.blogspot.com)

In 2016 Bonhams auction house were offering several letters and Beatles autographs. This auction 'lot' contained three very interesting photos taken by a fan, of The Beatles arriving at the rear of the Gaumont in Worcester in 1963, and a wonderful picture of John Lennon and George Harrison talking to fans down below from their dressing room window. That same metal-framed window still remains intact to this day, as seen below. I have included a link to the 2016 Bonhams auction sale below the photo.

Bonhams : The Beatles Letters from George Harrison and other memorabilia, 1963-1965,

Beatle Venues - The Gaumont, Worcester - I Want To Hold Your Hand - Danny McEvoy - YouTube

The Gaumont stage played host to just about every British headline music act throughout the 60s, from Lulu to Sandie Shaw, the Fortunes, Herman's Hermits, Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, The Fourmost, Mannfred Mann, The Searchers, The Hollies, Marianne Faithful, The Honeycombs, the Applejacks, Cat Stevens, The Small Faces plus a whole host of well known comedians who often acted as compere for the evening.

Today, music fans think of 'iconic' performers in terms of The Beatles, Buddy Holly and several more already mentioned that have appeared at the Gaumont, Worcester, but another band which must be added to that list are The Rolling Stones. The Stones played the Gaumont stage twice early in their career. The first of these dates was two evening performances on October 9th 1963, as part of the Everly Brothers package tour, though I believe that Little Richard replaced the Everly's by the time of the Worcester appearance? Their second Gaumont shows were just three months later, on December 5th 1963, when once again they played two evening shows. In the case of The Beatles, we have little titbits of info relating to their Worcester appearances, such as Paul getting a haircut at a local barber shop, the hotel they used on one trip, and a handful of photos, as mentioned above. But when it comes to the Rolling Stones appearances in the City, we have very little in terms of fans recollections or fan photos, with the exception of one particular fan who recalled his memories of the Stones on one visit to an author, who was writing a book about the band. The fan remembers Brian Jones sat on a wall at the rear of the Gaumont smoking a cigarette, and he could hear the other band members warming up inside the building. Another fan who was at a Worcester Stones concert recalled them being absolutely amazing, and even better than The Beatles who she had also seen at the venue. There are no records of The Rolling Stones appearing anywhere else in Worcester, although their keyboard player and later roadie, Ian 'Stu' Stewart brought his band 'Rocket 88' to a Worcester venue in the late 1970s, along with Stones drummer Charlie Watts. This was a boogie-woogie band which also included Zoot Money and Alexis Korner.

Without question, one of the most famous dates in the history of Worcester Gaumont was April 2nd 1967, and featured live on stage one of the UK's best solo singer/song-writers Cat Stevens, the new British heartthrob Engelbert Humperdinck, The Walker Brothers and a young guitarist/singer from the USA by the name of Jimi Hendrix. That must be one of the most bizarre line-ups assembled for a British tour! From accounts published in the local newspaper and on social media sites years later, it would appear that the audience was, as you might expect, split across quite a large age range, with those going to see the new guitar phenomenon that they had read about, the 'older' ladies desperate to see and hear Engelbert, and those middle of the road pop fans there to see the Walker Brothers and Cat Stevens. Eye witnesses to the evening recall hearing some audience members complaining about the noise during the Hendrix set, and Hendrix fans being somewhat perplexed by the swooning over Engelbert. One wonders if Engelbert got quite the same crowd reaction a few years beforehand on the same stage when he was plain Gerry Dorsey. As you can see from the tour poster below, it was The Walker Brothers who had top billing that year, with Cat Stevens and Hendrix as the 'side show', and Engelbert as the 'Special Guest Star'.

Despite top billing on that tour, The Walker Brothers would disband at the end of the year, with the remaining acts going on to become huge stars, and Jimi Hendrix is of course today regarded by many as the greatest guitarist of all time. Engelbert went from the virtually unkown Gerry Dorsey, to becoming a huge international star, from buying fish 'n chips in Honkey Fletchers in Worcester, to purchasing film star Jane Mansfield's former home in Hollywood. Cat Stevens enjoyed a great deal of international success throughout the late 60s and well into the mid-70s before retiring from the industry (though he did begin touring again in later years). The Walker Brothers did reform for a time after disbanding at the end of the 67' tour.

The 'Plinth Project' in Worcester paid homage to the Jimi Hendrix Worcester gig by displaying a unique piece of artwork on the banks of the river Severn in the City. The artwork was by Iona Rowland.The Hendirx setlist for that evening show in 1967 included Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Like a Rolling Stone and Wild Thing.

One Worcester resident who had purchased a copy of the latest Hendrix Album (LP), was in Boots the chemist when he was lucky enough to meet Jimi Hendrix, who signed his album sleeve for him. Someone said that Hendrix was suffering from a cold at the time, and was probably visiting the chemist for some medication.

As the 1970s dawned, the number of live music acts appearing on stage at the Gaumont began to drop off, and this would be the decade that the curtain would fall on that stage for the final time, which had played host to some of the most famous names in music history...but not without one last hoorah!

In 1973, the final year of live music at the Gaumont, Worcester music fans were in for a real treat, as some of the top acts of that period walked in the footsteps of Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Stones, Little Richard and a plethora of others. The Faces, featuring Rod Stewart on lead vocal, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan  and Kenney Jones (of the original Small Faces), and Ronnie Wood (later to join the Rolling Stones), would belt out their hits, as one of the UK's favorite bands of the time.

Then in June of 73' the Gaumont played host to David Bowie on his 'Ziggy Stardust' tour. Fan memories published at the time, and since that date, on various social media platforms, state that Bowie was on top form, with a loud, mind-blowing performance. A bootleg recording of that night's performance does exist, though the quality is not great.

The final 'great' curtain call for the Gaumont stage came  on the 15th of November 1973, when the headline act were Mott the Hoople, well known for their huge hit, 'All the Young Dudes', penned by a certain D. Bowie. Mott were predominantly a band made up from musicians based in the  neighboring City of Hereford, with lead singer Ian Hunter from Shropshire. Mott enjoyed moderate success, but were not in that 'iconic band' category, and would later disband after a handful of hit records. What was notable about this final great swansong for the Gaumont Worcester, was the little known support act, a relatively new band by the name of 'Queen', and their only UK single release by that time was  'Keep Yourself  Alive', released just a month prior , in October 1973.

In 1974 the Gaumont Cinema was sold, and from the stage where the great and good, and in some cases 'iconic' music acts had entertained the Worcester crowds, a person would now call out bingo numbers. It was a fete which befell many British cinemas during that period, with those managing to escape demolition, becoming bingo halls. As I said in my opening diatribe, the Gaumont went through several different owners as a bingo hall, before Covid lockdown saw its doors close for a final time, and remain firmly locked for several years. Worcester has a ready-made, huge live music venue in the centre of the City just waiting to be rejuvenated...we can only hope!

In the meantime, how about a Worcester Walk of Stars on the pavement outside the old cinema, paying homage to the great acts who have appeared there?