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The Plaza's -Handsworth and Old Hill, The Ritz Ballroom- Kings Heath

ethanedwards

Brummie Muso
The Plaza's -Handsworth and Old Hill
The Ritz Ballroom- Kings Heath

sikhism_c_203x152.jpg


The Plaza- at Handsworth, now a sikh temple

The Old Hill Plaza was one of four venues run by the legendary
Irish husband and wife team Mr and Mrs Regan.

Mary 'Ma' Regan was an ex-schoolteacher
and a shy but formidable woman.

She came over with my grandfather Joe from Ireland when they were teenagers.
During the Second World War she was a teacher
and became head of PE for girls for Warwickshire.

After that she opened tea shops in the Birmingham area and started tea dances.
This then led to the dance halls. They started on a small scale and they had a lot of success.
I remember once that Jerry Lee Lewis was due to play at one of her venues.
For some reason there was an issue with his piano and they had to use my grandmother's.

She set up The Plaza in High Street, Old Hill, 45 years ago.
It was a dance venue, and hosted almost every top act
that was in the Top 30, before later becoming a bingo hall.

One of Mrs Regan's great pleasures was to tell people about
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Animals,
who all played at The Plaza in the early 1960s.

BEATLES1963.jpg


The Beatles at Old Hill

Bob Bailey, who used to drive the bands, said of The Beatles:
"When they played here, there was nowhere for them to stay
so Ma put them up at her home in Woodbourne Road, Edgbaston."

She would cook chicken and chips for The Beatles
and made sure Noddy Holder stayed off the ale
.

The clubs became known as "the Regan circuit"
Acts on the circuit included The Beatles, Kinks, The Animals, Dusty Springfield, Brenda Lee, The Searchers, The Tremeloes, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Manfred Mann, The Moody Blues, Jerry Lee Lewis and Del Shannon.

In their early days, the beat groups from the Wolverhampton
area set their first sights on gaining a toehold on the emerging
and rapidly flourishing, Birmingham beat scene.
To play at either the Plaza in Old Hill or in Handsworth
or the Ritz in King's Heath (the 'Regan Circuit')
was seen as being tantamount to recognition of a group
as possessing genuine 'potential' ,
especia1ly as it was quite likely that you would be playing
alongside successful chart groups from Merseyside or Manchester.
Hardly any of the groups who reached the Top Thirty
during the years 1963 to 1964 failed to play at one
or other of the 'formidable' Ma Regan's venues.

John Howells of the 'N Betweens remembers
the first time his band met Ma Regan:
We had changed our name from the Vendors to the
'N Betweens and had started doing more R&B stuff.
We wanted to broaden our horizons somewhat and so we went
and did an audition for the Regan circuit.
We had been told that Mrs. Regan was not always easy to please
but she seemed to like us and our style and we go
t a regular Monday spot at her venues.
That meant that you would have to play at
two of the venues during the evening,
involving a quick hike across from Old Hill to Handsworth etc.
Graham Gomery feels that being accepted
on to the Regan circuit was an important step forward
"Getting an audition with Ma Regan was possibly
a part of winning the Big Beat Contest,
I'm not really sure. Whether that was the case or not,
the important thing was that when you started to play
on that circuit you got an opportunity to meet and hear other,
better groups and that could only be beneficial to you.
Coming around on that revolving stage
at the Plaza Old Hill was a real event.
You felt like a star, especially
when you might be following a group like the Beatles,
Big Three or Merseybeats etc."
The Express & Star columnist described Ma Regan as
'a softly spoken Irish ex-school teacher
who uses the same psychology with the groups
as she did with school pupils, discipline and organisation'
and the Plaza Old Hill as the 'principal venue in the area
for up and coming groups '.
It is not surprising therefore that local groups
felt that the first step towards success
was acceptance by Ma Regan and the
opportunity to play at one or other of her venues.
It was thanks to an appearance at the Plaza
in Old Hill and the personal recommendation of Ma Regan that the Strangers got an offer from Decca to appear on the Brumbeat album.
TheRitze.jpg


Photograph by Bob Summers, Birmingham History Forum

The Ritz Ballroom
in Kings Heath featured
The Beatles on 15.02.1963 and Pink Floyd 16-12 1967

Bev Bevan, ex Move and ELO wrote:-
Former schoolteacher Mary Regan and husband
Joe's original ballroom venue was the
Gary Owen Club in Small Heath, not far from
Birmingham City's football ground, St Andrews.
Then came a converted snooker hall in York Road , Kings Heath
which they re-named the Ritz Ballroom.
Next came the Plaza in Handsworth, and finally the Plaza in Old Hill.

The most memorable day in the short
but eventful life of Denny Laine and the Diplomats
was that of July 5th, 1963, when we were chosen
to open the show for The Beatles
at the Old Hill Plaza on the Halesowen Road,

BEATLESCOLOUR-thumb-400x268.jpg


'Ma' Regan took care of the business side of things,
leaving Joe to run the venues and act as compere,
usually dressed in evening suit and black dickie bow.
He would confidently announce the various bands,
groups and singers in his lilting Irish brogue.

The Handsworth Plaza was the biggest of the four a
nd regularly had half a dozen or more groups performing on the same night.

Old Joe was not much of a book-keeper,
and a few times, on a night off,
we would roll up at the Plaza",
convince him that he most definitely had booked us for the night,
slot in with all the other groups there and play a 30-minute set.

Then we would pick up our .£12 fee
and drive to Alex's pie stand in Birmingham
to celebrate our little con trick.


Mary and Joe Regan played a big part
in the development of rock'n'roll music in the West Midlands
by allowing dozens of local bands the opportunity to play these venues,
in front of usually packed audiences.
They also brought to the area some top-line names.

We opened for The Bachelors, Susan Maughan, Julie Grant and,
also in 1963, an absurdly talented 13 year-old singer,
songwriter, pianist and harmonica player who was promoting his big USA hit Fingertips.
His name was Little Stevie Wonder.

But preceding The Beatles on stage -
wow, this was something else indeed!

Remember that this was the beginning of Beatlemania.
John, Paul, George and Ringo had already had big hit
records with Love Me Do and Please Please Me and had
just registered their first number one with From Me To You.

They were currently topping the LP charts with their
debut album Please Please Me.

Because of our popularity in the Black Country,
Joe Regan decided we were best suited for the
unenviable task of being the group on stage directly
before the biggest pop phenomenon since Elvis Presley.

Actually, the huge crowd - literally hanging from the rafters
- was very good to us and many of our own fans were in the audience
. Nevertheless we still got the occasional chant of
"We want The Beatles, we want The Beatles"
from the dominantly female crowd.

This night was a double-header for the moptops
and their small roadcrew.
Firstly they were booked to appear at the Regans'
other Plaza in Handsworth. Unsurprisingly,
they ran late and our scheduled half-hour spot became an hour or more.

Usually we would perform several Beatle songs in our set,
but obviously we had to drop those from our repertoire.
Truth was, we were running out of songs to play
and reverted to a couple of ambitious instrumentals.

We included Hava Nagila (which had Denny playing
lead guitar behind his back )
and the Dave Brubeck Quartet classic jazz piece Take Five,
which featured me playing a drum solo in 5/4 time.

We realised The Beatles had finally arrived
and we could hear them talking backstage.
Then we saw them all watching us from the side of the stage.
We finished our set, the curtains closed,
the crowd now in a state of nervous, near hysterical anticipation.

Then two, separate, unforgettable things happened.

Firstly, our rhythm guitarist (under strict
instructions from his fianc.©e Gill), had the presence of mind to ask John,
Paul, George and Ringo for their autographs.
They all signed the reverse side of one of
our Denny Laine and the Diplomats black & white,
glossy, handout picture postcards.

So there you have it - the four Beatles autographs on one side,
and a photo of a group on the other that just happened
to feature one Denny Laine, who, 10 years later,
would join Paul McCartney in his band Wings.

This is a unique piece of rock'n'roll memorabilia
that will one day fetch many thousands of pounds
in a Sotheby's music auction.

The second thing that happened is that Paul McCartney
strolled over to where I was packing away my drums
(no roadies in those days!) and began talking to me.

Yes, Paul McCartney of The Beatles
walked over to this awestruck kid from Sparkhill,
Birmingham and said in his broad Liverpool accent:
"Aye mate, dat was really fab gear dat,
really great like, y'know playing dat drum solo in 5/4 time like.
Our drummer Ringo, he could never do dat!
"
The Plaza Bingo Hall at Old Hill ,has now closed
following the death of 94 year old Mary.
 
That was great reading and that picture the black and white one of my all time favourite The Beatles i have never seen before thanks

Mossy:1019:
 
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I loved the Plaza in Old Hill, spent many happy hours there. But Joy of Joy's there is talk of them possibly reopening it again and even getting some of the old bands back.

I hope so, then I can relive some of my misspent youth and its within walking distance of our house
 
Hi Keith (Ethan),
Your Thread starter is a really great read and shows that you have a lot of knowledge of the Brum Beat in the 60's, but how about a bit of history about yourself from then to now. I'm sure that will be a good read too!
 
Dave and Patty click on the Link to find all about Keith


Mossy :1019:
 
Keith i used to watch Resurrection play at the Railway pub in Curzon St and became very friendly with them some of the band were fom Nechells where at the time i lived i am a personal friend of Terry 'Jues'' Guy and Danny Mcguire i knew well as like the rest of the band


Mossy




Paul Eastmentvocal, guitar
Terry Guykeyboards, vocal
Charlie Grimadrums
Shirley Kentvocals, guitar
Daniel MacGuirebass guitar, vocal

This group was formed by singer/guitarist Paul Eastment (formerly of Velvett Fogg) in Birmingham during 1969. Drummer Charlie Grima was formerly with the Wellington Kitch Jump Band. The original name for the band was "Holy Ghost" but was soon shortened in order to avoid negative publicity. Local singer/songwriter Shirley Kent later joined the group and they started recording an album in 1969 with a single being released from it entitled When You're Dead. The single and the resulting album that came out in early 1970 on the Gemini Records label, put The Ghost in the "progressive" music category although there was also a strong folk influence that was probably due to Shirley Kent's involvement.
A second Ghost single was released later in 1970 but Shirley Kent left the group soon after to start a solo career. The remaining members continued after changing the band's name to Resurrection but later split up with no further recordings being released. Charlie Grima went on to join Roy Wood's chart-topping group Wizzard (see The Move) and later embarked on an acting career. Former Ghost members Paul Eastment and Terry Guy also appeared on Shirley Kent's solo album that was released in 1975. Danny MacGuire died in 1998.
 
Keith i used to watch Resurrection play at the Railway pub in Curzon St and became very friendly with them some of the band were fom Nechells where at the time i lived i am a personal friend of Terry 'Jues'' Guy and Danny Mcguire i knew well as like the rest of the band
Mossy



Maurice.
I knew them all very well, and thanks for mentioning the links to my music.
Paul, our guitarist with 'The Fogg' carried on in the bands you mentioned above.
Charlie, I often gave a lift home, from whichever club we were at.
I am still in touch with Shirley Kent.

Frank Wilson(Voclas/Keyboards, Velvett Fogg) and myself
are currently writing and recording a new 'Fogg' album.
Thanks for your interest
 
I was at the Beatles gig and some time later I went to see 'Simon Dupree and the Big Sound' later to become Gentle Giant, wow, great times!!
 
i saw bill haley and jerry lee lewis at the plaza,managed to get into the dressing room, brilliant.

lynne
 
I saw the Beatles at the Plaza Rookery road Handsworth in 1963. It cost seven shillings and sixpence to get in. They were great. I wish I could remember the exact day and month. Can anyone remember please.
 
This would be really interesting as Mark Lewisohn's 'comprehensive' guide to every Beatles performance doesn't list it. Old Hill and KH are in there. If it was the same day as Bev Bevan suggests it would have been Friday 5th July 1963.
 
Thanks for your comment. I too have Mark Lewisohn`s book and was surprised that I could not pin down the exact date when I saw the Beatles at the Plaza Handsworth. I hope that someone can pin it down.
 
Me and my mates went to the Plaza to see the Beatles but never got in turned up late and it was full up it would have been about 1963 as I was 20 at the time and driving my own car by then. Dek
 
Me and my mates went to the Plaza to see the Beatles but never got in turned up late and it was full up it would have been about 1963 as I was 20 at the time and driving my own car by then. Dek

Hello Dek, It was definitely 1963 I`m trying to pin the month down. Can you remember whether it was snowing at the time?
 
I can remember going as well to the Plaza in Rookery Road to see The Beatles and the queue outside waiting to get in. The frenzy that went that night was unbelievable, I fell in love with George Harrison
 
My husband saw Hawkwind at the Plaza in Old Hill in '69, the light show consisted of one strobe on a stool, which a roadie had to keep hitting so it carried on working....good night though!
 
The Beatles were at Handsworth Plaza in March 1963 and I remember an excited Gerrard Regan at school the following Monday morning morning that his mother had paid them an amazing fee of £250.
'Whow!' I thought. 'That's about 60 quid each!'
 
Laurie - I was there, the queue was all around the corner. Who would have thought that 50years on they are still a household name.
 
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