The night we opened for The Beatles - and McCartney said I was better than Ringo!
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, in the heart of the Black Country.
The Old Hill Plaza was one of four venues run by the legendary Irish husband and wife team Mr and Mrs Regan.
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.
'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 and 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 ã12 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 fiancée 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!"
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Bev Bevan - Musician and radio presenter
1.)Good Golly, whatever happened to Gil's then fiancee's autographed postcard?
2.)You must have been floating off that compliment for months.
Dear Bev,
Its great to read your blog about the old days. I remember seeing Denny Laine and the Diplomats twice, both times in Aldridge where I live, once was at McKecknies Canteen which used to hold dances on a Saturday night. The second time was at the Avion Cinema where they used to put groups on in between the films on a Sunday afternoon / evening. This year is the 70th aniversary of the Avion opening and we are putting on a presentation about the cinema through the years, part of this presentation will cover the "Groups period" in the early 60's it would be great if you could confirm for me that you played there and also if you have any memories from doing the show.
I know that 3 of the original Moody Blues played there with other groups, Denny Laine of course, Ray Thomas with El Riot and the Rebels, Clint Walker with Gerry Day and the Dukes. It would be nice to say that Bev Bevan from the Move, ELO and Black Sabbath also played there.
Kindest Regards
Harry Dennant
As much as Iâ d love to go all out and give an in- depth review of this film, I need to see it at least one more time to do that, because itâ s just so complex. I think it can be argued that one of The Dark Knightâ s greatest achievements is its greatest downfallâ for one- time moviegoers, that is. This movie has so many layers, and is so philosophical on top of all the action and everything else going on, that when you combine it with its two- and- a- half hour length, itâ s hard to wrap your head around...
Hiya,
This article is a huge interest to me as my father has recently purchased the old hill plaza!
We had no idea it had so much history before we had purchased it and are now proud to be the owners
i would be very grateful if you could send pictures of it, and more information from your time there.
Kind regards,
Priya Bangar & Mr Ashok Kumar
Haha. Nice accent there. He's right though, Ringo was never much of a technical drummer. Cheers!