More Shades-related memories

from The Southend Standard, 28 October 2005

Reunited…four decades on
MIKE MINERS reports

MORE than 40 years after they posed for a picture outside El Capri, two rock’n’roll fans have been reunited – thanks to the Standard.

In 1960, Jan Andrews and Val Maughn posed outside the coffee bar in Weston Road, Southend.

Today, only the door remains to remind them of those heady days in the basement bar.

“I used to work there, but we can’t remember the name of the girl stood nearest the door,” said Jan, of Leigh Hall Road. Jan and Val shared a flat in Westcliff but, two years after posing for the picture, the girls parted, with Jan marrying an Italian.

 “I moved to South Africa in 1972 and didn’t return until 1997,” added Val.

 “It was only recently, when I saw the letters in the Standard about the bands in Southend at that time, that I wrote in with the picture.”

 The day after Val’s letter and picture appeared, Jan called her old friend.

 Now, they are in constant touch and reminiscing about the music scene in Southend during the early Sixties.

 “Those were the days of the Colin Dale Combo, Bob Scott and the Klansmen, Micky Law and the Outlaws and the Fabulous Rockafellas,” said Jan.

 “I was a friend of Robbie Trower, who, after leaving The Paramounts, went on to form Procol Harum.”

 “And if the other girl in the picture is still around, please can she contact us?” added Val.

 Jan and Val are looking forward to a Southend Sixties reunion in December, run by former local DJ, Barry Ayling.

 However, it has proved so popular, it has already sold out and the organisers are thinking about staging a second event.

 Photo caption – Memories – Jan and Val.  Inset, back in 1960 – but who is the girl on the right?  Main photo:  MIKE MINERS

When swing was king

I last met Denny Knott in the Last Post pub, which is within spitting distance of the site of the Capri.

We were with a group from Southend PHAB (physically disabled and able-bodied) and he kindly offered to buy them all a drink.

We go further back than that, when swing was king and the Kursaal was strictly ballroom.  I remember him being ordered off the dance floor for jiving!The trad jazz boom followed the big band era and there were top bands playing at various pubs and clubs.

How about some correspondence about that era?

It was the arrival of rock’n’roll that virtually killed off the jazz scene, but it is still alive and well in places like the Ekco Club on Monday nights.

JIM BROWNE
Park Street, Westcliff

Thanks, John; and Jill, for the typing

More about the Paramounts