The Court Ballroom, and Court School of Ballroom Dancing occupied the building during the 1950's and into 1960.
1953January 9th Courtenay Castle brings the Court School of Dancing to Portsmouth at the Cumberland Rooms, Eastney Road.1954February 12th The Court Ballroom celebrate their first year birthday.1957April 8th By popular demand, rock'n'roll comes to the Court Ballroom.1960The Court Dancing School in Eastney began featuring live rock & roll groups on Saturday nights, opening with the Hot Rods in mid-August and later the Renegades.1961Local rock gigs included Saturday nights at the Court Dancing School with the Renegades who then departed for the Continent, the “mostest” Teenbeats and the Phantoms.1962The Court ran sessions for teenagers every Sunday evening.1965The Birdcage at Kimbells Osborne Road had been given notice to quit but Tony Harris of London’s Flamingo Club had contacts who found them premises in Cumberland Buildings, Eastney at the former Court School of Dancing.
t4-6-1952 - 7-1-19538-1-1953 - 18-2-195327-2-1953 - 10-4-1953 |
1965
Strictly speaking there were two Birdcage venues as well as two separate clubs in the Eastney Road location. The building, just south of the Bransbury Park junction was originally the Court School of Dancing which, in the late 1950s, ran rock & roll nights with local groups like the Cadillacs and the Renegades. |
From the NEWS Supplement "Portsmoputh in the 60's June 1993
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Thursday 25 February 1965 | Birdcage Club open @ Kimbells Ballroom, Southsea : The T-Bones
Thursday 4 March 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds
| Thursday 11 March 1965 | Ronnie Jones & the Nightimers
| Thursday 18 March 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds
| Thursday 25 March 1965 | Champion Jack Dupree plus The Sheffields
| Thursday 1 April 1965 | Goldie & the Gingerbreads
| Thursday 8 April 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds plus Brian Auger Trinity
| Thursday 15 April 1965 | T-Bones
| Thursday 22 April 1965 | The Paramounts
| Thursday 29 April 1965 | Zoot Money & his Big Roll Band
| Thursday 6 May 1965 | The Paramounts
| Thursday 20 May 1965 | The Paramounts
| Thursday 27 May 1965 | Brian Auger Trinity, Soul Sisters? | (Were the Soul Sisters also on the bill? Rod Stewart performed across Southsea Common at Clarence Pier on the same evening (with the Soul Agents) and then walked across to Kimbells to ‘jam’ with the Brian Auger Trinity, in anticipation of the Steam Packet.) Thursday 3 June 1965 | T-Bones
| Thursday 10 June 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds
| Thursday 17 June 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds | (The first Birdcage gig by the club’s most regular band, followed by the first Saturday night) Saturday 19 June 1965 | Moody Blues
| Thursday 24 June 1965 | Rod Stewart plus Gary Farr plus Brian Auger Trinity (Steampacket form) | (Embryonic version of the Steampacket, pre Long John Baldry and Julie Driscoll) Saturday 26 June 1965 | Ronnie Jones & the Blue Jays
| Thursday 1 July 1965 | Jimmy James 81 the Vagabonds
| Saturday 3 July 1965 | The Untamed | (What follows are four consecutive days, marketed as a ‘Festival Week’, three days at Kimbells and the fourth, Sunday, the Who at the Savoy Ballroom). Thursday 8 July 1965 | Shevells
| Friday 9 July 1965 | Ronnie Jones & the Blue Jays
| Saturday 10 July 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Sunday 11 July 1965 | Birdcage @ The Savoy, Southsea : The Who plus The Crow
| Thursday 15 July 1965 | The Action | (The first Birdcage gig by the second most regular band there) Friday 16 July 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds
| Saturday 17 July 1965 | The Yardbirds (failed to appear)
| Thursday 22 July 1965 | Charlie & Inez Foxx plus The Ram Jam Band, Zoot Money Band? | (Adverts for this gig advertised the Ram Jam Band as support and the Foxx’s backing group but most memories of the night suggest it was Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band) Friday 23 July 1965 | T-Bones
| Saturday 24 July 1965 | Moody Blues
| Thursday 29 July 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Friday 30 July 1965 | Ronnie Jones & the Blue Jays
| Saturday 31 July 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds
| Thursday 5 August 1965 | Sugar Pie Desanto plus Shevelles
| Friday 6 August 1965 | Herbie Goins and Nightimers
| Saturday 7 August 1965 | Alex Harvey Soul Band
| Thursday 12 August 1965 | Jimmy James and the Vagabonds
| Friday 13 August 1965 | The In Crowd
| Satuirday 14 August 1965 | Ronnie Jones and the Blue Jays
| Thursday 19 August 1965 | The Action
| Friday 20 August 1965 | Jimmy James and the Vagabonds | (This gig was booked and advertised, but cancelled as Kimbells was unavailable) Saturday 21 August 1965 | T-Bones | The T-Bones who opened the Birdcage Club at the Kimbells venue, also played the final Birdcage gig in that location. On 26 August 1965, the Birdcage Club opened at the Eastney location, formerly the Court School of Dancing Thursday 26 August 1965 | Birdcage Club open @ Eastney Steam Packet plus Long John Baldry plus The Action plus Brian Auger Trinity
| Friday 27 August 1965 | Jimmy James and the Vagabonds
| Saturday 28 August 1965 | Ronnie Jones & the Blue Jays
| Sunday 29 August 1965 | Roadrunners 3/-d | (Local group who became Simon Dupree & Big Sound, then Gentle Giant) Thursday 2 September 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Friday 3 September 1965 | Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers plus St Louis Checks | (St Louis Checks, local group and Melody Maker Finalists in 1966) Saturday 4 September 1965 | The In-Crowd
| Sunday 5 September 1965 | Tony Cotton's Big Boss Band 4/-d
| Thursday 9 September 1965 | T-Bones
| Friday 10 September 1965 | Shevelles 4/-d
| Saturday 11 September 1965 | The Jimmy Brown Sound
| Sunday 12 September 1965 | Herbie Goins & the Nightimers
| Thursday 16 September 1965 | Goldie & the Gingerbreads plus The Action 6/-d
| Friday 17 September 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Saturday 18 September 1965 | Georgie Fame & the Blueflames 6/-d
| Sunday 19 September 1965 | St Louis Checks 3/-d
| Thursday 23 September 1965 | Lou Johnson
| Friday 24 September 1965 | Mike Cotton Sound
| Saturday 25 September 1965 | Moody Blues plus St Louis Checks 6/-d
| Sunday 26 September 1965 | The Jimmy Brown Sound 4/-
| Thursday 30 September 1965 | T-Bones
| Friday 1 October 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Saturday 2 October 1965 | The Jimmy Brown Sound, Bo Diddley (failed to attend) plus St Louis Checks
| Phil Freeman has found a list which gives Bo Diddley at the Flamingo that night – although the Flamingo might well have been an all-nighter.
Anyway the evidence suggests that Bo Diddley never arrived but Geoff, who is another one of those thorough ‘diarists’, tells me:-
“YES HE DEFINITELY DID COME… I WAS RIGHT NEAR THE FRONT.. IT WAS A HOT HOT NIGHT . IT WAS CROWDED. THEY LOOKED LIKE THE BLACK MAFIA SQUEEZING ON TO A VERY FULL STAGE , HIS ‘MOLLS’ WORE BRIGHT RED LIPSTICK AND FURS!! SOON DROPPED WHEN THEY GOT INTO THEIR BACKING SINGER STRIDE. AND BO, ,,…. THE FIRST TIME I’D SEEN A GUITAR BODY THAT WAS A RECTANGLE ( MAROON IN COLOUR AS I RECALL)…HE WAS LIKE A GOD ON STAGE, IN FULL CONTROL.
THEY ARRIVED LATE, MUCH ANTICIPATION BEFORE HAND,, WOULD THEY COME, WOULDN’T THEY… THE KIT WAS ALL SET ON STAGE FROM EARLY ON…… AND THEN THEY CAME AND THEY WERE AMAZING…. AND EVERYONE WENT CRAZY…. YES THEY DEFINITELY CAME!” Sunday 3 October 1965 | John Williams 3/-d | (Williams and his brother were briefly members of the Crow – see 11 July) Thursday 7 October 1965 | Shevells
| Friday 8 October 1965 | Herbie Goins & the Nightimers
| Saturday 9 October 1965 | John Mayall's Bluesbreakers 5/-d
| Sunday 10 October 1965 | John Williams & his band
| Thursday 14 October 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Friday 15 October 1965 | The Action
| Saturday 16 October 1965 | The Steam Packet
| Sunday 17 October 1965 | Mark Leeman Five
| Thursday 21 October 1965 | Official opening of The Birdcage Club @ Eastney
Jimmy James & the Vagabonds plus The Action plus | Johnny B Great & the Quotations - (Walker Brothers failed to show) 10/-d Thursday 21 October was the official opening night of The Birdcage Club, Eastney (10/-) with Jimmy James & the Vagabonds plus the Action plus Johnny B Great & the Quotations, MC Jimmy Saville. The Walker Brothers were advertised but failed to show. The evening was reported, with photographs, in a full-page piece in ‘Record Mirror’. Friday 22 October 1965 | diskotek | (The first advertised records night with no live act) Saturday 23 October 1965 | Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds
| Sunday 24 October 1965 | Herbie Goins & the Nightimers
| Thursday 28 October 1965 | Ben E King with The Jimmy Brown Sound
| Friday 29 October 1965 | Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
| Saturday 30 October 1965 | David Bowie & the The Lower Third
| Sunday 31 October 1965 | Diskotek
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