Rochdale Music History: Wednesday Night at the Cubi (Klub)!

The American vocal group, The Drifters may not be a familiar name to all Style readers, but if I mentioned such songs as "Save The Last Dance For Me", "On Broadway", "Under The Boardwalk", "Saturday Night At The Movies" and "Come On Over To My Place" you would probably be able to sing along with all of them!

In the early 1960s, the group had the pick of the best songs coming out of New York's legendary Brill Building, recording songs by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Burt Bacharach and Hal David. In more recent years such artists as Robson and Jerome, George Benson and Michael Buble have successfully covered the Drifters' hits and brought them to a new audience.

Regular Style readers will be ahead of me by now and already guessing the Rochdale connection!

Despite having hit records in Britain since 1960 when "Save The Last Dance For Me" reached No. 2 in the singles charts, the group only made their UK debut in 1965. The Drifters' first British dates were in London, first at the Lyceum and two days after at the London Palladium in a midnight charity show with Roy Castle.

Just five days later, the Drifters came to Rochdale's Cubiklub in the town centre. The date was 31st March 1965, a Wednesday night. The group used, as was often the case at the time, a British backing group. The backing group were Johnny B. Great & The Quotations. The Drifters' line-up was lead singer, Johnny Moore, Charlie Thomas, Eugene Pearson, Johnny Terry and their own guitarist Billy Davis. There are no surviving accounts of the group's set list for their Rochdale appearance, but it is highly likely that it was the same as at the Drifters' London debut - all the hits listed above, along with "At The Club", "When My Little Girl Is Smiling", "This Magic Moment" and their first American hit, "There Goes My Baby".

Often on such tours, groups would play TWO different shows in different towns on the same night! This happened on March 31st 1965. Having played the Cubiklub in Rochdale, the two groups travelled twelve miles over to Bolton to appear in a late night show at the town's Beachcomber Club. Two nights earlier, the group had appeared at Warrington's Parr Hall before hurrying over to Stockport for a late night show. This longer journey - over 20 miles - was also undertaken without motorways or, of course sat nav!

The Drifters' first British tour was a great success, attracting large audiences. During the tour two Drifters singles went into the British charts - "At The Club" and "Come Over To My Place", no doubt helped by television appearances on Scene At 6.30, Ready Steady Go and Thank Your Lucky Stars. The tour lasted just under three weeks and included a week's residency at Manchester's Buckingham Club. The tour promoter was the notorious Don Arden, better known now as the father of Sharon Osborne.

At this point the story of the Drifters gets rather complicated and, depending on your point of view, either ridiculous or annoying. In 1966 an American vocal group calling themselves The Original Drifters toured Britain no less than three times. None of the members had appeared on the 1965 tour! They returned twice in 1967 and reports of their shows were, how shall we say, "mixed". In such a vast country as the USA this sort of thing was more common, but perhaps, we Brits are a little more discerning in our tastes? Nevertheless, bogus groups were quite common at the time even in the UK. The writer remembers a club in his home town of Chester presenting such acts as "The Tempting Temptations" and "The Fabulous Supremes". Following complaints, the promoters had to put on the advertisements "no connection with the Motown act" in order to escape litigation!

In 1971 the legitimate Drifters returned to Britain, commencing their tour at the famous Wigan Casino. The two week tour - mainly in clubs - was a great success and the group's manager, Faye Treadwell (the widow of a member of an earlier line-up of the Drifters in the 1950s) set about ensuring that her clients benefited from the lucrative British market. A 40 day tour followed in spring 1972 and

Atlantic Records re-released "At The Club" and "Saturday Night At The Movies" as a double A-side (remember them?) which eventually reached No. 3 in the British singles charts.

The Drifters went from strength to strength; they were signed to the Bell label and began a successful partnership with top songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. New hits included "Kissing In The Back Row Of The Movies" and "Down On The Beach Tonight" with frequent appearances on Top Of The Pops.

The Drifters became one of the most popular acts on the British cabaret circuit, smashing the box office record at Batley Variety Club previously held by Shirley Bassey! They toured Britain no less than five times in 1975 and continued to regularly visit our country over the next ten years.

The group never returned to Rochdale but appeared at such venues as Fagins in Manchester, Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham and Wythenshawe's Golden Garter.

The group never returned to Rochdale but appeared at such venues as Fagins in Manchester, Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham and Wythenshawe's Golden Garter.

Please email us at info@rochdalestyle.com if you saw The Drifters when you were younger! It would be wonderful to read about your memories!

Richard Lysons

Thanks to Ian Wallis, author of American Rock 'N' Roll: The UK Tours 1956-72 and More American Rock 'N' Roll : The UK Tours 1973-84 (Music Mentor Books)