In November 1974 we at South Tyne Folk and Blues were invited to move premises to the Douglas Vaults, an old pub in South Shields town centre which had an unsavoury reputation. However the new owners had gutted the pub, totally refurbished the building and they were now advertising it as South Shields live music centre and the ideal venue for the local sophisticates to start the evening before hitting the night clubs.
By February 1975 it was fairly obvious that the pub was not only attracting its previous clientele but in far larger numbers and they tailored their strategy to fit in with them which by May saw us operating our folk and blues club on a Friday night sandwiched between Thursday’s Drag Night and Saturday lunchtime’s topless go-go dancers.
A few weeks later we were asked to source other premises as clearly we were giving the place an unwanted air of respectability.