Mandy's - Coventry
by Pete Clemons
This article began after a recent conversation I had with well known photographer John Coles. During the chat he mentioned 'Mandy's' club night and how he went to a few of the gigs they had put on. Additionally he asked the question 'who put these nights on?'. Not being able to offer anything other than a guess, we dragged in Trev Teasdel to see if he knew.
It was then one time local DJ, promoter and entrepreneur, Craig Ward, came to mind. And it turned out that it was indeed Craig, later of Sunshine Agency Management based on the Gulson Road, who organised that particular club night.
Generally, Mandy's, was held on a Thursday night. It put its first band on, who I suspect was Pugma-Ho, around July 1972.
The event was held at the West End Club on the Butts. Bands like Skin Alley, Chicken Shack and Black Widow followed.
Later that year the club moved briefly to The Mercers Arms. While there Mandy's attracted Supertramp.
The club night moved to its final location at the RNA club off Spon Street. Amongst others,Vinegar Joe and Juicy Lucy appeared there.
Mandy's didn't last long, a year or so, but they had some amazing bands on. Appreciating it was a long time ago, I asked Craig what memories he had. He replied:
'We were young, well-intentioned and full of ideas and dreams. Not sure of first band, but Hackensack, Stackridge, Arthur Brown, Pugma-Ho, Barnabas (I think), Vinegar Joe, Silverhead played there among many others. My memory from that time isn’t what it should be'!
'Best attended gig there was Focus. I booked them as virtual unknowns on the last date of their first UK tour. Hocus Pocus was storming the charts by the time the date came around. There were queues half way down Spon Street when I arrived about an 90 minutes before the gig'.
'The worst thing about the Focus gig was that we started letting people in at 7.30 by 8.00 it was rammed and we had to close the doors. The band still hadn’t arrived! There would have been a riot if people found out. We kept the curtains closed on the stage. Finally turned up at about 9.00, went on stage at ten and played till about 12, despite our licence only being till 11. The committee weren’t too impressed'.
I mentioned to Craig that he must have been visionary in deciding which bands to put on. A lot of them went on to having extraordinary success: 'Not sure about visionary, I lost a lot of money on some gigs too. Had Argent and Vinegar Joe at the Locarno when Hold you head up was in charts. Place wasn’t half full'.
Where did the club name come from Craig?: 'I can’t recall who the name Mandy's came from, but it was ambiguous as a girls name and drug-related'!
Craig also managed a band from Derby called Pugma-Ho who played regularly at The Plough, London Road.
Then along with Graham Wood at Sunshine Agency Management Craig was also involved with a local band called 'A Band Called George' who released a single called 'NCB Man' on Bell Records.
Finally I asked Craig if he had any involvement with the Circles club night. 'I think Circles was a Silk disco event, wasn’t it? We did a few smaller gigs at the Mercer’s with Mandy’s but don’t think it lasted long! (Ed - Circles was indeed a Silk disco event).
It may not have lasted long Craig but it certainly left a lasting legacy.
More on the Sunshine Music Agency here https://covdiscoarchive.blogspot.com/2013/04/sunshine-music-agency-1974.html
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