THE BEACHCOMBER CLUB WAS NOT THE AD-LIB CLUB. THEY WERE TWO DIFFERENT CLUBS.

There were a few clubs up and down the country called the “Beachcomber” and here in Nottingham we had one too. It opened on October 30th 1965 and was situated at 47 St. Mary’s-Gate in the Lace Market, Nottingham.

It was predominantly a live music venue with some of the major acts of the mid sixties RnB, Soul, Blues, Mod and Rock scene playing there. Keith Symons booked the bands and they were top notch.

You can hear a recording of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers at the Beachcomber, Nottingham from November 1967 on youtube here.

The Artwoods, Georgie Fame, John Mayall, Cream, Herbie Goins, Graham Bond Organisation, Richard Kent Style, Wynder. K. Frog, Ike and Tina Turner and Jimi Hendrix are just a few. You can hear broadcaster John Holmes talk about the “Beach” and hear an archival interview with Keith Symons at Fragments of Rock.

With the passage of time it has become confused that the Beachcomber club was the Ad-Lib club. In fact they were two separate clubs running parallel to each other for a number of years, although they were physically next door to each other and part of the same overall building.

The Ad-Lib club opened a year later on Friday October 14th 1966. It was situated at 41 St. Mary’s-gate in the Lace Market, Nottingham. It was next door to the Beachcomber club which was numbered 47.

Sometimes, after a gig at the Beachcomber, people would go to the Ad-Lib for a drink. When the Beachcomber club closed in 1970 that space was acquired by the Ad-Lib club to expand its size and that’s where some of the confusion might be.

Gerrard Gibson was the manager at the Beachcomber club. He was also a majority shareholder in the Ad-Lib club next door. He had formally changed his name from Gerrard Sisson to Gerrard Gibson after some domestic upheaval some years before. So, again, it could be easy to think the Beachcomber and the Ad-lib were the same club, but they were two separate clubs.

They were two very different types of club as well. The Beachcomber was a live music venue with up to the minute acts and the Ad-Lib club was a wine and dine night with dancing and gaming tables.

In December 1968 Gerrard also made application to Leicester courts to open a club called “Gerrards Club” at 28-30 Belgrave Road but he was turned down as “not a fit and proper person”, the domestic upheaval being brought to notice.
Gerrard had found a need for a new club in Leicester providing the fact that 148 of the members of the Beachcomber club had Leicestershire addresses and 44 members of the Ad-Lib club as well.

The Beachcomber came to end in 1970 but the Ad-lib carried into the seventies and eighties before becoming The Garage and later the Koolkat.

1965 and the opening

The opening night at the Beachcomber was on Saturday 30th October 1965 and jazz blues group “Loose Ends” were the opening act. Read about them at Garage Hangover. It was a safe bet to try some jazz nights. Nottingham had a reputation for jazz groups which had faired relatively well during the genre’s decline in the sixties so Keith Symons tried it out.

However, the “Beach” soon settled into getting the groups of the moment. The mod keyboard sounds of The Artwoods featuring Ron Woods brother Art and Jon Lord later of Deep Purple could be heard, Graham Bond and Wynder K. Frog played the Hammond. The Dickens Set were a Nottingham mod soul group who would eventually become Robert Hirst and the Big Taste.

Arthur Coyne (Kevin Coyne’s older brother), Don Rendell and Ian Carr kept the jazz flag flying.

Gigs
1965

Oct 30th Sat – Loose Ends
Oct 31st Sun – Gerry L. Thompson’s Sidewinders

Nov ????????

Dec 1st Wed – The Blues Fix
Dec 3rd Fri – Caroline Hester, The Habits
Dec 4th Sat – Richard Kent Style
Dec 5th Sun – The Artwoods
Dec 10th Fri – Tony Knight’s Chessmen, The Jazz Contemporaries
Dec 11th Sat –
Dec 12th Sun –
Dec 15th Wed – Wynder K. Frog
Dec 17th Fri – The Riots, Jazz Contemporaries
Dec 18th Sat – “Big Night Out”
Dec 19th Sun – Graham Bond Organisation
Dec 22nd Wed – Big Record Rave
Dec 24th Fri – The Dickens Set, The Tribe
Dec 26th Sun – The Artwoods, Hipster Image, Dickens Set
Dec 27th Mon – Soul of Linton Grae
Dec 29th Wed – Big Record Rave
Dec 31st Fri – Stormsville Shakers

1966
Jan 1st Sat – Dave Anthony Mood
Jan 2nd Sun – Hipster Image

Much more coming later …….