Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Ziggy played ...
.....at the Royal Ballroom on Tottenham High Road in January 1972.
Or to be precise, Bowie and The Spiders rehearsed there just before embarking on the Ziggy Stardust tour. They returned to Tottenham in January 1973 for another week of rehearsals before setting off on the second leg of the tour in the USA and Japan.
The Royal Ballroom, which was situated at 415-419 Tottenham High Road was opened in 1910, initially as a roller skating rink and became a music venue in 1925. In the 1950s Steven Berkoff was a regular as well as, so it has been suggested, the Kray Twins. During the 1960s it was a regular spot for the Dave Clark Five (the 'Tottenham sound') and also attracted top bands such as The Who, Queen, Elvis Costello as well as entertainers like Tommy Cooper and Roy Castle, and was also well known for its soul and reggae nights. During the 90s it became a popular dance club but was sold in 1997 to new buyers who where unable to make it a viable business. It was finally demolished in 2004 and is now a housing and small retail development.
Rock and Roll suicide, maybe?
Hot tramp, I love you so!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Excellent. Love the colours, detail, everything about it.
As to the Royal Ballroom, clearly a significant venue in its day but too easily forgotten to history once such places are demolished. Would be good to see photos of it, inside & out.
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Image from this site where it mentions Steven Berkoff writing about his younger dancing nights at the venue;
You entered quiffed and perfumed in the most expensive aftershave Boots had to offer. You entered and already the smell of the hall had a particular aroma of velvet and hairspray, Brylcreem and Silvikrin, lacquer, cigs, floor polish...
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Permalink Reply by EMC2 on
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See here too http://www.turnpikeartgroup.co.uk/
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Permalink Reply by Mavic Starfish on
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Great bit of info, thanks for letting us know
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Another local Bowie connection I stumbled across.
In November 1968, a 21 year old David Bowie appeared at the Intimate Theatre Palmers Green in a mime improv production called Pierrot in Turquoise.
At the time Bowie had only released one album as a solo artist and was still eight months away from the breakthrough single Space Oddity. (Laughing Gnome had been released in 1967, but would not be a hit until 1973).
Devised by dancer and coreographer Lindsay Kemp, the five songs featured in the production were all written by Bowie. The production was filmed in 1970 by Scottish TV as Pierrot in Turquoise/The Looking Glass Murders. I'm embedding a copy of this on Vimeo below. Some of the riffs may sound familiar. STV have chased the version off YouTube already, so beware this version may not survive for long.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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"During the 90s it became a popular dance club but was sold in 1997 to new buyers who where unable to make it a viable business. It was finally demolished in 2004 and is now a housing and small retail development." *cough*, that old line eh?
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