Clubland

Welcome to a bit of history. We have been scouring the Earth for old articles and news clippings about our great club to share with you all. But in the end we found, not a lot. But what we do have is about 40 years worth of Clubland pages from The Evening Chronicle. These Clubland or Club-night pages were typically printed on a Friday, and were a guide to what was on over the weekend at the local clubs. They also had features about bands, singers, the clubs and their members.
I will publish a new article every week (on a Friday of course) so keep checking back. Enjoy  

Friday 12th June 1981
Ten male members of the club dressed as mothers & another ten dressed as babies! Running up and down Shields Rd supping beer in every pub. Probably a regular occurrence these days but, back then I bet there was some startled looking Grannies coming out of Parishes only to  see John Jamieson (Club Sec) hurtling towards them with a pram!!
The lads reward was of course a weekend of top class entertainment at the Buffs. Starting with newly installed resident band New Direction. Then on Saturday night Longbenton lads Marquee. 
More next Friday.
Friday 15 February 1985

This week we go back to 1985. A story that involves Coronation Street, Hilda Ogden, the Mighty Heaton Buffs (see end of story) and the North's top band Dave Black's 747 !
It seems hard to believe these four entities are related in some way but, that's the crazy world of Clubland for you.
Also just by pure chance Dave Black's former band mate from Goldie, Pete McDonald was playing in his new band Malibu at the Buffs on the Sunday night.
(Click on images for higher resolution)

747 live on Tyne Tees The Fame Game
Friday 27th February 1976
This week we go back to 1976. The club was undergoing major refurbishment, a brand new concert room was being built. So not a lot in the way of entertainment was going on at the club. Probably just as well as Newcastle United had made it to the League Cup Final, so it was a perfect time to organize a members trip to Wembley to support the Lads but, the football gods were not on our side, Newcastle had to field a weakened team due to illness. Then a certain Dennis Tueart scored a overhead kick to seal Newcastle's fate.
The concert room opened 6th August of the same year with a variety of singers, bands and comedy acts, all supported by new resident band Burlesque (More about them in a few weeks) The first three comedy acts Alan Snell, Spike Rawlings and The Don Juans were all hot property in clubland, and all shows were a sell out.

Friday 14th April 1995

This week we look back at 1995. By now the club no longer had a resident band, but we were still getting top class cover bands on a Saturday & Sunday night. Up first was Jonathan Johnston's (Johna) Deek The Juice who played many times at the Buffs. Johna returned to the club 17 years later with a new band called The Dusty Tools which consisted of former members of Deek The Juice & Six of The Best.

Sunday night saw the return of Clubland's Band of the Year 1991 The Cast. Originally formed in 1988 and featuring David Bunker on vocals. This was their last gig at the Buffs but, they are always fondly remembered by the Buffs regulars.
So almost 24 years to the day, they will be making a return to the club with the same line-up as last time. The only difference is the name (and a little less hair) they are now known as Whambamthankyouma*am. They will be playing all David Bowie in the first half and the second half will be all the songs The Cast used to cover.
They will be appearing here 27th April 2019
Friday 22 October 1976.

The Don Juans were always a popular show at the Buffs, and played here many times. They certainly had a unique comedy show, definitely not PC these days. They still continue to do shows and also some solo projects, we recently had Ray banks back at the club with his Rock n Roll band.

How many of you bought cassette tapes of their show? Here is one I found on youtube, if easily offended DO NOT press play!!!!
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