The Flamingo Ballroom in Pool would become one of the biggest venues in Cornwall during the 60s. Alongside The Winter Gardens and The Blue Lagoon it was one of the biggest draws in the South West, hosting many of the biggest national groups of the day. The establishment was also quite unique in that it was run by Joy Hone, one of the few women in the industry at the time.
Located in Pool in between Redruth and Camborne the site was originally a dump for mining materials, previously part of the Wheal Agar section of East Pool and Agar Mines.
Joy’s father purchased the 10 Acre site and built a petrol station, garage and car show room on the land, later building a cafe alongside. He liked boxing and had always wanted to have his own venue. He thought the venues around the local area were too small and always wanted to put on boxing shows in a much larger arena and set about creating what would become the Flamingo Ballroom.
At the time the venue was believed to the largest of its kind the West of England, with seating for 200 and parking for 1000 cars. The main hall was 150ft long by 50ft wide and had a specially constructed sprung floor for dancing. A large stage was build, that if required could accommodate 300 people, and there were three dressing rooms created for visiting performers. There was also a large central ring for boxing, and room for 1300 spectators.
The main entrance to the venue was facing the main road, with a booking office on the side of the building, along with accommodation. The other side of the venue contained the cloak room and conveniences. Behind the main building was a small building that housed 200 people. This would be used as the Flamingo Club, a membership only venue with a licensed bar.
The Flamingo was set up as multi-purpose venue to be used for music, sports and committee meetings.
The main hall would open around Dec 1957, with the club and bar opening on the 20th November 1957.
The venue started on putting boxing and later wrestling matches. It also had a pub built alongside it, so was a popular draw. Joy’s father would suffer a heart attack in the early 60s. At the time she as working in the petrol station and her husband was in the Navy. He came out of the Navy with some money and the pair decided to invest it in the venue and take over its management.
Joy began by booking ballroom acts, and through this learnt her trade. She would also continue to bring in boxing and wrestling matches, but began to diversify by putting on skiffle and jazz nights. As music developed she was soon also booking beat and later rock groups.
The Rebels on stage, late 50s
Unlike many of the other venues in Cornwall, the Flamingo would continue to be a multipurpose establishment. It was a cavernous building, and partly because of that it required a steady stream of business to keep it going. People traditionally wouldn’t venture out in the bleak winter months, and it was also difficult to get out of county bands to travel down the treacherous Cornish roads, so in Jan/Feb time few bands played the venue and the programme would mainly consist of wrestling shows, which were much cheaper to run. Throughout its history the site would also see many dog shows, as well as visits from three current Prime Ministers. It would also host one of the first Radio One shows. One of the wrestlers, Fred, would act as resident bouncer at the venue. He would also live in a room on the stage area.
Its musical history began with Saturday night dances for the ballroom crowd, with visiting acts such as Ted Heath and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Blind organist Peter Bartle would entertain the crowd during the intervals, to ensure there always some music playing.
Peter Bartle
One of the big draws for visiting bands was the on site accommodation. Local hotels and B&B’s would always want guests to book in for at least a week, which was no good for a visiting group. The Flamingo had 18 rooms available, which was perfect for a visiting orchestra or big band, or a rock group and its entourage.
c1961/62
1964
The Flamingo would host mostly big name groups, selected in part due to their success on the ‘hit parade’. The Winter Gardens had a young crowd in the local area who were regular patrons, and the Blue Lagoon was always packed to the rafters due to the young crown in the Newquay. The Flamingo had less of an available local crowd, so was somewhat reliant on pulling in the big names and therefore the big crowds. Joy would put on coaches to all parts of Cornwall, ensuring that crowds could make a hassle free journey to the club and back again.
Posters and tickets were created to promote events. These would be printed by Redborne printing works in Redruth, run by John Olson. Colin Matthews would assist with the printing of the tickets and would eventually take over when he was running St George Printing works in Camborne.
While The Winter Gardens and Blue Lagoon would regularly feature Cornish bands packing the bill, at the Flamingo it was usually as a support for a visiting band. Many of the venues bands would come through Lionel Digby in Torquay, who booked and arrange some of the bigger stars of the day. With a capacity of around 2000, if you were a local band and secured a gig at the venue, you knew you had made it!
Pin badge handed out to competition winners
Joy was often concerned that performers would not show. Tom Jones could earn £500 in London, but with only a £250 in Cornwall she would always ensure there was a contract in place to make sure they showed up. Tom did show up and the locals made a good attempt to grabble him off stage. Joy didn’t have use of the police to marshal events so would often employ the St John’s Ambulance. Simply having representatives in a uniform was often enough to deter any trouble.
Tom Jones backstage at the Flamingo
One band who did fail to show was The Pretty Things. A telegram was sent to say the band were too sick to attend. Joy happened to be in London that weekend for a motor show and paid the band a surprise visit. It was apparent that they were most likely unfit to perform, but not due to illness! Needless to say with a contract in place they did later perform, but at a knocked down price.
Joy remembers another difficult performer. In 1963 Gene Vincent was touring the UK and paid a stop off in Cornwall. The support band at the time decided to tackle Gene’s “bee bop a loo la”, which left Gene furious. He flat refused to go out on stage, until joy had some rather stern words with him.
Joy used to call everybody 'my lovelies. One night she told Slade to turn the volume down "or i'll pull the plug my lovelies"!
Steve Marriot and the Small Faces also received the wrath of Joy one evening. At each gig joy would gather all the performers together and explain the running order for the evening (which was always the same each week), and woe betide anybody that didn't stop and listen to their orders. The Small Faces were rehearsing on stage during this weekly ritual and when their orders came to stop and listen Steve had to get the last word in by playing a riff, which resulting in the band getting a full dressing down from Joy and standing on stage like naughty school children.
Terry Fround used to play Cornwall regulary with his band Stonewall Jackson, and he remembers the Flamingo;
We also received a good dressing down from Joy, we were doing a sound check she stopped us from the floor and we stood on stage and got the b------g of a life time, also we were told what to play, at the end of the gig we played an encore and Joy told us if we do that again she will pull the plug on us!!! Apparently she switched Deep Purple off the week before during their encore!!!! We also stayed at the Flamingo in the rooms at the back and Joy told us strictly no girls in the rooms!!!
Darlings of the psychedelic underground, Pink Floyd were not so popular with the locals when they played the venue in December 1967 as part of a tech college dance, complete with a slowly dissolving Syd Barrett. Although the hardcore Floyd fans lapped up the gig those looking for a dance band were sorely dissapointed. The band played most of the Piper LP. Syd got worse as the evening went on and by the end of the night he had been unplugged and was left strumming away on his guitar slightly off stage.
John Tresidder remembers the Floyd gig; "Floyd, from the 'Psychdelic Underground Era', who went on to produce the acclaimed Album, Dark Side of the Moon, in 1973, proved to be innovative, flamboyant and dynamic, with a superb light-show, but they did disappoint, a little, owing to them not playing their hit single, See Emily Play. However, the group, with the charismatic Syd Barrett, as the Lead Singer, were almost invisible on stage, owing to them performing beside a dozen or more, 1800mm (6’ 0”) tall “prop” speakers, free-standing, with additional speakers, the same size, perched, crucifix-fashion, on the top – an impressive sight, indeed!"
A letter to Melody Maker at the time was less than complimentory about the gig! "If any readers are intending to see Pink Floyd, my advice is don't. They played here recently and were so unbelievably bad the support group had to be brought back early. It was the opinion of most of the 1000 students at our dance that they were the worst group ever to appear in Cornwall."
Another memorable gig was the arrival of Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come. Known for his theatrical stage show, he didn't dissapoint arriving complete with smoke and fire effects.
The venue also play host to the final gig by John's Children in 1968, when Chris Townson hit John Hewlitt over the head with his guitar resulting in the break up of the band.
John the Fish remembers The Flamingo;
I saw The Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra at the Flamingo but I can't put a date to it and there were no more than a couple of dozen people, if that and they were lost in that vast hall.- the gig was put on by Reg Mann from Bristol - he had a reputation of failures - concerts, festivals, even a river-boat shuffle from Bristol to Lundy - all failures - needless to say he lost a lot of money but he loved his music and the musicians - the Pigs were their usual hilarious selves and were enjoyed by all who were there
A few weeks later I saw Stephane Grappelli and his Hot Club of, whatever he was calling the band at the time, again put on by Reg - the support was a ragtime piano player who announced what he was going to play through the mike, with the spotlight on him - he then left the stage to play the grand piano which was on the floor - a man came with a ladder and climbed up to redirect the spotlight - when the piano player finished his piece he then went back on stage to the mike to announce the next piece and the man the climbed the ladder and redirected the spot on to the stage, by which time the piano player had finished his introduction and had gone back to the piano - this went on for three or four numbers.
Stephane and the band came on and were excellent - Diz Disley, who was responsible for bringing Stephane over here from France, was doing the introductions - witty man that he was, there were many references to the lack of audience and for there final number he said "We've got to go now as they need to bring the airplane back in".
In 1971 the venue played host to a group contest, similar in style to the Rock and Rhythm Contest at Truro City Hall. The event was put on by Yardley's and Laney. Yardley's being sellers of musical instruments and Laney amplifiers. Hairy Magpie were one of the band's who competed, but didn't win.
Thanks to Graham Hicks
In 1972 the MC5 almost brought their incendiary performance to the venue, but due to quibbles over money (this was of course the era of the the 'free festival') unfortunately it wasn't to be.
Early 70s, with unknown local band
In the late 70s/early 80s tastes were changing. Punters wanted to go to clubs, rather see live bands and there was also little interest in boxing and wresting matches. Joy sold off the share of her the venue to another director and moved on. During it's final days the venue was used by Dickies as a storage warehouse for it's distribution business. It also operated as an indoor skateboard park.
For a short time the land at the rear of the venue was also used as by a circus, including all it's animals!
It was then used by several supermarkets, firstly Mainstop, then Prestos and finally Safeway who sadly demolished the famous venue. Although they struggled for a couple of years with planning permission a new store was built, and remains to this day, now known as Morrisons.
The Flamingo in it's final days
While operating as Flamingo Skate
A reunion was organised by Roger Brokenshire in 1995, bringing back together some of the patrons from the old days!
Here are a list of gigs that took place at the Flamingo. Over time more will be added. These are all taken from advetisements placed in the local press, so there is a likelyhood that some didn't take place, or bands were changed. If you have any to add please get in touch.
1965
09 January 1965
Saturday
Tornadoes (Exeter)
21 January 1965
Thursday
Poets
Dominators
"Snow or blow. Warm up to the fabulous rythm of…."
23 January 1965
Saturday
Johnny Cordell, Mustangs, Dominators
30 January 1965
Saturday
Telstars
Dominators
06 February 1965
Saturday
Diamond Dicers
Vandells
13 February 1965
Saturday
Colin Anthony and his beat combo
Misfits
20 February 1965
Saturday
Hal Ryder and His Spirits
Individuals
"Direct from London"
27 February 1965
Saturday
Linda Laine
Sinners, Del Sparton and The Dominators
"Big Beat Dance Night - England's answer to Brenda Lee"
06 March 1965
Saturday
Garry Kane & The Tornadoes (Exeter)
Misfits
10 March 1965
Saturday
Sounds Incorporated
13 March 1965
Saturday
Sabres
Roger and Mary, Vandells
17 March 1965
Wednesday
Long and the Short
Big Four
20 March 1965
Saturday
Garry Kane & The Tornadoes (Exeter)
Renegades
27 March 1965
Saturday
Johnny Cordel and his Mustangs
Vigilantes
03 April 1965
Saturday
Telstars
Misfits
10 April 1965
Saturday
Sounds Incorporated
Jaguars
11 April 1965
Sunday
Jaguars
16 April 1965
Friday
Trendsetters Ltd
17 April 1965
Saturday
Trendsetters
Rick and the Hayseeds
18 April 1965
Sunday
Trendsetters Ltd
19 April 1965
Monday
Trendsetters
Rick and the Hayseeds
24 April 1965
Saturday
Hi Jackers
Dominators
01 May 1965
Saturday
Cops and Robbers
Misfits
"Direct from London"
08 May 1965
Saturday
Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas
Roe Boys
22 May 1965
Saturday
Original Checkmates
Rick and the Hayseeds
29 May 1965
Saturday
Johnny Carr and the Dynamic Cadillacs
Soul Society
05 June 1965
Saturday
Federals
Misfits
06 June 1965
Sunday
Federals
07 June 1965
Monday
Federals
Layabouts
12 June 1965
Saturday
Rip Van Winkle & his Fabulous Five
Vandells
19 June 1965
Saturday
Johnny B. Great and the Quotations
Rick and the Hayseeds
"Direct from London"
26 June 1965
Saturday
Little Frankie and Her Country Gentlemen
Big Four
"Thank your lucky stars"
03 July 1965
Saturday
Johny Ringo and his Mighty Condors
Vigilantes
08 July 1965
Thursday
Tom Jones and the Squires
The Layabouts
10 July 1965
Saturday
Riots Ltd
Soul Society
17 July 1965
Saturday
Russ Sainty and the Nu Notes
Misfits
"Direct from London"
18 July 1965
Sunday
Russ Sainty and the Nu Notes
22 July 1965
Thursday
Merseybeats
Layabouts
book now
22 July 1965
Thursday
Merseybeats
Layabouts
31 July 1965
Saturday
Gophers
Prowlers
"the professional groups"
04 August 1965
Wednesday
Acker Bilk
Gophers
07 August 1965
Saturday
Twinkle
book now
14 August 1965
Saturday
Guy Hamiton and The Sensations
Renegades
18 August 1965
Wednesday
Animals
Guild
21 August 1965
Saturday
Vickie
Peter and the Sabres, Soul Society
22 August 1965
Sunday
Vickie
Peter and the Sabres
26 August 1965
Thursday
Les Fleur De Lys
27 August 1965
Friday
Hermans Hermits
28 August 1965
Saturday
Trendsetters Ltd
Rick and the Hayseeds
29 August 1965
Sunday
Trendsetters Ltd
30 August 1965
Monday
Trendsetters Ltd
Layabouts
04 September 1965
Saturday
"two glamorous girl singers"
The Wainwright Gentlement, Soul Society
11 September 1965
Saturday
007s
Smokey Joes
18 September 1965
Saturday
Adam Faith & The Roulettes
Riot Squad
25 September 1965
Saturday
Mike Cotton New Sound
Others
26 September 1965
Sunday
Mike Cotton New Sound
02 October 1965
Saturday
Emeralds
Misfits
03 October 1965
Sunday
Emeralds
10 October 1965
Saturday
Mark Lloyd and the Monotones
Misfits
11 October 1965
Sunday
Monotones
16 October 1965
Saturday
Condors
Rick and the Hayseeds
23 October 1965
Saturday
Pretty Things
The Others
30 October 1965
Saturday
Alan Brown Set
Soul Society
06 November 1965
Saturday
Peter Jay and The Jaywalkers
Rick and the Hayseeds
13 November 1965
Saturday
Dave and The Strollers
Misfits
20 November 1965
Saturday
Trendsetters Ltd
Misfits
27 November 1965
Saturday
Tony Rivers and the Castawars
Onyx Set
04 December 1965
Saturday
Gamblers (Billy Fury)
Dissatisfied
11 December 1965
Saturday
Mojos
Soul Society
12 December 1965
Sunday
Mojos
"Members only"
16 December 1965
Thursday
Dissatisfied
Onyx Set
"Portreath Life Saving Club Christmas Dance"
18 December 1965
Saturday
Cops and Robbers
Hayseeds
19 December 1965
Sunday
Cops and Robbers
"Members only"
24 December 1965
Friday
Zuider Zee
Survivors
25 December 1965
Saturday
Heinz and the Wildcats
Smokey Joes, Dissatisfied
26 December 1965
Sunday
Heinz
31 December 1965
Friday
Trendsetters Ltd
Reactions, Misfits
02 January 1966
Sunday
Trendsetters Ltd
Did you visit this venue? If so please get in touch!
