Had a very pleasant trip to the 50th Anniversary Reunion for the legendary Van Dike Club in Plymouth on Saturday. The Club only existed for four years 1968 -1972 but such an epic roster of bands played there Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, John Lee Hooker, The Nice etc etc and of course our boys who appear in the top 20 for most appearances at the Club. The reunion was also the launch for a 240 page book about the Club. What a great read – packed with anecdotes (Robert Fripp’s appearance with a prominent ‘semi’ for example), photos, memorabilia and fashion sections plus full listings of bands appearing. There is a Chapter on the infamous bust which caused a furore at the time, so farcial that Private Eye gave the local plod a right going over. They were also selling off contracts for bands such as Quintessence, Amon Duul etc – pulling in around £120 a night for a 75 minutes set. Sadly there were no pics of Man in the book nor contracts for their appearances. There are some pics of our guys in action at The Club online around though the link appears to have stopped working but was ok a couple of days ago.
http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/best_rockweb/man2.jpg If you want a copy of the book there are details on the Van Dike Club page on Facebook via link below hopefully - I can only say if you are of that age it is compulsive reading material.
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/plymouth-van-dike-club-four-1951787https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155763150652548&set=gm.1811365612273891&type=3&ifg=1&fref=gs&dti=185673338176468&hc_location=group
