Individual results

Interviewees: Doug Dowson and William Rutledge

rack 1
Both moved to Coventry early. Toilets. Bomb shrapnel. One father worked at Wickman's as a metal hardener. Mum a nurse. "Coventry exciting…an eyeopener"…

Track 2
"saw the ring-road being built". "Saw the old station go and the new station being built". School - "caught smoking" - told to smoke stronger cigarettes!

Track 3
"Football superior to rugger" - bruises playing rugby. Caned at school - "accepted it". Special school buses.

Track 4
Ullathorne School. Both failed 11+. Another mum a cleaner. Another father a plant development engineer (Bloodhound rocket) - Armstrong-Siddeley. Schools strict. Orange Order in Coventry phased out. Office, shop and factory jobs.

Track 5
Wanted to get involved in music "but Coventry wasn't a hotbed of music". Youth club. Listened to Radio Luxembourg under the bed sheets. Left school 1967 - "DJ's weren't the norm".

Track 6
Went to Jill Hanson's record shop to listen to a record before you bought it. Mod trend. Locarno - sent Motown records.

Track 7
Different environment to work when dancing. Was a DJ at a youth club. Told to put personality into being a disc-jockey. Had to do other jobs in Locarno. Doormen lined up to check shoes, hair, nails, etc. Had to be smartly dressed.

Track 8
Pecking order of DJ's. Sound room upstairs. Started in 1967 at Locarno. "Massive speakers in the ceiling".

Track 9
Mecca had in dance bands. Nets from ceiling - luminous - psychodelic. Cheap admission. Dancing all day Saturday.

Track 10
Stocks, Bulls Head Lane (disco). "You could go to a different club every night". Sunday - "big Mod thing". Jazz Club (Leofric) - Jethro Tull, Elton John, etc. Lanchester Polytechnic - Cream, The Kinks, etc - "Student population wasn't big then". Buses - "one flat fare".

Track 11
"Not a big drugs scene" - slimming tablets. All night raves - pep pills to keep you awake (purple hearts). "Hippies had LSD". Taunted by Rockers - Mods chased them round Broadgate.

Track 12
Mods - Market Tavern, Climax, etc. Hearsall Common - clashes with Rockers. Pink Floyd, The Who, etc.

Track 13
The Nice, Joe Cocker - revolving stage watched by students - spotlight on "hairy backside!". Chuck Berry - Lanchester.

Track 14
'Come Dancing' televised. Had to polish dance floor. Ballroom dancing sessions. The Long Bar - Pete Waterman. Recorded voice of DJ and played it back!

Track 15
Couldn't understand a manager from North West. Dave Clark Five's 'Glad All Over' got complaints because kids stamped.

Track 16
Doormen - "thought it was a status" (avoiding trouble but not women!). Strict woman on cash desk. "Had piggy-back fights with The Who". Perks.

Track 17
"You had to be a personality" (heckled often). Girls noticed DJ's. Did different venues.

Track 18
DJ's swopped nights. Locarno became Tiffany's. Venues outside of city centre. Money not brilliant. Father Irish Catholic - DJ's to him were frivolous.

Track 19
Commis chef by day - DJ by night. Bob's CafÉ (A45) - Jimi Hendrix there one night. Rod Stewart did Locarno - didn't like Coventry audience.

Track 20
Punk era - The Stranglers - band member punched a member of audience then continued playing! Night clubs took over. Mods replaced by Skinheads. "Strange to see the ghost of your youth" (ex-Locarno now a library).

Track 21
"Part of your youth has been taken away…" (Locarno)…"when tower went it lost it's identity". In toilets men getting their looks right in front of the mirror. A meeting place - "more of a social place".

Track 22
Met girl outside Owens (to avoid mates). Locarno "a big melting pot". No racial trouble - only a few Jamaicans in the 60's.

Track 23
"Very rare to see blacks in the Locarno". Keresley Village - people from North. Racism from older people.

Track 24
Police different now - more respect for them then. Nothing open on a Sunday.

Track 25
Policemen on bicycles. "No worries about walking home". "Coventry city centre dead now". Night clubs took over from Tiffany's - Birmingham easier to get to than before. Didn't want to become bingo callers.

Track 26
Girls asleep in toilets. "Locarno a forerunner…".

Track 27
"Ringroad isolated centre". "Clubs like shops went out of town". "Late night transport was laid on".

Track 28
"There was violence". "Not so much disposable money then". No counter-attractions. Publicity stunt - on roof (like The Beatles movie).

Track 29
"Made me dress up as Miss South America!" (publicity stunt) - also go-go dancers. Emperor Rosko. Backing group didn't turn up.

Track 30
Audience got impatient waiting for eg The Isley Brothers. Ike & Tina Turner - "one of the best live acts". Keith Moon "demolished drum kit" & Pete Townshend "snapped guitar over knee".

Track 31
The Who "wrecked the dressing room". "Good local groups" (such as Jigsaw). Pete Waterman story.

Track 32
Pete Waterman's 'flute' was him whistling! Locarno reunion. Father wanted him in a factory.

Track 33
Doug has an engineering company. "Shown ropes" (at Locarno) - learnt by mistakes. "Our parents thought we were crackers!". "Part of Coventry…". Woman got married because of him.

Track 34
Still recognised as a DJ. Library - "Ghosts of your past".

Time: 101:14

Coventry Lives Oral History Project, dates of birth: 1949; 1950