AS YOU WERE: The true adventures of the Ricky-Tick club by John and Colin Mansfield
 |
With no particular idea where they were heading, but determined to have fun on the way, following ‘demob’ after their National Service in Germany, John Mansfield and Philip Hayward spent the next three years running a Trad Jazz club in Windsor. As the social hub for the young, once a week it neatly combined all their interests under one roof – au pairs, booze and Jazz. However, they were caught up in a constant struggle to make ends meet and had to live on their wits and their wit to support their partying lifestyle. All that changed when John decided to open the first R&B club outside of London.
On December 14th, 1962 The Rolling Stones played their first ever gig with Bill Wyman at this club. The floodgates opened. Philip hopped on board, and within eighteen months the Stones had played over forty times for them …. and that was just the beginning. Over the next four years, as one of the UK’s top R&B promoters, virtually every worthwhile British R&B group, including The Animals, The Who, Cream and The Yardbirds, as well as many visiting US stars like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, played for them in over twenty-seven different towns across southern England. |
| AS YOU WERE, is a limited-edition hardback book, with full gloss pages (all 330 of them) and priced at £20.00. It features lots of images, photos and posters, as well as hilarious stories from John’s amazing life. Bob McGrath, aka Hogsnort Rupert and the man responsible for The Ricky-Tick image, has done a superb job setting out the whole book and came over from Canada for the launch. If you would like to order a copy of the book, please email . Copies can also be purchased at the Windsor and Eton Brewery, at the Windsor and Royal Borough Museum in the Guildhall, at the Windsor branch of Waterstones, 20-21 Peascod St, Windsor, SL4 1DU (only at this branch) and at Bens Collectors Records, 5 Tunsgate, Guildford GU1 3QT.
Please click here to see a short section from the book entitled ‘Just around the Korner’. It covers an important moment at the birth of British R&B. |