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Filthy Beast – The Venues

The Band Played at many small venues throughout the South of England, and following (in no particular order) are details on some of the more memorable ones and those where they returned several times.

Advertisement for the Plough at Shalbourne

The Plough Inn at Shalbourne

30th March 1968 was the first gig as a 3 piece; the Poet.

The Poet played several times at the plough during 1968. There was no stage at the Plough and the band was on the same level as the audience. They could be a rough crowd, and on one occasion a bottle was thrown at Mike Parkins, he caught it one-handed and placed it on his amplifer carrying on playing without breaking ryhthm. This got a round of applause and no more bottles were thrown.

The City Hall – Salisbury

The Poet played two gigs at City Hall Salisbury, the first was in September 1967 supporting The Herd when they were at number six in the charts with "From the Underground". The second was in November 1967 supporting Simon Dupree and the Big Sound when they were at number nine with "Kites", On both occasions the Poet were the third band on the bill, the second band on one of the gigs was called "Sounds of the Yemen" the name of the second band on the other gig is not remembered.

The gigs were obtained by "Tiny", an inappropriately named giant of a man, who had worked with Peter's father.

Dave Dee (of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch), a Salisbury resident, visited the Herd gig and with Peter Frampton of the Herd took great delight in comparing the Poet's equipment with that of the other bands. Frampton picked up Peter's guitar and played a few notes on it, then they had a good laugh. Just before the Poet went on stage they had a confidence boost when Frampton said "I really admire you guys, it takes guts to go on with crap equipment like that."

Neverthless the Poet went on and gave it their best shot, playing for the first time to a seated audience, and impressed the crowd with their (pre-punk) anarchic music. Anti-establishment songs like their ironic composition "My friend the Policeman" went down well.

The Royal Hotel – Stroughton – GuildfordTop

During 1970 Filthy Beast played several times at the Royal Hotel, under contract from S & P Managment, a promoter from Newbury, It was a great venue; well supported by young ladies from the nearby WRAC base. The band always had a good reception here and enjoyed playing the gig.

Mike Parkins live on stage at the Royal Hotel Mike at the Royal Hotel

Terry James live on stage at the Royal Hotel Terry at the Royal Hotel

Peter Yates live on stage at the Royal Hotel Peter at the Royal Hotel

After the set at the Royal Hotel Stage at the Royal Hotel

The Service Circuit

Throughout their career the band enjoyed many engagements on the Service Circuit. These were gigs mainly, but not exclusively on the Salisbury Plain area, and were almost always procured through the Agency Ace Music of Salisbury, Wilts.

The band played many times at Airforce, Army and Naval establishments throughout the area, mainly NAAFI and jumior ranks clubs, they alway got a great reception and really enjoyed the service engagements.

A great bonus on these military gigs was that they usually provided the band with free drinks all night and on many occasions an excellent meal after the gig.

On one occasion at the "Flying Chopper Arms" RAF Middle Wallop a corporal had rigged stage lighting using old helicopter landing lights, the effect was brilliant, a sort of super powered variable strobe, but after a couple of hours the band started to hallucinate . Mike and Peter were convinced that a small black dog was running around the stage but there was no dog. It was a weird experience.

Sandhurst Academy – Junior Ranks ClubTop

One of their most memorable gigs as "Legend" – the Saint Andrews Night Ball. On 30th November 1974 Legend were supported by the RMA Dance Band "TAD 70". On the program is a list of drinks prices. Draught Bitter was 19p a pint and Canned Guiness was 12p per pint – the good old days!

Sandhurst Military Academy Saint Andrews Night Ball

Lunways Inn – Winchester

In 1969 as Filthy Beast, the band played several times at Lunways. This was arranged by their then manager Roger Page and was on a profit sharing basis i.e. the band were paid a percentage of the takings. It was a badly advertised venue and consequently never paid well, but the band persisted because it was a good way to practice in front of a live audience.

Kings Sombourne Working Mens Club

In 1973 & 1974 Filthy Beast, the band played here a few times featuring Nick on drums. Nick was an extrovert who loved to play long drum solos. As the bar was quite near the stage here Mike and Peter would take the opportunity to switch off their guitars and have a pint of ale while Nick kept banging away on the skins, then they would rejoin and finish the number.

Whitchurch Sports and Social ClubTop

Legend played this venue many times in 1975 & early 1976. The gigs were procured through the agency Gemini Entertainments of Basingstoke. For a while, as they played there so often over a relatively short period the band jokingly refered to themselves as "superstars in Whitchurch".

Newbury Technical College Students Union

Filthy Beast supported the chart group "Windmill" here in 1974. For the occasion Terry had a special "Filthy Beast" artwork made for his bass drum. It was reminiscent of Raymond Brigg's "Fungus the Bogeyman", but of course pre-dated it by 3 years.

Enford FC – Pewsey

One of the last gigs for Legend before they broke up was the Enford FC Valentine Dance on Saturday 14th February 1976. The engagement was arranged by Ace Music of Salisbury.