Just a short history of The Rave On Record Hop, which was born in the early seventies. Always being a fan of rock-n-roll for most of my life I had amassed a huge collection of 78s, 45s, and LPs of the music, and by now living in Cardiff I was asked by a friend to put some music on for an outdoor party he was throwing at his farm on the outskirts of town. Having the records, but just a normal record player I went out and bought a vintage set of decks, so old they even had 78 speed on them, borrowed speakers from a friend and that was it Rave On was born. After the party I found out that there were a couple of rock-n-roll clubs in the area which I started visiting and soon had a residency at a bar on the outskirts of Newport. A management change forced us to look for a new home and we moved to The Whiteheads Club in the centre of Newport. This was when things really started to move and I was soon gigging in pubs and clubs all over South Wales. At one of the gigs I was introduced to Paul Barrett, one of the top promoters in the country. Thanks to his help I began to work with some of the top touring rock-n-roll artists from both sides of the Atlantic, The Comets, Carl Perkins, Jack Scott and Billy Lee Riley to name just a few plus most of the top European bands of the time. The next milestone in my career came when I visited Jackson in Tennessee and found I had just missed a rock-n-roll / rockabilly festival. After talking to Henry Harrison, the promoter, I was booked to return the following year to DJ the event. This was the start of the international Rave On era. At the festival I met Mike Metzger, lead guitarist and vocalist with the Pittsburgh based Legendary Tremblers, who after spending a couple of weeks in the UK with us arranged a small tour of the P'burgh area for me, playing at a couple of local festivals and bars. During this tour I did a guest appearance on a radio station there and gave them a two hour show of nothing but European rock-n-roll and rockabilly. On returning to the UK I continued touring with The Rave On Record Hop, playing clubs all over the country. After a visit to The Dutch Teddyboy Festival as a spectator I returned the following year to do my first European mainland gig, which was followed by a booking for the Rumburk Rockabilly Rumble in The Czech Republic. The next major event in the history was when I moved to Bangor in North Wales, I did a couple of gigs from there but found that I was too far from the main centres of rock-n-roll so decided at the age of sixty it was time to retire with my new wife. Still loving the music we searched the area for rock-n-roll but found it hard to find, settling for the nearest thing, country music. On a visit to a country music club on the island of Anglesey, I had the idea of starting a rock-n-roll club at the same venue and with help of members of the club committee, The Anglesey Rock-n-Roll club was born and so the next chapter of The Rave On Record Hop begins. Watch this space for more info.
Big Mike
