Terry Noel, was in 1965, the first DJ to mix two records together.
He was the resident Dj at a swanky new club opened by Richard Burton's first wife, Sybil Burton, called Arthur. This was in the days before DJ mixers of course - he had, by todays standards, a primitive system of a separate volume control on each turntable - and using this he'd taunt and tease the crowd with excerpts of records - "a Jimi Hendrix guitar lick her or a Chambers Brothers a cappella there... Then he'd slam the whole song through the mincer."
"People would come up to me and say, 'I was listening to Mamas & Papas and now I am listening to The Rolling Stones and I didn't even know'" he's quoted as saying.
While Arthur had a door policy of encouraging what Burton termed PYPs (Pretty Young People) and keeping out the tragically un-hip folk who "still did the twist" - it was perhaps because of her own celebrity that it also attracted some of the biggest stars - Roddy McDowell, Julie Andrews, and Leonard Bernstein rubbed shoulders with regulars like Tennessee Williams, Princess Margaret, and Andy Warhol. In his book,Popism, Warhol reminisces about meeting Bette Davis, Sophia Loren and the astronaut Scott Carpenter there.
My favorite little story though, from Terry Noel is about the time that John Wayne was in the club and requested Yellow Rose of Texas. Noel apparently responded "Gee I happen to have it" then snaps the disc into two in front of Wayne "Oh, it's broken".
Noel continues that John Wayne "his toupe falling off his head" called him a faggot - while Lauren Bacalla and Judy Garland looked on laughing "because they hated him"
One day I wanna do that to NZ's modern day equivalent of John Wayne...
Maybe this week at MUM CLUBNIGHT - my only gig this week - Friday Night at Cassette Nine after the bands (I start at 1.30am) who are MOST excellent this week 47 Diamantes and Tommy Ill with support from Pikachunes.
You can download the new single from 47 Diamantes feat Tommy Ill for FREE from here
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