Joint gets jumping with Jimmy and ‘The Count’ (From Daily Echo)

Southampton's Concorde Club jumping with Jimmy James and ‘The Count’ in 1964

11:39am Wednesday 26th October 2011 in Hampshire Heritage By Keith Hamilton, Shipping & Heritage Reporter

The joint – as we used to say in the 1960s – was jumping as ‘The Count’ strutted his stuff across the cramped stage at the old Concorde Club in Southampton.

The year was 1964, and in those days the Concorde was not the sophisticated nightspot, restaurant, and hotel it is today.

It was just one room – and a fairly small one at that – with a bar and a stage, in a wing of the old Bassett Hotel, now long razed to make way for a retirement home in Burgess Road.

One of the most popular groups, always attracting a capacity crowd, was Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, who had not long arrived in Britain from their original homes in Jamaica.

Now 72, Jimmy is back performing in Southampton – but to a very different kind of audience.

These days Jimmy is one of the most sought-after singers on Southampton-based cruise ships, playing to packed audiences from around the world.

But in the 1960s, Jimmy and his Vagabonds would balance themselves and their instruments rather precariously, on the Concorde’s stage and play their unique brand of blues, Motown and pop.

It was standing-room only as the crowd, somehow shoe-horned into the bulging club-room, enthusiastically greeted every number, especially when the tall, elegant frontman – Clarence ‘The Count’ Miller – glided across the stage to Under the Boardwalk.

Almost half a century later, Jimmy was appearing on Royal C a r i b b e a n ’ s Independence of the Seas as he r e m i n i s c e d about the days when he and the band, crammed into a Commer van, would drive down from London to the Concorde, where I was a regular in the audience.

“My, those days were wild and the Concorde was always one of our favourite places to play,” said Jimmy, who still performs with the same verve and energy as he did during his show-stopping Concorde routines.

“Southampton, the Concorde and club owner Cole Mathieson will always be special for me, as this was where the Vagabonds were really established, and, of course, we are still playing today.’’ Memories of those times came flooding back for Jimmy as he recalled some of the great names from that former era.

“There was Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band. We would often support The Who, then we played alongside the late Graham Bond, who had Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in his setup, as well as The Steam Packet, with Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll, Rod Stewart, and Manfred Mann.

“We played the Concorde many times and always had a really enthusiastic reception.’’ Cole Mathieson, who still runs the private members’ club, together with the Ellington Lodge Hotel, restaurant and wine bar at his premises at Stoneham Lane, between Southampton and Eastleigh, remembered: “Whenever Jimmy James and the Vagabonds appeared everyone knew they were in for a fantastic night. They played and performed great music, and had the knack of really involving the audience.’’ By the end of their performance the club room would be so hot, and, the audience so fired up by the show that, when the music fans filed out into the cold evening air steam would rise up from them.