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During the mid sixties, Newcastle’s Club A’Gogo was one of the top music venues in the North East. The ‘Gogo’ was to Newcastle what the Marquee club was to London. It is fondly remembered by club goers and musicians alike
The Club A’Gogo has become an important part of Newcastle’s musical heritage. The club is probably best remembered for the few years between 1964 and 1967 when iconic British and American blues, rock and soul acts regularly appeared there; acts such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Rolling Stones, Spencer Davis, Wilson Picket and Ike & Tina Turner.
In March 1960 Michael Jeffery [1] opened a larger licensed jazz venue in Carliol Square called the Downbeat Club’ Jools sent Today at 21:49 Eric Burdon of the Animals was a member of a crowd that used to hang out at the Downbeat.
During the period that Mike Jeffery was running the Downbeat club he formed a partnership with another Newcastle businessman named Ray Grehan. In the latter half of 1961 Mike Jeffery and Ray Grehan had plans to open a larger, more prestigious club in Newcastle and had gone ahead with the purchase of a site above the Handyside Arcade on Percy Street. The Club A’Gogo opened on 6th July 1962. According to Ray Grehan, the premises were purchased for the sum of £30,000. The Club A’Gogo was situated on the second (top) floor of the Handyside Arcade building on Percy Street in Newcastle’s Haymarket area.
As with his earlier ventures like the Downbeat Club which both had unlicensed sessions for teenagers under the legal drinking age, Mike Jeffery continued his policy of catering for both younger and older clientele by splitting the Club A’Gogo into the two venues. The club consisted of two rooms either side of a landing. On the right was the licensed ‘Jazz Lounge’. On the left was the unlicensed ‘Young Set’
All information was given to us by Roger from Ready Steady Gone [2]