THE FREEMASONS ARMS, CONSETT
A gig was arranged which was to serve to introduce the ‘new line-up’ to the Consett fans of Bullfrog and on Saturday 4th March 1972, this took place at The Freemasons Arms (photo).
Robin, Steve and Pete had spoken to me many times about the fanatical support of their home crowd and to be honest, I had thought that they had been exaggerating.
However, when we turned up at the venue to perform, the crowd outside was huge. The fans were queuing from the front and around the side of the building, waiting to get in.
I eventually met the Manager of the band and found that he was a huge guy. Not only was he big, but he was also a black belt in something or other so I made up my mind that he was not to be argued with.
Thankfully, I never had any need to argue with him so that’s all right then isn’t it? Having said that, whenever we saw him we always put pressure on the manager to justify his position.
THE LYCEUM
We were rehearsing solidly and performing very regularly with a positive response all around the area, and we had formed together as a highly presentable unit. However we felt that we deserved more support from our manager. Eventually, in May 1972, he told us that he had organised a gig for us in London so that all the “big names” in the business could come and listen to us. It was scheduled to take place at the Lyceum Ballroom in the Strand and was intended to be our opportunity to demonstrate our virtuosity to prospective agents.
