KILLING FLOOR - JULY 2005
Photo by Pete Buckland
From the vaults, courtesy of Stuart McDonald, Killing Floor's first promo shoot - taken in Palace Rd. South London, 1968. Left to right, if you're confused.. Lou Martin, Mick Clarke, Bazz Smith, Bill Thorndycraft, (Mac) McDonald
Original itinerary for the first tour with FREDDIE KING, showing rehearsal at the Pied Bull, Islington, 29 May 1969, and dates at the California Ballroom, Dunstable, Free Trade Hall, Manchester (with Howlin' Wolf) and others.
Photo from the original photo session for first Killing Floor album cover.. Decca Studio, London 1969
Freddie King with Killing Floor at the L.S.E. London,1969. Behind Freddie .. Bazz Smith, drums, Paul Taylor (bass player at the time), Mick Clarke, Lou Martin.
Killing Floor at the Hamburg Easter Rock Festival, Ernst Merck Halle. Mick and Bill rock Germany, 1970.
Killing Floor at Dagenham Roundhouse, London, 1971.
Killing Floor's first ever record.. a demo recorded at R.G.Jones' studio in Morden, South London, in 1968, featuring versions of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and Willie Dixon's "Same Thing". The record was never released commercially, but helped to launch Killing Floor's gigging and recording career.
Mick at L'Enclume, Bandol, South of France, 1970.
When we were young.. KF in Bandol, 1970. L-R Bazz, Mac, Bill, Mick. Photos by courtesy of our friend Ian from the band Gully Foyle.
A review from 1969 of the Howlin' Wolf gig that never was. It was reported at the time that Wolf had had to cancel due to exhaustion. In fact he was never booked for the date.. it was a money making exercise on behalf of the agent. Freddie King and Killing Floor played the whole evening.. the review is reproduced here without comment.
(By courtesy of Jaybee at the California Ballroom site).
Dunstable Gazette 6 June 1969
Despite the absence of Howlin' Wolf and John Dummer at the California last week, the evening was a success.
Between them Freddie King and Killing Floor tore the house apart. Killing Floor opened the show with a set which was far too loud for anyone to appreciate. But then the King came on.
Right from the first number, he had the audience in the palm of his hand. He tortured his guitar into producing sounds I didn't think were capable of coming from strings. Surprisingly, Killing Floor toned right down while backing him and except for a few whines, Freddie came over with great clarity.
Only after the audience had been persuaded that Freddie had another gig following would they let him off the stage, but we didn't know that even better was to come.
Wolf was supposed to play the next sets with John Dummer, but various conflicting rumours spread around the hall, saying he would or would not be playing. In the end, the rumour with the most following was that Wolf had collapsed after a gig in London. I later found out that Wolf was physically exhausted by his British tour and as he had three dates left, he decided to miss one out. The "Cali" happened to be the unlucky one. Wolf instead went straight to Manchester.
Killing Floor played another set, again too loud, but this time gaining a more enthusiastic reaction. The first half had been incredible, but it was nothing to what was to come in Freddie's second set. His guitar work was so superb that it made Clapton's look like the first lesson in the Bert Weedon Guitar Primer.
Most people would have been quite happy to listen until the proposed finish at 2 a.m., but Freddie was already an hour late for his next date and the show closed down just after midnight.
I was rather disappointed with the size of the crowd. There was room for a lot more people. It was a tremendous evening which makes British so-called blues look very anaemic. It will be many years before the British scene gets anything remotely similar to this standard.