This from Simon Poole......
I was an irregular at the Horn from '75 through 79 then a regular from 79 to 81 and
the two bands still I remember from those days were Joker/Streetband (with God's
gift Paul Young) and the Never Never Band. I saw the NNB at the Horn many times
(may even have been there on the 7th of April that your tape was recorded, as it
was the day before my Birthday) as well as at Civic Centre Berko and out at the CornDolly
(bloody cold on the old Plastic Pig Honda with me brother on the back, riding back
to Hemel along the A40 after a gig there...) I spent some time in Oxford in '05
but the Corndolly is now just a place of legend and history and appears to be (it's
been a long time, so my geography may be a bit hazy) an Aussie-themed pub. Back in
'80 I was a tall (6'5") skinny biker guy with a beard and (at the time) a very loud
girlfriend called Candy, but that probably doesn't provide too much to go by...
The Horn was the place though - playing the Space Invaders machine (subsequently
Galaxia) by the door to the bogs in front of the Fags machine - although my mate
Andy (another NNB fan now living in Telluride, Colorado) always beat everyone else's
score, particularly mine ... Going outside during the break to cool off due to the
sweat dripping from the ceiling inside... Wandering into the front bar when the
noise level got too bad out back - to the disgust of the 'normal' people in the front
bar... Curries at
the Raj Duth after kicking out time...
Update, May 2009: Was back in Oxford again in December 2008 (to see, inter alia,
Otway at the Jericho Tavern - more memories for another day...) and made a pilgrimage
with my brother (Ian, see below) to the old Corndolly. Realised that I was previously
180 degrees out of phase with reality and that the Corndolly was on the other side
of Cornmarket to what I remembered and was in fact still going and called the Purple
Turtle (I'm not making this up) with info at www.purpleturtlebar.com. They still
have live music and it still seems to be a perfectly acceptable dive for people of
a certain (younger) age...
Simon Poole
And this from brother Ian....
I first got into them through my brother, Simon, who was a regular at the Horn.
Saw them there a few times and a couple of times in London - once definitely at the
Greyhound in Fulham and the other time, I think, at Dingwalls in Camden.
Particularly remember travelling down to Oxford on the back of my brothers bike to
see them at the Corndolly and embarrassing myself by baying for Tuesday Morning -
my favourite song - all through the first half of the set. When they finally played
it a very pissed off Dane said “This is going to make someone very happy” or something
similarly sarcastic. I still feel the embarrassment after all these years. My only
excuse was I was very young (and very, very drunk).
Ian Poole
December 2006
