Roy Orbison. A legend, and a very talented man. But was he one of the common people? Image from Rolling Stone.
While I’m still fighting off the mother of all cold bugs (I really am dog rough folks) and whilst I’m still behind with 365days as well as not yet having run the 2018 Quiz results, can I just bomb straight in here with one of the most remarkable questions I’ve ever been asked here on the blog?
No, it’s not ‘Will you unhand me this minute SIR?’ but top bloke and local activist Brian Stringer wants to know if the Big O – Roy Orbison no less – ever played Pelsall.
He wrote:
Hi Bob,
One of my cousins was wondering if any of your longer toothed followers could shed any light on her childhood memory.
Her story is that as a child in the 60s she visited a pub, or more likely a club, in Pelsall and saw the great Roy Orbison.
She has done a bit of research and found that he was in fact in the UK at the time and as this was well before the advent of tribute acts, could she be correc?
Ring a bell anybody?
Cheers mate,
Brian
Every time I’ve ever said outloud here on the blog ‘Blimey that’s a bit far fetched’ you lot have proven me wrong. So I’m going to keep my gob shut.
So, did the Big O drive all night to play the Big P? Was Roy crying in the Scratter, or perhaps only a bit lonely in the Labour Club? Perhaps he was hoping to catch Claudette in the Red Cow or was he just working for the man at the Railway?
The truth is out there, I’m sure. If you know what it is, comment here or mail me: BorwnhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.
Thanks to Brian for one of the most remarkable enquiries I’ve ever run…
Pelsall, possibly worth an overnight drive to. Image from Adrian Rotary, posted on Geograph under a Creative Commons license.
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I think that she probably saw Johnny Guitar at the Free Trade Inn in Wood Lane…..
Had great times on Sunday lunch at Free Trade and Johnny Guitar + Bill the Landlord
Jerry Lee Lewis playing Boxwich Baths sounded incredible when I first heard about it. This would be stranger still.
Well, I’ve no idea about Roy Orbison, but this was pretty exciting in my day:
http://i.imgur.com/6CVXXJI.jpg
This too:
http://i.imgur.com/7k2mDi7.jpg
Blimey that takes me back a bit.Got to be about 1980 ?
I cannot confirm that Roy played at a Pelsall venue. Having said that, it would not be surprising. During his many UK tours he played at minor venues, such as working mens clubs etc. He loved coming to this country. He was one of my favourite artists. Had a lot of tragedy in his life and died young, but what a voice and temperament!
I’ve seen Tommy Steele at Walsall Wood FC in the early 1960s and not sure but I believe Mat Monroe was there too. So why not the big O in Pelsall !
I was born in Pelsall in 1943 and left in 1975 and I never saw him or any other famous person play in Pelsall. My uncle was landlord at the Royal Oak and the Railway at different times and the only exiting thing that happened there was when Chippy Millerchip used to eat the vase of flowers vase as well.
just for fun i dont know about roy orbison at pelsall but i do remember diane dourse live at the avion aldrige does any one else ha ha
Maybe my memory is false,but he was in the country and stars like him suffered financially with the rise of the Beatles etc. It was around 1963 and NOT a tribute act. They didn’t really exist. I loved him,had jived to his records,along with Elvis,Chuck Berry,Littlle Richard Buddy Holly etc and remember (I think)feeling sorry that he was reduced to this. But,of course,such immense talent had to resurface and it did. It will just have to remain a rather cloudy memory.