GENO WASHINGTON: A legend comes to Blackwood.

Geno shaking the dancefloor in the Spinning Disc, 1966

We started off tonight by going over to Blackwood to see the one and only Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, the legendary ‘60s soul man who’s 1968 album ‘Hand Clappin’ Foot Stompin’ Funky Butt’ sums up exactly what Geno was about; getting up and stompin’ the dance floor. I have seen him several times and he just picks up the crowd and has them rockin’ uncontrollably, boppin’, groovin’ and grinding on the dance floor.

I had originally thought the gig was in the bar of the ‘Stute, which would have been a brilliant intimate little venue for him. I was somewhat surprised to hear that the gig was going to be in the larger main hall upstairs because, lets be honest, no-one under 35 would remember the Dexy’s Midnight Runners song about the man, ‘Geno’, let alone remember the man himself. This theory was confirmed when we arrived and went for a pint in the bar, no disrespect but it was the oldest audience I have EVER seen for a gig. I am sure I saw a few blue rinses there. When I discovered that the seating arrangements upstairs were, as they put it ‘concert style’, or as I would put it ‘cinema style’, with everyone in neat rows, no dance floor, no beer allowed, I decided, despite the fact that I had been looking forward to it for weeks, I had somewhere better to be.

As we sat finishing off our drinks the manager came around and got quite shirty that some people were not going up to see the support band, she even had a row with a friend of mine who had gone up early and walked back down to the bar when the support band came on. So we drank our Drinks and headed off to Alka’s 40^th birthday party, which I think deserves a post of it’s own.