KC and the Sunshine Band In Concert 1975
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KC and the Sunshine Band in Concert
Sat 5th July 1975
California Ballroom, Dunstable
The California Ballroom was legendary as a venue for soul acts in the UK, and KC and the Sunshine Band played there on their first tour of the UK in 1974. As Dunstable is only about 40 miles from where I live, it was the ideal venue (I doubt that my parents would have entertained the idea of me going to London on my own when I was such a tender age!). As soon as I found out about the concert I asked Julie to go with me. There was probably a bit of stressing about how we were going to get there, trying to persuede one or other dad to take us. But in the end we went on an organised coach especially for the concert run by a local community centre, Barns Court. They used to have discos there and often organised coach trips to see bands at the California Ballroom.
I can still remember how excited I was on the day of the concert. I bet I had been counting down the days for weeks and weeks before hand. And how long I took to get ready. I looked very young for my age, so my mum spent ages putting make up on me and curling my hair. You were supposed to be 16 to get into the club and I was only 15 (in fact a week shy of my 15th birthday!). The other flashback I have of the day is standing in the line waiting to get on the coach. My mum stressed a bit that the coach trip might be for some other purpose than going to the concert, and me ending up disappointed, but she had no worries, I knew it was for the concert. I had checked that out before and anyway loads of people from school used to go on these trips to see various bands.
I think it was �1.50 to get into the concert. It was a standing only venue, and I think there was a disco before the show began. But I was only there to see KC!!! The stage was all set up, and my keen eye spotted where KC's organ was set up. I had a bright idea. If we went and stood in front of the stage right by the organ, I would have a birds eye view of my hero. So we went and grabbed prime position there, and no way would we budge from our chosen spot. I can't remember if bathroom breaks featured, I hazard a guess not until afterwards. But I was happy, we had the best view in the place. And there was NO way I was budging from my chosen spot either. Wild horses wouldn't have dragged me away.
I can remember someone coming round throwing publicity photos of the band into the crowd, I wasn't lucky enough to get one though. But the picture was used as a double page pinup in Blues and Soul so I did eventually get a copy. I remember I was stood next to a very pretty dark haired girl (from Essex IIRC) who I got chatting to, she was a big fan but had no pictures of the band at all so I was pleased she got one.
This was the first concert I ever went to, I remember being surprised by how loud the music sounded. I had ringing ears afterwards! I can also remember the announcer yelling "KC and the Sunshine Band" and them running on stage, and how my devious plan to stand in front of where KC would stand worked!! We were in the best spots in the place.
I can't remember too many of the details of that far away concert now, I probably did write down what songs they did at the time. They did the hits, "Queen of Clubs", "Funky Horn", "Get Down Tonight" and "That's the way "(I Like it) which I think was the new single. I can also remember KC saying a few times "This is a song from our new LP ("KC and the Sunshine Band" had either just been released or was just about to be). Everybody was dancing in the crowd and there was a lot of energy on stage as well. Oliver Brown was the percussionist on that tour and I know I got a smile from him a couple of times and I also seem to remember a couple of smiles from KC. I can still remember what KC wore as well. This was before they started to wear fancy stage gear. He had a simple white outfit on, white trousers, and a white long or 3/4 sleeve tunic top which laced up at the front. As he got sweaty, the outfit got seethrough and no nicely brought up 15 year old girl should have noticed that his underpants were also white. (I didn't, honest, Julie told me... ahem). As KC walked past once I touched him foot, and I probably didn't wash that hand for a while. I didn't have a camera in those days and it didn't even dawn on my to ask my dad if I could borrow his. Chances are you probably weren't allowed to take photos anyway. Beside, my hand would have been shaking too much. Anything I took would have ended up blurred and out of focus.
I think it was probably about 2am before I got into my front door. Exhausted but happy. I can only remember one thing about the journey home, the driver stopping the coach for someone to get off and be ill!! I think Julie's dad picked us up and dropped me home. My mum waited up for me and when I got in she was greeted with the words "I touched him!" Her and our neighbour used to tease me about that for ages afterwards. In fact |I bet she remembers that now.
Sadly there were no tour programmes or anything for that tour, and I have no photos of the concert. There may well not be any in existence at all. But if anyone does have any photos from the 1974 or 75 UK tours, which I could put on the site, or buy copies of please email me. And if anyone who reads this was at that gig, or went to any shows on the 74 and 75 tours do get in touch as well. I hope to track down the list of tour dates for the 1974 and 1975 UK tours but if anyone has them, please e-mail them to me. I promise to credit anyone who comes up with anything I can use on the site.
But, thanks to good old e-bay I now have what is my most treasured piece of KC and the Sunshine Band memorabilia...
I have managed to get a couple of vintage pictures which I used to have way back then! Both from UK music papers.
I think both of these were from the 1975 tour.
The California Ballroom as a web site at
Sadly the place was knocked down some years ago but its memory lives on.
Page created 26th March 2004 by Jackie Hewitt. Last update 30th Jan 2008