Elgin, Scotland music scene 1960s

Albert and Betty Bonici circa 1941 – a night out with a family friend.

By the end of WWII and through to the early ’60s, both traditional and modern jazz bands were enjoyed by young people attending dances in the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_jazz

‘I was a jazz man and didn’t really listen to the pop groups much…”

Albert Bonici and wife Betty who were amongst those who loved listening and dancing to jazz bands. Amongst the bands that the Bonici’s enjoyed on a night out were Johnny Dankworth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGvgHEXg1Gw, Tubby Hayes http://web.archive.org/web/20091027230934/ http://and Kenny Ball’s Jazz Band. https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/kenny-ball-and-his-jazzmen/ .  Albert also invited British folk and beat  musicians besides visiting talent from abroad on tour, to play in small communities between Aberdeen and Inverness. Over a ten day tour, his company LCB Agency would string enough venues together to make it worthwhile for musicians to come to the north of Scotland though they played in small dancehalls. By the mid ’50s,  Albert Bonici was active with promotion activities that began when he and Henry Robertson brought up the Ray Ellington Quartet for a charity which proved popular with youthful fans of dance and swing music.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnAuFCzxuT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2YoUHpuiVQ Albert spoke about those days in an interview with Jim Wilkie https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/aa-bonici-interview-jim-wilkie/

By 1960, after years of organizing gigs in Elgin and throughout the north of Scotland, Albert built a “ballroom” dancehall and concessions area overlooking the dance floor of Two Red Shoes situated at the top of the High Street in Elgin, Scotland.  The family owned several attached building that took up most of what are known as the Little Cross Buildings, hence the name LCB Agency which served as business offices for various business venture besides using the space for storage.  By 1963, the Bonici family were operating a few successful businesses including Park Café [opened 1944], The Two Red Shoes [1960],  ice-cream francizing [late ’50s] , Norco Records LTD [1963] – which featured both tradition Scottish and pop musicians and vocalists of the ’60s. Britian in the ’60s See https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/bonici-business-sense/ and https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/17/

Other related posts include:

 https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/two-red-shoes-album-2/

https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/two-red-shoes-ballroom/

https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/norco-records/

The Park Café https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/the-park-cafe/ was the centre of a youthful buzz in the north of Scotland through the ’60s thanks to the efforts of the Bonici family. “The Park Café… looked out onto the Cooper Park at the end of north College Street near to the Museum. This was a very “posh” and rather exciting place for us. It had booths with fixed plastic topped tables about 8 could sit around in each booth. There was a jukebox with latest top of the pops records. THE place to be to meet and be seen. It was run by Albert Bonici who was very popular with all of us. He later went on to open The Two Red Shoes Dance Hall and brought big names to Elgin.” https://wrvsmorayheritagememories.wordpress.com/tag/red-shoes-ballroom/

Those were happy and memorable days for many who were growing up in and around Elgin, Scotland during the heydays of the Two Red Shoes Ballroom. https://bonici.wordpress.com/ https://scotbeat.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/mr-albert-bonici/

Great Britian in the 1960s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=82BkSLg4fGk Elgin photos:

https://books.google.co.uk/booksid=_0eIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT42&lpg=PT42&dq=Elgin+Two+Red+Shoes&source=bl&ots=6QjQMMYaUp&sig=IQPtcyl7fDjJHQwTMvnx4rcExI8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WHOJVZnvLMH1Ur_NgNAH&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=Elgin%20Two%20Red%20Shoes&f=false

About scotbeat

SCOTBEAT and http://bonici.wordpress.com includes photos and documents from the Bonici Archives with permission from the Bonici family [PC Holding Co]. You may contact me at dillsdavid@yahoo.co.uk for consent in using images for media projects. Am currently updating http://djdills.wordpress.com with original new collages. #collageart #beatmusic #popmusic #1960smusic

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Tagged with: #swing jazz, Alber, Albert Bonici, beat music, Elgin Moray, LCB Agency, Norco Records, Park Cafe, Two Red Shoes
Posted in 1960's pop music