TEB fan PETER MILNE sent to me two very interesting cuttings from 1970 newspapers announcing the date TEB played at Norwich's St. Andrew's Hall on Febrary 4th, 1970 for the tour in England with Al Stewart.
This first clipping is from the Norwich newspaper Eastern Evening News, published on Febrary 2nd, 1970:
Published on Friday 13 Feb 1970 by the Eastern Daily Press, a more regional paper, the following excerpt is an interesting behind-the-scenes account of the gig:
"FED UP with run of the mill dances, two sixth formers at Thorpe Grammar school decided to organise something on a larger scale and "give everybody a good time." The idea was followed with a concert at the school by the Edgar Broughton Band—and everybody did have a good time.
So, encouraged by their success, the two students formed Oedipus Promotions and planted their names firmly on the Norwich map with the Al Stewart-Third Ear Band concert in St. Andrew's Hall last week.
The youngest promoters in Norwich are Ken Ansell, of 10, Belmore Road, Thorpe, and John Andrews, of 3, Green Lane, Thorpe, who, with their first open venture behind them are now planning bigger things. Ken had been involved in the Amoeba Arts-Discotheque project last summer, hoping to attract people to a regular singing and poetry event. Participation was to be the key-note but it didn't really materialise and seven weeks after its birth the brainchild died. Far from daunted, Ken teamed Up with schoolmate John around November to put in some deep thought on the possibility of bringing Edgar Broughton to Norwich. Fortunately they had a direct link with the group. The concert came off with an audience of 700 or 800 people and through this Ken and John established a firm link with the London agency of Blackhill Enterprises. The help and encouragement they received with the Broughton event continued and they hit upon the idea of forming Oedipus Promotions and booking Al Stewart and the Third Ear.
John says: " We decided that if we could turn people on to really good stuff then it would be really worthwhile. A lot of people at school had not even heard of Al and the Third Ear, but we shanghaied them along and they enjoyed it. We only had one complaint."
Quite a large sum of money was involved in the St. Andrew's Hall concert but Ken and John were confident enough to go ahead. Ken says: "I think I have too much self-confidence really." And John adds: "I worry while he gets on with it."
They declare: "We have lots of ideas for the future but nothing concrete yet." To break even on the school dance they organised, John and Ken had to attract 300 people. But although they more than doubled this figure they had still to pay over a percentage on the door so still made very little money. On the St. Andrew's Hall show they just about broke even. "We were quite sur prised about that—we didn't think we would get as many as we did," they say. "What we thought was nice about that event was that the concert started with a division those there to see Al Stewart and those who went along for Third Ear. But in the end everyone seemed to enjoy the whole thing."
How have the two gone about organising their events? John says: “We tried to think beforehand about everything that might possibly happen. We worked out the minimum number we needed to get to break even, the audience we thought we were likely to get, and just for own amusement, the maximum audience – to see how much money we could make.”
Ken chips in “We added up how much we could possibly spend on advertising and publicity – and invariably exceeded it. After that we had to trust to fate and leave things hands of the gods. "We haven't taken out a thing for ourselves yet' "We haven't had the so far," adds John. Ken says, in all sincerity that any profits that did come along would go towards subsidising bigger events in Norwich. "Our immediate goal is to keep the concerts going and hope that we can build enough profit to attract someone like Led Zeppelin to Norwich one day." The height of their ambition is to bring Pink Floyd to the city."
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