BROKEDOWN PALACE

"New ideas need old buildings" Jane Jacobs

The last blog about all the good places being gone took me to the box which had the picture of Ye Olde Pilot Inn, Tiger Bay, Cardiff. In it there was also this picture of The Ritz Ballroom, Skewen. Without stating the blindingly obvious this was taken before The Ritz was demolished to create a car park for the adjoining railway station. I do not remember taking the picture. There is an estate agents board on the building - I may even have contemplated buying it for sentimental reasons. It was originally a cinema but in the 60's fell to bingomania then became a 'club' and dancehall. A significant percentage of that part of my youth which was mis-spent but could not truly be said to have been wasted was spent there. It was the sort of place your parents warned you about.  In the mod phase you could down half a flagon of cider, take the bottle back for the deposit, go to the Ritz, snog on the dancefloor - or get your head kicked in- or be lucky enough to find yourself in the seats of the surviving balcony locked in exploratory fumblings with a companion of your choice, get chips on the way home and still have change from half a crown.
Cue the music from the Hovis commercial played by The Who and you get the idea.
The Who played there, and the Small Faces, The Moody Blues, Wayne Fontana, Manfred Mann (probably), Dave Edmunds in Love Sculpture and more local heroes - The Eyes of Blue, The Bystanders, Quicksand, Dream, The Iveys. It had a particular acoustic quality which, in the late 60's, made you forget you were only pretending to have taken some exotic recreational compound, man. You had to really pretend. The smell from the toilets would have snapped someone out of a heroin overdose.
It was a time of open experimentation in contemporary music, when anything went. Sometimes it went straight to hell but most of the time most of the bands seemed to have something new and original to say. And they had the opportunity to say it and play it. By that time there was a live band playing somewhere around Swansea Bay every night except, for some strange reason on a Wednesday. That was why it was wise to save most of the exotic recreational compounds until Wednesday. Otherwise it was Skewen Rugby Club on a Thursday where Thin Lizzy were once laughed off the stage. The Patti Pavilion on Friday which for a long period seemed to be dominated by the United Artists roster of British psychedelic and long forgotten prog rock bands. Then the Ritz on Saturday. Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays there was a band playing somewhere between Bridgend (Klee Klub) and Llanelli (The Glen Ballroom). I saw bands play in the social clubs of a Clock Factory in Ystradgynlais, a Cardboard Box Factory in Melyncryddan and Pink Floyd in the sports hall of the Afan Lido in Port Talbot. 
Of the above only Skewen Rugby Club survives. Others have come and gone, some pubs and clubs still offer the opportunity for fledgling bands to build a following in front of people not a computer screen. I, for one, am glad I was born when and where I was and I could walk from my house to a place where The Who were playing.
The Council should put up a plaque.