My vivid memory of John Gee, former manager of the Marquee Club, is of a rainy Tuesday night in 1964 when the Who began their residency at the club, in Wardour Street. I was a mod called Irish Jack and myself and two others were recruited by the Who's manager, Kit Lambert, to hand out concession cards to punters outside the door. The cards were revolutionary in their design, with the famous arrow erect above the letter "o" in Who. The only problem was nobody bothered to turn up, but as we sheltered from the rain three lost souls entered and approached the pay box. The last going in spotted the concession cards and asked: "Can I have one of these?" Eager to help, I handed him one.
Gee, in his customary businesslike manner, said to the punter: "That'll be five shillings, please, young man." The guy said: "No. Two and six with this, innit?" Gee and Lambert glared at me for having cost them the price of half an admission to one of the club's worst-attended gigs. Later, Gee strode on to the stage in a pressed suit, white shirt and tie, and announced, in the refined tones of a BBC announcer, to 30 snotty-nosed urchin mods from Shepherd's Bush: "Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the Who!" Mayhem ensued.
Continue reading...