Kings Heath and the Sixties.
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| Acrylic painting - Alan Brooks - "Sixties part one." - detail - 2010 |
I grew up in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Down the road from my house was York Road. In York Road was a place called the Ritz Ballroom. Not long after The Beatles released their record "Please Please Me" in 1963 they were booked and played there. After that, heaven knows what happened, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Pink Floyd Robert Plant and The Moody Blues all played there too!
I heard that this piece of musical history burned down in 2013 - and was then demolished in 2015.
I wasn't old enough to have seen any of those acts at the venue, but they had a lasting impact on me all the same.
