DOWNLINER SECT - St Johns Tavern, Tufnell Park, London England 1991.04.16 fresh transfer from master cassette FLAC


Sony ECM909 mic/Sony Pro Walkman/played on JVC TD-W718 to Adobe Audition >FLAC 6


36 years after last seeing the Downliners in Studio 51, Soho in London, I crossed London to deepest Tufnell Park (on the Northern Line) to a very small back room in this pub. There were not many folks there - mainly friends of the band I think. I used to see the Downliners on a Sunday afternoon at Studio 51, formerly Ken Collier's Jazz Club, set in the basement of premises just 5 minutes walk from premises sporting a card in the doorway stating - "Model 2nd Floor"!! The original Downliners were great and produced a high energy sound for their Chuck Berry/Bo Diddley based set, but became best known for their rendition of the Coasters' Little Egypt, which appeared in the charts for one week only, and I think got them on Top of the Pops in 1964 or 1965.

Only bass player and vocalist Keith Grant - always an unfriendly bugger at the best of times and rhythm guitarist Don Craine, whose mum managed them in the old days, remained from the original band. The performance was a little ragged, but I have seen no other live recordings torrented of this band. They did a session for the Mary Costello show on GLR around the time of this gig but I can't find the cassette at the moment. However, the sight of Keith Grant then probably 55 years old, thumping his black Precision bass held almost vertically, and still doing great versions of Chuck Berry classics was great to behold.

Set List
01 Introduction
02 Talkin about you
03 Got my mojo working
04 Nadine
05 Nursery Rhymes
06 Just like I treat you
07 Too much monkey business
08 Cadillac
09 Pan American Boogie
10 Babie what's on your mind
11 Alright
12 Who do you love
13 Early one morning
14 Bad girls
15 Baby what's wrong
16 Bye bye Johnny
17 Riot in cell block no 9
18 Route 66






Running time 70 minutes