In the late seventies I was producing bands and running a record company in Wallsend (UK). At night I played in the Mick Whitaker Band. We played the Burgundy Cobbler in Whitley Bay on Tues and Wed nights. I lived in Manor Court Next door, a block of bedsits owned by the Sid McCulloch who also owned the Cobbler. So the Cobbler became my living room. A whole gang of musicians and muso type people hung out there and for a few years there was a great “Cobbler Community”.
Now here are some sounds from the recording session that spawned this line-up. It is a studio session but it is all live with no overdubs. Typical of the stuff we were playing at the cobbler. Sorry it’s in REALmedia but if I get the time I’ll dig the tracks out again and MP3 them.
Long May You Run -|- I want To Be Loved
The View of South Parade from my Attic Room in Manor Court |
Thompson And Whitaker in the Cobbler Cupboard Dressing Room |

Of Course you can’t spend your entire life just having fun so I got married (just kidding) With such proximity it was bound to happen – I married one of the Cobbler barmaids – Molly (that’s my Gran in the Picture)
Hi Steve i remember the cobbler with great affection i loved the place too bits i remember Tony Cole a stylistic lookalike he was a lovely man and brilliant DJ he played the music from inside a specially constructed beach buggy built upstairs solely for that purpose many groups i saw from that time inc The Tymes The Trammps Linda Carr & the lovesquad and many more I last heard from tony many moons ago when he moved back to his native London in 1974 love to know what happened to him two barmaids i do remember from my time there were Susan and Barbara perhaps you know of them i remember aidan Keenan & jack upstairs who used to serve the latre night burgers hope that brings back some memories for you im Bob by the way if you want to contact me love to hear from you best wishes Bob