Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

Discuss the early days of the Club with the manager.
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13_temple_street
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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The morning after the police raid there was confused excitement at the Iron Door club, it soon became obvious that we (Harry Ormesher and myself would benefit from some legal advice. I immediately started to pursue people we knew with a legal background, eventually one name cropped up Mr Ian Levin ,further investigation revealed that Mr Ian Isadore Levin was a partner in a practice Canter Levin and Berg Victoria Street Liverpool 2 .The practice was established by Canter in 1947, immediately before he set up the practice he was an Intermediate Judge at the Nirenberg War Trials.
An appointment was arranged to meet Mr Levin at his offices. I was ushered into a first floor office overlooking Victoria Street, Mr Levin introduced himself, at first glance a thought struck me that I was seeing a person who had perhaps stepped out of Burton’s gents outfitters shop window, he was immaculately dressed, not a hair out of place, the obligatory four inch shirt cuffs showing beneath his jacket sleeves. I was used to seeing natty dressers coming into the club but nothing on this scale. I outlined the performance of the police raid of the night before, without hesitation he agreed to act for the club.
Eventually court papers were served to us outlining the charges the police intended to pursue. The people to be charged whose names appeared in the newspaper article gathered on the morning of the October 28th 1960 and made their way to the Magistrates Court situated in Dale Street Liverpool 2. There was a carnival atmosphere amongst the members, after all what had they to worry about everyone who knew about the charges had said it was such a trivial offence that it possibly would result in a fine or a tap on the wrists. The general census was why the police were persecuting the club for such a minute discrepancy.
Our group were all seated in the well of the court, shortly after we arrived ten police officers piled in and sat at the back of the court room, the court room was packed with our supporters from the Iron Door. A door at the back of the bench opened and in strutted the Chief Stipendiary Magistrate- Mr Arthur McFarland this was, number one court Arthur McFarland senior magistrate. This stern demeanour and penchant for harsh sentencing afforded him a fearsome reputation. Someone shouted all rise the magistrate sat down at the bench, the court was now in session.
Detective Chief Inspector J.W.Bonner kicked off by outlining the case the police were bringing against the club, he proceeded to call to the witness box various police witnesses, it occurred to me that our man Mr Levin appeared to be lost at all the evidence that was forwarded by Bonner I did wonder whether our man had in fact familiarised himself with the brief. Some time had passed since Bonner had started; apparently the court was to adjourn for lunch of half an hour.
Our group did not leave the court for lunch, fifteen minutes into the lunch break a figure appeared and walked up to the magistrates bench and removed the club’s membership signing in book and proceeded to his place on the front of the bench he was feverishly flipping through the pages when everyone returned back to the court, I don’t know whether it was his intention to return the book, too late ‘all rise’ McFarland had returned the court was again in session.
The first person and only person to be called as a witness for the Iron Door was Geoffrey Hogarth after the preliminaries’ of the oath the first question Bonner asked me ‘WAS YOGI BEAR’ a member of the Iron Door club, was I hearing things did he say ‘YOGI BEAR’, Bonner said you seem to be a little confused Mr Hogarth
I have an application form for someone to become a member of the Iron Door Jazz club in the name of ‘Yogi Bear’ what’s more the proposer is named BOO BOO.
I said I did not know anything about the application and somehow it must have slipped in by mistake. At this point there was an almighty crash of wood in the direction of McFarlands bench and he appeared be having some kind of seizure he was pointing his finger in the direction of our legal representative Mr Ian Levin.
McFarland asked who had taken one of the exhibits from his bench ‘Twas I sir’ said Levin. Please arrange with the clerk of the court to return the book and approach the bench, McFarland proceeded to give Mr Ian Levin a lecture on court etiquette. You have had ample opportunity in the past to avail yourself of the contents of the book......Little did anyone in that court room realize that within a few short years Ian Isadore Levin LLB would become Lord Mayor of Liverpool 1970-71.
McFarland stopped the procedure and started reading out his sentence.
I should explain before this Gilbert and Sullivan type court was underway The Iron Door club and their representative was asked by the clerk to the court if we would abide with the decision of the court or have it transferred to the Crown court in front of a jury. We opted for the first option!
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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The morning after the police raid there was confused excitement at the Iron Door club, it soon became obvious that we (Harry Ormesher and myself would benefit from some legal advice. I immediately started to pursue people we knew with a legal background, eventually one name cropped up Mr Ian Levin, further investigation revealed that Mr Ian Isadore Levin was a partner in a practice Canter Levin and Berg Victoria Street Liverpool 2 .The practice was established by Canter in 1947, immediately before he set up the practice he was an Intermediate Judge at the Nirenberg War Trials.
Geoff; it’s my understanding that the Liverpool firm of solicitors calling themselves Cantor Levin and Mannheim of 15 Victoria Street, Liverpool 2, as they were then known according to the inserted below 1957 entry in the London Gazette. Were, at that time, perhaps more skilled and accustomed to dealing with civil litigation and the legal conveyance of property matters, rather than that of bumping heads with the police in the course of defending a client as the result of a criminal prosecution. In your post, you make reference to such a possibility when you wrote:
... it occurred to me that our man Mr Levin appeared to be lost at all the evidence that was forwarded by Bonner I did wonder whether our man had in fact familiarised himself with the brief.
CL and M.jpg
It was not until 1967, and the arrival of Peter Berg at the firm and whose specialty was criminal advocacy, that Cantor Levin and Berg (as the firm then became known) gained the reputation as Liverpool’s go-to-lawyers by those who found themselves at odds with the law. It is said that while Peter Berg played no direct part in the defence of the two young perpetrators convicted of the infamous Jamie Bulger murder (Walton, Liverpool 1993). He was nevertheless informally consulted, as the most experienced criminal defence solicitor in Liverpool at the time, by members of the accused’s defence teams being that, at one time or other, he had mentored most of them in the skills of dealing with the police in the defence of a client.

See - "Brief history of Cantor Levin and Berg" at ...

http://www.canter-law.co.uk/about/company-history
I should explain before this Gilbert and Sullivan type court was underway The Iron Door club and their representative was asked by the clerk to the court if we would abide with the decision of the court or have it transferred to the Crown court in front of a jury. We opted for the first option!
Right decision Geoff. For generally speaking, if a criminal matter can be decided upon in a lower Magistrate’s Court of England and Wales but a defendant(s) elect beforehand to plead the case in a higher court (such as the Crown Court in this instance) then the final outcome could well back-fire drastically in the event of a guilty verdict. As a presiding Crown Court Judge can hand-down a much stiffer sentence (and most likely will) as a form of retribution than a Justice of the Peace sitting as a Magistrate can. For such parties in England and Wales willing to plead guilty to an offence then by far the best course of action is to have matter decided at the earliest convenience in a lower court of law.

I like your “Gilbert and Sullivan” reference because this is often what it could feel like to some back then who were not in the habit of finding themselves compelled to make appearances in a court of law. Echoes of the old tried and tested ways of conducting such matters being still the order of the day and, deliberately made to be intimidating at that. Liverpool’s Dale Street Magistrate’s Court, where this particular piece of legal theatre took place on that October day in 1960, was closed in June 2015 after some 150 years of dispensing justice when its particular form of business was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts in Derby Square. However, in between the time it was closed and that of being completely gutted, the Liverpool Echo was given permission to let one James Maloney, a photographer with the newspaper, loose inside a vacated Dale Street Magistrate’s Court with his camera to make a visual record of the complex for local historical purposes that is online to view at …

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liv ... es-9687662

Just keep scrolling down the opened Liverpool Echo page to view all of the 49 images available.

Geoff; when you stood in the dock, on that Friday morning of October 28th 1960, being verbally castigated by Magistrate McFarland, then below is an image taken from the Maloney collection of photographs of the courtroom scene (minus the participants) that you would have likely been looking at ...
JS68400112.jpg
After 56 years, I bet when you close your eyes Geoff, you can still see those lined-up against Harry Ormsher and yourself speaking out against the pair of you.

PS: Thank you very much Geoff; I’m enjoying myself (in my own way) digging up all this stuff relating to your reminiscences. It’s giving the 71-year old muscle between my ears a good workout.
While it can sometimes feels like there’s only you and I having an online conversation, which is understandable seeing that we must be amongst the dwindling few still around with first-hand knowledge of what went on back then. I can nevertheless gauge by looking at the page views of a topic if there’s anyone out there reading this stuff. Of which, regarding our discourse of late, has just passed the 200-page viewed mark.
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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While it sometimes feels there's only you and I having a conversation.
My sentiments exactly Peter where have (cavernplayer) j_gary lyle _from Minneapolis all people in the past who have given me and possibly you Peter boundless pleasure asking and answering question's.
Once again Peter thank you for entertaining me and the visitors to the Iron Door forum with your excellent reply to my article, I have a feeling you may have been burning the midnight oil to come back with such a detailed description so quickly .
I take on board full responsibility for appointing Ian Isadore Levin, I would not have wanted to miss meeting this man It was privilege to have known such a amusing and principled human being .
There are a few loose ends that I would like to clear up; firstly the question of the two commissionaires who were on duty that night at the club, knowing the sensitive nature of their day jobs any adverse publicity would effect that employment. I managed to persuade the police man who incidiently turned out to have the rank of inspector who I mention in my article to arrange for the two commissionaires to leave the building.
I appealed to the Crown Court to have the fines imposed by the Stipendiary Magistrate reduced, the judge reduced it to eighty pounds, Levin could not represent me in the Crown court he employed a barrister it was hardly worth the appeal.
Whilst at the Crown court I was contacted by the police representative a Sergeant Webster he was on the raiding party ,he informed me that if I attempted to open the club again they would be paying me another visit. Under the circumstances I was committed to reopening the premises ,with a name change to Liverpool Jazz Society. A few months down the line the police again raided the club, this time the result was totally different. In the words of Lonnie Donnegan's 'Battle of New Orleans' the police came of rather IGNOMINUSLY.
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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hamilton_square wrote:...if there’s anyone out there reading this stuff.
I just read this bit of fascinating "trivia". :mrgreen: :D
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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JPS: Thank you for that, glad to hear we are not entirely alone in these outer reaches of cyberspace .
I appealed to the Crown Court to have the fines imposed by the Stipendiary Magistrate reduced, the judge reduced it to eighty pounds, Levin could not represent me in the Crown court he employed a barrister it was hardly worth the appeal.
In the court system of England and Wales a solicitor can only directly act as an advocate in a lower magistrate’s court. Therefore it follows that any recourse to a higher court (i.e. in this case for the purpose of an appeal against a lower court's decision) has to be made by a barrister-at-law and, they don’t work cheap as Geoff discovered. For those who have ever seen a British courtroom drama on film or TV, barristers are the characters traditionally forced to dress up in wigs and gowns.
I have a feeling you may have been burning the midnight oil to come back with such a detailed description so quickly.
What else is there to do? The recent nasty downturn in the British weather of late dictates that people of our advancing years are best advised to turn up the heating and stay indoors.
A few months down the line the police again raided the club, this time the result was totally different. In the words of Lonnie Donnegan's 'Battle of New Orleans' the police came of rather IGNOMINUSLY.
Geoff; it took me a bit of time to work out your ‘Battle of New Orleans’ reference. It was not until it dawned on me that the previously closed-down Iron Door Club had reopened under the banner of the Liverpool Jazz Society, held at the Storyville Jazz Club (as the IDC became known for a brief time). And, that Storyville was the name given to the once legalised red-light district in New Orleans, Louisiana, said to have been in existence from 1897 to 1917, and whose houses and parlours of dubious entertainment were also said to have been the infant cradles of jazz, that I put two-and-two together to hopefully not get five.

The ‘Battle of New Orleans’ ballad, made popular here in Britain by Lonnie Donegan, of course being a reference to the 10-day engagement that took place from 8th to 18th January 1815 between an American irregular army, under the command of then Major General Andrew Jackson, in defiant defence of New Orleans against the vastly superior forces of the British Crown. The resulting withdrawal of British forces, after suffering heavy casualties, bringing to end what became known as the ‘War of 1812’. The British decision to end hostilities being in large part due to the much closer-to-home threat posed by a resurgent Napoleon on mainland Europe, following his escape from forced exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, that culminated in his lasting defeat at the ‘Battle of Waterloo’ on 18th June 1815 and, a mere five months after the ‘Battle of New Orleans’ ended so “IGNOMINSULY” for the military might of the British Crown.
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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Once again Peter brilliantly executed post; also my thanks to JLS for bravely reading all this stuff Peter and myself have posted recently on the Iron Door forum .Will be back shortly Peter ......Thanks again!
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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"Dennis Hepworth Official Arthur Dooley Archive"
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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I have attached the brochure for Sam Leaches' Jazz Jamboree night at the St Georges Hall Liverpool on the ninth of September 1960, to highlight the advert for the Iron Door incorporating Yogi Bear also Boo-boo.
Resuming the 'Trivia' of the police raid on the Iron Door club Temple Street Liverpool 2..The solicitor who represented the club at the Liverpool City Magistrate's court informed Harry Ormesher and myself the results of the police raid June 30th1960, the charges were supplying ten non members with alcohol, also mismanagement of the club. Amongst the documents they had taken away on the night of the raid they had found a application form for club membership for Yogi Bear, proposed by Boo-Boo. Word quickly travelled amongst the members who thought it a joke soon members were greeting each other as Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, fancy dress nights incorporating Yogi and Boo-Boo were unofficially organised. To take advantage of the situation and to show solidarity with the members we placed adverts incorporating Yogi and Boo-Boo.
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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The programme for the ‘Jazz Jamboree’ at St George’s Hall Liverpool on September 9th 1960 featuring Emile Ford and the Checkmates as the main attraction was organised by Sam Leach (Sam earned a reputation as a prominent Beatles promoter and author, his most famous book ‘The Rocking City’. This event was to be Sam’s second and only venture in promoting at St George’s Hall Liverpool .It also ended any other promotions at this venue for a very long time.
Sam was experiencing some difficulty booking the Jazz bands to support his main attraction Emile Ford and the Checkmates he asked Harry Ormesher (My business partner at the Iron Door club) and me to engage some of the most talented jazz bands available, we managed to book all the jazz bands listed on the programme. Normally these events would go ahead without too many obstacles, on this occasion a very big hitch confronted us; Emile who was a good friend of Sam’s, informed us that owing to a contractual agreement with Moss Empires, the owner of the Empire Theatre Liverpool and other famous theatres dotted around the country, that a barring clause existed NOT to appear at any venue for X number of weeks and within a radius of X number of miles; unfortunately this venue and promotion came within the scope of this agreement. The barring clause was operational only for EMILE not the Checkmates they could perform with impunity However Emile assured Sam to continue advertising the event that he would endeavour to obtain permission to perform his act at the venue.
A large crowd had turned up most had come along to see Emile Ford and the Checkmates. Sam had hired a professional master of ceremonies for the evening’s performance who proceeded to announce on stage the Checkmates who duly strutted onto the stage with their saxophones blazing away standing in line and performing a dance routine made famous by the shadows after two numbers everyone is wondering when the main attraction Emile Ford would appear on stage, the Checkmates started the next number, without warning two girls dancers appeared dressed in brightly coloured flowery dresses which they proceeded to remove in unison to the music ,the audience had been scattered throughout the room rushed to the front of the stage this was something not to be missed. The two dancers were professional Striptease artists who regularly performed at the Pavilion Theatre in Liverpool.
The M.C. had realized that Emile Ford would not be in the building for the night’s performance, permission for an appearance was not granted, hastily the MC
arranged the strippers to appease any disappointment in the audience of Emile Ford’s non attendance.
Strippers dancing and prancing naked on the stage in the jewel of one of Liverpool’s iconic buildings was indeed a near hanging offence, consequently a massive amount of press coverage in the Sunday Newspapers resulted in the Liverpool Corporation with egg on their faces banning all future events at this venue.
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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interior
interior
St Georges Hall (Interior view)
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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Nice hall, but I hate how people way overuse HDR when Photoshopping their photos; it is so bizarrely unnatural looking.

Or, does the hall actually look like that, with no contrast and kind of cartoonish?
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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Jeffrey; I appreciate your visit to the Iron Door forum and the comments regarding the interior image of St Georges Hall, unfortunately I am not familiar with HDR, your post on this subject has prompted me to find out more.
It was possible In the 50s/60s to hire this "magnificent" building for Sixty Quid per night which included full insurance and attending staff. Understandably the city fathers were non too pleased to read in the Sunday news papers that striptease artist's had performed on the stage of this iconic building, which incidentally in another part of this development housed permanently the Crown Courts.
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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Thanks for that history.

HDR is High Dynamic Range digital processing where one makes multiple digital files of a scene at various exposures, each one providing good exposure for different areas of the scene that has a very high brightness range, say bright daylight coming in a window to the deepest shadows within a room and combine them to produce one image that shows detail throughout the scene, thereby producing a final image that, in many/most cases, looks unrealistic.

Some examples here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hdr+pho ... 0&bih=1090
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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Just back in the UK after a month in the Mediterranean South of Spain – so, catching up.

Re: St George’s Hall and courtesy of the Liverpool Echo at …

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nos ... ll-9749633

Remembering the iconic St George's Hall, Liverpool

Scroll down the opened page to images numbered 18 of 71 and 51 of 71 and one will see what the interior of that part of St George’s Hall would have looked like for that infamous 1960 performance. Not a lot has changed over the years. Note that for such performances the floor is covered.

Then look at images numbered 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of 71 to see what is under that wooden floor covering. It is called the Minton Floor and consists of some 30,000 ceramic tiles manufactured by Minton, Hollins & Company of Stoke-on-Trent. I understand that the floor was laid down around 1855. Also, if and when in New York, one can see Minton Hollins handiwork on the walls and ceiling that is Bethesda Terrace Arcade in Central Park …



Geoff; to go a bit off the topic, take a look at the very last image of the Liverpool Echo series of numbered St George’s Hall photographs 71 of 71. As a youngster in the 1950s, I can remember hearing stories about the Birkenhead Fighting Bantam Battalions of World War I. Read this BBC webpage article at …

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31023270
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Re: Freddie Starr At The Iron Door Club

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I was beginning to exit my comfort zone upon reading JPS's (Jeffery) post on the merits of H R D, Jeffery very kindly posted information on this subject which partly helped to explain. I was desperately hoping that you would chime in and rescue me.
Thank you for the exciting photographs of St George's Hall (Jeffrey will appreciate the posting, I did not detect a single HRD photograph).It must be obvious that I am pleased you are back and trust you had a wonderful break.
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