{"id":29,"date":"2013-04-08T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/2013\/04\/08\/silk-disco-and-promotions-and-lightshow\/"},"modified":"2013-04-08T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T16:03:00","slug":"silk-disco-and-promotions-and-lightshow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/2013\/04\/08\/silk-disco-and-promotions-and-lightshow\/","title":{"rendered":"Silk Disco and Promotions and Lightshow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silk Disco and Promotions<\/b> <\/span>was one of the biggest of its kind in Coventry from 1968 to at least the early 80’s.<\/span>
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This young, well organised team sustained their activities for well over a decade and much of the provision of discos and band venues came from this team.<\/span>
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\nAs far as I know, Silk began about 1968 and consisted DJ’s Jim Twyneham<\/b> (AKA Jim Silk<\/b>) – later an engineer at Horizon Studios<\/i> and DJ on Radio Mercia<\/i>, Graham Wood<\/b> (later a co-founder of Sunshine <\/i>Agency) with technical support from John Coles<\/b> ( later celebrated Two Tone<\/i> photographer responsible for some of their iconic images), Paul Taylor<\/b>, Paul Riley<\/b> and Steve Whittle.<\/b><\/span>
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\nNEW Information July 2016 – <\/b>Thanks to Dennis Cotter <\/b>and help from John Coles<\/b> and Jim Twynham<\/b>, I’ve <\/span>been informed an earlier Silk DJ not previously included here. His name was Steve Miles<\/b> who also worked at J J Cash Ltd. Steve was with Silk disco 1968 to 69.<\/span>
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\nIn 1973, in the Coventry Evening Telegraph’<\/i>s On the Scene (colour supplement), Nichola Gorringe<\/b> reported – ” So what i admire about Silk, the mobile disco that operates in and around Coventry, was the hint of subtlety.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jim Twyneham<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

For a start the lighting was really effective. A modern specious area at the Trocadero<\/i>, Weston Hall Hotel, Bulkington, was transformed into something cosy and personal.<\/span>
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\nSilk<\/i> are no amateur outfit. they are a bunch of level-headed semi professionals who are setting out to perfect their own form of entertainment.<\/span>
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\nThey have been operating for three years. The name Silk is associated with the Plough Club<\/i> (London Road), Circles<\/i> (West End Working Men’s Club – where they promoted such bands as Caravan<\/b>)., the Locarno<\/i> promotions, Arthurs<\/i> at the Humber Hotel, Humber Road and more recently Chums<\/i> at the Bear Inn, high Street and the Trocadero<\/i>.<\/span>
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\nTwo of the original entertainers – Jim Twyneham<\/b>, who is 23 and Graham Wood<\/b> 21, are still there. Twenty four year old Paul Taylor<\/b> joined in January 1971 at about the same time as Paul Riley<\/b> (21) was brought in to improve the lighting effects, which until that time had been slightly unsophisticated due to lack of equipment. Jim and Paul Taylor<\/b> and Graham Wood<\/b> are the outfit’s DJ’s. Their roadies \/ technicians are John Coles<\/b> and Steve Whittle.<\/b> All live and work in Coventry.<\/span>
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\nJim, who is a local government officer, told me: “The reason we set up in the first place was because we were dissatisfied with entertainment in general in the area. We wanted to introduce some creativity into Coventry.”<\/span>
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\nSince then Silk have done over 200 mobile bookings and their impact on the area can be judged by engagements over the next two months. They have only five days free of bookings this month and 10 in February.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Silk at the Trocadero Bulkington 1973<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Running a disco is an expensive business. But by pooling their resources and ploughing everything back into their show they have been able to buy over \u00a310,000 worth of equipment, including records, during the last three years.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What type of music do they play? “Anything and everything from Caravan<\/b> to Glenn Miller<\/b>. Everything we think people would like to hear. We have no musical prejudices<\/i>” Jim said.<\/span>
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\nSilk present shows at the Trocadero<\/i> on Monday and Tuesday evenings each week and run a heavy underground session at Chums <\/i>on Thursday evening. On Friday and Saturday they have mobile bookings such as 21st birthdays, weddings, and so on, with Sundays and Wednesdays reserved for occasional bookings.<\/span>
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\nA note of warning to potential disco operators from Jim..”Don’t start unless you are sure you want to make a go of it. Be conscientious and willing to please and, above all, be kind to the public because they are your income – they keep you going<\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Pictures by David Trinder<\/b>.<\/span>
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From the Plough club in the early 70’s Jim Silk (Twyneham) had a distinctive red car with Silk as part of the registration.<\/span>
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\nChums advert from Coventry Evening Telegraph 1974<\/span><\/div>\n

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Advert in Hobo Magazine 1974<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nAlong with some of the pictures, this was the text for the Cov Telegraph On the Scene Supplement.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nFor ad in Hobo magazine. Thank you Mr Silk!<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nVia Pete Chambers<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nAdvert in Hobo Magazine 1974<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nBill Jackson – Photographer, friend of Martin Barter – both regulars at the Plough Club 1971<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nFrom Cov Telegraph<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nJohn Coles more recently with John Bradbury of The Specials<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nGraham Wood<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nPhotograph thanks to Sue Long (then Graham Wood’s girlfriend)<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nPhotograph thanks to Sue Long<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nPhotograph thanks to Sue Long<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nGentle were a Derby heavy rock band. I had put them on at the Umbrella Club in 1970 and after they played the Plough Club with Silk Disco and a few other Cov gigs of the time.<\/span>
\nSome of the other bands i remember at the Plough Club (Near the Chaterhouse – London Road) were Music Box (Rob Armstrong and Colin Armstrong and Pip) \/ Dando Shaft and many more.<\/span>
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\nSad News – A Tribute to Jim Twyneham who passed away in 2017<\/b><\/span>
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\nJohn Sillett leads tributes to Coventry City’s ‘Voice of Highfield Road’ Jim Twyneham.<\/b><\/div>\n

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\nCoventry Telegraph <\/span>BY ANDY TURNER 20:34, 5 JUL 2017<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nView here<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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\nhttp:\/\/www.coventrytelegraph.net\/sport\/football\/football-news\/john-sillett-leads-tributes-coventry-13287781<\/span><\/a><\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silk Disco and Promotions was one of the biggest of its kind in Coventry from 1968 to at least the early 80’s. This young, well organised team sustained their activities for well over a decade and much of the provision … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/covdiscoarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}