Over towards the Stiperstones, the Shropshire Hills are full of stories that you could once enter a pub there and find rock and roll royalty, drawn by Ronnie Lane's studio there, giving an impromptu concert.
I once helped a BBC journalist pin down the truth of one of these stories: Lane and Eric Clapton played the Drum and Monkey pub (now named Abel's Harp) in March 1977.
And on Christmas Day last year an anonymous comment on a post here placed Mick Jagger in these hills too:
I spent three summers in the mid 70's living at the More Arms for my holidays. My uncle Alvin Evans from Pontesbury, was the landlord there with his wife Diane. It all ended sadly I think. But I did serve at the fuel pumps each day to earn my keep, to the right hand side of the pub as you looked from the road. I had great memories of these time youthful Rose tinted glasses. Carefree..
My family had Christmas there too one year, when we came across from Birmingham and met up with my Aunt Vera Evans and uncle Bill at Alvin's pub at the More Arms. Great times I recall. I met Ronnie Lane and his wife.
Ronnie was a lovely guy, very kind, quite quiet. I got on with him well. He gave me an acoustic guitar he had with him one evening. He left me and my brother some months later x2 tickets at the box office to see a concert of his new band Slim Chance. Don't think I ever saw him again.
His wife, a lovely, lively type of Bohemian lady, used to dance in the main bar and Ronnie and her came into the back kitchen for a few drinks after closing time with Alvin and Diane and me on more than one occasion.
Eric Clapton did indeed come in and so did Mick Jagger. They used to use/record at Ronnie's (mobile) studios I think down in Ronnie's farm that he'd bought locally. Though I don't know exactly where.
Jagger and Marianne Faithful are rumoured to have visited Longnor hall with a view to buying it in the 1970’s.
— shroppiemon (@shroppiemon) February 13, 2022
There are allegedly carvings of Mick on a building in Shrewsbury.
The Rolling Stones also played in Shropshire of course 😉😉
Taken from the sebunctious Memories of Shropshire Facebook group with permission of photographer Vito Pacini pic.twitter.com/sMFTAj8ZMB
— shroppiemon (@shroppiemon) February 14, 2022
A few years ago I saw the BBC documentary 'Passing Show' about Ronnie Lane. Sounds like he a lost A LOT of money on his circus-style travelling big top tour, and his famous friends did various collabs with him because he got diddly squat royalties from the Small Faces and Faces.
ReplyDeleteVery sad :(
Have you seen the ARMS benefit concert at the Royal Albert Hall from 1983? The quality of the people who turned out shows just how highly Ronnie Lane was regarded.
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