After writing yesterdays blog I started having memories of my youth and in particular the Caribbean nights held by the Watford Antilles Club. Of course I'll recount those memories in a bit but I thought I'd also use the blog as a learning tool for myself in preparation for Eat Reading Live.
Over the next few days I'll write a bit about the company, organisation or people doing the demonstrations that I'll be introducing at the festival and I'm going to start today with the West Indian Womens Circle and that ties in nicely with my Carribean night memories.
For as long as I can remember my Mum has been friends with Ricky (or Charles Winston Ricardo Lloyd to be exact). I can only recall ever seeing him with a smile on his face and it was always a treat when we went to visit him. I suppose around the late 70's and early 80's it was seen as a bit strange for a single white Mum to be close friends with barely 5ft tall black dude with a huge afro. It was a proper disco afro too, dead cool.
I can liken that friendship to my own with my buddy Jo. We used to (and still do occasionally) enjoy going out and dancing the night away just a mum and Ricky did at the Top Rank Club. Nowadays of course clubs are repetitive beats in dark rooms with flashing lights but back then people/acts like Elton John, Otis Redding or The Temptations used to play gigs on one level of the club while there was a disco on another......and this was in Watford High Street!
It's obviously here that was the basis for my love of music. I grew up to the sounds of Motown. Mum had a huge record collection and hardly a day went by without us having a bit of Otis, Marvin, Issac, Smokey, Stevie etc etc filling our eardrums.
Anyway there was, and maybe still is, a rather large Caribbean community around the Watford area and some of those people got together and formed the Watford Antilles Club. Ricky was a member of this club and my Mum used to go along to the functions with him and I'm guessing at around the time I was 14 or 15 I used to go along with her.
The first time I went I was so amazed. There were these beautifully dressed men and women, fully clobbered up in the Sunday best just laughing with each other, enjoying the company and dancing along to the steel band playing on the stage. These weren't all young people either, I'm talking 60, 70 even 80 year olds too properly getting their groove on and all night not just a little bit here and there! Must have looked so funny with me standing there as a skinny little white boy watching these people and just grinning.
Apart from the brilliant party atmosphere and the warm welcome we always got I really remember the food. There was always a kitchen full of large colourfully dressed ladies preparing big pots of the most amazing goat curry. They'd be chatting away putting the world to rights and stirring the pots while at the same time the other hand would be in the air and those big old bottoms would be swaying to the music. That's how I remember it anyway.
Whether it'll quite be the same when the West Indian Womens Circle get on Stage at Eat Reading Live is yet to be seen. I've certainly not heard of any steel band being booked but it might be worth them looking into booking one....(hint hint)
The WIWC (or the Circle as it's more commonly known) is a charitable organisation in Reading founded in 1979 and it achieved charitable status a year later. It serves as social welfare service for the Afro-Caribbean elderly and they help people in times of need and also encourage advancement in education.
The Circle has a day centre in operation 4 days a week from 10am until 4pm and they also a Caribbean lunch club 3 days a week which is freshly cooked and prepared by just 2 part-time kitchen staff.
Their base at Asantewa house in Fobney street, Reading can offer sheltered housing for up to 30 residents at a time and is completely managed by volunteers. As well as the more serious side to the care and support they offer there are other activities people can get involved in too such as Tai Chi, gala evenings, fetes and excursions.
If the Gala evenings are anything like the Antilles nights in Watford then I might just have to book myself into one!
As with all organisations such as this they could always do with a helping hand so if you have some spare time and fancy making use of it by helping out others then pop along to their website, have a read up and see if it's something you would like get involved in. I'm sure it's very rewarding.
These folks will be the last people I introduce to the Town Square Stage at 14:30 on Sunday 5th June so do pop along and show your support :-)
Those Antilles nights were just brilliant! Rick is THE man, we've been friends since 1968 and he doesn't look a day older than he did then (wish I could say the same for me). Top Rank Watford was fantastic, I had the best time. Yes Motown, Soul & Reggae were my favourite sounds, still are though Bruce is way up there too. Glad some of my fantastic musical taste rubbed off on you and you're proud to know Mr CWR Lloyd, bless him.xx Mum
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