Impresario who got the big names to Ayr
Rock music fans in ayrshire were in mourning this week as the sad news broke of the death of promoter, DJ and all- round impresario tom Jones.
In his glory days of the late ‘ 70s and early ‘ 80s tom made the ayr pavilion a must- play venue for big touring rock bands – names like Iron Maiden and Elvis Costello - while nurturing local talent by squeezing them onto the same bill as the big stars.
through the 1970s tom worked steadily to build the reputation of his powerhouse Rock disco as the place to be on a saturday night in ayr. a friendly atmosphere and dedication to play rock – and play it loud – proved an unbeatable combination.
Rock fans came in their droves from all over the west of scotland and glasgow. there was nothing like it even in the city. the disco moved from the Darlington to even larger premises at “the piv” packing out the old venue each weekend.
Legendary stuff. as powerhouse DJ and MC, tom cut an unmistakeable and highly influential figure around town.
at this time, tom had the vision to take a chance on bringing touring bands to ayr. While most big acts would only play cities, tom Jones somehow persuaded a legion of major acts to come to ayr.
What a list : Iron Maiden ( twice !!), Def Leppard, Elvis Costello, the pretenders, simple Minds, Ian gillan ( of Deep purple), Big Country, Jack Bruce ( of Cream), Ian Hunter ( Mott the Hoople) , Marillion, Nazareth, Dr Feelgood, the son of stiff tour, Frankie Miller, Rory gallagher, Runrig, the Blues Band and many, many more. No other scottish town was this lucky.
Every year October became “Rocktober” as tom pulled out the stops to bring an array of acts on that particular month. tom’s standing with local rock fans was such that people often went to a gig simply because “powerhouse” ( tom) was the promoter. they backed his judgement in booking the act.
as the promoter of the gig, it was often down to tom to arrange the support act. this gave him the chance to feature local bands. a regular face on the live scene, his finger was on the pulse.
ayrshire rockers such as the penetrations, the One- takes and the Flat stanley and more all got their first chances on the bigger stage at the piv. this was a shrewd move by tom as the main act could always hear the crowd before they went on – and knew they had to be on their game.
as tastes changed and times changed, moving into the 1990s, tom made the move to running his own live music bar “Jonesy’s” in ayr’s Nile Court. While on a slightly smaller scale, tom still indulged his love of live music by featuring many local bands – too many to
Rock fans came in their droves from all over the west of Scotland
name - and some terrific quality professional acts such as Cat scratch Fever from Liverpool.
While the loss of the venue and later poor health limited tom’s involvement in the rock biz, he remained a popular figure around town, well regarded to the end for making ayr a proper rock and roll town.
* alan scott, of prestwick, was a musician and regular at the piv and Jonesy’s.