Four early 18th century bronze tables called nails are located outside the Corn Exchange on Corn Street in Bristol UK. During the 1960s they witnessed just about every emerging music act arriving and leaving apart from the Beatles and The Rolling Stones.Some like Elton John and Rod Stewart became Sirs; others like Van Morrison got no titles but became international superstars anyway.

I contend that around the start of teenage music hits you in a way that you can’t forsee and for me my baptism came in the Corn Exchange on a Tuesday and Saturday night where Uncle Bonnie hosted  his ‘Chinese RnB Club.’ It was called a jazz club but ‘Bonny spotted the blues trend and rapidly changed the name.

Bonny Manzi, called himself Uncle Bonny for reasons lost on me. He was apparently a well-known character in Brighton from the 1960s to the 1980s. He ran and promoted several clubs, including the famous “Chinese Jazz Club” in Brighton, located at the Aquarium. The club’s name was a bit of an eccentric branding choice, as Manzi was Italian, not Chinese, and the club was decorated with Chinese lanterns and joss sticks. He had a catchphrase, “chop-chop velly velly good.”  Different times!

The “Chinese” naming also extended to his ventures in Bristol. Both venues were known for showcasing a mix of music, from trad jazz to the emerging rhythm and blues scene of the 1960s. Manzi was instrumental in bringing major artists to these clubs, including Eric Clapton (with The Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers), The Who, Cream, Pink Floyd, and John Lee Hooker.  In the Corn Exchange he would busy himself ensuring all was well and was easily spotted in his straw boater. An early disc jockey? Well, his DJing extend to a record player with a microphone infant of its speaker and pumped out through the PA. I guess he got complimentary records from music pluggers.

I later wrote a song with the chorus

Chop chop Uncle Bonny Give me Chinese RnB, The Who and Hendrix and the mighty John Lee (Hooker). You can find it on Soundcloud, a bit rough with yours truely using Apple Garageband. https://soundcloud.com/kevinthecoach-310540417/chop-chop-uncle-bonny-1st-rec-13102019-1353?si=f9649608aec7414b83acae08b99fb35f&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

At the age of 13 it was a musical baptism of fire that enabled me to live a kind of double life, at first stuck in a boarding school run by weird cane or strap wielding priests during term time and drinking Bacardi and Coke, wearing whatever trendy clothes I could buy or make during breaks.

I guess it was there that I discovered the extraordinary power of live music, where on a good night something magical happens on the stage and impacts the audience and sometimes there is just an energy that lifts life in a way that’s hard to describe but you feel it in your body.

Bristol Mod Music Scene 1960s -The Corn Exchange.