SUPPORT ACT

Little Jimmy: “My group was chosen as a supporting act for the Stones because we had been around for years and had quite a reputation as a live group. In our hometown (Ghent, Belgium) a  club was even named after us! There was a time when  we played seven days a week, doing two shows a day in the week-ends. Besides, we were a blues-oriented group like The Stones. Don’t forget times were different then. No-one booked a J. Geils Band as a support act, not even for The Stones. You see, local managers had their say and pushed their own artists, so it  was common to have three of four support acts.”.

Support acts for 27 March 1966 were French star Ronnie Bird (who mainly did French covers of soul music) and Belgian groups The Jumpers (Dave Berry’s backing-group at the time),  Peter Welch & The Jets and, of course,  Little Jimmy & The Sharks.  Little Jimmy thinks The Jumpers didn’t turn up and an article in Juke Box Magazine suggests they were replaced by The Squirrels.

Somehow, Decca’s publicity machine failed. The hall was far from full and estimates are for a maximum of 5,000 fans (Little Jimmy’s estimation is 3,000 to 4,000). Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to plan a concert at 3 p.m. on a regular school-day, even if special bus and train rates applied. The undersigned very well remembers that his parents wouldn’t hear of it: not on a school-day, full stop

NO GOOD

Little Jimmy: “I knew the venue very well and I remember only the floor was actually filled.  Maybe that made the sound still tolerable, because the concert was no good.  I was a fan of The Stones (and such blues-oriented groups like The Yardbirds and The Pretty Things), but this concert really disappointed me.

For a start, we all shared the same sound system. I don’t say PA system, because there was no PA at that time.  All we had  was an amplifier and some oblong boxes with tiny loudspeakers attached to the pillars, a bit like in church you see! We just used the sound system of the venue, which was a velodrome. The sound system produced a sharp,  shrill sound, really awful. Still, you could hear everything quite well. I remember Ian Stewart - who looked like a real rock’n’roller - putting up the drums and some amplifier and seeing to it  that the guitars and the organ were in place.  That was common practice, I remember The Kinks and The Spencer Davis Group in Northern France, when they did concerts in tents on the occasion of some local festivity and there would just be an amplifier and some speakers.

The second reason is it  simply wasn’t a good concert. The Stones sounded a bit amateurish to me. Of course, these guys could play, but somehow it didn’t work that day.  I realise it sounds a bit weird, but I think  my group was better.  We packed everyone in. You see, we had played the same Brussels club for six months and all the regular visitors came to support us, cheering and singing and carrying signs. And there was no-one to do the same for The Stones! When they hit the stage, things quietened down!  And somehow the type of songs they did - like Chuck Berry covers - didn’t go down that well. I was disappointed, really. Of course The Stones’ merit was to have introduced the blues, but  comparing their version of Little Red Rooster to the original is a bit painful if you ask me”.

Jimmy thinks it could also have been the spirit of the times. Contrary to Holland, Germany and France, Belgian youngsters were calm and collected. There were chairs and a front row for VIPs like local Decca stars Liliane Saint-Pierre (who had her hair dyed green!)  and Ronnie Temmer. The kids didn’t break down the hall. Finally, The Stones were not that ugly or rough, which also added to his disappointment. In fact, he says, they were clean, wearing jackets, ties and polonecks.

Little Jimmy: “No, I didn’t meet them. We left right after the shown, because we had to do another gig in Ghent, my hometown, and  of course we were welcomed like heroes because we had done that Stones concert.  I can’t exactly remember whether it was us or Ronnie Bird who played before The Stones, but I found myself backstage saw them heading for the stage surrounded by two body-guards each which was quite unnecessary in Brussels. I think the set lasted for some 45 minutes and there were no encores”

BRIAN JONES

On the Continent, Brian Jones was at least as popular as Mick Jagger. To many fans, Brian was Rolling Stones no. 1. Did Jimmy feel the same way?

Little Jimmy: “Oh, certainly. After all, he was the founder and had been part of the blues scene before the others. To us,  Bill and Charlie were a bit too old. Keith was just a kid and  wasn’t that important then. Mick of course was the star, dancing and singing like a puppet on a string. Brian came second and I think in the beginning he even was the most popular Stone. He certainly was cute, the girls’ favourite, and he had beautiful blond hair. Being a musician, I was also impressed because he was a multi-instrumentalist. In Brussels, he played two guitars, harmonica (I think on ‘Not Fade Away’) and the organ, you know that Vox organ Elvis Costello would be so fond of later. Even if he touched the keys with only one finger, he did it really well”.   

“When judging the event, you must keep in mind the mentality and the atmosphere in Belgium at that time. The Stones concert didn’t get much publicity, if only because most journalists couldn’t imagine themselves writing favourably about those dirty and ugly guys. I did many gigs all over Belgium and Northern France. Typically, a concert would take place in a tent or a small local venue on the occasion of the annual fair or local festivity. And most certainly, there would be an accordion band and all the villagers would attend the show, whoever played and whatever was played! Granddad and grandma would be there with their grandchildren, because it was the event of the year. I remember shows where there would be chairs and tables at the back of the stage! I attended arts school  in Amsterdam, Holland, and what with Provo and everything,  things were quite different over there.  Belgium was calm and its youth was calm too. I guess that explains a lot”.

[More information: Bass-player Maurice remembers too...]

Eddy Bonte

THE SHOW

According to a spectator quoted in the June 1998 issue of the French collector’s monthly Juke Box Magazine,  the show lasted for thirty minutes (4.45 to 5.15 p.m.) and comprised the following titles: The Last Time, Mercy Mercy, Play With Fire, Not Fade Away, That’s How Strong My Love Is, The Spider and the Fly, Get Off Of My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown and Satisfaction. Everyone agrees to say there were no encores.

ABOUT LITTLE JIMMY…

When Jimmy was really little, he learned to play the harmonica and the trumpet.  Still in his early teens, he fell in love with the guitar after a friend of his father’s had taught him a few basic chords. A born singer and musician, Jimmy put together his first group after his return from Amsterdam where he had attended art school: Little Jimmy & The Robots were an overnight live success and secured a contract at the Belgian sea-side resort Blankenberge. This is where he met The Sharks, a combo from Holland. Soon Jimmy left The Robots to front The Sharks.  Little Jimmy & The Sharks toured all over Belgium and Northern France for years on end, at one time playing seven days a week. Little Jimmy refused to cut records - well he did cut exactly one single much against his will.  In 1967, the group that had shared the bill with The Stones, The Who and The Kinks called it a day.  In 1971, he made a  short-lived comeback as Little Jimmy + R & R High School and quit the music business soon afterwards.  More than two decades later, he re-baptised himself Don Croissant, picked up his guitar, put a trio together and  went back to his first love: the blues.  He is now quite successful, playing clubs and festivals all over Belgium, Holland and France. Don Croissant has cutCDs and a 10" vinyl album.

(EB)

 

LEFT: LittleJimmy a.k.a Don Croissant as Support Act for The Yardbirds in Harelbeke 24 November 2000 and
RIGHT solo at the Hôtel Mercure, Cognac, Blues Passions Festival 2004.

Photo © Eddy Bonte

DISCOGRAPHY

7”         Little Jimmy & The Sharks: Love at First Sight / All I Need, 1967?, Cardinal 3084, picture sleeve

7”         Little Jimmy + R & R High School: Roll Suzy, Roll / Teach Me To Lie, 1971, Columbia 4C 006-23377,  art sleeve 

CD      Don Croissant:: Live at the Club, 1996, cat. no.  CM001

CD      Don Croissant:: Loaded with Extras, 1998, cat. no. RW 5025

10”       Don Croissant Boogie with the Tiger, 2000, cat. no. RWV 0002

(EB)

First version finished on 19 April 1999, updated 3 March 2001. First published on this site in 2007.