The Beat groups made a mighty scene in pre-troubles Belfast.
A bit of history ...the first Belfast recordings in the sixties were. .
Phil Coulter wrote and recorded 'Foolin' Time' recorded to be sold for the Student Rag week 1964, recorded by Pete Lloyd in a room in QUB with blankets hanging on the walls to dull the sound!
Teddie Palmer and Dinger Bell of the Stranmillis College based group 'The Spectres', wrote and recorded 'The Facts of Life' again for the Rag Day charities, in 1965. As a collectors' item it now is worth around £300, it was one of the earliest recorded records recognising the Belfast Blues Scene and is now described in collector circles as ''an early example of the Belfast Sound'.
This recording was in Pete Lloyd's new recording studio in Cromac Square, where Van Morrison also recorded some of his early tracks, before he went on to world fame.
Sixties Belfast was a seven days a week non stop hub of live music, sadly destroyed by the bombs as the 60s ended.
You can find a lot of groups you may know at:
www.irishshowbands.net where there is a Beat Group section.
Also at Www.irish-showbands.com in the Irish Rock/Beat groups section.
