WHEN he steps on stage at Eastleigh’s Concorde Club it will be like turning the clock back 45 years.

For trombone star Roy Williams was in the Alex Welsh Band headlining the gig which marked the club’s move to Stoneham Lane.

On August 19 the award winning musician will return to The Concorde as part of an all-star jazz line-up celebrating the 45th anniversary.

Roy, pictured here on that opening night, has taken his music around the globe but the Stoneham Lane club has always been close to his heart.

He said: “I am looking forward to playing on this special anniversary. This is one of the premier clubs in the country and I always love playing here.”

The Victorian village schoolhouse has become an international stage for master class jazz sessions and one of the south’s top entertainment spots.

And the history of its transformation has been well documented in the club records.

Before it moved out of town The Concorde ran from the back room of Southampton’s old Bassett Hotel.

It was founded nearly 60 years ago by jazz aficionado and former drummer Cole Mathieson but time was nearly called on The Concorde when the Burgess Road watering hole had a major makeover.

Cole recalled: “There was a revolution going on among the major breweries as they started to launch pub/restaurant chains, such as Berni and Schooner Inns.

“I knew the Concorde would not survive if they decided to convert the Bassett Hotel.”

Fears over the future of the popular club triggered a Save The Concorde campaign backed by the Southern Daily Echo.

A protest petition attracted hundreds of signatures.

Fearing that last orders would be called on the thriving live music venue, Cole launched a search for an alternative location and the long, winding, overgrown path led to the Concorde’s current home in Stoneham Lane.

His immediate concern was that the old rundown schoolhouse in North Stoneham was too remote.

Cole recalled: “The building had been standing empty for years and was in a terrible state. It was positioned down a narrow, snaking lane on which two cars could not pass each other.

“The prospect of making it work as a jazz club seemed to my amateur eyes pretty hopeless.”

But a good friend, Roland Tucker, who by then was developing a reputation as an international design consultant, had a vision.

He made sketches and did a quick budget on the back of a matchbox. The school and the couple of acres of land in which it stood were up for sale for £7,250.

Faced with the prospect of raising a mortgage of £12,000 to cover all the costs Cole put his business proposition to a procession of bank managers.

But the phrase “jazz club” did not fill them with confidence.

Finally he turned to his local bank branch manager, who agreed to give him a loan and the blue touch paper was lit on Concorde Mark 2.

Then the huge operation got underway to transform the old schoolhouse into a jazz club.

Cole said he would not have done it without the help of scores of members who gave up their spare time to decorate the building and clear the jungle like grounds.

During the restoration work they found behind a coalbunker a vast safe which belonged to the school and the club still use today.

They also discovered in the far corner of the overgrown garden a pair of shoes nailed high on the trunk of a tree.

For many years a traditional gypsy caravan stood in the grounds and it is a gypsy custom to nail a pair of shoes in the same way as a horse shoe for luck.

Not wishing to tempt fate Cole left the shoes there. Later they were swept away when the bulldozers moved in to make way for the M27 link road.

The Alex Welsh Band opened the club on August 18, 1970. There was also a discotheque with admission by advance ticket, costing the princely sum of £1.

The weekly programme was – dancing to top groups (Sundays) Dancing at the Sweet Sounds Discotheque (Monday) jazz workshop (Tuesday) discotheque (Wednesday) special presentation night (Thursday) traditional jazz night (Friday) Saturday Night Out Discotheque (Saturday)

In those opening weeks the acts included Shakin Stevens, Adge Cutler and The Wurzels and Peter Starstedt.

They became household names like a procession of musicians who have appeared at The Concorde, including Rod Stewart, Elton John, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton and Manfred Mann.

Reflecting its village school past the bar menu had in the early days an academic flavour. Called school dinners, for 14 pence you could buy Bunter Splits – a giant French roll filled with a wide range of ingredients. Ploughman’s lunch was known as School Gardeners’ Lunch, costing 12p; a Headmaster’s Doorstop (Scotch Egg) and a Playtime Snack (pork pie) were 9p each.

Club members could buy a glass of wine for 16p or indulge in bottles of wine from 31p.

Champagne was a mouthwatering £2 a bottle. And the corks on the bottles of bubbly will soon be popping to celebrate the 45th anniversary.

l The45th Anniversary of the Concorde with an star jazz line up will take place on Wednesday, August 19 at The Concorde, Stoneham Lane, Eastleigh. Contact: 023 8061 3989 or theconcordeclub.com.