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NB: Photos (except the one of Wynne & John Coombe) specially taken for TAG by me. Do not reproduce without credit to this web site. Tanx.
A LEGENDARY Kidderminster music venue, which hosted the likes of Captain Beefheart and Fleetwood Mac in its heyday, has been commemorated by historians.A blue plaque was unveiled outside Frank Freeman's Ballroom in Mill Street by John Coombe, of Kidderminster Civic Society, in front of former students and musicians, including Led Zeppelin's ex-frontman, Robert Plant.
John Coombe, the author of Get Your Kicks on the A456 chose last Thursday for the ceremony, as it was John Peel Day and the late Radio 1 DJ was a regular visitor.
Mr Coombe said: "I have wanted to do something like this for a long time. Frank Freeman's played an important part in Kidderminster's musical history. "Great bands, including Tyrannosaurus Rex and Captain Beefheart, played there between 1968 and 1971.
"John Peel also thought very highly of Frank's and used to drive bands up from London.
He drove Marc Bolan up to play lots of times. He would have been very happy that we had given this award to Frank."
Mr Freeman and his wife, Wynne (seen right with John Coombe) , opened the school in 1956, teaching a variety of dances, from waltz and foxtrot to rumba and jive, and it also served as a venue for up and coming British bands.After he died in 1991, his widow continued to run the hall and teach in the studio until it finally closed in 2003. Mrs Freeman, who lives in a Kidderminster street named after her husband - Frank Freeman Court - said the special tribute made her feel "happy but sad" because her husband was not there to share it with her.
She added: "He didn't think of people as pupils - he saw everyone that came as friends. He treated them all the same and didn't have any favourites."
Mrs Freeman also has fond memories of Peel. "John Peel came up on Sunday night six weeks running to appear," she said, "He used to say in the papers that his number one venue was Frank Freeman's and that Frank was the nicest man he had ever met during his travels."
Speaking at the unveiling, Plant said the venue was an important part of youth culture at the time, adding: "We were like an extended family here. "We had no idea what the future was going to offer us and we were always made welcome."
