Unbeknownst to me at the

time the music scene in the lower mainland in 1965 was really happening. I was 13 years old in 1965 too young to be aware of this music scene other then what I heard on the radio. There was a club in New Westminster called the Groove yard, which was a teen/young adult dance (18-25-ish ) club. Before that it was called The Hollywood bowl  I even stumbled upon a YouTube video about this as well. Hard to believe the Groove yard was only a few doors down from where I lived in 1974, 9 years later on the same street acts like The Supreme's, The Epics, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, The Kingsmen, Paul Ravere and the Raiders and many others were performing there. Bobby Taylor later  helped the Jackson 5 to get a record deal as well. Now I'm not a huge R&B fan or anything but the Groove yard was the place for young people in the 1960's to be and I think even into the 1970's. For years I recall a club Gord and I went to a club called "The Gold Nugget." Or "The Golden Nugget,” I'm not even sure where that name "The Gold Nugget" or something like that came from. Maybe Gord said somethng like, "I know this club where we might get lucky. Maybe we'll get a nugget or something." Maybe no such club called the "Gold nugget" or whatever, even existed in New Westminster in 1974. But maybe it was called Groove yard club. I was 22 years old at the time. I seem to recall us walking West down 6th street by where the Crown Tower apartments are now. Or maybe it was walking down Carnarvon from my place 631 Carnarvon. That was almost 40 years ago. I didn’t even know the Groove yard club existed until just the other day and I was almost shocked when I read the address from this article: 759 Carnavon. The Groove yard (New Westminster as there was another club with the same name by the same promoter in downtown Vancouver) New Westminster is on the site of something today called “The Metro Hall.” It’s probably been a lot of businesses over the years. I tried checking Waite Global to see if there was any 1982 references to the Groove yard but most shots are too far away too zoom in on any detail. There is an email address for the site owner but it has a .de extension (German)  but I left a couple of comments on a YouTube. The last post was I think 8 months ago. I'll keep checking a couple of times a year to see if I get a reply.

I know, I've been down memory lane lately but it's all part of my master plan to find some closure in the gaps of my memory.  I did a bit more digging on this and "Burnaby Bands and East End Friends Reunion III" met recently May 29 2010 at the Metro Hall for a reunion. That must have been an awesome night. Now that I think about it the club Gord and I visited that night (1974/75) was the Groove yard. It had to be. The Groove yard closed in 1968 and then "Magilla's." When Gord and I went it was probably called Magillia's after 1968-74 because they had The Collectors played there and that was before Chilliwack. I might have heard of The Collectors while at the VGH in 1967-68. Radio was about my only friend in those days. 
   
I emailed someone from the Metro Hall (formally of the Groove yard, lets see if a get an answer. I got an update from Metro Hall but nothing substantial. There might have been a club called the Gold Nugget in New West at the time but I can't locate a reference for it. There doesn't seem to be a New Westminster Forum like our Connect 2 Edmonton here.

I also added 4 links to my growing list of links. I have Strategy & Tactics magazine, Warp 1, Sentry Box, Decision games. They publish S&T among other games etc. Anyway that's about all for now. 

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