‘The dancing Slipper in Nottingham was one of the principal Midlands venues for touring bands. Run by an enthusiastic, one-armed promoter called Bill Kinnell (known to us all affectionately as Foo), the Slipper was a permanent fixture throughout the entire trad revival, and only finally closed in the early 1970s. The sound system at the Slipper was provided by an electronics enthusiast called Allan Gilmour. He was a delightful man with a large moustache and he adored jazz. With the permission of the bands (and I never heard of one refusing) he recorded every session at the Slipper from the early 1960s onwards. Covering every band which ever played the club circuit, this treasure trove of over 1000 hours of well-balanced material was kept private for 35 years. Sadly Allen died recently and LAKE has entered into an arrangement with the estate to issue the best of the library’.
"Thus, at the age of sixteen, my allegiance was transferred from the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground to Bill Kinnell's Jazz Record Shop on the Wilford Road. "
I Am a Linguist: With a Foreword by Peter Matthews By R.M.W. Dixon
