Both these bands used to play at a venue called "Martin's Place" in of course Martin Place in Sydney. Used to have telephone on each table and you could dial the number of other tables to asked a girl of your fancy for a dance. Ahead of its time and was a good night out. Those were the days.
I remember "Martins Place",my first job was with the ANZ Bank nearby on the corner with George St.,myself and work mates would head up there on a Friday night after first 'filling' up at the Australian Hotel or Forbes Tavern up in King Street.It wasn't opened for long IIRC,less than a year, so then we started going to the "Mariners Bar" underneath the Carlton Rex Hotel and then onto the Stage Coach Restaurant or the Mandarin Club that were both open to 3am.
Mariners Bar in the late 1960's or early 1970's was a great place for meeting girls,also lots of League types like Ken Irvine,Johnny Raper,Jim Mills(Norths Welsch prop) were there every Friday night for 2 or 3 years.
Best memory from that era was meeting 2 Lufthansa Hostesses one Friday night,they were English and had rooms upstairs in the Hotel,my mate and i spent the W/end with them in the Hotel,first Girls that we had met that were on the Pill,wasn't widespread amongst Aussie girls at that time.I never forgot that experience,still think about nearly 50 years later.
We all stayed away from the Cross,very seedy even in those days,also lots of fights with louts from the outer Suburbs coming into Sydney looking to pick fights with the young Americans here on R&R from Vietnam.
