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Erin Jones, daughter of rock drummer Kenney Jones (Small Faces, Faces and The Who) will be running for two key charities MS Society and Prostate Cancer. The Half Marathon takes place on Saturday 12th March in London. Dig deep and give generously. https://www.justgiving.com/teams/erinjones1  Erin pictured here with her mum Jayne Jones (left) and dad Kenney
Photo by Phil Weedon FIRST NIGHT 7th APRIL 2016 WAS DEDICATED TO SMALL FACES FAN CLUB SECRETARY PAULINE CORCORAN WHO SADLY DIED ON 14th JANUARY 2016 We lost our lovely Pauline on 14th January this year (2016) following a short illness. April 7th would’ve been Pauline’s 67th Birthday and she was so looking forward to seeing the musical. The loss of Pauline has not only left a huge gap in my life but also for the fans that she had reconnected with since 2006. She was such a special person. Tolerant, good natured and mature beyond her years. It’s what made her such an ideal fan club secretary. The Small Faces band members loved her dearly too. They were like her brothers. Pauline started working for the Small Faces as their fan club secretary right at the start of their rise to fame in 1965 following the release of their hit single Whatcha Gonna Do About It. She continued to work loyally in that role, right up until the time the band disbanded in 1969. When she went for the interview with Don Arden she was hoping the vacancy was to work for The Who, as she really liked them, so when Don Arden told her it was the Small Faces she’d be working with she looked rather disappointed. That response got her the job! Don told her he didn’t want someone who would be in awe of the band. He wanted someone who wasn’t going to be dazzled by their fame. Being a fan club secretary for a professional famous band was one of the most envied positions back then. But Pauline was so grounded she handled all of it with such calm and dignity. She travelled almost everywhere with them, going on tours, including Europe and even accompanied them to television studios for the recording of programmes like Ready Steady Go and Top of the Pops. Don Arden told Pauline he wanted her to have unlimited access to the band so that she would have all the information she needed to write her fan club newsletters. There were two other girls who worked in the fan club office with us. The receptionist was called Stella, a young mum with two children, and then there was Linda, Don’s secretary. I was so fortunate in getting that job working with Pauline. I had been a fan and used to hang out at the office helping out as a volunteer. Pauline and I just hit it off and we became best friends. She really begged Don to take me on full time. He obviously knew what a huge fan I was, but I had to promise him I would behave myself, especially as the band came into the office a lot. We had such a laugh everyday in that office, but we worked really hard too as there was so much to get through. We didn’t have computers back then and everything was answered on a manual typewriter. It was quite amazing to think that Pauline was only 16 years old herself and she handled her role with such maturity. The workload she had to deal with everyday was huge, coping with thousands of letters and she would answer as many of them personally as she could. The phone calls from fans were non stop too. Then there were the newsletters, produced every few months, that she wrote herself. All so incredible for someone so young. I don’t think I ever saw her get angry or stressed, she was so good natured and always smiling. The band could be quite a handful when they came up the office, always in high spirits and mucking about. Although we all loved them coming into the office it could be quite disruptive, but Pauline handled them very well and I never saw her get irritated with them, even when they answered her phone or messed with her typewriter, adding funny messages to letters that Pauline would be half way through typing. Kenney was the main culprit, although he was the quiet one, he was also the joker. Mac was mostly well behaved and sensible, it may be that he was still fairly new and finding his place. Steve had a special bond with Pauline, often using her as his confidant. He was probably the closest to Pauline out of all of them. Ronnie was the cheeky one, always trying to flirt with her, but Pauline knew exactly how to handle all of them. To Pauline they were her brothers who needed looking after. When the Small Faces left Don Arden’s management Pauline went with the band to work from the Immediate offices. Eventually, in future years, she ended up working from home for them until the band finally disbanded. Pauline went on to work for Don Arden again when he took over the management of the band Amen Corner, and he asked Pauline if she would be their fan club secretary. Pauline and I remained friends throughout this time and even both got married to musicians in the same band. We both had two children and lived close by for a few years until she moved away. We lost contact when Pauline’s husband, drummer Dave Neal, joined the Suzi Quatro band and because he was touring abroad a lot Pauline and the children went with him. But, thanks to the internet, we reconnected in 2006 and we picked up on our friendship like we’d never been apart. We had ten wonderful years reconnecting again with Kenney, Mac and of course the fans. Pauline was a beautiful person and I think it’s so lovely to have the first night of the All or Nothing musical dedicated to her. Such a fitting tribute. All or Nothing was her favourite Small Faces song and was being played as she passed peacefully. It was also played at her funeral. She will be missed so much, but we were so lucky to have her in our lives. Val Weedon Best friend and Fan Club Assistant. Article updated 2025  
These are my pride and joy and thought it would be nice to share them with a wider audience. They were written by fan club secretary Pauline Corcoran who was just 16 years old when Small Faces manager Don Arden employed her. She had unique access to the band, attending concerts and tv appearances, at the instruction of Don Arden who told Pauline it would enable her to gather the material she needed to write her newsletters. They were published about every 3 months throughout 1966 and there is one last one published around April 1967 when the Small Faces moved management from Don Arden to Harold Davison and Tito Burns. When the fan club was run from Don Arden's offices in Carnaby Street fans were able to visit the office fairly easily. Well, it's how I got my job working for them. Unknown to my parents, I used to scive off my day job in a boring City office and go to Carnaby Street to help Pauline in the fan club offices instead! Eventually I got offered a full time position helping Pauline. But when they moved management I went to work with Galaxy Entertainments (the agency that handled all the tour concerts for the band) whilst Pauline went to new management offices alone. In the first newsletter she produced there, she announced to fans that "you will no longer be able to visit us anymore.." She revealed some years later that the new management resented her position and made her feel very uncomfortable, giving her a really cramped office the size of a cupboard and not being particularly friendly towards her. In time she ended up running the fan club from her home in Wembley until the time when the Small Faces finally split.
These old newsletters make fascinating reading and for a mere 16 year old Pauline did an amazing job relaying stories to the fans that were full of intimate facts about the band and what they did and how they felt about life at that time. Pauline Corcoran is the official fan club secretary for the sixties band Small Faces. Pauline started working for the band in 1965 when she was just 16 years old. She had trained as a secretary and this was her first full time job. Her mother worked for Thames Television as a make-up artist and Pauline wanted to follow her mother's footsteps and work for the entertainment business. When she got the call to go for an interview working for a "Pop music group" she was very excited and had expected it to be working for the "other" Mod band "The Who".
The interview took place at number 52-55 Carnaby Street, right in the heart of the Mod shopping district in the west end of London. Interviewing her was the notorious Impresario (known as the God Father of Pop) Don Arden. When told which band it was she was visibly disappointed. But her reaction got her the job as Don said he didn't want someone who would be in awe of the band. He needed someone who would be totally professional as she would have unique access to the band that no one else would have, accompanying them on tours and television appearances. Don explained to Pauline that this access was necessary so that she had an inside knowledge of what the band got up to on a daily basis and this would provide her with the material she needed to write newsletters and respond to press enquiries. Pauline continued to work with the Small Faces after they left Don Arden's management, when they went to Immediate records, although she felt she was not well treated by the record company and in time ended up working from home until the band finally split. Pauline was then approached by Don Arden once again when he took over management of the band Amen Corner, and Pauline was offered job running their fan club. The book Pauline is available via Blurb, the publishers website, where a full preview copy can be seen. It has been compiled by Pauline's assistant Val Weedon MBE who worked alongside Pauline at the fan club offices throughout 1966. http://www.blurb.co.uk/books/6736840-pauline So, today I decided it was time to share my passions and thoughts with a wider audience. Having bored my friends and close family for a number of years with my constant moaning and threats of "going to do it", it was time to take action! So, here I am.
The reason I've set up my own blog is that I find Facebook and Twitter restrictive. Often I would refrain from going on about stuff for fear I may offend. It just didn't seem the right public forum to express my thoughts, particularly on wider issues other than what the cat had done today. Although I may from time to time reflect on such matters in my Blog. I also feel that however kind I try to be in putting over my strong opinions, I fear I may be coming across as an attention seeker, which I am, but want to appear to be nice at all times. As a writer I worry constantly about what people think of me. I like being nice. So, as someone who hates conflict, but loves expressing her thoughts and opinions I apologise in advance if you don't like what I say. I do try to be fair and take into consideration others likely opinions, so feel free to express them in response to my ramblings. I always want nice things to happen as a result of any campaigning issues I write about. So, unlike many others who moan about stuff, I do try to have a point to what I say and will highlight what I think needs to be done to improve a situation so that things are nicer all round and I will not moan about stuff just for the sake of it. Others do that so much better than me. Of course I am no push-over. I am a Scorpion. Say no more! |
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