Heavy Metal Soundhouse / Bandwagon
Printed From: Speakerplans.com
Category: Other Chat
Forum Name: Golden oldies
Forum Description: Post all historic interesting items, stories and photos here (no, not your Nan)
URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=109143
Printed Date: 26 March 2026 at 4:25pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Heavy Metal Soundhouse / Bandwagon
Posted By: godathunder
Subject: Heavy Metal Soundhouse / Bandwagon
Date Posted: 25 June 2025 at 10:29am
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Im off to see iron maiden in dublin this evening and have had a bit of a nostalgia trip into their origins. One of the venues that looms large in their mythos was the bandwagon / heavy metal soundhouse, a rock and metal club run by dj neal kay (excellent moustache, fu manchu would have been proud) in kingsbury, north london from around 1975-1980. It sounds to have had an unusually large sound system for the time, 8kw and piled up to the ceiling are the phrases that come to mind. I found a couple of photos - looks to be a pair of 4520 scoops, a martin 2x15 horn? and, going by the aesthetics, some other martin cabs for the mids and highs. The partial shot of the amp rack doesnt ring any bells, any idea what they were? So, did any of the forum's oaps ever bang their heads or enter an air guitar contest at the bandwagon?   ------------- LOUDER THAN LOUD |
Replies:
Posted By: Robbo
Date Posted: 25 June 2025 at 4:02pm
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The horn loaded bass cabinets on top of the double scoops are Mega B212(loaded with two long coil rubber surround ATC 12" drivers---the Fibreglass mid horns are Mega mids loaded with 9" ATC mid drivers--The twin horn HF cabinets are again Mega loaded with two screw on Peavey compression drivers and the four way bullets are again Mega loaded with Spanish made bullets. Cannot tell from that pic what the amps were sorry. |
Posted By: VECTORDJ
Date Posted: 25 June 2025 at 4:39pm
| A+ |
Posted By: Robbo
Date Posted: 25 June 2025 at 7:03pm
| Forgot to mention earlier that the two drivers in the RH scoop are Celestion Powercells---A very popular driver back in the seventies as they were almost impossible to blow. |
Posted By: woody2
Date Posted: 25 June 2025 at 9:45pm
| jps amps. |
Posted By: Robbo
Date Posted: 25 June 2025 at 11:06pm
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I thought that they may be JPS amps as we had a boatload of them in the seventies due to getting a cracking deal from Paul, one of the partners but I was not totally sure. We were really happy with the amps performance especially driving bottom end but found them a bit delicate out on the road due to a flimsy bit of cabinet design---but installed in a venue would have been an ideal scenario for them. |
Posted By: godathunder
Date Posted: 26 June 2025 at 2:52am
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fair play, a wealth of knowledge chaps. Id love to know if anyone actually heard it there maiden were, as ever, excellent this evening ------------- LOUDER THAN LOUD |
Posted By: BrainlessTekno
Date Posted: 26 June 2025 at 8:58am
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can someone lead me to a plans of Mega B212? i could not find anything online ------------- BarSick / barsik soundsystem Dont want to toot my own horn but toot toot |
Posted By: Robbo
Date Posted: 26 June 2025 at 9:27am
| No plans are available anywhere for any of the Mega bass cabinets. |
Posted By: BrainlessTekno
Date Posted: 26 June 2025 at 9:48am
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yeah i tought so, its a shame that world will never see any of theese cabs again ------------- BarSick / barsik soundsystem Dont want to toot my own horn but toot toot |
Posted By: APC321
Date Posted: 26 June 2025 at 7:04pm
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I grew up in Kingsbury. The Bandwagon was behind the Prince of Wales pub, where my dad used to drink with his mates, and come home totally pissed, much to the annoyance of my mum. I think that the Bandwagon was originally the function room for the Prince of Wales, which was a big victorian pub. Both the Bandwagon and the Prince of Wales got demolished many years ago, and on the site now stands a Tesco Express beneath a modern apartment block. Bought back good memories for me, thanks for posting. |
Posted By: jbl_man
Date Posted: 27 June 2025 at 9:23am
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The 4520 scoop bin on the right (the one without the grille) has a pair of Celestion powercel 15's in there.
------------- Be seeing you. |
Posted By: godathunder
Date Posted: 27 June 2025 at 1:15pm
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oh no, there are soul boys in my rock and roll thread.............. I used to have a 12" powercell loaded into a w bin as one of my early bass guitar cabs. Not sure what became of it but it certainly took some abuse without flinching ------------- LOUDER THAN LOUD |
Posted By: Bams
Date Posted: 28 June 2025 at 12:14pm
| I miss our gauss loaded 4520’s … but man. You can almost smell that picture -in a positive way- |
Posted By: njw
Date Posted: 28 June 2025 at 11:00pm
I reckon some early 90's rave, jungle or d&b would have sounded bloody awesome on that system...
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godathunder wrote: