Ken Testi
title: "Ken Testi" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["british-impresarios", "businesspeople-from-liverpool", "living-people", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)"] topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Testi" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
Ken Testi is British entrepreneur most notable for his involvement with the bands Queen and Deaf School and with the Liverpool music venue Eric's Club.
Biography
In the mid-1960s whilst at school, Testi began promoting shows in venues as diverse as scout huts, youth clubs, schools, pubs and civic halls. |last=Florek|first=Jaki |year=2001 |title=Bridge Over Muddy Waters |publisher=Feeedback |isbn=978-0-9540326-0-9
During 1970, as a college social secretary, Testi continued to follow Mercury’s progress with Roger Taylor and Brian May in the newly formed Queen and arranged three shows for the band; at a youth club in Potters Bar, at St Helens College of Technology and at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. |last=Jackson|first=Laura |year=1994 |title=Queen and I: The Brian May Story |publisher=Smith Gryphon |isbn=978-1-85685-099-5 |last=Blake|first=Mark |year=2010 |title=Is This the Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen |publisher=Aurum |isbn=978-1-84513-659-8
In mid-1972 Testi returned to Merseyside, working with local musicians until 1974 when he met members of a band from Liverpool College of Art who had taken their name from the building where they rehearsed – Deaf School. Deaf School became the spark that ignited a creative, musical explosion in Liverpool which had seen scant original musical output since The Beatles. |last=du Noyer|first=Paul |year=2004 |title=Liverpool - Wondrous Place: From the Cavern to the Capital of Culture |publisher=Virgin Books |isbn=978-0-7535-0840-4
During two years of tour management with Deaf School, Testi formed an alliance with Roger Eagle. The two first met in the 1960s at the Magic Village in Manchester. Together they established Eric's Club in Mathew Street, Liverpool in 1976. The first band to play was Deaf School, followed by many of the leading acts of the day: The Stranglers, The Runaways, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, Elvis Costello, The Police, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, The Clash, The Ramones and Talking Heads, amongst others. |last=Cope|first=Julian |year=1994 |title=Head-on: Memories of the Liverpool Punk Scene and the Story of the Teardrop Explodes, 1976-82 |publisher=Head Heritage |isbn=978-0-9526719-0-9
Before it closed in March 1980, many new local acts had been encouraged to take to the stage for the first time including Jayne Casey, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie and Holly Johnson (Big in Japan), Paul Rutherford and Budgie (The Spitfire Boys) and Pete Wylie. |last1=Florek|first1=Jaki |last2=Whelan|first2=Paul |year=2009 |title=Liverpool Eric's - all the best clubs are downstairs, everybody knows that . . . |publisher=Feeedback |isbn=978-0-9540326-2-3 |publisher=Museum of Liverpool |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/erics |title=Spotlight on Eric's Club |accessdate=1 December 2011
In 1988 Testi persuaded Deaf School to reform for a series of shows, from which Clive Langer produced a live album, 2nd Coming: Liverpool '88. In 2008 Testi produced an Eric’s Show at Liverpool Academy featuring acts from the club.{{cite web |work=Liverpool.com |url=http://www.liverpool.com/features/eric-s-legends-back-on-stage-in-liverpool.html |title=Eric's legends back on stage in Liverpool |date=27 July 2008 |accessdate=1 December 2011 |archive-date=7 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407092517/http://www.liverpool.com/features/eric-s-legends-back-on-stage-in-liverpool.html |url-status=dead |last=Cottrell Boyce|first=Frank |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/sep/23/musicals.popandrock |title='We were the guinea pigs of punk' |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=23 September 2008 |accessdate=1 December 2011
Testi currently runs a company called Eric's Productions Limited, where he produces a number of shows each year for Deaf School, and their celebrity guests who regularly include Suggs and Lee Thompson (Madness), Kevin Rowland (Dexys Midnight Runners) and Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds). |last=Simpson|first=Dave |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jul/21/catalyst-bands-ruthless-rap-assassins |title='Catalyst bands': What do you mean, you've never heard of them? |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=21 July 2011 |accessdate=1 December 2011
References
References
- Gunn, Jacky & Jenkins, Jim (1992). Queen: As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. {{ISBN. 978-0-283-06052-6
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