A bid to mark one of Cornwall’s great lost music venues – which is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket – is being seriously considered by a parish council.

A music fan has asked the council to contemplate getting the ball rolling on a possible blue plaque, or even a sculpture, to mark where the mighty Flamingo Ballroom once stood.

The club and live music venue ran from 1958 to 1979 in Pool and the site was previously part of the Wheal Agar section of East Pool and Agar Mines.

It was started by Charlie Simpson and later taken on by his no-nonsense daughter Joy Hone, one of the few women working in the music industry at the time. The Flamingo was believed to be the largest venue of its kind in the west of England, with capacity for 1,300 people and parking for 1,000 cars.

Former pop star Peter Noone was one of those who played the venue as singer with Herman’s Hermits in 1965. He recalled: “I remember the Flamingo because we had to return from an American tour and a Hollywood movie set and Redruth was exactly what our over-inflated egos needed. Those were the days.”

The list of legendary names who played the Flamingo is almost endless – Gene Vincent, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Canned Heat, Deep Purple, Hawkwind, Judas Priest, Mott The Hoople, Pink Floyd, Slade, Small Faces, Smile (pre-Queen Brian May and Roger Taylor), Sparks and Status Quo, who performed three times between 1968 and 1973.

Others who took to the Ballroom stage included The Sweet, The Kinks (three times in 1966 and 67), The Move, The Pretty Things, The Troggs, The Who, The Yardbirds (featuring three legendary guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page), Thin Lizzy, Tom Jones and Wishbone Ash.

David Bowie attended a gig there on New Year’s Eve 1968 by the Empty Vessels, who later became Wishbone Ash, after he played two shows in Falmouth on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

Music fan John Penna, whose parents still live just yards from the former Flamingo, has contacted Carn Brea Parish Council in a bid for this Mecca for Cornish music fans of a certain age to be marked and remembered.

He said: “Unfortunately, the venue no longer exists, but its legacy endures. Redruth, despite being an area faced with challenges, was once a beacon of cultural significance, hosting performances by some of the world’s most renowned musicians.

“The absence of a memorial to commemorate the club and these historic performances is a missed opportunity to celebrate our rich cultural heritage and inspire current and future generations. An idea would be a blue plaque or even a sculpture by some local artists. People would go to see it and could even spend money in the supermarket.

“Locals are probably not even aware that the most famous musicians on the planet were in Redruth.”

Andrew Moyle-Browning, clerk of the parish council, has said that Mr Penna’s request will be passed to the amenities and projects committee in March and the council would be supportive of an approach to Morrisons with a view to publicising the full history of the site, including its mining heritage.

The venue was not without its controversies, including a much-publicised appearance by burgeoning stars Pink Floyd in 1967.

Frontman Syd Barrett’s LSD-fuelled paranoia had worsened during the year, reaching crisis point in December when the band felt they had to add a new member to cover his erratic behaviour. That new member was David Gilmour.

It was this version of Pink Floyd that drove to Pool, at a time when psychedelia in Cornwall simply meant chatting to a cow as you digested magic mushrooms in a farmer’s field.

The band – featuring Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Nick Mason, Gilmour and Barrett – played almost all of debut album Piper At The Gates of Dawn, but Syd visually worsened as the night wore on. By the end of the gig he had been unplugged, strumming on his guitar slightly off stage.

Pink Floyd obviously felt the wrath of Flamingo owner Joy, who was known not to suffer fools. She was often concerned that performers would not show, so would make sure a contract was in place.

The website Kernow Beat recalls how Joy would call everybody “my lovelies”. One night she told Slade to turn the volume down “or I’ll pull the plug, my lovelies”, while Small Faces also faced her wrath for failing to listen properly to the night's running order - resulting in a dressing down on stage.

The Flamingo really does deserve a blue plaque, doesn’t it?

Many thanks to Kernow Beat, the website which chronicles the Cornish music scene of the 1960s and 1970s, for historical information.