Aural Alchemy
A Brief History Of Clubbing In Belfast
For years Northern Ireland during the Troubles was a literal war zone where bomb scares, murders and kidnappings were daily realities. Belfast went from being a place where musicians like Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin (who played “Stairway to Heaven” for the first time ever live in the city’s Ulster Hall) and Van Morrison would play major city centre gigs, to a city whose centre was cordoned off at night by the British military.
Many international acts refused to come to play.
“There were something like 80 clubs in the centre of Belfast during the 1960s. Then In the 1970s and 1980s we lost a lot of civic life of the most important kind, we lost nightlife. The pubs, the musical venues, we lost the centre.” said Glenn Patterson who co-wrote the script for the movie Good Vibrations.
This new film details Terri Hooley who was the manager of The Undertones and his influence on the Northern Ireland punk scene and how he decided that despite the violence, people could be united through music. Mr. Hooley opened the Good Vibrations Record in 1977 as a neutral space where punkers and music lovers from both sides of the sectarian divide could come together.
“In the middle of a civil war, where you have kids from both hardcore Republican and Loyalist neighborhoods, to be able to turn their back on that when it is in their face every single day and say, ‘You know, I love the Clash, I love the Sex Pistols and I want to put a safety pin through my nose, not a bullet through someone’s head’, as dramatic as it sounds, that was the choice for a lot of kids,” said David Holmes, a musician and film composer who co-produced the movie.
During these years most of the nightclubs in Belfast city centre closed their doors forever just as disco mania then punk had arrived, these should have been the years where nightclubs where booming to the sound of a disco beat, as they were everywhere else in the world. The “Troubles” arrived in full force to Belfast; the club scene died away and became very low key, as people became afraid to leave their local communities. The capital remained like this during the political turmoil of the 70's and 80’s, but in the centre some clubs remained, they where just pushed more underground but that never stopped the people of Northern Ireland partying, who have always responded to music, as an escape of the troubles and grimness of what was happening politically around them.
Three significant music movements hit Belfast, first was the rhythm and blues of 1964-66. Next was punk’s fierce outburst, which peaked between 1977 and 1978. Then there was the extra-large era of house and techno which dropped in sometime around 1988 and has been massive in Belfast ever since.
The focus of this article is to shine a light onto some of the forgotten clubs that existed right up to the beginning of the House and Techno revolution, to talk about the places; where people climbed over barriers to party, where sexuality and religion never came into question thus shaping the clubs and the nightlife of Belfast.
The King Arthur
We begin with The King Arthur Nightclub, Corn Market, Belfast.
%2C_October_2009.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
“I went there around 82-83.” Says Gavin Bloomer “From memory it was on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. I think it was 50p in. It was an amazing club and had a really cool mix of people.”
“We were Mods at the time, and the crowd was a mixture of Mods and ‘Trendies’. It was a big dance hall, with booth type seating down one side, and a balcony at the back. The bar was under the balcony, and the dance floor was in front of that. I think it also had a sprung dance floor.”
“What I really remember was how people were dressed, and I started to think that there was a whole lot going on beyond being a Mod. There were two brothers there who dressed really like 40s style. This was before that look had really become a fashion, and these guys had it down to a tee. They had short back and sides, wore tank tops and open neck shirts, wide oxford bag trousers, and loafers or brogues. They looked the shit! We used to call them The Sullivan's, after the Australian TV show that was set during the Second World War.”
“There was a guy who used to go there who we called Steady Eddie. He was a big lanky guy with a tremendous wedge, a moustache, and a floor length trench coat, which was a real achievement, given his height.” “One night we were queuing up outside the club when one of those street sweeping trucks came along Arthur Street. As it came level with the queue, we saw Eddie sitting over the wheel arch holding nonchalantly onto the big side mirror and posing. The truck pulled up, Eddie jumped down, dusted off his trench coat and strolled up to the door. Legend!”
Jules Nightclub
Next we talk about Jules Nightclub. Jules was on the top floor of a building at the corner of lower North Street and Royal Avenue. Jules only came to life when the rest of the city centre closed down. Their ethos was an anything goes policy that celebrated differences of every kind; be it; religion, class, race or sexuality.
Jules was mostly frequented by the gay community, it created a safe and free environment for them, in the midst of the violent troubles that surrounded Belfast at the time, because of this a lot of straight people also partied here.
As Belfast legend Terri Hooley says “The thing about clubs in Belfast no one ever talks about is that the Gay clubs were the safest and most fun places to be during the troubles, as no-one ever questioned your religion, unlike all the other straight clubs at the time. Oh and the music was great as well”
So was Jules a conscious place of escapism from Belfast and its violent behaviour?
Alexandra McKinney “Of course at the time we never thought this, but in retrospect Jules was definitely a means of escape from the greyness, bleakness, and frustratingly strict conservative narrow-minded communities. We were a crowd that simply were not prepared to bow down to the established authority in Belfast at that time. We were not going to surrender to ridiculous religious impositions, be told how to behave or what to wear. Nor would we entertain bigoted divisions, racism and we would fight for our friends’ right to be openly gay. Many withstood the jeers on the streets because although we weren't great intellectuals, there was this common sense among us [unspoken of course] that we were RIGHT and NI society was wrong. And we were right”
At the time, word generally got around the cool clubbing crowd that there was a new club opening. One of the main interests being Jules was a club that stayed opened after all the others closed.
Alexandra McKinney “It was opened till wee hours - which was unheard of in those days due to draconian control of licensing hours …”
Paul McCourt also remembers “The after hours clubs were "bring your own" so you had to plan a night well and acquire your carry-out before the offices closed. The club itself was 3 rooms painted black and I think the only lighting on the dance floor was UV and strobes. You left your carry out behind the bar and were given a ballot ticket, bit like a cloakroom for beer, but you were lucky to get the beer back that you came in with but it didn't matter as everyone drank harp.”
Alexandra McKinney “I remember it was so attractive, as at that time, my limited experience of clubbing was that the best places had the smallest entrances. So our initial experience was this small doorway faced directly with a very lengthy stairway. That in itself created an instant feeling of familiarity, safety, and excitement. So up we went to enter another narrow doorway, it had a fabulous unique style, lots of dark corners and Bowie was blasting out of the speakers. Think pre and post war Berlin, a lot of stylish creative misfits locked in together hiding from the Nazis. It would be like peering into another world outside Belfast, but very much within it. An air of decadence, on the edge of being arrested or busted, simply for dressing how you did (that’s what fed into the excitement), it had a lack of predictability that set it apart and created the buzz. The colours that I remember are black and red, Stylish seediness.”
Paul McCourt “The crowd again was mixture of punks, new romantics, gay and straight. The toilets were mixed, it was the future”
Alexandra McKinney “You would not have missed it for the world. There were numerous youngins like us defying their parents every Saturday night and shimmying down drain-pipes just to get to Jules. It was the main talk at work all week, you were either part of it or not and if you weren’t part of it we didn’t want to know ya. It was exciting; you got a rush from walking up those stairs into the venue itself. Loud music, and lets face it a bloody good laugh with everyone. Posed like mad in your outfit (in those days everyone dressed differently to each other, no labels, vintage customized dresses mixed with Viv Westwood and darling HUGE hair was de rigeur!!!”
Alexandra McKinney “You would not have missed it for the world. There were numerous youngins like us defying their parents every Saturday night and shimmying down drain-pipes just to get to Jules. It was the main talk at work all week, you were either part of it or not and if you weren’t part of it we didn’t want to know ya. It was exciting; you got a rush from walking up those stairs into the venue itself. Loud music, and lets face it a bloody good laugh with everyone. Posed like mad in your outfit (in those days everyone dressed differently to each other, no labels, vintage customized dresses mixed with Viv Westwood and darling HUGE hair was de rigeur!!!”
“You could bring your own alcohol, 6 tins was a huge carry-out then or a big bottle of Strongbow, and there were corners for spliff rolling if required.”
“The people were funny, bitchy, camp and very hedonistic at weekends. I remember great style. They were [as I remember] less inclined to be mainstream students, more art school drop outs [ahem that would be Nicky and I], hairdressers, the odd visiting models from London, would be transvestites, new wave influenced post punx. The music was straight from The Face or ID’s top playlist- Bowie, Bryan Ferry etc, lots of transgendered influenced Euro Electro eg Amanda Lear, Much electro 80’s in general- Kraftwerk, Human League, but Parliament and Funkadelic and funky Studio 54 stuff thrown in the mix.”
“As a group we were drawn to Jules as there was a guarantee of good music with an underground feel. My crowd and I were rather snobbish re our music tastes ie anything in the charts outside punk and new wave was simply not tolerated.”
Alexandra McKinney “The worst thing about it at the time was trying to get home in a ghost town but hey we managed and it never put us off. It was crap that it ended. In a dream world it could have been Belfast’s current answer to the Groucho Club; ie full of old queens and botoxed rebel housewives hugging aging punx after a few mojitos”
Alexandra McKinney “Looking back on Jules it was revolutionary - because it was unique and brought sanity and normality to artistic, humorous, creative, sexually diverse people amid a background of marginalized communities and civil war. It was about breaking rules that was the attraction.”
The Delta and The Plaza.
During the 1950-1960s the Plaza was the biggest dance hall in Ireland, then it closed down and later re-opened in a new building as the New Plaza. The Delta was originally opened as a gay club, but people who were into music and fashion gravitated to both these clubs, mainly because there was nowhere else to go. Both clubs attracted an eclectic mix of people; Mods, Punks, Rockabillys, Skinheads, Goths, Gays, and all manner of the disenfranchised and disillusioned youth of the mid 1980s. The members-only nightspots provided a haven in a troubled province with their eclectic music style.
The Delta was situated directly opposite St Ann's Cathedral and was also known as “The Hairy Pineapple”. The building is no longer there.
“A couple called Jim and Ernie started the club at the Delta, which was an old ballroom. I remember going in there and being passed on the stairs by the ballroom dancers on their way out. A year or two later they moved up to the other end of Donegall Street, in Donegall Lane, to the Plaza. At some point then some other folks re-opened the Delta, and the two clubs ran in competition for a while.” says Gavin Bloomer who was a regular at both of these clubs.
“Musically it was a strange mix of Hi Energy Disco mixed with Punk, Electro, Goth, Rockabilly, a bit of northern soul and some early house. Aural alchemy!”
The plaza was one of the first clubs in Belfast to play house music.
“The fashion was also a strange mix but amazing, and there were lots of clashing and sort of hybrid styles going on. A friend of mine went out some weeks in a tuxedo, bow tie and spats. One week two guys turned up dressed as Russian Hussars”.
“We would arrived at the Plaza around 11pm (a time we were normally heading home) and stayed there until 4 am.” says Denise McCann “My first night was a surreal experience, I remember being really in awe of all these people who were a bit older than I was and way cooler with crazy coloured hair and ripped clothes. There was every mix from Skin heads, Mods, Punks to Goths and my first ever meeting with a gay person, seeing men in make up and all the punks with their hair all souped up to make it stand as tall as possible was something I had never seen before.”
“It all changed from that night, we were suddenly too cool for out of town clubs and the Plaza turned into our regular haunt for the next 2 years, getting to meet people from all religious divides. That certainly wouldn't have happened if we had stayed in our local area.”
“We used to go into town early on a Saturday go straight to the make up counter in a store in the city centre and put on loads of make up very artistically, well we thought so, then head to the Globe Bar for a few drinks and to check on who would be going to the Plaza or if The Delta was the place that night.”
“We would then go home to change, get the 10 o’clock bus back into town. leaving my friends house in our leggings, dresses and jumpers only to strip to a backless dress at the end of the garden and stuff all the other clothes in the hedge for our return in the early hours.”
“We stopped for a carryout earlier in the evening, as the Plaza and Delta both had no license. It consisted of a half bottle of Vodka and a mad concoction from my mum's drinks cabinet.”
“They both weren't the most salubrious of places with smelly sticky dance floors and the 1st unisex toilets I had ever seen, it didn't even say ladies or gents on the door.”
“An old sofa in the Delta, where you went snogging was riddled with fleas, after about 10 minutes you had bites all up your legs.”
“I remember the last record floor filler was Nina Simone my baby just cares for me, which helped the smoochers try and pull before the lights went on.”
“I met my husband Iain after tripping over his carryout as he lay sleeping beside the dance floor (classy) and Nina Simone became our wedding song. We formed friendships with people, which I still have to this day we have had some laughs over the years and some great memories the people who frequented both clubs are still on the Belfast club scene to this day and I would say the experience they had at those particular clubs have shaped their lives as much as mine with the lack of interest in our religious leanings to the interest in music and clubbing which have inspired many of us to go on and run our own clubs.”
Gary Easton who was a regular at the time says, “Some of the best nights in my teenage years were spent at the Delta and the Plaza. Amazing places with an atmosphere that was equalled only by clubs in London”
“All you needed for a good night out was a carry-out,” says Gavin Bloomer.
“Some of the best tunes in the city were played there with everything from punk to pop and northern soul. Sectarianism was left at the door as you lost yourself in a haze of cider and hairspray.”
The Art College
In the beginning there was Jack… and Jack had a groove.
The house music revolution, which exploded in 1988, grew to epic proportions in Belfast in the mid 90's, while pockets of the underground still thrive in City to this day.
Much of the underground club scene of Belfast merged in the explosion of house music largely because of the message in house music, a message of togetherness, understanding and love. With the tense political situation around us at the time it was amazingly appealing to escape every weekend into an alternative universe where everyone was welcome.
“Yeah there was a real sense around 86-87 of something really shifting. Then a lot of us ditched the Smiths for jack” Says Greg Fenton who was one of first DJ’s to play House music in Belfast, he now lives and DJ’s in Manchester.
At the time if you wanted to hear house music, the London scene was the place to be in 1986-87, then your best bet was to head to Delirium on the Charing Cross Road. And if you were looking for one of the most sussed DJ’s, then Noel and Maurice Watson were the boys. Schooled at Orangefield Secondary in east Belfast, these Irish brothers were so ahead of their game that they almost caused riots during their sets.
The club was founded on hip hop and rare groove, and many of the London B-Boys hated this new music that was burning up the clubs of Chicago and beyond. The management had to install a cage around the DJ area to protect the Watsons, who were so far into the scheme now that they weren’t going to relent in their mission to convert the capital to house. Maurice was spending much of his time in New York, checking out the Paradise Garage and realising that this house thing was unstoppable.
When they moved Delirium from The Astoria to the Heaven venue, they brought Frankie Knuckles over for a long stay, building up the roots of the scene even more. One of the regulars was Danny Rampling, who was putting his own vision together. In time a bunch of acolytes came to the Watson camp, people like Phil Asher and a young whippersnapper called David Holmes whom Noel taught how to mix.
Back in Belfast, the scene had started with small, DIY clubs. People ran these events for the love of it, providing themselves, their friends and like-minded souls with somewhere to go. The mid 80's really consisted of a fractured identity. The great youth cults of mod, punk, skinhead and new romantic were dying and nothing had taken their place. Nothing that is until acid house changed everything.
“Up till then most Belfast DJ’s were still playing a mix of indie, pop and stuff, but then it all changed, though it did quite slowly until 1989 when Ian McCready and David Holmes started putting on parties” says Greg
When this new dance music blossomed there was only one place you could go to hear it. You had to go underground. Most of the people who embraced the wave of freaky all night dancing had their first taste of dance music at either the mod clubs or underground gay clubs.
Both had respectively opened people’s minds to black American music in the form of soul, funk, disco and hip-hop. To them, the natural progression to the four to the floor on the kick drum house beat seemed to be what they had been waiting for. They embraced it with a passion.
One of these first underground clubs was JOY which was run by Gavin Bloomer and DJ Dee O’Grady. It started with humble beginnings at Richardson's social club which was next to Transport house on High Street before it landed in The Playpen at St George's Market.
“It moved from venue to venue. The idea was to find out where it was happening.” Says Gavin
“I remember hearing stuff like That’s The Way Love Is, Reaching, Rich In Paradise, in the Plaza, and that’s what got me into doing JOY with Dee.” Says Gavin “It was such an exciting time, and the music was starting to take off in so many directions. The start of our revolution”
“It was £2 in or something. Door policy was if you turned up you got in. The crowd was a mixture of the old Plaza crowd, indie kids, and people who were getting into acid house. It was amazing to see the fashion completely change over a summer, as we all abandoned our indie floral print shirts and blazers for white jeans and baseball caps”
Paul McCourt was a DJ at JOY “Alan Ferris and I played Thursday nights in the Limelight around this time. It was around then that Gavin and Dee had the idea of us all DJing together and that's where Joy came from.”
JOY’s music was the work of 4 DJ’s Keith Connolly, Paul McCourt, Alan Ferris and Dee O’Grady, who would later run One World at the Art collage, with then mutated into Choice. The latter ran bi-weekly alongside Ian McCready and David Holmes who were both working for a company called Zakk’s hairdressing at the time. They were already DJing on the soul/mod scene and they really caught the new vibe.
Zakk's had been running there own parties for quite a few years such as the Leather Aprons, finally taking it to the Ulster Hall (and filling it). Organising and Djing at these parties were Ian and David.
With some support from the owners of Zakk’s they held Belfast’s biggest house event to date at the Kings Hall extension, The Thrupenny Bit.
The club was called Base and it was a swift success, ultimately moving to the Art College. This in turn became Face and things started to get crazy. Face birthed Sugar Sweet and so the Art College became the chosen venue on a Saturday night of most Belfast clubbers with alternate weeks of Choice and Sugar Sweet.
People queued from an hour before it opened. The visuals were amazing. The early feeling of collective euphoria was what people went crazy for, in the midst of the troubles people lost it, even being joined on one night by two policemen who partied with the mass of raving clubbers in full uniform!
“That place influenced me most. I discovered the power of dance and drugs.” Says an ex patron of all mentioned clubs and Hairdresser at Zakk’s.
“The entry fee for the art collage was £10, which was a lot then but the crowd was all about the music, you had the cool crowd who just wanted to be seen there, the dancers, the beautiful girls and guys too cool for school. Then there were us that could care less how we looked, mascara running down our faces on the dance floor, pulling faces, that was my defining moment. I didn't give a toss and made some of my best friends there. Now I'm in my later life, looking back they were the best times of my life and I wouldn't change a thing and the people I met... Amazing.”
Electronic band Orbital even named a track ‘Belfast’ after a long crazy weekend in the city. The list of DJs and acts who performed here reads like a who’s who of acid house, Orbital, The Dub Federation, The Dust Brothers (now the Chemical Brothers), The Aloof (especially Richie on the congas), Sabres of Paradise, The Sandals and Bandalu.
Some of the guest DJs who ripped the roof off included Andrew Weatherall, Sasha, Justin Robertson, Fabi Paras, Stuart McMillan, Darren Emerson, Phil Perry, Charlie Hall, Craig Walsh, Scott Braithwaite, Luke Slater, Claude Young and Dave Clarke.
DJ Mark Bell recalls his first trip to the Art College and how it changed his perspective "I'd heard about the crazy scene at the Art College and we got down to check it out. Before that I'd only heard chart music and was into alternative music like The Doors, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, the music blew my mind. It was the only place at the time playing underground dance music; you couldn't hear that type of thing anywhere else. The energy and enthusiasm of the whole thing was definitely what inspired me to become a DJ and start a club.”
The fever of anticipation on a Saturday afternoon, people dancing in every part of the Art College - anything remotely flat was deemed fit for dancing on, the amazing reception for the guest acts, outrageous New Year's Eve parties when everything was upped a notch, the ubiquitous "last record" of the night and the arguments with the bouncers for one more (however, that had not been a problem on the night they had all ended up on-stage themselves, dancing in their vests and loving it), the general chaos at the ridiculous after-club parties around town, and of course a memory that we all share of this period (no-matter if you were at any of these events or not) - hugs and kisses with complete strangers. It was all berserk and it was all excellent fun.
The energy that came from house music here in the late '80s changed the shape of our fashion, music and clubs. It's hard to look at any aspect of current youth and club culture without catching some of that early excitement, that life-changing force.
As someone once said “If you can remember the '60s you weren't there", well someone else also said "The '90s are going to make the '60s look like the '50s".
I think I now know what they were talking about.
A big thank you to the people who made this happen:
Gavin Bloomer, Paul McCourt, Alexandra McKinley, Mary Armstrong, Alan Ferris, Nicky Nutt, Denise McCann, Terri Hooley, Lyndon Stephens, Sandra Gourley, Greg Fenton, Kathryn Johnston, Claire Devine and Andrew Mulvenna.
All the people who put up photos on Jules Nightclub, My jeans got bogging at the Delta and then at the Plaza and 25 Years of Electronic Music in Belfast Facebook pages.
This article contains excerpts from the follow web pages
It also contains excerpts from Lets Get Thrilled Ulster Club Art 1988-2000 booklet written by Stuart Bailie, Keith Connolly, Glenn Leyburn, Lyndon Stephens and Pamela Hunter.
for Belfast Metropolitan College(2014)
No comments:
Post a Comment