Our first date was half a crown night in Whetherell’s nightclub
Jim
Wetherell’s. It was just a house originally and, something else I found out, me Uncle Billy, Pauline’s dad, played the piano there.
Pauline
Miss Wetherell had a dance hall and he used to be part of the band that played there on a Saturday. Subsequently, Bailey Organisation bought it from her and then it became a nightclub.
Jim
That’s how it started, tea dances in the front room. Jennifer is me wife, we met in the Bowling Alley Club in Newcastle Road, our first date was half a crown night in Whetherell’s nightclub.
Jennifer
Oh, half a crown night.
Jim
It was a quaint old place. It was obviously an old house. You walked in the front room and there was a staircase that took you up and then down into the nightclub area where the dance hall was. The passageway went straight through.
Pauline
There was a little cloak room. An old lady used to take your coats and give you a ticket, charge I don’t know how much.
Jennifer
It had a big banister, didn’t it? Wide banister going up.
Pauline
Half a crown night on a Tuesday.
Jim
I used to go quite a bit, and I mean, the Locarno was our haunt. Every night I would be in the Bowling Alley Club in Newcastle Road and it was the bowling alley and the Bowling Alley Club was in the far corner and you had to be a member to get in. And that’s where I met Jennifer and we all used to meet there and then we used to set off and we used to go to Newcastle because one or two of the lads had cars. Nightclubs, the Bailey nightclubs in Newcastle.
Pauline
It was the Cavendish in Newcastle, the Dolce Vita, the Tavern in South Shields.
Jim
The Latino was that the Tavern.
Pauline
The Latino and then it became the Tavern.
Jim
That’s right, but we used to get out and about there and used to have a dance in the Bowling Alley Club. Every Saturday night they used to have a dance and they used to get a group on or something.
Pauline
I think in the 60s there were a lot of folk clubs, Country and Western clubs held in a pub itself. And the Londonderry…
Jennifer
They used to have a folk group.
Pauline
They did, and a Country and Western, yeah. So a lot of people didn’t actually go for a drink, but they would go to a folk club or a Country and Western or a Blues club and they were usually held in local pubs.
Jim
Well, I used to get as far as the Rink. I mean, they used to give loads of free tickets away at the Locarno. They had a dance every night of the week, didn’t they? They had the Carnaby Club on a Sunday night, which was for the kids.
Jennifer
Over 21 night.
Jim
But you could go there and if you went in on a Saturday night, they’d give you half a dozen free tickets to come back during the week. It was a free night out.
Interviewer
Did you ever go to any of the dos that Jeff Dougherty organised when he got the big name bands for next to nothing?
Jim
Yes, we went to see Amen Corner, Gino Washington and the Ram Jam Band? It was at the Locarno.
Pauline
There were discotheques and the strobe lights and everything.
Jim
Well, I remember the first time I went to a discotheque was in the Bay and it was unique.
Jennifer
With those lights that you could see through everything.
Pauline
Yes, you could. Yeah.
Jim
I think it used to be two shillings to get in and when you walked in you were covered in dandruff. Everything used to show. It was quite a good night out actually, it used to get packed.
Pauline
But Sunderland used to have quite a few nightclubs. In Toward Road there was El Cubana, La Cubana, one was down in the basement and that was for the under eighteens and the other one was for the over eighteens. There was the La Strada in Fawcett Street, Annabelle’s, that was a very, very popular one in High Street.
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Heritage Scheme collection.