More memories of Huddersfield clubs include one that had a caveman on the door and the night the greatest rock and roll band in the world were turned down because of £2.
Sue Crofts of Golcar started the ball rolling when she asked about the Top Ten Club on Southgate.
“It wasn’t very big but we had some fantastic nights in there. Does anybody else remember it?”
Sylvia Womersley immediately directed me to the website for Johnny's night club (www.johnnyshistory.com) where you can read all about it. The Top Ten was Joe Marsden’s grown-up nightclub, before the days of disco and rock bands, that served chicken in a basket and featured top variety acts.
Joe’s son, Johnny, used the cellars beneath to open the Catacombs Club, that provided an alternative form of entertainment.
It was Huddersfield’s rival to the Cavern Club in Liverpool and teenagers flocked to it from around Yorkshire for live pop, rock and blues bands, and the latest records played by DJs. The doorman was a caveman with a club.
Johnny was later joined by his brother Joe and together they built an empire that included their now famous nightclub, pub, bistro, hotel and taxi company.
Their website is a cultural archive packed full of photographs and memories. And, as they say, there’s room for more.
“Why not contribute? We would like to hear from anyone who would wish to add their photos or stories.”
They sold much of their entertainment complex in 2003 but Joe and Johnny are still in business together, after 44 years, at the Central Lodge Hotel.
“We would be happy if any old friends were to call in for a coffee or a wine,” says Joe.
Local bands that played the Catacombs included The Denyms, The Drovers, The Shanes, The Reaction and Denny and the Witchdoctors. Running the coffee bar was Graham Philpott, the late great blues singer of Ckreed fame.
When local band The Atmospheres played The Cavern, Johnny took a coach load of Catacomb members over to Liverpool by coach to support them.
One of Johnny’s stories deserves repeating. In the early 1960s, the Catacombs was doing phenomenal business because it perfectly filled the growing niche for clubs that knew exactly what teenagers wanted and provided it without condescension.
Friday nights always had a live group and Johnny was offered a band who were playing Bradford University.
He could have them, after they finished, for £20. The trouble was, the top money he paid was £18 and neither band nor Johnny would budge from those two amounts.
So, for the sake of £2, Huddersfield missed the chance to see Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones.
