Leeds Central 1975 Northern Soul

Thanks for writing this - enjoyed reading it.

Steve Luigi is a relatively recent addition to the Whitby weekender line-up and I've enjoyed his sets there.

Great account.

We used to get a bus from Conisbrough Mexborough Wath almost every week for years around 77.

Call off at Wakefield first (Mitre) then the 'bank' in Leeds then down to the central.

Bub(RIP) was there also.

Great times.

Only been back once, to see Terry Callier (RIP). It was full of Stoòodunts...

Best wishes to those that run it now.

Ed

Thanks for the share bud im from Leeds lived on Burley Road for many years    the recollections of the Central were great , im 58 so missed the emerging years 74-77  and the Cats Whiskers in Meanwood      Central was called Scrumpys i seem to remember late 70,s    it also featured as a Jazz Funk Club/Night     with a lot of people getting in to that scene from Northern       kin ell thats over 40 years !!!!   

Martin L 

Good article i went to the Central the same era and lived in the the Precinct every night great people from that time Charlie Fineberg Terry Dean Dave Maltas Pete Dillon Cockney Steve and many more who are still alive and god rest the dear departed great dj's from that time including good friends Swish and The Mighty Bub plus an upcoming Pat Brady,trips to Wigan and then to Cleethorpes on the Magic Yellow bus from the Precinct will never die from my memory  

KTF and the great memories, we will be back dancing together soon 

BRILLIANT WRITE UP
The Central is still known as 'Home' to many of the soulies that used to go in the 70s and indeed now to the 10 years and counting bi-monthly reunions, still held in the same venue now called 'HiFi', nothing has changed there apart from the layout, but the atmosphere is still to die for.
I started going there in I think about 1970, I had just got into Northern by that time after spending many days and night as the 'Old Mecca' (Spinning Disc), where i got my first taste of Tamla Motown and fell in love instantly. The Central was exactly as described in the original post, a rectangle shape, 90% dance floor, with a bar in one corner and the DJ stand in the other, where DJs Tony Banks (RIP), Swish, Twink etc. would reside, playing the new tracks that they had found, or had been given to them to play. I was a dancer in the early days and did pretty well coming 2nd at the Casino competition out of about 100 entries, and after 2nd again at Cleethorpes Pier, being presented with a cup (which I still have) and £25 as my prize, by the Trammps , who were appearing there on the night.
I became Resident DJ at the Central at a later date after asking the owner 'Len Cave' if I could do a spot, I did the week after and must have done OK as he asked me to be resident straight after my set.
The Leeds Central was and is a massive part of my life, I met lifelong friends there of who mostly are still around and still frequent the alldayers.
The guy with the long hair and the brown leather bomber jacket named in the original post is called 'Gary Field', he's not on the scene anymore, but I still speak to him regularly.
Thanks for the write up Soul Surveyor, you did a great job
STEVE LUIGI (Northern Soul UK)

In these times of lockdown it's really nice to hear stories taking us back to our youth. It's exactly what we need,great to read all the stories of the clubs and what we used to get up to ,the characters on the scene and times that touched us individually and that you will hear a soul sound somewhere that will trigger the old memory cells and in an instant you will be teleported back in time and on your way to a nighter,Maybe the Torch, Blackpool Mecca, The Pendulum in Manchester and of course many more .Those moments are priceless. God bless all those who are no longer with us and those that are. I am one of the lucky ones still here to tell the stories of the people the clubs the Dj's and still love to meet up in Whitelocks before the Leeds Central reunion Alldayers and the banter we all have. Still get excited  getting the sounds sorted and catching the train to Leeds. 

Regards Fred Ward.

I remember Leeds Central very well as it was one of the best clubs I went to in my very younger days. I went to Leeds in 1971 , supposedly to study at the Polytechnic. Student social life was based around pubs with the occasional long haired weirdo group live at the Student Union, not my scene so I had to try to find something better. 

The first thing I had to locate was a decent record shop which I found was Jumbo Records. Initially this was at the back of a TV shop in the Merrion Centre then moved to the first floor of one of the indoor arcades. Simon Soussan quite often was at Jumbo although I don't think he ever bought anything . After a few months I got to know some of the local lads who bought their records from Jumbo or just used it as a meeting place. I must have heard about The Central about this time and probably first went late 1971. I don't remember who the DJs were but I think at first the records played were mainly pressings and oldies. Some of the people who went would take rare records for the DJ to play. The clubs owners encouraged this as they saw that more people were attending , some from places like Selby , York and Barnsley. Tony Banks was the main DJ as he was a professional who had a large collection of UK releases however at this point I don't think he had the newer imports that were getting played. He went to the US in 72 or 73 and bought back some great stuff as well as "finding" 1000 copies of Jimmy Thomas- Beautiful Night on the TB label. I helped out on the DJing roster as I was getting some good records from Simon Soussan and Martin Koppel who had both left Leeds by then. Simon, before he started bootlegging, was finding loads of top records in good quantities. Martin, from his base in Toronto, made buying trips to the Detroit area where he found lots of Thelma, D Town, Revilot, Giant, Golden World etc . Martin was a year above me at Leeds Poly doing the same subject as I did but I never knew him then, that was a lost opportunity. Bostock's stall at Bradford market also had masses of great records so it was fairly easy to get a decent collection back then.

Jeff's (Soul Surveyor) description of the club is just as I remember it but one of it's best things was a very good dance floor. The club was really a dance school, the membership card states "This Club is promoted for the teaching and practice of all forms of Ballroom Dancing". I don't know when or if this still took place but dancing definitely was practiced. 

As the Friday sessions were very popular someone suggested trying a Saturday all nighter. This would have been around 72/ 73. These went very well even though The Torch nighters were running by then. I think there was probably three or four nighters when one night it was rudely interrupted by the West Yorkshire DS. This put an end to the all nighters and may have stopped the Friday night sessions for a while. I'd returned back over the Pennines late 73 so only went to the later sessions a couple of times in 74 -75. 

The Central may not have been in the top five clubs back then but I'd definitely rate it in the top ten. The records played were just as good as The Torch and the people very friendly. The photos that Pete Dillon put up remind me of some of the friends I made there including Chris Malows, Steve Luigi, Dave Maltas ,Kevin (?), Pete Dillon, Julian Bentley and  Alan Stevenson.

Rick

By 1977 the club and playlist was a shadow of itself compared to what must have been the heady early days sorry but that was just my experience. By that point the club was playing almost exclusively oldies with the odd exception by Pat Brady who couldn't get away with anything too risky. The place had little or no atmosphere probably about 10-15 people on the dance floor thats it. It was a venue some would attend if they couldn't or weren't going to Wigan! huh some comparison it couldn't be more defined.
It must have been dramatically different in the early 70s to have been anything like what has been written

On 19/08/2020 at 14:54, Rick Cooper said:

I remember Leeds Central very well as it was one of the best clubs I went to in my very younger days. I went to Leeds in 1971 , supposedly to study at the Polytechnic. Student social life was based around pubs with the occasional long haired weirdo group live at the Student Union, not my scene so I had to try to find something better. 

The first thing I had to locate was a decent record shop which I found was Jumbo Records. Initially this was at the back of a TV shop in the Merrion Centre then moved to the first floor of one of the indoor arcades. Simon Soussan quite often was at Jumbo although I don't think he ever bought anything . After a few months I got to know some of the local lads who bought their records from Jumbo or just used it as a meeting place. I must have heard about The Central about this time and probably first went late 1971. I don't remember who the DJs were but I think at first the records played were mainly pressings and oldies. Some of the people who went would take rare records for the DJ to play. The clubs owners encouraged this as they saw that more people were attending , some from places like Selby , York and Barnsley. Tony Banks was the main DJ as he was a professional who had a large collection of UK releases however at this point I don't think he had the newer imports that were getting played. He went to the US in 72 or 73 and bought back some great stuff as well as "finding" 1000 copies of Jimmy Thomas- Beautiful Night on the TB label. I helped out on the DJing roster as I was getting some good records from Simon Soussan and Martin Koppel who had both left Leeds by then. Simon, before he started bootlegging, was finding loads of top records in good quantities. Martin, from his base in Toronto, made buying trips to the Detroit area where he found lots of Thelma, D Town, Revilot, Giant, Golden World etc . Martin was a year above me at Leeds Poly doing the same subject as I did but I never knew him then, that was a lost opportunity. Bostock's stall at Bradford market also had masses of great records so it was fairly easy to get a decent collection back then.

Jeff's (Soul Surveyor) description of the club is just as I remember it but one of it's best things was a very good dance floor. The club was really a dance school, the membership card states "This Club is promoted for the teaching and practice of all forms of Ballroom Dancing". I don't know when or if this still took place but dancing definitely was practiced. 

As the Friday sessions were very popular someone suggested trying a Saturday all nighter. This would have been around 72/ 73. These went very well even though The Torch nighters were running by then. I think there was probably three or four nighters when one night it was rudely interrupted by the West Yorkshire DS. This put an end to the all nighters and may have stopped the Friday night sessions for a while. I'd returned back over the Pennines late 73 so only went to the later sessions a couple of times in 74 -75. 

The Central may not have been in the top five clubs back then but I'd definitely rate it in the top ten. The records played were just as good as The Torch and the people very friendly. The photos that Pete Dillon put up remind me of some of the friends I made there including Chris Malows, Steve Luigi, Dave Maltas ,Kevin (?), Pete Dillon, Julian Bentley and  Alan Stevenson.

Rick

Rick, I am writing a book on the central. Do you mind if I include some of this in your name ? Regards, Steve Taylor smtaylor299@msn.com

On 15/08/2020 at 19:37, Mr Fred said:

In these times of lockdown it's really nice to hear stories taking us back to our youth. It's exactly what we need,great to read all the stories of the clubs and what we used to get up to ,the characters on the scene and times that touched us individually and that you will hear a soul sound somewhere that will trigger the old memory cells and in an instant you will be teleported back in time and on your way to a nighter,Maybe the Torch, Blackpool Mecca, The Pendulum in Manchester and of course many more .Those moments are priceless. God bless all those who are no longer with us and those that are. I am one of the lucky ones still here to tell the stories of the people the clubs the Dj's and still love to meet up in Whitelocks before the Leeds Central reunion Alldayers and the banter we all have. Still get excited  getting the sounds sorted and catching the train to Leeds. 

Regards Fred Ward.

 

 

  Hi Fred  ,although i was only on the nss  fringe in Huddersfield , i recall many great nights out and the music remains as strong with me  today as it did in the 70s , had some laughs with your late bro Rob and his mate Nova . I spend many hours on you tube these days searching old footage of the nss , then singing and shuffling round the kitchen trying to re create moves  to the great dismay of my other half.   Do  Remember Bert Rhodes the tailor in the Huddersfield Arcade whom would cut and make trousers from your own cloth and have them ready in a week .   I once requested a  royal blue pair of bags in gaberdine cloth with 8 red button fly .       Great Memories 

                                              Best Wishes 

                                                                    Tony Whittaker