Goldthorpe Miners Welfare

[Guest modlife]

Listening to Steve White on radio Sheffield last night, anouncing a "one off" event at the Dearne Playhouse on Saturday 30th of January started me thinking about previous soul gigs at the Welfare.

They were started I believe, by a couple of local lads Tony Carter and Steve Mank about 1980`ish, but were then taken over by some guys from Doncaster soon after that and probably ran for a year or so. My memory of the period is a bit vague(due to the medication I was on at the time, ahem!) but they were pretty well attended and I had some good sessions down there with the local soul contingent.

I seem to think the nearby residents were the catalyst for it`s demise rather than the lack of numbers, and the last time I entered the building was to hear King Arthur deliver his famous "no surrender" speech during the Miners strike in `84.

I`d love to know if anyone else remembers going, who were the DJ`s and especially if there`s any pictures of the place. More recently it has been totally refurbished and I`d like to think if the upcoming event proves successful, some local "entreprenuer" ( is that you Mr.Burton) would pick up the baton and run with it.........Ank.

[Naughty Boy]

Listening to Steve White on radio Sheffield last night, anouncing a "one off" event at the Dearne Playhouse on Saturday 30th of January started me thinking about previous soul gigs at the Welfare.

They were started I believe, by a couple of local lads Tony Carter and Steve Mank about 1980`ish, but were then taken over by some guys from Doncaster soon after that and probably ran for a year or so. My memory of the period is a bit vague(due to the medication I was on at the time, ahem!) but they were pretty well attended and I had some good sessions down there with the local soul contingent.

I seem to think the nearby residents were the catalyst for it`s demise rather than the lack of numbers, and the last time I entered the building was to hear King Arthur deliver his famous "no surrender" speech during the Miners strike in `84.

I`d love to know if anyone else remembers going, who were the DJ`s and especially if there`s any pictures of the place. More recently it has been totally refurbished and I`d like to think if the upcoming event proves successful, some local "entreprenuer" ( is that you Mr.Burton) would pick up the baton and run with it.........Ank.

Yes remember those do's well, it was one to go to but in those days we did not have thousands of other venues to visit either ( back to too much on in the calendar now )...... but ooooh happy dayzzzzzzz

[Harrythedog]

I ran this event for a number of years along with Russ White & John Phillips from Doncaster. What a fantastic venue. This was a growing venue, until the local residents complained about the noise, and the council cut the closing time down to 11.30. With people travelling from Manchester & the East Coast we viewed that the event could not continue with such an early finish. The music policy was a mix of oldies and rare underplayed oldies, which was a brave format at the time as most of the venues were playing predominantly oldies. In fact quite a few big records today were first played at the Welfare. I cant say we had any complaints about the format and the music policy was accepted and embraced by the knowledgeble crowd.

The regular DJs were-John Hurst,JohnPhillips,Russ White & Neil Toplis. The guests we had over the years were top DJs such as Andy Rix-Saus-Derek Greenhoff-Bub-Chalky-Pincher twins- Mark Biknall-Rodger Banks- Gary Spencer and many others i cant remember at this present time. It was that good Rob Thomas never missed one(never paid as well). Somewher i have a video which was taken at the xmas all dayer, which was a packer. Will have to hunt this out. Fantastic memories of this fantastic venue.

[Guest]

Listening to Steve White on radio Sheffield last night, anouncing a "one off" event at the Dearne Playhouse on Saturday 30th of January started me thinking about previous soul gigs at the Welfare.

They were started I believe, by a couple of local lads Tony Carter and Steve Mank about 1980`ish, but were then taken over by some guys from Doncaster soon after that and probably ran for a year or so. My memory of the period is a bit vague(due to the medication I was on at the time, ahem!) but they were pretty well attended and I had some good sessions down there with the local soul contingent.

I seem to think the nearby residents were the catalyst for it`s demise rather than the lack of numbers, and the last time I entered the building was to hear King Arthur deliver his famous "no surrender" speech during the Miners strike in `84.

I`d love to know if anyone else remembers going, who were the DJ`s and especially if there`s any pictures of the place. More recently it has been totally refurbished and I`d like to think if the upcoming event proves successful, some local "entreprenuer" ( is that you Mr.Burton) would pick up the baton and run with it.........Ank.

I have considered running the WH again ( I ran nights there in the late 70s / early 80s ) , but the restrictions set by / of the management the last time I enquired proved unrealistic , the main one being the licemce time allowed , i.e. finishing dead on midnight .

The WH is a great venue , and I hope that whoever is staging the January 30th event , it proves a successful one for them .

Malc Burton

[Guest modlife]

I ran this event for a number of years along with Russ White & John Phillips from Doncaster. What a fantastic venue. This was a growing venue, until the local residents complained about the noise, and the council cut the closing time down to 11.30. With people travelling from Manchester & the East Coast we viewed that the event could not continue with such an early finish. The music policy was a mix of oldies and rare underplayed oldies, which was a brave format at the time as most of the venues were playing predominantly oldies. In fact quite a few big records today were first played at the Welfare. I cant say we had any complaints about the format and the music policy was accepted and embraced by the knowledgeble crowd.

The regular DJs were-John Hurst,JohnPhillips,Russ White & Neil Toplis. The guests we had over the years were top DJs such as Andy Rix-Saus-Derek Greenhoff-Bub-Chalky-Pincher twins- Mark Biknall-Rodger Banks- Gary Spencer and many others i cant remember at this present time. It was that good Rob Thomas never missed one(never paid as well). Somewher i have a video which was taken at the xmas all dayer, which was a packer. Will have to hunt this out. Fantastic memories of this fantastic venue.

Thanks for that Harry, I can remember going to the dayer. What year was that exactly? It would be fantastic to see it, what a blast from the distant past that would be!

I attended with the local soulies, Terry Wilkinson, Bri Beevers, Tony Carter, Steve Saunders, Glynn Bentley and Stan from Thurnscoe to name a few. Most of which still frequent the soul scene in and around the area. Maybe we could have some kind of reunion down there next week Lads!

As I siad previously, it would be great to think a regular`ish event could be staged there at some point, because I`m lead to believe since the million pound plus refurb it`s absolutely stunning! Here`s hoping!

[Chalky]

I ran this event for a number of years along with Russ White & John Phillips from Doncaster. What a fantastic venue. This was a growing venue, until the local residents complained about the noise, and the council cut the closing time down to 11.30. With people travelling from Manchester & the East Coast we viewed that the event could not continue with such an early finish. The music policy was a mix of oldies and rare underplayed oldies, which was a brave format at the time as most of the venues were playing predominantly oldies. In fact quite a few big records today were first played at the Welfare. I cant say we had any complaints about the format and the music policy was accepted and embraced by the knowledgeble crowd.

The regular DJs were-John Hurst,JohnPhillips,Russ White & Neil Toplis. The guests we had over the years were top DJs such as Andy Rix-Saus-Derek Greenhoff-Bub-Chalky-Pincher twins- Mark Biknall-Rodger Banks- Gary Spencer and many others i cant remember at this present time. It was that good Rob Thomas never missed one(never paid as well). Somewher i have a video which was taken at the xmas all dayer, which was a packer. Will have to hunt this out. Fantastic memories of this fantastic venue.

I can remember Djing here a couple of times, cracking venue. I might have some flyers somewhere. I'll have a look when I'm back in the land of the living

[Dave Pinch]

we dj`d there more than a dozen times over the years and never missed as punters as it was and still is walking distance from our houses. they had all the top dj`s there and i even went there for my batchelor do in 1992 (as well as the mandetory trip to blackpool). last do as i remember probably late 90`s ....97 maybe. i have a video somewhere with some footage on that pete mcshane did. they were happy days indeed. they have always had trouble with the locals and noise levels there tho

dave