THE JUNCTION 1971, Crewe, UK

[Guest]

Anyone remember UPTJ back in the day?  I celebrated my 21st before moving to the U.S. 2 days later--Still here!!  LOVED that place--so MANY, MANY Happy memories.  Good friends, good music, good drinks, and the list goes on and on!!  Miss my hometown from SO long ago.  Everything changes I suppose.  Been so long now, I cannot hardly remember the names of the good folks that used to accompany me--except Rosemary, my dearest and best friend who passed away 20 years ago--MISS YOU ROSIE!!

[Jez Jones]

Yes Linda....I do remember it...esp when it 'alternated' Allnighters with the 'Torch'........always a fave place of mine...great sounds....and a killa atmosphere.

 

There will be a few on here who have fond memories of the place I.m sure. Nice to know you still remember the 'old place' even from the US AND after all these years

 

 

Its a snooker/pool hall nowadays btw

[Guest]

I guess things change over time--but I;ll always remember it the way it was--thanks all, for remembering

[Eddie Hubbard]

Steve Glover has a couple of pbotos on his FB  page ,he always told me it was one of the best All Nighters .....

[Crogger]

Was only talking about UPTJ this very weekend. I think it only did niters for a short while,before that it was Crewe,s regular nightclub.Saw people like The Fantastics,Slade,Fleetwood Mac,The Drifters etc,.Down to the Dirty Duck first then onto UPTJ.One summer,1970 or 71,Ithink,UPTJ ran a Disco Train from Crewe to Scarborough,seriously,disco and dancing in the parcel van,music piped to all the carriages,5 hours in Scarborough,music all the way back,then finished off at UPTJ for an hour or so! Think it was a Sunday,happy days indeed.

[Soulcarp]

Was living in Luton at the time,but from Yorkshire and use to go there at this time with a lad from Bletchley who had a mini at the time great lad called graham,use to give it some on the dance floor with a lad called pete Tisley now he was suit else great lad 

[Sammy Seaman]

my 1st allnighter

alan day djing with a tall blonde haired girl with a red beret dancing next to him all through his set. ist tune I heard was either little queenie bill black or sounds of lane tracks to my mind cant remember which order he played them in but they were my 1st nighter sounds I heard loved it there great atmosphere still got my membership card who else still has theres ?

cheers

sammy

Edited August 19, 2015 by sammy seaman

[Jimmy Welsh]

Top place, go past it quite often, just looks the same as it did all them years ago, as Sammy states, a great atmosphere, quite a few Yorkshire people attended.

 

Regards to all who attended jw.

[Kegsy]

Was living in Luton at the time,but from Yorkshire and use to go there at this time with a lad from Bletchley who had a mini at the time great lad called graham,use to give it some on the dance floor with a lad called pete Tisley now he was suit else great lad 

Do you mean Pete Tildesley from Stockport, a complete character.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Kegsy

[Soulcarp]

Do you mean Pete Tildesley from Stockport, a complete character.

yes that's the lad if people didn't know him,they would find him scary ? lol

[25miles]

my 1st allnighter

alan day djing with a tall blonde haired girl with a red beret dancing next to him all through his set. ist tune I heard was either little queenie bill black or sounds of lane tracks to my mind cant remember which order he played them in but they were my 1st nighter sounds I heard loved it there great atmosphere still got my membership card who else still has theres ?

cheers

sammy

ok Sammy............still got my UTJ membership !!...........happy carefree days or wot

Sue Ollivant [Priestley]

[Sammy Seaman]

great days sue, glad I lived through them times,great memories how`s glyn ? get yourselves to the next central in oct great day out loads of old faces turn out

cheers

sammy

[Dekka 6x6]

Do I remember the junction I sure do won a dance competition there one sat night Ok I do shuffle a bit but between me and you I think It was fixed. Ha ha. I was one of a Stoke crowd that frequented the place and I'm sure I saw Edwin Starr there on the very small stage. I still go there playing snooker and yes you can still make out the layout as It was then.It would be If It was to start up again which I very much doubt It, the only complete original set up surpassing the so called Wheel. Fond memories from a great venue It was the most under rated venue of It's time. Thanks Linda Gold for bringing this memory up.

[JohnP]

Hi. I remember Up the Junction, or UTJ, well. It was run by Ken Darville Smith, a good friend, and had all the top bands of the era 

I attended every All nighter and particularly remember the breakfast included. 
 

I later managed  the night club for a period in the early 70’s. Great times and sadly missed 

[Torch56]

I have vivid memories of UTJ as it was the first all-nighter I attended and also one of the last held there. It may well have been the very last one held there, August 5/6 1972.

Alan Day was clearly the main man in the upstairs main room, quite literally centre stage, spinning the top sounds of the day. The very big popular items received multiple plays and I recall the herd moving en masse on to the dance floor when the opening notes of the Younghearts or Roy Hamilton crashed out of the sound system. No lack of soul credibility there, but perhaps the same could not be said for Guy Darrel's 'I've Been Hurt' but that received equal approbation when the striking guitar-led introduction pierced the room. Two other items that fell into that very top drawer category, in terms of dance floor reaction, were Bobby Paris: Per-son-ally, and Jo Armstead's vocal version of 'Urge' Whenever the dance floor began to thin out, even at 7am. any of these items were guaranteed to lift the atmosphere again. As did the Du-ettes "Every Beat Of My Heart", another track that fell into this special category. 

Other items that made up his playlist and kept the night ticking along were such records as Desiree, Grooving at the Go-Go, Tracks to your Mind, Johnny Sayles, Jeanette White amongst others. Nothing cleared the floor and given the quality of the playlist and the palpable engagement of the clientele, Mr. Day had little need to interject any extra encouragement through his microphone. "Here's one for all who've just retuned from Torquay." was one announcement between records that vaguely registered.

Even in 1972 records from a previous era were inserted into the playlist if they matched the powerhouse tone and tempo of the moment. Slipping Around was one example and Breakout had at least two appearances on the turntable, though the emphasis overall was very much on recent or new discoveries.

As though to illustrate the point, two records I hadn't heard before both received multiple plays. "The Penguin Breakdown" by LJ Reynolds and Chocolate Syrup was one such item. I've rarely heard it since but it was popular enough that night. Make a good backing track for a cowboy film, I thought back then but now I actually think it's quite good.

The other track new to my ears sounded very different to the standard formula with a haunting synthesiser- led backing track . Very strange, I thought, though that didn't seem to put off the audience who were already clearly familiar with the sound and accepted it readily. Later that year it became a regular play at the Catacombs but it was at Crewe that I first heard, "Blowing up my Mind" by The Exciters.

Downstairs from the main hall there was a smaller dance floor with a strange cockpit arrangement for the DJs set above the edge of the dance floor. I didn't spend much time there as the main hall seemed to be the place to be with an atmosphere to match.

I only went the once and it was a time when, in my opinion, the standard of records played was rarely matched, but in terms of atmosphere and playlist, Up the Junction holds its own in terms of comparison with other ,more iconic venues, of the era.

 

[Torch56]

[Torch56]

Fairly certain these are originally from Blues and Soul in 1972. Taken from a post put up by Keithw back in 2007 so my thanks to him.

As I said in my original post I think the August 5th all-nighter was the last one, unless anybody knows different.

Interesting that the only DJ named was Alan Day. Anybody know the names of any of the others?

[Sunnysoul]

Up The Junction also preceded the Torch didn't it ?

Do we know exactly when Up The Junction started to host allnighters ?

[Torch56]

The first Torch all-nighter was March 11th, 1972.

I can't find a definitive date for the initial UTJ event, but I vaguely recall being aware of the venue before I'd heard of the Torch. Trawling through Blues and Soul from the era would probably provide an answer but my copies of that are long gone, unfortunately.

[Solidsoul]

On 18/09/2023 at 12:07, Torch56 said:

Those were the days when all-nighter meant all-nighter!  8.30pm Sat night til 8.30am Sunday morning! Some of the so called all-nighters these days are finished by 4.00 in the morning!

Some great memories mentioned in these posts I especially like to hear about which records were played. I couldn't go back then, as my paper round wouldn't have covered the expenses.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Solidsoul

[JohnP]

On 19/08/2015 at 19:37, Crogger said:

Was only talking about UPTJ this very weekend. I think it only did niters for a short while,before that it was Crewe,s regular nightclub.Saw people like The Fantastics,Slade,Fleetwood Mac,The Drifters etc,.Down to the Dirty Duck first then onto UPTJ.One summer,1970 or 71,Ithink,UPTJ ran a Disco Train from Crewe to Scarborough,seriously,disco and dancing in the parcel van,music piped to all the carriages,5 hours in Scarborough,music all the way back,then finished off at UPTJ for an hour or so! Think it was a Sunday,happy days indeed.

They also did a Cisco train to London   Similar Djokovic in parcel van and on arrival at London went to a club then back to Crewe and finished off at UTJ. I think Nick Chandler was the DJ 

[Geoff B]

Still have my Membership card from about 1970. Can't quite remember but i think we went to  'Junction then caught last train to The Raven at Whitchurch, which i am sure closed early 2am ish and ended up spending rest of night on Whitchurch station.

[JohnP]

2 hours ago, Geoff B said:

Still have my Membership card from about 1970. Can't quite remember but i think we went to  'Junction then caught last train to The Raven at Whitchurch, which i am sure closed early 2am ish and ended up spending rest of night on Whitchurch station.

 

I remember them well. It had a fantastic following but isn’t really credited when people talk about all nighters and Northern Soul