l'Ambassador - Bradford

[Stubbsy]

Seen this venue mentioned numerous times in threads but can't find one specifically related. As an ex West Yorky in exile I very am interested to know more about the venue particularly in respect of it's soul history, i.e. years it ran, dj's, popular plays, or records which were broken there, characters/faces who frequented etc.

I'm sure Kegsy will be along shortly

Edited January 14, 2017 by Stubbsy
additional info

[Jez Jones]

37 minutes ago, Stubbsy said:

Seen this venue mentioned numerous times in threads but can't find one specifically related. As an ex West Yorky in exile I very am interested to know more about the venue particularly in respect of it's soul history, i.e. years it ran, dj's, popular plays, or records which were broken there, characters/faces who frequented etc.

I'm sure Kegsy will be along shortly

Proper gaff that !!...had a 'lost' weekend there once...after spending all night in that cellar and going back to '|Scotch Pat's flat in Rochdale after...what was that phrase again ??'''no sleep till Tuesday !!. Think Swish was Djing and maybe Julian Bentley ??

Edited January 14, 2017 by jez jones

[Kegsy]

1 hour ago, Stubbsy said:

Seen this venue mentioned numerous times in threads but can't find one specifically related. As an ex West Yorky in exile I very am interested to know more about the venue particularly in respect of it's soul history, i.e. years it ran, dj's, popular plays, or records which were broken there, characters/faces who frequented etc.

I'm sure Kegsy will be along shortly

It didn't really have any soul history, until the nighters started, it was a (double) celler club in a house near the university and was mainly a student haunt. It was my first Nighter. One side was a seating area, the other the dance floor, DJ booth in the middle. The bar was upstairs. Many more than 100/120 in there and it was rammed. It was owned by an Asian guy called Haig. Nighters started after the wheel shut probably late '71, I think it was Steve Grimshaw who talked Haig into doing nighters, Steve was also the resident DJ. Some of the other DJ's I can remember were Swish, Julian Bentley, Ian Levine came over one time, there will have been others but there was a lot of gear about back then so my memory isn't too good. I reckon it lasted about 6 months. The squad busted it, took everybody down the nick and locked us in the big day cell including Haig the owner. Swish had his record box and a discotron so we continued the nighter in the day cell, much to the annoyance of the old bill. They were even more annoyed when people started pissing in the day cell, rather than asking to go to the bog and risk having to give a sample. The crowd was mostly old wheel lads/lasses from around West Yorkshire, Bradford,Halifax, Keighley, Leeds etc. with a few from Lancs, Legs and Woody from Accrington, Les Carr and Dave Brockway from Manchester, Booper, plus a few others. The sounds were mostly stuff known from the Wheel, I don't think much , if any, new stuff was broken

Edited January 14, 2017 by Kegsy

[jam66]

Was there a later attempt to revive it Kegs? I remember going once, or did I catch it at the latter stages. Think I remember there weren't many there that night. 

[Kegsy]

24 minutes ago, jam66 said:

Was there a later attempt to revive it Kegs? I remember going once, or did I catch it at the latter stages. Think I remember there weren't many there that night. 

It reinvented itself as the Champage a go go later, which I think did a few soul nights but not nighters.

[Julianb]

I remember Swish playing the turntable mat one night (can't remember the tune though!!)

I wonder what the reason was?

[Kegsy]

7 minutes ago, JulianB said:

I remember Swish playing the turntable mat one night (can't remember the tune though!!)

I wonder what the reason was?

Me too, the thing was he just calmly carried on as if nobody had noticed.It wasn't like he missed the edge of the edge  of the record he hadn't even put a record on the deck.

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by Kegsy

[Phild]

I ran some soul nights here in 84/85, I used to live in the cellar of the house opposite. Mostly students in attendance, but a few old heads from time to time.

[Derek Pearson]

On 14/01/2017 at 15:17, Kegsy said:

It didn't really have any soul history, until the nighters started, it was a (double) cellar club in a house near the university and was mainly a student haunt. One side was a seating area, the other the dance floor, DJ booth in the middle. The bar was upstairs. Many more than 100/120 in there and it was rammed. 

Many times over the years whilst talking to lads a bit older than me the name of this club (The L'Ambassador) kept cropping up and because I'm interested in that sort of thing I always enquired further. Frequently I was told "Oh it was in a cellar in a big house up near the University" (as already mentioned by Kegsy). 

Well I worked at the University for well over 30 years and (I'd never added 2 and 2 together or joined up the jots or whatever) I'd never figured out exactly where this club was - doh - untill now.

The L'Ambassador club later morphed into The Champagne-a-Go Go club (dates unknown) and was still owned by the same dodgy geezer. So after all these years of walking past this club every other dinnertime I'd never realised this was where the L'Ambassador club was.

And because I'm interested in that sort of thing I let google search do all the walking and came up with these pictures lifted from an estate agents website circa early 2017.

In recent years the building had become a restaurant called China Wings with a Sisha loungue downstairs but had been closed down by the authorities due to breaking numerous food/hygene regulations. The downstairs Sisha lounge would have been where the seating area/dance floor area was as previously mentioned by Kegsy.

I know the pictures aren't up to much and they don't tell a thousand stories but that's all I could find after spending an hour or so online when I should have been doing far more important jobs hahaha.

Derek

Edited April 29, 2017 by Derek Pearson

[Jez Jones]

9 minutes ago, Derek Pearson said:

Many times over the years whilst talking to lads a bit older than me the name of this club (The L'Ambassador) kept cropping up and because I'm interested in that sort of thing I always enquired further. Oh it was in a cellar in a big house up near the University (as already mentioned by Kegsy) and later became the Champage-go-go club.

Well I worked at the University for well over 30 years and (I'd never added 2 and 2 together or joined up the jots or whatever) I'd never figured out exactly where this club was - doh - untill now.

The L'Ambassador club later morphed in The Champagne-a-Go Go club (dates unknown) and was still owned by the same dodgy geezer. So after all these years of walking past this club every other dinnertime I'd never realised this was where the L'Ambassador club was.

And because I'm interested in that sort of thing I let google search do all the walking and came up with these pictures lifted from an estate agents website circa early 2017.

In recent years the building had become a restaurant called China Wings with a Sisha loungue downstairs but had been closed down by the authorities due to breaking numerous food/hygene regulations. The downstairs Sisha lounge would have been where the seating area/dance floor area was as previously mentioned by Kegsy.

I know the pictures aren't up to much and they don't tell a thousand stories but that's all I could find after spending an hour or so online when I should have been doing far more important jobs hahaha.

Derek

Bloody ell....that inside bit hasn't changed much !!

[Davenpete]

Reckon it's about 3 weeks before an original venue revival night... No bad thing though.

Dx

Edited April 29, 2017 by DaveNPete