There were about three seperate promoters who had a go with The Concorde Suite, we had it for about two years 1991/92 and for the time it was a well attended allnighter when you consider that the scene was far from what it is today in terms of the amount of gigs on offer and the number of people around at that time, the promotion at that time was a three way thing with myself, Peter Hollander and Dennis Billingham, i secured the venue after Mark Robertson finished with it and i think Guy Hennigan was also involved with it prior to us possibly partners with Mark Robertson?
As Trevski stated it was a superb venue and i feel possibly a little ahead of it's time, the music policy was bang on with the likes of Butch, Roger Banks, Gary Spencer,myself and many top guests, we even featured one live gig there when we brought the late Barbara Acklin over from America but the less said about that one the better...lol
I consider the Concorde Suite to be one of the best venues/dance halls in the area, we had steady well attended monthly Allnighters there and it was a pleasure to do it, the bombshell came when the local council desided in their wisdom and to save money by selling a couple of it's venues and sadly The Royal British Legion purshased the building and the rest is history.
Guy and myself went back there about three years ago to try and get a gig going there again but the commitee were basically not having any of it, it's hardly changed inside and we thought we might just strike lucky but it was'nt to be, still sometimes it's best not to try and rake over old coles but it would have been nice.
I often go past the venue and always smile as we had some top nights there, hard to believe its 15 years ago now.
We relocated to Hyde Town Hall but it never happened there, mainly due to the scene being on it's arse then allnighter wise but we had a go with one or two ok nights but by this time Dennis lost interest leaving Pete Hollander and myself to give Hyde our best shot, at this time i took on The North Cheshire Soul night in Stockport which ran for ten years again monthly, Pete got involved with Barry Holland as i did on the very first Winsford Allnighter but Barry and myself were and are good mates but we had different ideas on things so Pete and Barry stuck with Winsford and i stuck with The North Cheshire and another good period for us all promotion wise....so there you havre it a brief history of the The Concorde Suite...gone but it seems not forgotton.
Regards - Mark Bicknell.