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Local HistoryYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > History > Local History > Vegas in Batley? Vegas in Batley?Like many West Yorkshire towns, Batley's main claim to fame used to be its woollen mills but for a few short years it played host to some of the world's most famous stars. People even called it the Las Vegas of the North!  An unlikely place for stars? In December 1998 the town of Batley held a civic tribute for the man who, thirty years earlier, had really put the town on the world map. James Corrigan, who came from a Yorkshire fairground family, built what came to be seen as the biggest variety club in Europe. James had married a Batley girl, Betty, and together they opened a bingo hall in the town but James's dream was for something much bigger. James and Betty found a derelict site on Bradford Road and on Easter Sunday 1967 the Batley Variety Club opened its doors. It had taken just 14 weeks to build.  A man with a dream: James Corrigan Speaking to the BBC in 1968 James said: "The Variety Club was a joke. Everybody said it couldn't be built and it couldn't be done, and it should be a failure, but it's been proven that they were wrong." James's dream was to bring big names to the club at affordable entrance prices and Batley might have seemed an unlikely place for this. But James Corrigan had it all worked out: "I knew the area. I knew I had five million people within 10 or 15 miles of it. My grandfather used to work in fairgrounds and he used to say, 'Always go where the chimneys are'".
Twenty years later, comedian Ken Dodd agreed: "He knew what people wanted. Isn't that a great thing, to know what people wanted and say, 'Yes, I'll build it and you'll like it'". And they did. People came to Batley in their coachloads. They came to celebrate their birthdays and their weddings. Ken Dodd always liked the welcome he got at the Club: "Yorkshire audiences love to laugh, love to. It was a wonderful venue and, for comedians, they were there in front of you. You could actually reach them with your tickling stick. It was high contact. By jove, Missus. Ha ha! Have you ever been tickled, Missus? Have you ever been tickled in Batley?" Barnsley comedian Charlie Williams had similar memories: "It was a working man's night out, him and his wife, and she dolled up like a thirty bob salad. As they used to say in those days she was happy because it was a night out in Batley."  They came in their coachloads! But it was the big names from across the Atlantic that brought the Batley Variety Club to the world stage. That's certainly how it appeared to cabaret singer Vince Hill: "It was a very thrilling place to be in those days because I guess it was the first club that really started to pay big money to American stars. They must have thought they were coming to the back of beyond." It may be this that James Corrigan had in mind when he decided to play a joke on the biggest star ever to come to the Club. In June 1968 Louis Armstrong was at the height of his fame. Long-hailed as one of the best jazz musicians the world had ever seen, in 1968 he knocked the Beatles off the top of the UK single charts with What a Wonderful World yet he still found the time to come to West Yorkshire. James Corrigan picked Armstrong up in his Roller and drove him to an old warehouse. People who were around the Club at the time heard that the great man turned to one of his party and said: "Man, we've done hit the bottom."  Eartha sings Ilkla Moor in Batley Market Back of beyond Batley might have been, but even the biggest stars found the opportunity to take time out while they were there. During a visit to Batley Market Eartha Kitt led shoppers in a rendering of On Ilkla Moor Baht 'At. Shirley Bassey went to Birkenshaw for fish and chips. Bee Gee Maurice Gibb ended up marrying waitress Yvonne and Roy Orbison also found a wife, although it has to be said it was a girl from Leeds! But some acts came from closer to home. According to Grumbleweed Tony Jo: "James Corrigan loved to get the Grumbleweeds because they didn't cost as much as the superstars but he made a lot of money out of them. He came in the dressing room and said, 'I like having you lads here. If you do a week here I can afford Lulu'. We used to get paid in damp money because it had come out of a tin where they'd been serving drinks."  It's a wonderful world when Louis comes to Batley During Shirley Bassey's performance, though, they closed the bar. Pianist Tony Cervi remembered that, apart from Shirley herself, you couldn't hear a pin drop. She sang The Party's Over and by 1978 it was, indeed, all over for the Batley Variety Club. Competition, the fees that needed to be paid to attract the stars and changing tastes meant the world famous venue had to finally close its doors. Twenty years on singer Vince Hill said: "I think James tried to create in some ways a bit of Vegas in Batley but there's a heck of a difference Between Batley and Vegas." Corrigan's Entertainment Manager Derek Smith went on to run the club - renamed The Frontier - for 24 years before he, too, called it a day, and in 2005 a group of Batley businessmen bought the Club. They've reintroduced live entertainment on 'Batley Variety Club Nights' where, even now, the Grumbleweeds can sometimes still be seen treading the boards.  [The interviews and images used here come from Waste, made by the BBC North TV Film Unit, in 1968 and Batley, King of Clubs transmitted by BBC Yorkshire in December 1998] last updated: 24/11/2008 at 15:18 SEE ALSOYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > History > Local History > Vegas in Batley?    |
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