Acetate [Level 1]
Hi, does anyone remember any of these Manchester DJ's: Alan Dene (Slack Alice), Roy Stanier (Archway), Liz Wold (Manhattan) and Graham Rickaby ? Their names have cropped up and I was trying to find out some more information about them.
Thanks Greg.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Hi Greg. I think I've mentioned before about Roy Stanier being a favourite of mine when he DJ'd at the Archway in the mid-80s; when that venue closed in '87 he started working at Excaliber in the Potteries where I lived at the time, then he went to Gavans in Wolverhampton in the men-only basement club. (he worked his way southwards every few years!) The last I heard of him he was running a record shop in Birmingham but that's a while ago now.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
Hi, thanks for the info. I wanted to find out a bit more about his style of DJ'ing, I believe he was mixing rather than using the mike, and I also read he had a keyboards player with some weekends too ?
Did you by any chance go to Hero's to hear Les Cokell play ?
This must be the record shop you mentioned, though the chart is from Dec 99.
Music Beat Records: Dance NRG and HI-NRG (Reviews)
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Originally Written by greg fenton
He was an excellent mixer, one of the best I've ever heard personally.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Unfortunately I didn't & it's my biggest regret as that club had such a good reputation for music in the early 80s, but I did hear Les DJ at 'Rockies' in the 'Mineshaft' area downstairs in the late 80s/early 90s where he played more 'classic' hi-nrg such as Lisa & Patrick Cowley rather than the contemporary stuff that got played in the main club area upstairs. He was very good & is sadly missed on the Manchester scene.:icon_cry:
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
i knew les and roy who sadley no longer with us roy had a record shop in birmingham i knew les better from him djing at blackpool meccas highland room playing northen soul with ian levine les played at rockies and cruz 101 clubs manchester he had a record shop in bloom street downstairs in the clonezone shop ive still got some mixes of les and roy i hope this helps a bit ian
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Hi
That's very sad news hearing about Roy.
In the 80s we used to travel from London up to Manchester at weekends specifically to go the Archway and hear Roy. We'd bring him loads of 12ss that we'd gotten from the States and he was so open to playing them.
Plus Archway at that time stayed open later than any of the London clubs..
They were fun days...
Sixty minutes is nothing special (but it\'s all the world to me)
Acetate [Level 1]
Thanks to everyone for the info. I'd love to hear some more about the Archway: the music, its layout and so on, and definitely some more about Roy's style of DJ'ing ? I believe it opened Fri Dec 9th 83/ 84 ? and was owned by Harry and Wayne...
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
I went to the Archway during it's last 2 years. It wasn't a very big club as it was literally under a railway arch but it's one of the best & most atmospheric places I've ever been to, the air heady with the aroma of leather & poppers.The dancefloor dominated the space as it was in the middle with a balcony around the top of it. The bar was to the left & you had to sign a book when you entered the place. The clientele was mainly cloney but there used to be some different characters like a Pete Burns lookalike & the odd Bowie-type. There were some oil drums to sit on but I never sat down! The track that always brings back memories of the first time I visited the Archway is Jennifer Holliday's 'No Frills Love' -what an exciting track & it suited the place completely. I never stopped dancing whenever I visited, & I used to cop off alot there too (not that I went for that you understand!
:icon_confused:). Fantastic place & I was devastated when it closed in '87.:icon_sad:
...ya gotta beat the street......
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
I lived in Stoke in the mid to late 80s (and beyond) and remember Roy very well, he seemed a quiet man but his mixing was great, he changed that club completely with his mixing skills. I never went anywhere else on a Saturday night. I probably saw Sandra Dee there!
I used to buy cassettes of the latest mixed tracks at the time (still have them but no player to play them on) but I have been racking my brain since yesterday to remember if they were created by Roy (which my poor memory is saying yes to) or by someone from Birmingham.
I only ever went to the Archway once, I found it a bit intimidating but great music. My best friend loved his camp fashions so we got refused entry on a couple of occasions so didn't go back.
toto
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
I'm surprised about that as I used to see all types in there although it was 95% cloney.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Yes toto he brought decent music & mixing to Stoke for the first time!:icon_mrgreen:) Do you remember one of the club owners (Ray, I think) always trying to get punters to go back to his dungeon? & the many PAs such as Lily Savage & Hazell Dean & Miquel Brown? Life was fun back then.:icon_razz:
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
Thanks again. Sounds like Roy must have been very influencial with his mixing and choice of music for the Archway...
Does anyone know if he was from Manchester originally, and if he played any other clubs before Archway.
PS I have a number of music reviews and top 20 charts from Mancunian Gay mag to post up soon from Les Cokell.
Test Pressing [Level 2]
I went to the Archway from almost the night it first opened its doors to its swansong when 'Rockies' opened (too big a rival emerged for it to survive, and we gay boiz always want something 'new' on the scene, don't we?). Wayne and Harry were the frontline 'owners' (though I understood that a woman had backed it with some moolah).
Roy span the discs and there was also a guy who would play live keyboards along to the tracks, something I had never seen before nor since! From what I remember, he lurked by the downstairs toilets... He only lasted about 6 months though I think?
Roy was a fantastic DJ, the best I ever heard for mixing, phasing and re-editing tracks live 'as it happened'. He was usually the first to play stuff that would eventually take the place (and other clubs) by storm. I remember him playing "Male stripper" on a few occasions early on in it's run, and the floor would clear, leaving only a few people (me and my mate for 2!) whirrling madly. Of course, give it a week or so, and you couldn't get elbow room on the floor it was so packed. Same thing with "you spin me round..." I seem to remember. Roy was a nice guy, though he could be a bit shady when it came to telling you what a particular bootleg was (I used to be dead cheeky and just grab it and look, later that next week ordering it from Record Shack in London, they always had the best boots).
Didn't Slack Alice do Stuffed Olives (I was introduced to Lisa's "Jump shout" and Bobby O there).
Les Cokell (does anyone have his LP by the way?) did Heros and he was good too, mixing the newly emerging "boys town" music with more chart bound numbers.
For me, Archway will always be the seminal gay club of Manchester, and Roy was the reason most of us turned up week in week out, to dance our tits off for 3-4 hours of non-stop dance classics (Even "slave to the rhythm" as I recall - not many brave enough to spin a slowee like that in those days and get away with it!).
Good for me to know that I am not the only one left out of that bucnh who still remebers - dance on!
Acetate [Level 1]
ive got the album that les mixed i'll have to dig it out i can't remember the track listing off the top of my head im sure theres a couple of abba tracks on it cheers ian
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
I totally agree! I always say that it's the best gay club I've ever visited in the UK, I even preferred it to London clubs like Heaven & Bang! The atmosphere was unique & the music fabulous. Rockies was bigger but it never had the same atmosphere somehow. Whenever I go down Whitworth Street I really wish I could go back 23 years & it was still there.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
Hi There, unfortunately I have found this thread for all the wrong reasons. i knew Roy very well from 1988 to 1992 or so when he dj'd in Excalibur (owned by Bob (passed a good few years ago now) and Ray) in Stoke On Trent, or Hanley to be more precise. His then partner Chris ran the record shop in the club for him. After that he moved to Mates ( I think that was the name) nightclub also in Hanley owned by the late Colin Murphy. Tonight bored on my computer I googled him and this thread is the second result of my google. The first was Music Beat Records which is the name Roy used for his DJ Retail Ventures.
Spookily and chillingly the site is still up and the last review of new releases by roy is dated 1999. I figured then he must have passed away and then discovered this thread. How sad we fell out of touch. Maybe someone is paying for the hosting of the site as a tribute.
He was a top class DJ and a good friend for those few years and I have about 15 tapes (well it was a while ago) that he mixed and a heap of vinyl that he got for me too. ITs all a bit dusty but there are some interesting white labels in there and I am moving them all onto cd now before they deteriorate.
I must have rubbed elbows on the dancefloor of excalibur with a few of the posters on her, so here's to ya.
Cheers , Irish Tony
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Nice to hear from ya Tony. I was at Excalibur most Saturday nites in the late 80s/early 90s dancing my buns off! Enjoy that music! Roy's mixtapes were fabuolous.:icon_razz:
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
Saturday nights are usually hi nrg 80s/90's at Legends in the tunnel bar (if it gets busy) these days where you can relive the same vibe as of old..all mixed by the fab DJ (dont know his name?). Just like the old clubs..all men!!
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Last time I was in the Tunnel on a Saturday nite there were a few women and some very annoying, very drunk men.:icon_evil: I haven't been since.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
Just for info, Cruz101 are having an old-school hiNRG night on Fri 19th Dec
Acetate [Level 1]
Just found this thread whilst googling Roy Stanier, just seeing if he was still running Music Beat, so sad to hear the news he's not longer with us.
Starting off with my earliest memories of moving to Manchester, I went to Hero's a couple of tmes, but it felt like it was in it's death throes, busy for a while, but then it seemed like people went elsewhere, and they did as I found out....
I am told that Hero's used to have a hot tub or pool when it was in it's prime, but saw no evidence of it on my visits, but do recall lot's of tubular steel framework.
I assume it was Les Cokell DJ'ing, but to be honest can't remember(too many Breaker's!!)
I used to go to Stuffed Olives as well which was a venue everyone used to go too between the pubs and a club, so got busy from sort of 11- midnight.
My main memory of the place was it was where I first and only heard Al Corley's 'Square Rooms' played.
Plus the fact it was a good fifteen minute walk away form the village being situated off King Street, but it was next door to Hero's and on the way to The Archway.
When I discovered that The Archway was where people had been disappearing to, I could understand why.
You could hear the music pounding through the doors of this railway arch, and the smell of alcohol, tobacco and poppers really hit you in the face when you walked in!
One visit and I was hooked, so hooked in fact, I got a bar job there.
The guys who ran it(and I thought owned it, but an earlier poster says differently)Wayne and Harry were nice enough guys, and made me feel welcome, but boy did I work hard behind that bar!
We used to open on a Sunday lunch from 1 until about 5 and that was a killer as I hadn't usually got home until 5am!
Having said that the Sunday afternoon sessions were some of the best times ever, a completely different atmosphere ot the very cruisy Saturday nights.
The DJ in charge of the madness was Roy Stanier, and he played the whole gamut of Euro and Hi Nrg, and was indeed a brilliant mixer, there were never any gaps or jumps, the dancefloor was never less than packed, uncomfortably so at times.
For me this was the best club ever in Manchester, and nothing has come close since.
I could waffle on for hours, but I won't!
An earlier poster said they had difficulty getting into the club as they were dressed wrongly for the club, and I find this really surprisng, as Harry used to DJ early on in the evenings for the alternative crowd who were regulars there.
Finally, I'm pretty sure that The Archway were the first Manchester club to do an AIDS benefit, I've got the programe of events somewhere, and I know for a fact there was (or even more frighteningly is!) footage of me doing 'Bobby's Girl' out there........
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
You're so right metalbear! I didn't live in Manchester back then & I remember parking my Fiat Panda (
...ya gotta beat the street......
Acetate [Level 1]
SandraDee, they were indeed special times.
What gets on my nerves is hearing people slagging those times off, and saying how the music sucks and isn't relevant any more.
Well, I don't go out as much any more as the music being played at present for the most part sucks to my ears, and the one place that was OK to go to (for someone of my advancing years!) Legends is dying a death.
I still like The Tunnel once in a while, but it's not the same when there's one or two people on the dance floor, as opposed to the few hundred there used to be.
I'm just glad I was there.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Me too mb! At least we have the memories & the music at home to listen to.
...ya gotta beat the street......
Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks