Designed and built by former fairground worker James Corrigan and his wife Betty on top of a disused sewage site on Bradford Road in Batley, Yorkshire, the world-famous Batley Variety Club opened on 27 March 1967. The headline act on opening night was The Bachelors.
The auditorium was arranged in five tiers that formed a horseshoe around the stage, and constructed with no pillars, giving the audience unobstructed views from every seat.
The ceilings were low, creating an intimate atmosphere, and the band was positioned at the back of the stage rather than in a traditional orchestra pit so that the artists could be closer to the audience. Two long bars ran down either side of the club.
The club seated 1,750 people, with standing room for more, and this large capacity facilitated low admission prices for major acts. Food (chicken and chips or scampi and chips) was served in baskets with plastic cutlery to avoid clinking noises that could disturb the acts on stage.
Attracting the biggest and best variety acts from the UK and US, the club – ideally located roughly midway between Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield and Bradford – became known as “the Las Vegas of the North”
The Variety Club closed in 1978 when the Corrigans separated and reopened that September as a disco named “Crumpets”. It closed again in April 1979 (after the police made strong objections to a renewal of the drinks and entertainment licence) and reopened as the “Frontier” in the early 1980s. This eventually closed in 2016, and the building was converted to a gym in 2017.
James Corrigan died in December 2000, aged 74. Betty Corrigan died in April 2016.
TRIVIA
In 1974, Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees – recently divorced from Lulu – met his future wife, Yvonne Spenceley, while he was playing at the club and she was working there as a waitress. Within a month, they were married, and Yvonne was whisked off to Florida, living the life of a superstar’s wife.
They were happily married and stayed together until Maurice died prematurely of a heart attack many years later.
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Artists were booked for a week-long run, from Sunday night to the following Saturday, sometimes longer, and the club hosted shows by performers including Jayne Mansfield, Louis Armstrong, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard, Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Lulu, The Bee Gees, Billy Fury, Georgie Fame, Eartha Kitt, Dusty Springfield, The Everly Brothers, Morecambe and Wise, Val Doonican, Des O’Connor, Adam Faith, Gene Pitney, Neil Sedaka, Del Shannon, Ken Dodd, Helen Shapiro, The Hollies, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer, The Shadows, Freddie & The Dreamers, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Drifters, The Four Tops, Peter & Gordon, The Rockin’ Berries, Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Barron Knights, Tiny Tim, Engelbert Humperdinck, Matt Monro, Tommy Cooper, Long John Baldry, Jimmy Tarbuck, Vera Lynn, Gracie Fields, Acker Bilk, Solomon King, Tony Hancock, Dave Allen, Frankie Howerd, Danny La Rue, Mike and Bernie Winters, Dickie Valentine, PJ Proby and Johnny Mathis.
