ahhhhhh... memories

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

MANCHESTER late 60's - The Pop Inn

As you went through the double doors on the ground floor for the first time you were met with what can only be described as..OMG as you scraped your jaw off the tiled floor. Lit by a couple of fluorescent tubes a wide staircase lay before you. The walls being covered with a floral type anaglyptic wall paper that was heavily painted….. PUCE. The effect being akin to that like the aftermath of a wine drinkers convention. Nobody owned up to the colour scheme.

Sometimes you paid your entrance at the bottom of the stairs… but mostly at the top. As you walked up the staircase to join the queue of eager dancers the strains of Motown, R&B and pop music filled your ears. The owners had just opened up another part of the ‘club’ – on the other side of the landing. In there were wooden seats for those who fancied a quiet chat – with the opposite sex. To the right a ‘light refreshment’ bar… and there .. in the far left hand corner ..perched about eight foot off the floor – a television…. Now THAT was cool. No other club in Manchester (that I was aware of) had such a thing… and just in time for the final episodes of The Fugitive (shown around 1969 in the UK).

Keep to the left… keep to the left… don’t stray off the musical path …into the main room … and the dancing.

The television room wasn’t the only ‘change’ the Pop Inn was to see between 1967 and (about) 1969. Once where there was just a ‘refreshment bar’ plonked on the back wall (over the entrance).. changes were made and raised seating area’s to the back corners were installed with a balustrade (alright… a wooden ornate rail) attached and walk-down to the dance floor. The refreshment area was brought forward and also began to sell coffee.. again no expense spared with the see through partition separating the ‘bar’ from the dance area… nice touch that…

The naked bottom half of the walls which encircled the many dancers were now covered in wood panelling… hey that was real luxury back in the 60’s…. and on the stage.

Mark Jonez was stood behind a ….. wheeled market stall???? (or something like that).

As if that was enough, something happened in either early Spring or late Autumn at the Pop Inn that (unforeseen) was to change many many peoples outlook on dancing. Not at first.. but the repercussions would still be felt nearly forty years later.

It was at that (either) time that a dance choreography competition was arranged. The Choreographer(s) were to make up a dance over a fortnight and they would have to perform it ‘with another person’ on the stage. They could even choose their own music.

Hang on a minute…. TWO people were needed to do the dance???... like dancing together.. in unison.. doing the same thing… but isn’t that called……………Line dancing. – ‘Well !! slap my thighs and call me Maurice’ – and not a single Yeee Haww in sight.

Hang on another minute… but Linedancing came from America.. and didn’t we see ‘The Bus Stop’ in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. Of course you did….. but we in Manchester didn’t call it Line dancing some (cough cough) nine years earlier did we… we just danced because we loved dancing… had no time to give this type of dancing a name.

I am NOT saying that it was the Pop Inn in Manchester 1968 where Modern Line Dancing started… I AM saying Manchester had at least one Choreographed (and later published) something like SEVEN years before the ‘first’ Linedance ‘The Bus Stop’ was choreographed.

Also at the time, at places like Browns of Levenshulme and Stretford there were other ‘line/circle’ dances being enjoyed.. but based on the Barn Dance.. one of the most favourite tracks being ‘We Gotta Get Outta This Place’ by the Animals..

I digress… back to the Pop Inn.. that particular competition was won by Pete Browne and Jean Dawson. (certainly no disrespect to either Pete or Jean – we’ve all gotta meet up again one day.. and go through the routines..) But it’s the dance that came second that has created the ‘buzz’.. a buzz that is still reverberating today… and one that a great number of Guru’s in todays line dancing world cannot bring themselves around to admitting exists. In fact a lot of them STILL don’t believe that Manchester had anybody capable of putting any sort of dance together… most of these Guru’s are from … darrrn sarrrf… you gotta feel sorry them really.
The dance in question was called (at a later date) ’30 Something’ and by today’s standards.. its pretty basic. ..except that it had moves that are in most of today’s dances… and it went in two directions (ie danced facing 12 and 6 o’clock alternately) … again ‘unique’ for any dance of that time.

The dance was choreographed by two people, one of which has already been ‘found’ (alive… lol)… whilst the other who went by the name of Linda appears to be more elusive. In fact so elusive that after nearly six years of Newpaper adverts, web site notice boards and the such .. all over the World, even the local tv station ‘channel m’ got in on the subject as well as massive page headlines in the Manchester Evening News … she hasn’t still come forward (or has anyone with a contact number).

You may think that ‘Linedancing’ is a bit ‘naff’… but there are clubs called ‘Soul Line’ over the Manchester area (where it all began??) who ‘Line dance’ to Motown, old and new R&B, Northern Soul even kitsch Disco…you don’t know what you are missing.

Mike Taylor

http://www.manchesterbeat.com/venues/rusholme/popinn/popinn.php

HAVE YOU ANY MEMORIES (or nightmares...lol) OF DANCE CLUBS OF THE 60'S,70's OR 80's

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

Hmmmm... all the member (other than moi!) born AFTER the 80's then.. pale

Joined : 31 Jan 2007 Posts : 33 Localisation : NORFOLK

Subject: Re: ahhhhhh... memories Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:23 pm

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

Haha...

So sue me for surving this long..... cheers

Admin Joined : 03 Dec 2006 Posts : 410

I was but a nipper. I had to do country dancing for the school fete - that was as '60s as I ever was.

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

There ya have folk's.... I KNEW there was something mysterious about DG... she's a .... TIME TRAVELLER..... Shocked

DG was 'around' in the 1960's.... but 'skipped' the 70's, 80's and even the 90's... and emerged as the same young chick(en) she was in her 'nipper' 60's..... bounce

...

C'mon you lload of Rip Van Winkles..... Wakey Wakey!!

Admin Joined : 03 Dec 2006 Posts : 410

I didn't start line dancing until the naughties. Unless you count dancing in lines at the school discos in the '70s'

Glory Seeker Joined : 15 Feb 2007 Posts : 338

I used to go to youth club discos ddd

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

Hmmm... when I said...

HAVE YOU ANY MEMORIES (or nightmares...lol) OF DANCE CLUBS OF THE 60'S,70's OR 80's..

I wasn't referring to ANY genre.... just good ol' disco dancin' stuff will do just fine... or were all you like hermits... and stayed indoors ...ooooo... now THAT is scary... lol!

Admin Joined : 03 Dec 2006 Posts : 410

Ooh no when I was in my teens my local area was riddled with youth clubs and there was a disco somewhere just about every evening. It was great, and I was always first up boogying.

I don't think the young'uns are so lucky in that these days. No so many youth clubs any more.

Then when I became a proper adult the best clubs were in Southsea. Neros, Mecca etc. I think the old Joanna's club is still there but I only went there once I had a boyfriend in the forces. It was a probably still is an absolute dump but they alway played great music to dance to.
And of course we had the Saturday Night Fever craze sweeping the nation.

Subject: Re: ahhhhhh... memories Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:02 pm