Jonathan (aka Jonathan Woodliffe) has a long history of DJing in Nottingham. To many his name is synonymous to many with the early days of Rock City, but before that he cut his teeth as a DJ at The Palais. We asked Jonathan about his experiences of the Palais back in those halcyon days of the 1970s…
Can you tell us about your early life in Nottingham and how you first became a DJ?
I was born and bought up in Burton Joyce and started going to the Palais as a teenager in the 1970s. In the main room they had a DJ and house band called Tristram Shandy, who played cover versions of big pop records of the time. I wasn't into pop music, so I'd go downstairs to the Bali Hai Room, which was set up like the set from the musical South Pacific. The frontage of it had bamboo cut in half and along the top there was like an awning that came over. Inside there were wicker chairs and tables. It didn't look like any other club and had a revolving dance floor. There was a DJ called John Black who used to work at Selectadisc and he would play a few Northern soul records downstairs on a Saturday night. I first went along just to dance.
Ah good old Selectadisc. Is that where you first started buying records?
Yeah, I vaguely remember going to the Selectadisc store on Arkwright Street and then they moved the store over to Bridlesmith Gate. The shop was over two floors; downstairs there were albums and upstairs were singles. I think that was where my love of Northern soul music and purchasing records began.
How did it progress from there?
Well, I started going to other nights too including a Northern Soul night at the old Britannia Boat Club on the side of the River Trent. There were some kids from my school, Gedling comprehensive, who were regulars there and Monday nights were always a big night. It was there I met a DJ called Andy Lee, who is sadly no longer with us. Andy and I became really good friends. He was at college and had access to a car, so together we made trips to Northern Soul all nighters outside of the city at places like Sheffield, Cleethorpes and Wigan. We also went to record shops there and were able to buy more records, some of which we sold off back home at a profit. Andy also started taking them to John Black who would play them at the Palais. Then John got ill one day and Andy was asked if he wanted to cover his set. Then Andy eventually asked me if I wanted to get involved too…
How much do you remember about your first night of DJing to a crowd?
It was sometime in 1976 or 1977 and was the most nervewracking thing I've ever done. I was a confident person around people, but to go and stand in the Bali Hai Room at the Palais and play in front of a crowd was something else! At that time there was no art of mixing involved in DJing. Instead you went on the microphone and introduced the records like you would now as a radio DJ. You’d also take requests from people and say stuff like “this record goes out to so and so…” before you played the record. It was a real baptism of fire for me, I was sweating and shaking while I played. However, the adrenaline kicked in, and eventually I realised I could do this.
The Bali Hai Room, which was set up like the set from the musical South Pacific. The frontage of it had bamboo cut in half and along the top there was like an awning that came over. Inside there were wicker chairs and tables. It didn't look like any other club and had a revolving dance floor
The manager of the venue around this time was Mike Knight, who became synonymous with The Palais (and its subsequent rebrands) for decades. What are your memories of him?
He was part of the fixtures and fittings of the place and you always knew he was in the room. He’d probably only been there for a decade back then, but he already had a big presence. He was also canny at the business end and was always looking for ways to get things into the venue and make money on the bar, even if it wasn’t something he was involved in putting on.
Tell us about some of the all-dayers you used to run back in the day? They sound pretty legendary…
Well, it started as an extension of what Andy Lee and I had been doing, but when more people wanted to come we had to get a bigger vehicle than his dad’s car. So I started organising coach trips outside of Nottingham. I was DJing at The Palais on a Monday night and I'd let them know that we’d have a coach going up to Wigan Casino that weekend. Lots of people started to put their name down and pay a deposit. We all met at the Salutation Inn on Maid Marian Way, which was always the meeting point for coaches as the roads there had a layby you could park the coaches in. There were other people doing this in other cities all over the country too. So eventually I started hiring The Palais on Sundays and booking in some big DJs so other people would come to us. Sunday was a day they were normally closed on, so getting 1000 people into the venue, and sometimes it was more than that, was big business.
What other memorable gigs were there in your time at the Palais? Acts like The Clash and Hanoi Rocks played there around then. Did you go to any of those?
There were lots of bands on, but I wasn’t really into that music so I barely went to any. But a big event I remember was when Tiswas brought a show. This was one of the most popular things on TV at the time and Bob Carolgees and Chris Tarrant were there. They also had this guy called the Phantom Flan Flinger who would basically run around the crowd with paper plates with shaving foam on them and put them in people’s faces. I remember people trying to wrestle him and unmask him, but he was pretty strong and nobody managed it.
The event was the most chaotic thing I've ever seen. No-one carried around cameras back then and obviously there were no mobile phones, so the pictures from it are only etched in the minds of those who were there. The most memorable thing was that the guy who ran The Palais merch stall came up with the bright idea of selling ‘Silly String’, which was a big thing back then. It was an aerosol spray that shot out this brightly coloured sticky stuff that just stuck to everything. He said he’d bought 2000 tins and I think it sold well. People sprayed it everywhere around the venue. As you can guess Mick Knight was furious and had to hire in a lot of extra cleaners. Six months later the lighting rig and the carpets were all still covered in the stuff.
When did you leave the Palais and what did you do after..?
I DJed there until about 1980, when I got offered the slot of being a resident at the Camelot Club on Bridlesmith Gate. I did that for a year and then a chap called Paul Mason came down and told me about the plans he had for starting club nights at Rock City, which up to then had just been a gig venue. I followed him over and became the resident DJ, spending much of the 1980s and 1990s there. Lots of stories for another time. Then in the mid 00s I moved with my wife to County Durham. I helped launch a festival called Hardwick Festival up there, which has been going for thirteen years now. You should come along this August; we’ve got Scissor Sisters, The Pet Shop Boys and Olly Murs playing this year. Obviously, I still DJ whenever I get a chance too.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?