Moving to Witton Lane
1975
“In 1974 they bought a new bar that was a wonderful piece of carpentry and wanted to move it into the new premises in Witton Lane, Aston. The builders told them that they couldn’t do it, that the measurements did not work out. So, a group of members took the new bar out, put it on a truck and drove it up to Witton Lane. When they got there, they took out the balustrade from the stairs at the back and carried the bar upstairs. They left it in the middle of the upstairs room with a note on it that read; ‘Builders can’t move it, Poofs did!’.An alternative bar was constructed by Patrick (full time barman, he was the long time lover of Mickey Dunn the Manager at that time) for the Camp Hill venue and he made it out of packing cases, tables and chairs”.
The Witton Lane venue was the former Aston Social Club and the club moved there properly in 1975. They had the new bar on one level and an existing bar on another level, they put in a DJ box and used a small stage. Downstairs the layout consisted of two alcoves in horseshoe shapes, a small kitchenette with 4 or 5 tables on one side. Upstairs there was a bar, a dancefloor and a DJ box.
At the time, Disco was coming in and jinks felt as he was out of touch he should sack himself as DJ. They got in some green, blue and red disco lights.
“After a while, they decided that the restaurant area needed to be separate and they hired an ironmonger to build a wrought iron chancel screen to do such a job. A wrought iron screen, made of three panels, 6 foot 6 inches high with a single strap across went from wall to wall, seventeen foot across.”
Contributed by: John Jeffries aka jinks, 60