I was very pleased to read that journalist Denis Kilcommons wrote an article about my dissertation project in his Huddersfield Examiner columm! :)
STUDENT Jenni Stalmach produced a unique piece of work for her degree at Huddersfield University – a fanzine devoted to the town’s reggae history.
Jenni (pictured) researched the changing scene from the 1960s when the only club in town for that type of music was Venn Street in the town centre.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Venn Street was a popular haunt for Huddersfield’s reggae fans, famed in the local community for its impressive history of dances and live acts.
Originally the Empress Ballroom, Venn Street, opened as The West Indian Social Club in 1967. The venue changed names over the years and became Cleopatra’s in the 1970s and Silver Sands in the 1980s.
For many, Venn Street was THE place to hear reggae music at the weekend. Playing host to reggae superstars such as Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown, Venn Street was also popular as it was the only bar in Huddersfield to open into the early hours of Saturday night.
Situated in the town centre where Kingsgate Shopping Centre now lies, the old stone building was nothing special to look at, scruffy and run down with palm trees and Jamaican imagery adorning the walls. Scruffy on the outside it may have been, but the music played inside made the club a legend.
Stephen Dorril went there as a 17-year-old in 1974.
"It was strange because there was always little applause for excellent bands,’’ he said. "Everyone was just ultra-cool and just stood there. When I saw Aswad at Venn Street it was an odd experience because they were brilliant, but nobody clapped until the encore."
The club was eventually demolished to make way for a car park in 1992 but the memories – they linger on.
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