The twelfth #MuralMemories recording with #UntoldHull and @shipsinthesky63 comes from Ivor Morton Halnofski who told us about his days at Bailey’s. He started to going to the club when he was underage, becoming “part of the furniture” with him and his friends known as the ‘Bailey’s clan’. Ivor told us about the many bands he saw perform at the nightclub, his favourite being The Drifters. He said how he feels there are no similar nightclubs in Hull today showing bands as cheaply as tickets were for Bailey’s. The ‘Bailey’s clan’ liked their fashion with outfits, including American GI uniforms, all bought from a shop down Spring Street in Hull. Footwear was ex-hire stock bought from S.M. Bass Gent’s Outfitters. He later wore punk outfits, including mohair jumpers, and he’d, “go to Leeds to buy a lot of our punk gear, and London…and punk hadn’t been heard of in Hull at the time.” On a holiday in Blackpool with a friend, they met some girls from London who loved punk — Ivor then spent the following weekends for 6 months in London going to different nightclubs. There he experienced a mix of punk and mods and was one night chased by a gang of Teddy Boys and had to hide underneath a car for two hours in order not get beaten up. Ivor still has a photograph in his flat of the girls he met up with in London, Cathy Mohan and Janice Highman, who lived in Peckham and Wimbledon respectively. On the way he dressed back in Hull, “people were gobsmacked, they thought we were aliens..but gradually people got into it.” He described Bailey’s as having two doormen at the entrance with large plate glass doors, and then they’d go up in either one of two lifts to the fourth floor where the nightclub was. There was a carpeted reception and cloakroom area, and Ivor described the interior as unusual for Hull as it was, “done out like a London nightclub.” There was a long corridor to the ‘discotheque’, and another area with a dance floor and stage. Listening now to music that was played in Bailey’s brings back lots of memories for Ivor, and he said that he thought, “Hull nightlife will never ever be the same as at that time as when we used to go to Bailey’s…the nightlife now is totally…I think it’s a great shame…now culture with the youngsters is totally, totally different.” Ivor loved going to Bailey’s so much that he didn’t miss one Sunday night out there from between 1974 to late 1977.

Transcription

The transcription for this recording will be available soon.