00:03 Layla Jabbari: [man coughs] My name’s Layla Jabbari, I’m here today at St. Matthew’s Church, uh, on Boulevard with Steve Wright, and we’re talking on behalf of the project Scene But Not Heard. So, yeah, Steve, if you want to talk to us a little bit about where you’re from.

00:15 Steve Wright: Yeah, first of all, I gotta say I’m very proud of my Hessle Road roots, I was born down Bean Street, which is still there, but a lot of the things like the school I went to is no longer there.

00:28 LJ: Ah, okay.

00:29 SW: So I’ve continually, since I moved from Bean Street to the Chanterlands Avenue area, I’ve always been involved with Hessle Road, um, most of our family were fishermen-

00:44 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

00:44 SW: -so another thing to the roots.

00:48 LJ: Yeah.

00:49 SW: Um, I began bein’ interested in music from the age of about five.

00:57 LJ: Okay.

00:59 SW: ‘Cause most of my family were fishermen, as you do, and if they ever came ‘ome at the same time, they only had three days, they used to have parties, and I can remember, like, Elvis Presley and  Tommy Steel bein’ played on the radio or records, whatever, so that’s really what I started from.

01:19 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative), and were other family members musical, or was it just you?

01:23 SW: Me grandma used to play piano, but it was basically bum-ba-dum, you know, the old, singalong sort of stuff.

01:31 LJ: And when did you learn the guitar? 

01:34 SW: Um, it was about nine, me auntie was in the army, and she brought me a guitar back, uh, just a, like a Spanish guitar, six string, and I learnt from there, purely self-taught.

01:49 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative). 

01:51 SW: Uh, I’ve never looked, been much of a practiser, so you know,  I’ve got a really good ear.

01:57 LJ: Yeah.

01:58 SW: But, um, I’m not a practiser or nothin’, I could read music but very, very slowly.

02:04 LJ: Uh-huh (affirmative), and do you remember what sort of music you played when you were nine, what did you start off with?

02:07 SW: It was mainly sort of like Tommy Steel.

02:11 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative). 

02:12 SW: Uh, Cliff Richard, and that sort of stuff.

02:14 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

02:15 SW: But that was a bit, tiny bit later on, really, wa’n’t it?

02:18 LJ: Yeah, and is that what you were listening to as well?

02:21 SW: It was just learning to play, like, chords and stuff like that.

02:25 LJ: Yeah, yeah, and then, so, can you talk to us … so which school were you at, which school?

02:30 SW: It was the Henry Cooper, Sir Henry Cooper on, um, no longer there,  I wouldn’t suppose.

02:35 LJ: Yeah, yeah, okay, and do you have any memories of growing up on Hessle Road and Bean Street?

02:40 SW: Yeah, um, I mean, I moved from there when I was about eight or nine, but yeah, I always remember goin’ , like, shoppin’ on Hessle Road and-

02:49 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

02:50 SW: -obviously, Bonfire Night, we used to go raidin’ down all the other streets. [he coughs] No longer do that now, so.

02:58 LJ: No, no [she chuckles]. 

02:59 SW: It’s not done.

03:00 LJ: It’s not. [Steve coughs] Okay, so when did you start working as a musician, how old were you then?

03:06 SW: Um, I joined a band in, well, called a group set, uh, at school when I was fourteen.

03:15 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

03:16 SW: And we basically used to do youth clubs, uh, not old enough, really, to go in pubs, so it was basically youth clubs.

03:26 LJ: Yeah.

03:26 SW: The first taste of bein’ in a pub was, um, when I was just short of fifteen up the Antler Club on Holderness Road.

03:37 LJ: Okay.

03:38 SW: Hedon Road, sorry.

03:39 LJ: What do you remember of that?

03:41 SW: Uh, not a lot a great deal, [Layla chuckles] I can remember standin’ up there and playin’, it was mainly, like, Shadow stuff and Cliff Richard and just sort of the stuff at the time.

03:52 LJ: Yeah. What, when would that have been, roughly?

03:55 SW: Uh, ’64.

03:56 LJ: Okay, so ’60s [Steve coughs], and then as you … when did it become more of a sort of professional thing for you?

04:04 SW: Um, well, it’s always been sort of semi-professional, although-

04:09 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

04:10 SW: -when I was twenty, I did go to London for six or seven months, I played in, like, professional dans then, uh, but mainly since I’ve been fifteen, sixteen it’s been pubs and clubs around the, just the area, you know-

04:28 LJ: Yeah.

04:28 SW: -Doncaster, Sheffield, Leeds.

04:30 LJ: Do you notice a difference between playin’ in Hull, around here, and to when you went to London, was there a different sort of atmosphere?

04:38 SW: Yeah, uh, London’s got its own sort of thing, you know? I was only there for about six month, but-

04:43 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

04:44 SW: -um, it was … it was good experience.

04:48 LJ: Yeah, yeah, excellent, okay, so, um, thinking about Hessle Road, what, which sort of clubs do you remember mostly workin’ in?

04:59 SW: Uh, well, most of them [he chuckles].

05:01 LJ: Yeah, yeah.

05:02 SW: I mean, most of them are now, you know, closed and gone, but yeah, down Hessle Road alone, there was a club down nearly every street.

05:09 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

05:11 SW: Um, when I ended up workin’ at the Dee Street Club, the organisation who ‘ad, the Palmer organisation, they ‘ad about five or six clubs.

05:20 LJ: Right.

05:21 SW: Um, in Hull, about four of ’em was based on ‘essle Road. I think there was the St. Andrew’s Club, the Albert Club, Dee Street, where I used to work, and the Charleston Club all within couple of miles of each other.

05:38 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

05:40 SW: And they all used to get full.

05:42 LJ: Right, okay, and what was the sort of difference between them, did, was there, or were they all quite similar?

05:49 SW: No, very, very similar.

05:50 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

05:50 SW: I mean, goin’ back to the ’70s when it was at its height, the, all the clubs in Hull used to have a bingo that was called it out at bingo, every club used to join in so there was one massive pot of money goin’ to the-

06:15 LJ: How would that work? How?

06:17 SW: Well, they had, like, their own radio system, where they’d communicate with each of the clubs and then they used to get a guy who used to pick the balls out or whatever they do.

06:28 LJ: Yeah, so one big game would be played then?

06:30 SW: Yeah, yeah.

06:30 LJ: Oh, nice, okay, and do you, like, so, thinking about a night out on Hessle Road, what would that look like for you?

06:37 SW: Uh, well, of course, things used to start a lot earlier in them days.

06:42 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

06:42 SW: Um, everybody used to home about seven o’clock.

06:45 LJ: Yeah.

06:46 SW: You know, and sometimes you’d be queuing up to get in places at eight o’clock [he coughs], but most of the clubs did that, you know, everybody went out at a certain time, and of course, they closed earlier then, as well. 

07:01 LJ: And did you stay in one club, or did you tend to move, like, more like a bar crawl type thing, or?

07:06 SW: Well, people used to stick to their own places.

07:11 LJ: Okay.

07:11 SW: You know. I mean, I’ve played in most places in Hull, pubs and the clubs.

07:17 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

07:17 SW: Um, it’s more it’s the same format.

07:21 LJ: Yeah, do any stand out to you?

07:23 SW: Not really.

07:23 LJ: Not really.

07:24 SW: No, no [he chuckles].

07:24 LJ: Can you describe to me what Dee Street Club looked like?

07:29 SW: Um,  actually, Dee Street was one of the poshest.

07:32 LJ: Right, okay [she chuckles].

07:34 SW: Right then. It was upstairs, uh, was the concert room, I mean, they ‘ad snooker and, like, a bar downstairs-

07:43 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

07:43 SW: -but the actual concert room was very plush, um, seating was … I can’t explain the sort of seating, but it wasn’t just tables and chairs, you know, they had seating at the side, in, like, can’t explain what it is.

08:05 LJ: Like kind of booths type thing?

08:06 SW: Yeah, yes, on a lot of them.

08:07 LJ: Okay, yeah [Steve coughs], and what was it, uh, what was on the walls and things, what did it look like, can you remember?

08:15 SW: Just very plain.

08:16 LJ: Plain.

08:17 SW: Very little on the walls.

08:18 LJ: And the dance floor?

08:20 SW: A very small dance floor, yeah, but I’d say the used to virtually pack the tables up to the stage at one point.

08:28 LJ: Ah, okay.

08:29 SW: But then, you know, you got further and further back so people had a bit of room to dance.

08:35 LJ: And did people dance? Was that part of the-?

08:36 SW: Yeah.

08:36 LJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

08:37 SW: At the end of the night, when it was da-da-da, to you.

08:42 LJ: [she chuckles] What were the drinks, what were people drinking, what were you drinkin’, what were..?

08:46 SW: Um, well, of course, lager was quite popular in the sort of like ’60s and the ’70s, so most of the guys used to drink lager.

08:57 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

08:57 SW: Uh, I suppose each to their own, really, you know, they used to drink various things.

09:02 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative), mixture. 

09:03 SW: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

09:03 LJ: Yeah, okay, and, uh, when I was talking to a lot of the fishermen about goin’ out on Hessle Road, they talked a lot about the clothes,  as well, that they used to wear. Was that something that was important to you, or?

09:17 SW: I’ve never been much of a-

09:18 LJ: Much of the, right.

09:20 SW: No.

09:20 LJ: [she chuckles] What sort of music were you playin’ when you were playin’ the Dee Street  and the other clubs?

09:25 SW: Well, at Dee Street, we used to play anything, really, from dance, you know, like, dance music, to, uh, ’60s, ’70s, later on, of course, I mean, I joined Dee Street in, uh, ’91-

09:44LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

09:45 SW: -and of course, a lot of the club land was phasin’ out there, uh, the attendances were gettin’ less and less and less, although Dee Street did ‘ave a really good attendance, uh, but, you know, from the mid-’80s onwards, clubs started to not be so cool, if you know what I mean.

10:07 LJ: Yeah, yeah, and did you play a set, or did people come and make requests?

10:14 SW: Yeah, they  used to make requests as well, but, like, we used to, we didn’t write down what we was gonna do, it was just, you know, we’d shout out, “we’ll do this, we’ll do that.”

10:22 LJ: Yeah.

10:23 SW: And if people wanted a certain song, we’d do it.

10:25 LJ: Can you give me any examples of, like, the popular songs that you were playin’?

10:31 SW: Oohhh. Um, well, a lot of people used to come up like, “well, can you play Brown Eyed Girl?” which was a, like, a popular song, it was one we used to all the time.

10:39 LJ: Yeah, yeah.

10:41 SW: And various other songs, but.

10:43 LJ: Oh, brilliant, and so how did the sort of set format of the night work, were you playing all night, or did they stop for performers?

10:53 SW: No, no, we were second spot to the bingo.

10:55 LJ: Okay [she chuckles], so bingo first, and then you?

10:59 SW: Yeah, what we used to do, um, we used to do from eight o’clock ’til twenty past eight.

11:06 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

11:07 SW: Then they’d get ready for the bingo where they is that they all had bingo, all the clubs, used to chip in, and then they used to do a house bingo, so we’d go twenty minutes, and then from bingo to, it used to be about twenty minutes, 25 minutes of bingo, and then we’d do, we’d get the artist on, and in them days, all the Palmer clubs used to have resident band of three or four members, and it used to be reading music, they wouldn’t have anybody that ‘ad their own, like they do nowadays, backup in music, you know, the … um, so we used to take what they call the dots from the singers or wherever, um, and then they’d do ‘alf an hour.

12:01 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

12:02 SW: More bingo, we’d do another quarter of  an hour, then the artist’d go on for another ‘alf an hour or three quarters of an hour.

12:10 LJ: The same artist, or a different one-

12:12 SW: No, no, we used to get one every night, different one every night.

12:17 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

12:17 SW: Um, and then we’d finish the night with the last twenty, 25 minutes, let ’em dance or whatever they wanted to do then.

12:25 LJ: Yeah, were there any artists that stand out that you remember?

12:29 SW: Not really.

12:29 LJ: No, none that were sort of, no.

12:32 SW: [he chuckles] Well, we did have Elvis Costello’s dad.

12:34 LJ: Oh, wow!

12:35 SW: Yeah, Ross McManus, uh, ‘e was a really nice bloke, actually.

12:39 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

12:40 SW: But yeah, he used to do the, um, radio programmes with the big band, um, yeah, he was a real nice bloke, and ‘e, that’s the only one I can think of that was, you know, important, really.

12:53 LJ: Yeah, yeah, and did you have regulars that would come? Regular performers that you’d see working with you?

13:00 SW: Yeah, well, they used to use, um, MacLeod owned an agency, which I think it’s still there, but they don’t use it a lot now.

13:09 LJ: What was that, sorry, the?

13:11 SW: [he coughs] MacLeod Agency.

13:12 LJ: MacLeod. 

13:12 SW: Which was on top of ‘essle Road, ‘esslar Road.

13:15 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

13:16 SW: Um, so they used to send artists like one every nine months somebody used to come back on a rota sort of thing.

13:24 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

13:25 SW: But we basically used to get the same artists within a year, then the next year we’d  get the same artist again, you know.

13:32 LJ: Yeah, yeah. Which ones would repeat the, do you remember any names?

13:36 SW: Most of ’em, really, I can’t remember.

13:39 LJ: Can’t remember the names, okay, no problem, and obviously, the project is about, um, the drag scene in, drag queens that would perform, do you remember any of those that you might’ve been backin’?

13:49 SW: Um, no, we didn’t back any, everybody that we ‘ad, they wouldn’t have anybody that didn’t have their own music. 

13:58 LJ: Right, okay.

13:59 SW: And I’m talking sheet music what you could read, not-

14:02 LJ: Yeah, so they wouldn’t’ve come or-

14:03 SW: -tape music or anything like that.

14:05 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative), and they would’ve come normally with tape music, would they?

14:08 SW: Yeah. 

14:09 LJ: Yeah. Would they have been on in the same night or not at all?

14:12 SW: Not at all.

14:12 LJ: Not at all, okay, right, and so can you think of any personalities that you remember from back then that stand out?

14:19 SW: Um, I can’t remember anything now. Um … I can’t remember any.

14:31 LJ: Can’t remember any.

14:31 SW: It really wasn’t my cup of tea, wasn’t the drag scene, but-

14:35 LJ: No, no, I mean, like, generally, in the Dee Street or any of the other clubs that you worked at, yeah, any personalities?

14:41 SW: Oh, right, um, not really [he coughs], a lot of the bands used to come, uh, and watch us.

14:47 LJ: Uh-huh (affirmative).

14:48 SW: Um, you know, if they weren’t playin’, a lot of the guys used to come and watch us, if they could get in, that is.

14:55 LJ: Yeah [she chuckles]. How much did it cost to get, for entrance, or was it free?

15:01 SW: Well, no, it was a members’ club-

15:02 LJ: Oh, so- 

15:03 SW: -so I think they paid a small amount to be a member.

15:06 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

15:06 SW: Um, but I, the doorman, uh, I can’t remember his name, they wouldn’t, ‘e wouldn’t let anybody in after ten o’clock, he had a little box just before you ger up the stairs, and it wa’ ten o’clock, nobody gettin’ in, I could get in anywhere in ‘Ull, um, but I once went there, uh, to see the lads, and it was just gone ten o’clock and, “nope you can’t get it, nope,” would not let me in [Layla chuckles].

15:35 LJ: Oh, so quite strict, then?

15:36 SW: Oh, yeah.

15:36 LJ: Yeah [Steve coughs], and the doorman, was that, do you think the doorman, was it, did they need to be there to, like, make people feel safe and things, or was it just a…?

15:49 SW: I don’t think it’s a safety thing, but they just didn’t want anybody that wasn’t a member.

15:53 LJ: Right, okay, and so did you, did people that go tend to know other people that go, was it a real community space, would you say?

15:59 SW: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, used to get people sittin’ in their own seats, basically, you know, you’d see them sat in the things every night you went.

16:10 LJ: Yeah.

16:10 SW: You would see have the same seats and…

16:13 LJ: Yeah, oh, nice, and so, at the beginning you were saying you’re very proud of bein’ Hessle Road?

16:18SW: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

16:19 LJ: Can you talk to me what, about what you think is special about, what is special about Hessle Road?

16:23 SW: Well, it’s sort of the community.

16:25 LJ: Uh-huh (affirmative).

16:26 SW: Uh, I mean, before they knocked down most of ‘awthorne Avenue, everybody, there was lots of families knew each other’s families from what you call, like, infamous or famous families, um, from ‘essle Road, and it was just like one big community, really, everybody knew each other.

16:47 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative), that’s all great, and can you remember any names of those families that stick out?

16:53 SW: No, um, we used to live down Tichburn Terrace, and there were like, there was the Beasleys, which was a pretty well-known family from there.

17:05 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

17:05 SW: I still see one of me best friends, David, I still see him now, we used to know each other when we were, from bein’ at school, you know.

17:14 LJ: Yeah, and then, and I suppose with it being a fishing community, a lot of people worked together, did they, or?

17:21 SW: Not particularly, but just used to know each other, you know.

17:24 LJ: Mm-hmm, yeah, nice.

17:26 SW: They used to know everybody else’s business.

17:29 LJ: Yeah [she chuckles]. Brilliant, and thinkin’ about the shops, do, were there any shops that you remember that you thought were important then? 

17:37 SW: Oh, they’re quite different now.

17:38 LJ: Yeah.

17:39 SW: Um, I mean, there used to be a popular shop called the Clothing House.

17:46 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

17:47 SW: Um… I can’t remember where it was now, bur it was where the Star and Garter is.

17:57 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

17:57 SW: Or Rayner’s, as you would call it, it was somewhere round about there was the Clothing House, and they used to do what they call club cheques, where you used to get, um, a club man and ‘e would give you, like, a cheque bur it was like, HP basically.

18:19 LJ: Oh, right, how does that work, then, the, what’s, what would the club man be, what’s?

18:24 SW: Well, ‘e used to get somebody comin’ round and takin’ the money from the, uh, me mam used to be a collector for a club man.

18:32 LJ: Ah, I see, for the Clothing House?

18:35 SW: Yeah, well, not for the Clothing House, just for the guy who used to lay out all the cash.

18:41 LJ: Okay.

18:41 SW: And the Clothing ‘ouse used to club, I mean, they used to take cash as well, and, but they used to do club cheques and it was a, quite a popular thing, you know, back in the ’50s and ’60s.

18:54 LJ: Yeah. Can you talk to me a little bit about your mum and dad or your mum?

18:59 SW: Um, I didn’t see much of me dad, ‘e was at sea most of the time.

19:02 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

19:03 SW: But we was, well, just a basic mum, she was lovely, you know, but we used to spend most of the time at me gran’s ‘ouse [he coughs], who lived on, um, Spring Bank.

19:16 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

19:17 SW: So when me dad was away, we used to spend most of the time at me gran’s.

19:22 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative), and did you have brothers and sisters?

19:25 SW: I’ve not ‘ad any brothers or sisters.

19:27 LJ: No, no.

19:28SW: I’ve got a sister now, but she came a bit later on.

19:32 LJ: Okay, and now, obviously, you have the Spectacle Shop on Hessle Road, how did that come about?

19:38 SW: Um, well, when I left London, um, I needed a job, so I applied for a job at Wheatcroft Opticians, and this was 1970, I think, [he coughs] and I got that job, and I was there for about nineteen years.

20:01 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

20:01 SW: Um, when things got a bit tight for they brought out new rulings for the opticians so that everybody paid for their eye tests, and how they, like nowadays, everybody over sixty gets every eye test, but they’ve stopped that, and, like, things got a bit tight, so I was made redundant, and, um, I had three or four months off and then I worked, went to work at Harrod Opticians, down, it was down town.

20:31 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

20:33 SW: [he coughs] I worked there for a year, and then decided it was time to open me own business, that was in 1991.

20:40 LJ: Wow. 

20:42 SW: And I’ve been there ever since.

20:44 LJ: And do you still, um, do you still play music alongside the optician’s or is…?

20:49 SW: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

20:50 LJ: Where do you play now here?

20:52 SW: Um, just various pubs.

20:56 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

20:56 SW: There’s not many clubs nowadays, so-

20:58 LJ: No.

20:58 SW: -just pubs.

20:59 LJ: Hessle Road, still, or all over the city?

21:02 SW: No, what with, there’s very little down ‘essle Road to play down now, but we generally play … There’s probably only about eight or nine venues now.

21:11 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

21:13 SW: There used to be a lot more, but…

21:16 LJ: Whereabouts?

21:17 SW: Uh, well, we used to do the Sportsman a lot, which is now closed down, um, National pub, which we’re at this weekend.

21:24 LJ: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh, nice.

21:26 SW: [he coughs] Um … Oh, I can’t think of anymore though, you know that.

21:31 LJ: [she chuckles] Yeah, here and there round the city.

21:33 SW: Yeah. 

21:34 LJ: Yeah, oh brilliant, is there anything else you wanted to mention about Hessle Road or, um, the nightlife that you remember?

21:41 SW: Um, I don’t know much of the nightlife now, ’cause of, you know, most of my time is spent in other places, but…

21:49 LJ: Uh-huh (affirmative). Yeah.

21:49 SW: Um, I mean, they still ‘ave the pubs and still ‘ave their regulars that go in the pub, but, um, yeah, I’ve been, just been very proud to ‘ave been part of it.

22:01 LJ: Yeah, brilliant. Well, thank you so much for talking to me today.

22:05 SW: Okay.

22:05 LJ: Um, just … that there.