Out on the floor for happy days at Palais

THE DESCRIPTION of a 1970s fist-fight at the Ilford Palais as “a brawl in a western”, perhaps epitomises the nightclub that saw its fair share of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
For most revellers, the popular venue was a place where they met their future husband or wife under the glare of the disco ball,witnessed their musical idols take to the stage or just had a good time from one week to the next.
But others felt the thwack of a cosh around the back of their head or even fell victim to a spate of sinister tear gas attacks, which blighted the nightspot during the mid-1980s.
Earlier this month, a demolition crew began tearing down the club in High Road, Ilford, which in later years became Tiffany’s, Fifth Avenue and finally Jumping Jacks, to make way for new flats.
A search through the Recorder’s archives revealed a cavalcade of fascinating stories about the club, which first opened as a dancehall on Boxing Day 1925 and was rebuilt in 1959.
At around this time, the Palais was managed and hosted on Monday nights by a certain young DJ named Jimmy Savile. The soon-to-be Radio One DJ and latterly Jim’ll Fix It star and charity fundraising knight, was just making his way in the music business.
It was at this time that chief bouncer and “blonde bomber” Billy Walker bossed the door before he went on to become a short-lived world heavyweight boxing contender.
Legendary rock’n’rollers Bill Haley and the Comets graced the club’s stage in the 1950s, while in the 1960s, it became the in place for the “in crowd” of fledgling mods to strut their stuff.
Groups of young people from all over the East End came to show off their latest clothes and scooters, and enjoy performances by the leading mod bands The Who, The Kinks and east London’s own heroes The Small Faces.
Indeed, The Kinks’ Ray Davies later penned one of the band’s biggest hits Come Dancing about Ilford Palais and other dancehalls, while the Small Faces wrote Itchycoo Park about nearby Valentines Park.
Dave Ross, member of the The Squareboys gang, remembers saving up for months for a trip to the tailors – and the Palais was the place to ensure such expensive investments were seen.
Dave, who went to the Palais every Friday night, said: “We really thought we were tough. We’d stand around most of the evening posing in our smart suits, watching the girls dancing – we never danced ourselves of course.”
From the late 1960s onwards, the club was at the forefront of giving female singers and DJs the limelight in a fiercely male dominated industry, regularly hosting thousands of revellers in its glittering ballroom.
In 1969, the Palais’ “bandstand” welcomed jazz trio The Migil Five led by the group’s new raven-haired singer Jeannie Gardner.
The Edmonton beauty and her band mates were invited to Ilford after proving a big hit at the Hammersmith Palais.
She said at the time: “I only signed with the band yesterday – I think I’m going to enjoy it here.”
The Nocturnes’ glamorous singer Tracy Jones followed in Jeannie’s footsteps, becoming a regular crowd pleaser at the club by the time 1970s disco was in full swing.
In 1980, 22-year-old Maggie Stanley became a resident DJ at the club.
The Barkingside lass was believed to be the only female DJ working at a London dance hall, until she was joined later that year by 24-year-old blonde bombshell Coral King.
Then club manager Trevor Carter said: “We were one of the only London nightspots with a regular girl DJ, but this must be a first – having two girl DJs at once.
“But it’s not a gimmick – the girls are first-class disc jockeys. I’m sure they’ll be a sensation together.”
That year, Trevor courted controversy when he placed a Valentine’s Day personal column advertisement that stated: “Jenny, 22 years old, would like to meet partner to go dancing in local dance hall.”
Replies poured in and Trevor and Palais staff sent back love notes, purporting to be from “Jenny”, arranging a blind date at the club’s Valentine’s Ball.
When the eager suitors arrived, there was no Jenny, but every girl in the club had been issued with a red carnation to greet the men.
The 1980s saw Page Three lovely Sam Fox visit the Palais. The top heavy model was there for a special Cockney night, one of many themed evenings enjoyed at the venue.
Scenes from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video were re-enacted at a Barnardo’s charity event in 1990.
In 1983 a rubber floor with inbuilt flashing lights was installed at the nightspot to stop youngsters suffering neck and back injuries while copying the latest dance crazes from America.
But the darker side of the Palais was also uncovered by a look through the cuttings books.
The 1970s and 1980s heralded scores of violent attacks and thuggery at the nightspot.
A report detailed how a teenager died at the club after a mass brawl in which nearly 40 people were injured.
In 1985 a 40-strong mob from the notorious Inter-City Firm of West Ham soccer hooligans caused chaos, leaving the assistant manager with head injuries after he was floored by a chair.
The following year a series of revellers were left needing hospital treatment after they were sprayed in the face with tear gas. It was believed, girls smuggled the spray cans in under their clothes before handing them over to boyfriends.
But while such events may have soured the famous dancehall’s latter days, for the vast majority, the memories of the Palais are, in the modern clubbers’ vernacular, “all good”.

WORDS: MARC WALKER & MARK TAYLOR^