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The Top Rank Suite Sheffield


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I used to go to the Top Rank Saturday mornings when i was 10, that would be 1967. I had such a good time and it was so safe. We could buy soft drinks and crisps. I looked forward to it all week. My dad used to call me the little raver. It was great dancing to all the Motown music which i still love now. Does anyone else have memories of this?

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I worked at the Southampton Suite as assistant in 1967/68. we had some of the big names on Saturday nights from Gene Pitney to Dave Clark Five and it was great to meet them, but there was other thing s on as well private dinner dances until 2 am and then we had to break down and set up for the following day. I then moved to the Leicester Suite and some time we had to help out at Sheffield  or borrow stuff like wall dividers to close off some areas. it was tiring but we had a lot of fun as well. 

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I'm just putting together some notes for a piece I am writing. A woman who was 16 in 1975 has shared her journals with me. She told me that she went along to the Top Rank two days running in September 1975 for the Look Now (which was a teenage magazine back in the day) Roadshow. The evening was a disco but she says it was tame and "full of bubbly-blowing Bay City Roller fans" - the next day she went to the modelling event and had a makeover and "Walsh's Department Store Hairdressers were doing hair makeovers" and was given a goody bag to take away. They would get ready to go out in the evenings listening to Soul Shotgun on Radio Hallam with a guy called John Green. 

She went to Steely's in 1977 for a friend's 18th and her boyfriend was furious and cried all night because she went out. She remembers the songs as Isn't She Lovely, Torn Between Two Lovers and something by Crystal Gayle (I guess this must have been the end of the evening smooch-fest). In 1978 she met one of the band members of City Boy and they went for a very tame coffee in the Grosvenor House Hotel. 

It's fascinated me. 

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Wow, Top Rank brings back a few memories. My hubby Bob started working there part time as a bouncer in 1970 (around that time there were about 5 bouncers all called Bob lol). He then moved on to working full time as the sound and lighting engineer. If no events were on in the evenings, (mainly Mondays and Wednesdays) he would start about 10am and work till later afternoon, depending on the hours he needed to get in. On event nights, he'd often start at 5 or 6pm (sometimes earlier if there was a band visiting that needed sound checks) and after the event ended, he'd lots of checks to get done before he'd get a taxi home - usually about 3am after the Saturday nights when he'd have also covered the morning teens disco.

I also started working there, I think maybe it was New Years Eve 1971, just glass collecting that (very busy) night and the most memorable part of the evening was when my colleague who I was working with asked if I knew many of the staff, so I said yes, I knew a lot of them, then asked if if I could introduce her to that lovely looking bouncer . . .  and pointed at my hubby!!! I said yes, but you can't have him, he's spoken for as he's my hubby 😁. After that night, I moved on to work on the bars, mostly working with Fran and Jackie.

One event that was held was a David Bowie concert, Bob and I were going to the Fiesta that evening, and it was so strict in the Rank that I wasn't even allowed in the meet up with Bob!! I was supposed to wait in the foyer, unable to let him know I was there! Luckily someone contacted him and he took me round the back and into his work area and yes, I did see David Bowie long enough for one song before we went out to the Fiesta.

We both left about 73 or early 74

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On 15/04/2022 at 21:21, Stenner said:

Wow, Top Rank brings back a few memories. My hubby Bob started working there part time as a bouncer in 1970 (around that time there were about 5 bouncers all called Bob lol). He then moved on to working full time as the sound and lighting engineer. If no events were on in the evenings, (mainly Mondays and Wednesdays) he would start about 10am and work till later afternoon, depending on the hours he needed to get in. On event nights, he'd often start at 5 or 6pm (sometimes earlier if there was a band visiting that needed sound checks) and after the event ended, he'd lots of checks to get done before he'd get a taxi home - usually about 3am after the Saturday nights when he'd have also covered the morning teens disco.

I also started working there, I think maybe it was New Years Eve 1971, just glass collecting that (very busy) night and the most memorable part of the evening was when my colleague who I was working with asked if I knew many of the staff, so I said yes, I knew a lot of them, then asked if if I could introduce her to that lovely looking bouncer . . .  and pointed at my hubby!!! I said yes, but you can't have him, he's spoken for as he's my hubby 😁. After that night, I moved on to work on the bars, mostly working with Fran and Jackie.

One event that was held was a David Bowie concert, Bob and I were going to the Fiesta that evening, and it was so strict in the Rank that I wasn't even allowed in the meet up with Bob!! I was supposed to wait in the foyer, unable to let him know I was there! Luckily someone contacted him and he took me round the back and into his work area and yes, I did see David Bowie long enough for one song before we went out to the Fiesta.

We both left about 73 or early 74

 


Wow some amazing memories there!
Also - a move from bouncer to sound engineer is quite the change!

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A regular Saturday morning for me as a youth, usually had a great time, I stand to be corrected but I have a recollection of seeing the group the Casuals from Lincoln. they had a hit with a song 'Jasamine' back in about 1969, really happy memories.

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