Nottingham Palais

Nottingham Palais, managed back then by Mike Knight, was argueably one of the the best all-dayers of it's time, probably because of the sheer size of the venue. With a capacity of 2500 people, the Palais was huge, two-room venue. The main room had a superb, super-bouncy sprung dancefloor and probably the best PA around at the time. And yes, it even had a balcony! The other room, another "Bali Hai", played Jazz-Funk.

Another big plus was that it was easy to get to from almost anywhere in the country. There used to be a bus from St. Margaret's Bus Station in Leicester that would get you into Nottingham Broadmarsh Bus Station at about 1pm, and after a brisk walk through Nottingham City Centre, you would join the end of the very long queue to get in at about 1.30. The return bus was at about 8pm, so you got a good six hours at the venue, and still got home in time for bed!!! Ah... the days of good public transport.

Music played in the main room was a good mix of oldies and newies. The newies often tended towards the cutting edge, as the crowd were always so receptive. DJs included Kev Roberts, Rob Smith, Ian Walker, Hector, Jonathon Woodruff, John Poole, Gary Rushbrooke, Chris Fletcher, Soul Sam and Dave Raistrick to name but a few. Many DJs, Soul Sam especially, treated Nottingham Palais as a "try out" zone, often playing new (and frequently covered-up) records to test popularity.

In the Live Venues section, there are some recordings from a Soul Sam spot, where "(Whoa Whoa) I Love Him So" by Nikki Blu is covered up as "Shirley And The Shirelles", "Heartbeat" by Bill Purcell is covered up as "Soul Stomping" by The Sons Of Moses (!) and "Breakaway" by Toni Basil is covered up as "Break These Chains" by Lada Edmund Jr! Check out the Soul Sam spot at the Palais in Live Venues.

Two other massive tunes at the Palais were "The Flasher" and "Life Is A Song Worth Singing", both by Mistura featuring Lloyd Michels. I can remember being at Nottingham Palais when they actually rolled out Lloyd Michels in person, and to say that the guy was nonplussed by the crowd reaction was an understatement! My friend actually got her pumps autographed by Lloyd Michels, but sorry, no photos!

Nottingham Palais also ran all-nighters apparently beginning in the early 1970s, which ran regularly up until 1986 under various promoters. The consensus seems to be that they were originally held on the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend, but there is very liitle concrete information to go on. There are still occasional "revival" all-nighters held at the original venue.