does anybody have any pics of the empress club that used to be on Victoria Road, New Brighton?

Thanks for the time travel :)Used to go there in the early 70s, no photos though, only fading fragments of memory...sometimes played 'heavier' music, bikers went there possibly, or am I confusing it with another place? Suggestions folks

It was a 'bikers' hangout and 'others' were not welcome. It was in the 70/80s that I remember it.The 'Greaser's' as they where known as,would get the bus to New Brighton on a Weekend night.
They would takeover the upper deck of the bus,strangely clutching their helmets!
I found out in later years that they would use them as a weapon when the inevitable fight broke out.

well that brings back memorys!i used to go there aged 16,had to be 18 to get in,but we got in!!!!they would ask what year you were born and we always gave 2yrs before!! this was in the 60s.

Sounds about right,have memories of said bikers doing 'the stomp' at that club too, usually to Free's 'Alright Now'

I used to go in the latish 60s - It's where I met my wife.
I remember me and my mate taking girls home as far as Knotty Ash and Neston and not having the cash to get home later.
The things you would when you were young and daft ( or bevvied)
I'd like to see some pics too.
Trying to recall how far up Victoria rd from the Chelsea Reach it was - not sure if just past the Ship pub? where new houses have been built

Pictures would be great. Was there stairs up to that place from street level?

there were definitely stairs going to above an amusement arcade?

yes that sounds distantly familiar

Yes there was stairs there-I remember my mate fallin down them! She used to say you d get whip-lashed goin to the bar coz of all the bikers dancin with their long hair an tassled leather jackets on-they never took them off no matter how hot n steamy it got! Ha!

Thanks for confirming that piece of the Empress jigsaw.

That is so true Would have required surgery to remove those jackets. Any ideas on location?

Hubby say's,just up from the'Ship' over the first arcade.

Looks through the fog and vaguely remembers an arcade

So that arcade has been demolished and the area 'developed' now?

Not sure if this is the right place, but this pic shows the entrance to the then Empress Jazz Club on Victoria Road in 1962.

Great work Thanks a million for those wonderful images, it looks fairly familiar and no doubt had not changed much by the time I went there around 1972/73.

Yeh that's it. Paddy's as well!

It's amazing to see that image, I had forgotten the details, so it's wonderful to refresh my recollections.

i remember they had flurescent lighting and if you wore anything white you looked like an omo advert------now who remembers 'omo'??
we would get the last bus home, i remember we missed it once and had to walk home, well in those days you were safe, would'nt of done it on my own tho! and definitley would'nt do it now!!
i remember the bus driver getting beat up one night and all his takings were robbed! really shook me up that!

Great memories, thanks for sharing, yes the lighting..mm, round the early 70s was there not a fad for 'ultra-violet' light in clubs?

Shocked to hear that folks wore white-shirts to The Empress, certainly absent when it was a haunt for bikers and others waerigng long hair

white shirt and suit and tie in 60s anyway

yes, leathers in the late 70s

yes that would explain it, different decades, different fashion

...and in 1972 also

Derek Travolta, got run over by a snow plough

Some pics from paulwirral in another topic.
I think this is the arcade the Empress was over

both seem to be at number 37
1st pic 500 people so must have been quite big - maybe the upstairs

Thankyou.I think the stairs were at the side of the arcade?

If I remember correctly, the manager was guy called "Meadows" lived on the Durly Estate and the club was owned by Black Jack McGee who also owned the Craftsmans!

great to see that image, thanks a million, sparked a decaying recollection of that place, the arcade had forgotten

What brilliant names, what years would they be running it then?

It would have been late 60's early 70's Bobby Meadows and Black Jack McGee were involved.Certainly some good nights with er gentlemens evenings!!!

What 'gay bikers on cider'? Surely not When I went it would be around 72/73 and was dedicated rock nights. loads of stomping leather, now I think about it ..ooooerrr

Pic from facebook
The entrance and stairs up on the left

In my long hair leather jacket no motorbike days all we could manage was the rock night at the Moreton Youth club run by the Blackleys. stomping to as you say Free Hawkwind Sabbath Lynrd Skynrd etc and finishing off with Jig a Jig by East of Eden. No alcohol allowed. Think you could smoke though--we used to make rollies from tea leaves or adding nutmeg to tobacco because someone said you could get a buzz---just made you sick. What idiots we were.
The Empress was just a dream as couldn't get there by bus so easily and get home. It was the serious and wannabe bikers rock haven.

I used to go to that on a Friday night the Moreton heavy.We used to buy a bottle of cider from the offy on the cross to drink before we went in this was about 79 to 80.Vanmanone used to go to one they did in Eastham so he told me

Do you remember when wannabe bikers used metal studs to make their own DIY logos on the back of their leather jackets? I remember one poor lad in Ellesmere Port had " Hells Angle* on his.

Yep..Tried it on what we called a cut down--usually a denim jacket with the arms cut off worn over your leather

I remember lads wearing cut downs

come to think of it,my friend same age as me used to go to the empress with her older sister & she was under age,another haunt for us bikers was stairways in Argyle st

sticky floor stairways. Only went once--too loud--just as I was maturing out of the long hair scene. There was another occasional venue in oxton in the basement of an old house--the columbia

I remember the Empress well, i started drinking there when i was 16 years old around 1975, and yes i had long hair, over the years i think i got to know everyone in there, Pete the DJ, the guys behind the bar, and of course the doormen, one of those was Mike smallish bloke, taught me Karate on Saturdays, a great bloke! and of course all the beautiful girls, and if you were lucky you got to tap off with, unless you brought your'e own!
Then there was the hundreds of bikes parked outside, that was a great sight, and even better when they raced off to the traffic lights at the top of the road.
They did a film shown on Granda tv, so had film crew in filming us doing the stomp and the other one!! then went to Wigan Casino to film soul music, don't know what year that was, so had my 15 minutes of fame well thats not true as i have been on Coast as well, ha!
But yes miss the Empress and all the people i used to know, Sue [ who i was madly in love with,] Karen, Bones, Rivit, Mac, Maly [RIP] Roy, steve, peter to name a few, yes great times!