It was the end of an era for North East music fans.
On this day 20 years ago, the Chronicle reported on the closure of the Mayfair ballroom on Newcastle’s Newgate Street.
“Hundreds of rock fans are competing for places today for the last dance at the Mayfair.
“Staff were bracing themselves for scores of emotional clubbers gathering outside – and bus loads of revellers were expected from across the country.
“The Mayfair is closing to make way for a new £50 million development. The site will be turned into a multiplex cinema, restaurants, shops and a family entertainment complex. Demolition is set to start in September.”
Twenty years later, if Newcastle Mayfair is remembered as one of the best ever rock music venues, it began life as a traditional ballroom.
The charts in September 1961, featuring the likes of Acker Bilk, Adam Faith and Joe Loss, reflected an era, after rock’n’roll had burst on to the scene, when UK pop tastes returned to a more sedate form – for a while!
Into this world, the Mayfair on the corner of Newgate Street and Low Friar Street was opened.
Run by the Mecca organisation, the resident band, Jimmy Bence and his orchestra, was on hand for formal dance nights.
The hall could accommodate 1,500 people – and there was a stage on one of the long sides of the dance floor.
Over its 38-year life, the Mayfair would host ballroom dancing, staff parties, North East clubland concerts, disco nights, bingo, hairdressing competitions, rotary events, raves and much more as the revellers of the North East flocked to the city centre venue. The Chronicle held annual tea dances there as part of our Senior Citizens Spectacular.
But it was as a popular, and today sorely-missed, rock venue that the Mayfair is best remembered.
Newcastle nightlife of past
Some of the biggest acts in the world would grace the venue’s modest stage – but it would also play host to countless up-and-coming young bands.
By the mid-1960s, and after the noisy arrival of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, the Mayfair looked towards the new, burgeoning rock movement.
1966 saw the likes of The Pretty Things and The Animals play the venue; in 1967, the Small Faces performed there; and in October 1968, probably the most notable rock gig in the Mayfair’s history.
In a half-filled hall, a young, new, relatively unknown quartet billed as the New Yardbirds would make their UK debut. They would change their name soon after. When they returned in March 1971, for their second and final appearance at the Mayfair, Led Zeppelin were the biggest band on the planet.
Over the next couple of decades many other classic acts rocked the venue to its foundations. Imagine heading into Newcastle to see, in their prime, among others – Pink Floyd, Queen, U2, The Who, AC/DC, The Police, Nirvana, Deep Purple, T Rex, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Slade, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, The Clash, oh – and Robbie Williams.
Sadly, The Mayfair, with its revolving stage, Friday rock nights, and couples snogging in darkened corners is now history. The last band to play the venue, on May 11, 1999 was Reef.
On August 21, 5,000 rockers flocked to the emotional final night.
The building and its countless memories would be bulldozed to make way for The Gate leisure complex.
