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| Location | Stoke-on-Trent, England |
|---|---|
| Type | Live Music, Cabaret |
| Capacity | 300 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Jollees was a live music and cabaret venue in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom. The venue was re-established in March 2016, after having closed in 1992. The original venue was opened in October 1973 and was the largest capacity cabaret venue in the UK in the 1970s. It also hosted the World Professional Darts Championship from 1979 to 1985.
The venue had previously been a restaurant and bowling alley. [1] Construction began in late 1972, after the venue's alcohol licence application had been approved, and cost £200,000. [1] The opening night was attended by 1,600 people, including World Cup winning England international footballers Geoff Hurst and Gordon Banks. [1] Merseybeat group The Fourmost and comedians Little and Large were the headliners. [1] The club used a jester as its logo. [1]
Its capacity of 1,790 made it the country's biggest cabaret venue in the 1970s. [2] Its location in one of England's smaller cities meant that some acts were initially reluctant to appear and only did so after their peers had performed there. [2]
The venue's hosts included the main host, comedian Mel Scholes, Ian 'Sludge' Lees and Pete Conway, the father of pop star Robbie Williams. [2] Acts who appeared at the venue included Cliff Richard, Roy Orbison, Tommy Cooper, Norman Wisdom, Cannon and Ball, Freddie Starr, Ronnie Corbett, Cilla Black, The Barron Knights, Morecambe and Wise, Sarah Vaughan, Petula Clark, Johnny Mathis, Engelbert Humperdinck, David Essex, Frankie Laine, Jack Jones, Andy Williams, The Shadows, Les Dawson, Ken Dodd, Frankie Howerd, Bernard Manning, Tommy Steele, The Three Degrees [2] [1] and Demis Roussos. [3] Visitors included members of the British royal family, such as The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret. [3]
Cabaret performances ceased in October 1981. [1]
From 1979 to 1985 Jollees hosted the World Professional Darts Championship. [4] In the 1983 Championship, unseeded qualifier Keith Deller beat the top three seeds on the way to winning the tournament in a result often cited as one of the biggest shocks in the history of sport. [5] [6] [7]
After cabaret performances stopped, the venue continued as a night spot and, in the late 1980s, hosted rave nights, featuring DJs who would later work at Shelley's Laserdome. [8] Financial losses resulted in the venue's closure in 1992. [2]
The owners of a Stoke bar purchased the rights to the name and reopened the venue in their bar, with a 300-capacity. [9]
Stoke-on-Trent is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of 36 square miles (93 km2). In 2022, the city had an estimated population of 259,965. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrounded by the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Alsager, Kidsgrove and Biddulph, which form a conurbation around the city.
Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The town is the main business, commercial and cultural hub of the wider Potteries area.
Fenton is one of the six towns that amalgamated with Hanley, Tunstall, Burslem, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, later raised to city status in 1925. Fenton is often referred to as "the Forgotten Town", because it was omitted by local author, Arnold Bennett, from many of his works based in the area, including one of his most famous novels, Anna of the Five Towns.
Burslem is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. The population of the town was included under the Burslem Central ward and had a population of 6,490 in the 2021 Census.
Trentham Estate in the village of Trentham, Staffordshire, England, is a visitor attraction on the southern fringe of the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
Stoke-on-Trent South is a constituency created in 1950, and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Allison Gardner, a Labour party representative.
Longton is one of the six towns which amalgamated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Burslem and Stoke-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, England.
The Sentinel is a daily regional newspaper circulating in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire areas of England. It is owned by Reach plc and based at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
The 1985 Embassy World Darts Championship was the 8th World Professional Championships. The tournament was held between 5 and 12 January. It was the seventh and final time that the tournament was held at the Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent, as the tournament organisers, the British Darts Organisation, decided to move the event to the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, from 1986. The Jollees Cabaret Club closed in 1992, due to losing money, not reopening until 2016.
The 1986 Embassy World Darts Championship was held between 4–11 January 1986. For the first time, the tournament was held at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, having been held at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent for the previous seven years. The Lakeside became the third venue in the history of the World Championship.
The Lakeside Leisure Complex is a hotel, conferencing, entertainment and associated leisure complex in Frimley Green in west Surrey, England. It hosted the open/men's and women's BDO World Darts Championship every January from 1986 to 2019.
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.
Shelley's Laserdome was a night club in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was at the heart of the house and rave scene in the early 1990s, helping to launch the career of DJ Sasha and featuring regular appearances from Carl Cox. It was eventually shut down by Staffordshire Police.
Blurton is a district in the south of Stoke-on-Trent, in the English county of Staffordshire. Hollybush, Old Blurton, Blurton Farm and Newstead are the names of the areas in which make up the town known as Blurton.
Longton Transport Interchange serves the town of Longton, Staffordshire, England. The interchange is adjacent to Longton railway station.
The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. The federation was one of the largest mergers of local authorities, involving the greatest number of previously separate urban authorities, to take place in England between the nineteenth century and the 1960s. The 1910 federation was the culmination of a process of urban growth and municipal change that started in the early 19th century.
The Potteries Electric Traction Company operated a tramway service in The Potteries between 1899 and 1928.
Florence Ann Farmer was a pioneer of women in politics in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England who was the first female councillor on the county borough council before becoming the first female Lord Mayor of the city in 1931–32.
Longton Town Hall is a municipal building in Times Square, Longton, Staffordshire, England. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Longton Corporation, is a grade II listed building.
The North Staffordshire Tramways operated a steam tramway service from 1881 to 1898 in the Staffordshire Potteries area.