Another Beauty Saved From The Demolition Ball.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 3:25pm

Stockton’s Globe Theatre is to undergo a £4 million restoration programme to bring live entertainment back to its stage.

Jomast Developments Ltd has announced it will begin a multi-million pound restoration of the venue to its 1930s splendour within weeks, for use as a live entertainment venue for live music, comedy and other events. Jomast will fund £3 million of the project, with the remaining £1 million coming from Stockton Borough Council.
With a 2,500 capacity, the Globe Theatre will be the largest indoor auditorium between Leeds and Newcastle. Contractors are expected to move on to the site in April with the first shows due around Christmas 2012.

The current popularity of live music and a massive 7.5 million people living within two hours’ drive clearly made restoration as a performance venue the best way forward.”

When built in 1935, the Globe Theatre was one of Britain’s biggest theatres, presenting music, cinema, variety theatre and an annual pantomime.
In the 60s acts to play the venue included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Shadows.

Status Quo were the final rock band to play there in December 1974, followed soon after by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in early 1975 before it finally closed its doors in 1996 after two decades as a bingo hall.


Updated On: 3/7/11 at 03:25 PM

[abitoftap]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 3:43pm

I saw the Shadows in Aladdin and the Seekers/Frank Ifield in Cinderella (or some other combination )there in the early 60s, then the Hollies/Scaffold/Paul Jones on one night in (68?).

What it was to be (so very) young.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 3:51pm

Lets hope that you'll be watching something live on stage there again in about 2 years time!

I'm about to embark on a major campaign to get another stunning venue back open after years of bingo and closure.
The Albert Hall in Swansea is about to be presented to the people of Swansea again after 33 years out of the lime light. Its a stunning 165 year old music hall. I have local radio and newspapers on standby to get the campaign up.









Updated On: 3/7/11 at 03:51 PM

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 4:21pm

.

The Beatles announced the assassination of JFK during the performance on Nov 22nd '1963'!

Updated On: 3/7/11 at 04:21 PM

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 4:29pm

I hate to be a drag Mama, but that was 1963. Bobby was assassinated in June 1968.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 4:35pm

See, thats what I though, it was the year my sister was born in the August.
The internet ain't all it cracked to be!

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 3/7/11 at 4:37pm

Beware the (un)informative internet! :P

[dgjbear]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 5:58am

Great thread Mama! I don't even know about the Swansea place and I'm only down the road.
It's depressing to see so many great venues empty or used as bingo halls etc

[devonian.t]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 7:06am

What a lovely theatre! Never been to Stockton, though.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 11:06am

Great news
God the amount of theatres that became awful bingo halls is amazing, they looked horrid. Thank god this one will see life as a performance venue again, after seeing that site about the theatres left to rot its glad to see a council wanting to bring one back to life *take note Tameside council*

[abitoftap]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 3:15pm

Becoming a bingo hall is probably the least bad option if a theatre/cinema closes......if they become a nightclub they're pretty well lost... although Studio 54 in NY is a great exception that proves....

[twinbelters]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 4:35pm

That Albert Hall in Swansea is a bingo hall? It looks like a giant cafeteria.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 7:21pm

I was in the ornate Gielgud and when you see the sheer beauty of this theatre, you realise that saving these palatial palaces of entertainment is very important, I would like to think the same of the 'Globe', once it's gone, you can't bring it back.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/8/11 at 10:58pm

If you want to get really sick, google San Franciso Fox. You will see what was arguably the most ornate theater ever built which was pounded to dust in the name of progress.

[bob8rich]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:02am

Good luck, mama with the campaign for the Albert Hall. Will be great to have that restored and put back to its proper use.

And btw the assassination of Jack Kennedy (JFK) WAS on November 22, 1963 so it's quite likely that the Beatles did make the announcement from the stage as the poster is clearly the right date. His younger brother Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 6 1968.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 8:18am

Bob, it s funny to think that when the Swansea Albert Hall opened its doors 147 years ago its purpose wasn't for bingo (did it exist then?), cinema (certainly didn't exist!), or even music.
Its original use was as a poetry reading room.
Amazing to think that back then the people of Swansea and the whole of south Wales would line up outside twice daily to hear the latest and greatest poetry and verse recited from its huge platform.
It had its first musical performance some 15 years after opening and it is believed to of been by a local male voice choir.
From then on, for the next 40/50 years it was used as Swansea's major music and poetry recital venue packing in 3000 people twice a day.
Dame Adelina Patti made over 100 appearances on its stage giving recitals that made 1000s of pounds for local charities. A local hospital (I think it was the St Helens?) was built in the 1890s purely from the money raised from just 3 concerts at the Albert Hall.
It started showing its films in the 1910s.
In 1922 it was converted into a full time cinema. It remained one of the most prestigious cinemas in Wales until the mid 70s when the dreaded VHS arrived.
It was closed in 1977 (along with 2 other major old cinemas in the city centre) and became a Top Rank bingo hall and remained so for the next 30 years until 3 days before the UK smoking ban came in to force that realistically closed over 400 bingo -read as, magnificent old theatres and cinemas - over night in 2007.

The Sound Of Music' played here for almost a year.
'Jaws' had its Welsh premier here and ran for 9 months.
'The Exorcist' was its final movie.
The Cinema was raided by the police at a screening of 'Monty Pythons: Life Of Brian' and that movie is still banned in Swansea!!!

OK, If you look at the auditorium photos and blank out the hideous Mecca bingo colors and picture a beautiful hall in gold and cream with red velvet seating , this is one hell of a magnificent performance space- i think you'll agree.

It is that vision with which I have already drummed up major interest form many local names and the media.
So the campaign begins.

The best news of all is that the local Swansea City Council have no say in its future as its a listed building, if it had, I'm sure it would have gone by now!

WATCH THIS SPACE! Updated On: 3/9/11 at 08:18 AM