Wakefield Unity Hall - New Beginnings From Old Stock

Being a relative newcomer to what would become a lifelong obsession. I was a wide eyed kid in 1976/77. And the whole excitement of the Northern soul scene consumed my life, the old adage of living for the weekend was never more true in those days. New friends, new outlook, new life. Every weekend was a new adventure to me. Of course the first place I attended was the legendary Wigan casino, and from the moment I walked through those doors, I breathed in the sound and the atmosphere of Northern soul. Soon we would be visiting other venues, people would tell you of other venues, on the train or coach coming home, as in them days there was no internet, if you wanted to know anything you had to be a part of it. One of the events that myself and a few friends, were hearing about was the Wakefield Unity,somebody had said "you need to try it, the dance floors better than wigan" to which of course we all laughed under our breath, nothing could be better than Wigan, in those days of course. We were soon converted once we`d attended, music, atmosphere, and people "top notch" and only down the road from my hometown of York. Here's a few words from the promoter both then and now of the event Malc Burton, taken from a recent write up for the Bridlington weekender.

"When reading this, you will either say "Wakefield Unity?, what or when was that?. Or the Unity was a brilliant nighter. Usually I am pleased to say, it`s normally the latter. Wakefield Unity was never the biggest name to grace the scene, however like a naughty schoolchild it made enough noise to get itself noticed. Running for a brief 10 months from dec 76 to october 77. Alternating between fridays and saturdays it left a contributory mark on the scene, and set a template for musical policies, to be considered by future all-nighter. Conceived and planned as an alternative, no frills event. With the intention of having under one roof the combination of "new northern", underplayed and established oldies, coupled with the emerging modern and newly released sounds of the time. Malc goes on to say how he gambled on a second room, playing jazz/funk with Colin Curtis and Paul Schofield at the helm. This then made an all-nighter, that encompassed all musical genres at that were allied to the scene at that time.

The first nighter in Dec 76 was a flop with just eleven people walking through the door, and Malc made a huge loss, thoughts of packing it in were prominent in Malcs mind, but for the persistence of the Mcphail brothers two of Malcs friends there may have only ever been one Unity nighter. After persistent nagging from the two brothers Malc put the next one on in January 77, and a crowd of 200 attended, word had spread through the soul scene of an emerging potential monster. Malc was on his way, distributing flyers on his travels after throwing flyers from the balcony at Wigan. Malc was frogmarched to Mike Walkers office where he was banned for life, being threatened with legal action if he used any of the Casino`s dj`s again.

By the March of 77, the Unity had established itself and was attracting respectable crowds of up to a 1000 people through the door. Unfortunately the then Wakefield city council then saw the pound signs, and took over the nighters, believing they could do the job themselves so why put the money in someone elses pocket, when you can have the whole cake yourself. So really the Unity became a victim of its own success. Of course they couldn't do the job as well as malc, not being in the know with the soul scene and the good name and reputation that Malc had built up was soon tarnished by there one failed attempt at putting on a nighter, and the place closed and fell into disrepair for many years.

Old photos of the Unity

Recent photo of work being carried out

Until Wakefield council formed the Unity works to bring the superb Unity hall back to its former glory, spending millions along the way. Malc was approached earlier this year with the idea of northern soul returning to the Unity, The first all day event was held in November this year. and once again northern soul was home within that beautiful hall. The place was a sell out within a couple of months, and althougfh there were a few teething problems with the event, all these issues have now been resolved, see here for details and Malc once again is at the helm where he quite rightly deserves to be.

With two events planned already for next year (28th Feb,& 30th May) with others in the pipeline. Things are looking healthy for this old lady of northern soul in Yorkshire.

added by site 23 Dec 2014

Unity Works Article

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Hi Soul Source,

I wanted to thank you for the great Article on Unity Works:

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/soul-articles/wakefield-unity-hall-new-beginnings-from-old-stock-r3023

the support is much appreciated. I would like to point out however that Unity Works is not owned by the council as the article states. Unity is actually a co-operative and it's reopening was only made possible by investment by nearly 400 local Wakefield people. Overall they raised over £4million - something we are understandably proud of!

...what was a four year project just to get the doors open!

The share issue will always be open (details here: http://www.unityworks.co.uk/shares/ )

Take care,

Thanks,

Dean