Before any ideas of holidays abroad for 18yr old lads, like Ibiza or Kavos, (timeline context: Slade were still a skinhead band)-you went somewhere in the UK.  

Three of us set off, one way train tickets, no accommodation, just a holdall of clothes. Except for a mate. He had most of his grip full of Brut.

We ended up in Wales. And most of it in Butlins, Pwllheli. We went in on a day pass and stayed for a about a week…I think.

During the day (we had to keep our heads down a little bit) we would visit what I can only describe as a canteen. One of the dining halls for ‘pucker residents’. Anyone that has ever worked in a large factory with a big canteen will get the idea. At Pwllheli the canteen was a cavernous place with Formica tables and chairs. Empty during non-meal times. So it was at those times we’d visit.

In the bottom corner of the canteen, a sort of ‘coffee area’ – a Juke Box!

First play ‘heaven must have sent you’ The Elgins (side note here: we always pronounced the ‘G’ in Elgins as G for Gary – not G for Gin. I’ve since been put right many times).

I distinctly remember hearing ‘just walk in my shoes’, ‘be young be foolish’, ‘breakout’…And many more, of which I neither had or have a clue what they were-but feel sure a few would now probably be an NS goldmine. It seemed we had stumbled on a Motown/Northern [we still weren’t using that term then] Juke Box!

There’s only 4 possible explanations;

h1. The Juke Box came pre-racked from the USA

It2. It was a random thing and we got lucky

33. There was a Butlin’s Red Coat/Staffer way ahead of their time stacking it

44. Berry Gordy had loaned his Juke Box to Butlins

 

So, every day, we fed money (10p from memory got us a play) into that Juke Box for a couple of hours each day.

 

What’s the N.S. 7” you have heard on a Juke Box that came as a surprise - and where?

Back Street by Edwin Starr in Honest?Johns bar in Detroit.

Edited January 17, 20178 yr by David Meikle

the roebuck in biddulph used to have judy street, wigans ovation and other back in the early 9ts, changed name and hands now tho

Not on a juke box, but Edwin Starr's 25 miles was played over the sound system in Morrison's in Gibraltar just before Christmas.

34 minutes ago, geeselad said:

the roebuck in biddulph used to have judy street, wigans ovation and other back in the early 9ts, changed name and hands now tho

For me one of the best Duke Boxes around had to be the Antelope in Hanley S-O-T chock full of great stuff but the one that i particularly remember was "Eddie Holman - I Surrender" not really that surprising given the locals there at the time, this would have been around 1978/9 (happy days Bus up from Congleton every Wednesday night, no dance floor just great company the odd record or two and great crack )

 

John

Continental Coffee Bar in Bradford circa 1968 - 1971 - Lots of Twisted Wheel plays, Motown, Stax, Atlantic!

Edited January 17, 20178 yr by Stubbsy
additional info

Not a juke box, but on recent cruise I was flicking through the selection of tunes on the cabins entertainment system and found Charles Sheffield - Voodoo working 

on holiday in Romania early 80,s, deserted beach cafe, juke box with and get away by the esquires on it

sitting in one of them horrible hipster bars in derby, sipping my 5 quid pint, they were playing that horrible chill out ambient stuff followed by

for real-flowers

The Carlton pub in Llandudno, late 70's. the manager at the time was an old Twisted Wheel boy and he let us have a section on the jukebox to ourselves.

1 hour ago, codfromderby said:

on holiday in Romania early 80,s, deserted beach cafe, juke box with and get away by the esquires on it

sitting in one of them horrible hipster bars in derby, sipping my 5 quid pint, they were playing that horrible chill out ambient stuff followed by

for real-flowers

Wow! Being in Romania early 80's is a surprise in itself. Very forward thinking for a holiday. 👍

By the Black Sea I guess. 

Edited January 17, 20178 yr by Peter99

I was in ASDA & I thought why are they playing "I Can't Be Hurt Anymore" - David Ruffin then I remembered it was my ring tone.

I had a copy of The Ascots - Another day with reversed labels. The Another day side had a juke box label stuck on it properly typed out. 

Ascots in a juke box - Noooooo

When I was a about fourteen I remember going ten pin bowling and a group of hip teens were on a nearby lane. They kept the jukebox going and repeatedly played Give and Take by Jimmy Cliff . This would have been as a new release in 1967 and I thought it strange that a record totally ignored by the BBC was on a jukebox in Wythenshawe.

A few years later I used to go to a local disco in a pub that had a jukebox instead of a DJ . This had loads of Motown , Stax , Atlantic on it but this was when a rare soul scene was just starting up. Particularly popular was the Spinners I'll Always Love You, that must have been played four or five times a night.

I suppose it's not that surprising that jukeboxes would have some obscure UK soul releases on as it was teenagers who were the main customers and they didn't want to hear the same stuff the BBC played. Back in the 60s the charts still had loads of MOR crooners ,C+W , and novelty songs so the jukebox operators would pick anything from the new releases that they thought would be popular with their customers. 

Rick

6 hours ago, Johnny One Trout said:

For me one of the best Duke Boxes around had to be the Antelope in Hanley S-O-T chock full of great stuff but the one that i particularly remember was "Eddie Holman - I Surrender" not really that surprising given the locals there at the time, this would have been around 1978/9 (happy days Bus up from Congleton every Wednesday night, no dance floor just great company the odd record or two and great crack )

 

John

heard much about it, but before my time tho, it was a major stop off before wigan too, wasn't it?

32 minutes ago, geeselad said:

heard much about it, but before my time tho, it was a major stop off before wigan too, wasn't it?

Not sure about that, if I was going to Wigan via Stoke, i'd go from my mate Ant Connors house or maybe Aileen Murphy's. From your neck of the woods there was Rob Berry (Bez) Carl Gola (Go-Go) Vanda, all fairly regular and obviously the odd drop in mates etc even my wife Alison used to occasionally go up from Cheltenham, although i didn't know her then.

1 hour ago, Johnny One Trout said:

Not sure about that, if I was going to Wigan via Stoke, i'd go from my mate Ant Connors house or maybe Aileen Murphy's. From your neck of the woods there was Rob Berry (Bez) Carl Gola (Go-Go) Vanda, all fairly regular and obviously the odd drop in mates etc even my wife Alison used to occasionally go up from Cheltenham, although i didn't know her then.

vanda has indeed mentioned it, who I hope will be out dancing and prancing this weekend. Know go-go as well, but not rob berry.

Coffee bar at the top of Bold Street in Liverpool had a silver topped London copy of Unsatisfied Lou Johnson in the mid 70's used to watch it play through the perspex top, Actually made the owners an offer for it.

Quote

 

 

This is going off on a tangent a bit. I have a fairly extensive collection of U.K. soul singles most of which have intact centres the exception to this is the Sue label. A larger than average proportion of which have had the centres removed. I have often wondered why and alway's assumed it was because they came out of a juke box, but this would suggest that some very obscure records were in pub's and coffee bar's. Any other suggestion's?

16 hours ago, Stubbsy said:

Continental Coffee Bar in Bradford circa 1968 - 1971 - Lots of Twisted Wheel plays, Motown, Stax, Atlantic!

You beat me to it,  Selection A3 was Homer Banks 60 Minutes of Your Love, A4 Was A Lot of Love, why I can remember this I've no idea. As you say packed with some top records, two bottles of coke lasted all day, as long as the the truant officer didn't stick his oar in !.

The Vic Lounge in Halifax had a very tasty juke box too, I think Graham Slater used to fill it for them.

Edited January 18, 20178 yr by Kegsy

3 hours ago, britishbarry said:

This is going off on a tangent a bit. I have a fairly extensive collection of U.K. soul singles most of which have intact centres the exception to this is the Sue label. A larger than average proportion of which have had the centres removed. I have often wondered why and alway's assumed it was because they came out of a juke box, but this would suggest that some very obscure records were in pub's and coffee bar's. Any other suggestion's?

I have a couple of UK records that were manufactured with the large hole (i.e. not push out centre) e.g. Curtis Mayfield move on up Buddah 2011-080 & wondered why this would be?  were they specifically for juke boxes?

Driving down US-1 from Miami to Key West,called in at a Sports/Biker bar-first record as we walked in-Human Beanz!

That intro!

Driving down US-1 from Miami to Key West,called in at a Sports/Biker bar-first record as we walked in-Human Beanz!

That intro!

 

Double post-Soz!

Edited January 18, 20178 yr by sir cumference
double post

3 hours ago, Kegsy said:

You beat me to it,  Selection A3 was Homer Banks 60 Minutes of Your Love, A4 Was A Lot of Love, why I can remember this I've no idea. As you say packed with some top records, two bottles of coke lasted all day, as long as the the truant officer didn't stick his oar in !.

The Vic Lounge in Halifax had a very tasty juke box too, I think Graham Slater used to fill it for them.

So your memory is not completely f***ed then

4 minutes ago, Stubbsy said:

So your memory is not completely f***ed then

I hadn't been to as many nighters then !!!!

Ken B,

Juke boxes sounds ; StHelens Lancashire, Milk Bar opposite Technical College circa late Sixties; "The Boogaloo Party" Flamingoes(actually had a Manny DJ Friendly Large Centre)

Torquay; The Yacht/bar "Dancing Master" Bandwagon(with Jonny Johnson  andArtie Fullilove)1969.

Lower Ince,Wigan   ;Cherry People" And Suddenly" on SS' Black Magic what a charming Piece of Sunshine Pop/Soul. 

Great Thread , Nostalgia Rules,"Come and Get These Memories"LOL Johnny ,Malaga ,Espana.

The Engineers in Castleford.......landlady owned Juke box so she encouraged us to bring our own 45's ....................so Harlem Suffle, Pheonix City, Knock On Wood, Green Door (Wynder K Frogg)  Green Onions, Sign On The Dotted Line, Dock Of Bay etc...............................................................BUT she insisted on havin' her favourite choons of the day on the playlist which unfortunately was Englebert Humperdink - Please Release Me, Dean Martin - Youre Nobody Till Somebody Love You etc etc, but if they were on and if you cough, cough 'accidently' bumped into the box it would jump to the next disc ......Chuck Wood lol

I put around 20 singles on the jukebox in the Broadswords in Burnley in 1974. Made George the landlord a fortune. Ben Aitken , Frank Beverly, Barbara Mills , Ed Crook, Baby Don't You Weep and so on. He never bought me a pint for them and I spent a lot of money playing my own records! 

On 18/01/2017 at 10:05, Kegsy said:

You beat me to it,  Selection A3 was Homer Banks 60 Minutes of Your Love, A4 Was A Lot of Love, why I can remember this I've no idea. As you say packed with some top records, two bottles of coke lasted all day, as long as the the truant officer didn't stick his oar in !.

The Vic Lounge in Halifax had a very tasty juke box too, I think Graham Slater used to fill it for them.

Didn't Al Stephenson have a lot of his collection on the juke box? 

Regards Fred

1 minute ago, Mr Fred said:

Didn't Al Stephenson have a lot of his collection on the juke box? 

Regards Fred

Could be, he was a regular in there, I thought of Graham as he used to DJ in there.

I remember when I was a teenager and used to frequent a coffee bar in Huddersfield, namely Studio 58 on new street where a lot of the Huddersfield "wheel" crowd used to go they had lots a tasty "wheel soul sounds" on the juke box, one notable record which immediately comes to mind was "On Broadway " by the Drifters.              Studio 58 was the place to be and be seen where the Huddersfield "In crowd" were always there and where us young uns would like to be in and amongst them.People I can remember from those times were:- Ralph Senior,Frankie Carr, "Cobber" whose real name was Ian Hicks and his mate Keith Nestor, Pip,Mick Haigh, (mosh) Lesley Brown, Andy Crossley and Dave Clegg,I,'m sure i've missed a lot off but we're talking many years ago. Regards Fred Ward

 

Edited January 22, 20178 yr by Mr Fred

The question is, is it Juke box or Duke box? Regards Fred