Dates

• Existence: 1967 - 1978

Biography

Batley Variety Club was a variety club in West Yorkshire, built by James Corrigan, of the Yorkshire fairground family. The club was designed and built by James and his wife Betty in early 1967 on Bradford Road and open in March that year. James and Betty modelled Batley on Las Vegas clubs, which gained it the nickname ‘Las Vegas of the North’. Over the period between its opening and 1978, the Batley Variety Club presented some of the biggest names in British and American entertainment including Louis Armstrong, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Roy Orbison, Morecambe and Wise and Neil Sedaka.

The club acted as a boost to the local economy, with many businesses ripping the benefits of its large audience and big acts.

The Batley Variety Club achieved such fame and status that Roy Orbison recorded his album Live From Batley Variety Club on 9 May 1969 and BBC Radio recorded a performance from the first week of Gracie Fields' first performance, broadcast on 5 January 1969. Additionally, the club hosted Katharine, Duchess of Kent for a charity night to raise funds for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Appeal in 1977.

Anecdotally, Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees met his wife Yvonne Spenceley while playing at the Batley where she was working as a waitress in 1974.

Batley Variety Club closed in 1978 when James and Betty Corrigan separated. From this point, it was reopened several times as different clubs, the first time by Betty and her son, and eventually became a gym in 2017.