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One of the things that made Blessed Edmund Campion stand out from other schools in the Bradford district, was its very popular Youth Club. The club opened from 7pm till 9pm Mondays Wednesday and Fridays, and was staffed by the teachers. Activities included Table Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, Football, needlework, Foil and Sabre Fencing and I'm sure many more that memory forbids me recalling. The main driving force of the Youth Club was Mr Joseph (Joe ) Routledge (sadly passed on some years ago), and along with Joe was Keith Rayner, Ray Killick, Mrs Gannon, Sister Anthony, Mr Kenefick, again I'm sure there were more, and should I receive more information, regarding the adding of more names to the list, then this I will do.

 

 I think I went most nights, even when I started work in April 1967, the Youth Club was still a big attraction to me, offering me the chance to meet and socialize with school friends, catch up with what the school was doing, meet girls of course, and chat to my ex teachers etc. I remember bringing my camera to the school (Voigtlander Vito C) with a bulb flashgun (taking PF1 bulbs), and generally making a nuisance around the club firing off pictures, sometimes as an unwelcome distraction, sometime not. I think at the time, sports aside, the people who went to the club, went because there wasn't many other places like this, (unless you think of Green Lane), and of course being the 60s, young people weren't flush with so much money that they could just sit in coffee bars or go to the on a regular basis, but they could go to the Youth Club, sit around listen to the music of the day, Beatles, The Who, The Rolling  Stones and Bob Dylan, the drinks, crisps etc were all subsidised by I suppose the small cover charge on the door.

 

Although a Catholic school, Edmund Campion did not exclude anyone coming, from what we would call in those days a Protestant school, in fact pupils from other schools , some from the other side of the city would attend the club many of which were from  Rhodesway, our so called arch enemy, in those days we used to have snowball fights, they having the advantage of throwing down on our school, being the more elevated of the two. Of course we had the odd run in, but it never amounted to much, and I believe the Youth Club brought both schools together, which may have been the idea when it was first suggested, I don't know, one thing I do know, it was very difficult to be hostile to the school opposite if you were associating with pupils from that school 3 nights a week. Now, there's a lesson for today!

 

Edmund Campion in the 60s was well known in the city for its school dances, I believe they held 2 or 3 a year, with people attending from schools all over the city, seriously they would be packed out. And this could present its own problems, in the 60s you had groups of people who categorized themselves as Mods or Rockers, Mods being trendy smartly dressed young men and women with as I remember backcombed (boys and girls) hair, the band that seemed to epitomize the status of Mods back then would be The Who. Now Rockers were, well my understanding of it was, youths with leather jackets, long greased back hair, cuban heel boots, the girls again had long hair, sometimes wearing leather jackets and short leather skirts, and footwear usually long boots or stilleto heels. Music associated with Rockers would be Elvis, Little Richard, James Brown and any number of artistes from the 50s into the early 60s, I suppose Rockers would be the generation prior to Mods, and although were of similiar age if just a  little older, they were probably more influenced by their parents choice of music from the 50s, anyway there was some crossover from their parents generation, at's what I'm saying and they held the ground way before Mods came on the scene.

 

As you can see there was always going to be conflict of the two styles, and this could present problems, especially if you were going to have a dance at one of the largest and most modern schools in the city, no mean feat, and with  further problems coursing through the organising and management of the event. As I said previously, all comers were welcome at Edmund Campion, however that could have it own problems on Dance Night. For of course these two groups would come together, not that ther would be much in the way of physical confrontation, for it was well policed by the teachers.

 

However I do recall one of the dances throwing up a problem, I was told by Joe Routledge that a rumour regarding the invasion of  the dance by some gang from the city, Joe was concerned about this, especially given the large numbers that attended and not just members of the Youth Club, however, a number of the club members were mature youths from the local area, and these had associations with what was known then as the Bell Dean gang, in fact I believe the elder/leader if you like , called Bunner (I think that was the pronounciation) was a regular at the club, and he had offered the services of the the gang to prevent any rival gangs invading the dance, Joe thought this a good idea, paradoxicaly, the club's so called called protectors, as I remember, were Rockers, so they would be in fact looking out, also for the Mods who were members of the club, who were attending the dance. A strange situation indeed, but good work had been done in the community and as I said earlier, Edmund Campion was open to all, even the local gang, that gang being some members of The Bell Dean Gang, who came drank their Coke eat their crisps, sat around and engaged in conversation on a regular club night. Now being called upon to police the club at one of the dances, and I believe one dance, night they discouraged one or two undesirables from coming into the school to cause a fight and disrupt the dance. Which gang it was, I don't know, but they were certainly put off, on seeing who was manning the door.

 

Finally, my experience with the band Smokie, of course the were not called Smokie then, The Elizabethans were their stage name, interestingly enough, if you scroll down, you may come across pictures of the "The Raverso Band", now they were the opening band for the the Elizabethans, whose  members were pupils of another Catholic school in the city, St Bedes, the school you would go to on passing the 11 plus back then. I remember the gig, probably the only one they played at, and I was one of the helpers backstage. The Band back then played cover numbers, and I recall one of the numbers as being by The Who, I believe, though could be wrong with the passing of time was  called "I'm a Boy". One of the members of the band had asked if I would flick the switches on the coloured lights (Edmund Campion had a stage that most theatre companies would give their eye teeth for) in time with the song they were singing, prior to the evening gig, I had practiced and felt pretty confident that I was up to this request, remember I was quite young, so please make allowances to a young over confident idiot. Well the band started up that evening and filled the floor, you have to also remember that they themselves were only a few years older than me, so a nerveracking night for all, kids at school can be very cruel! I think we were into the number they requested me to flash the lights, when I threw the main switch that was for all the electrics associated with the stage, that meant lights amps everything going off, looks up to me in the fly, could have killed, but having the presence of mind I threw the switch back on and carried on they did, now that wouldn't have been so bad had I not decided to carry on flashing the lights, for once again I threw the main switch, amps lights everything off again, including me, I wasn't going to hang around to face 4 members of a band intent on doing me reall harm if they caught up with me. And I must admit I wouldn't have blamed them.

 

It was last year (2010) in coming out of the Bradford Royal Infirmary that I saw a car registration that I associated with one of the same band, I said to my wife, I know who that belongs to, of course she didn't believe me, what I hadn't told her, was the man walking ahead to that car, for I recognised him, was one of the member's of that band, now renamed Smokie of course, I said to Elaine (my wife) that's (I wont reveal his name for fear of embarrasement) *****, so and so, saying to Elaine I was going talk to him, which I did, bringing back that event, and the fact that he used to go to Kitchen's Music Shop, next door to the shop I worked at on North Parade,Bradford Camera Exchange, I mentioned I remembered him pulling up in his gold Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, he saying it was an unfortunate choice of car for a member of a rock band, I didn't disagree, but to be honest, in the 70s, someone that young having a car like that, was I thought impressive. He also said he recalled the gig at Edmund Campion, in fact remembering coming out after the dance to find all 4 tyres on the group's van been slashed, he mentioned that he thought it was a certain gang. Now for the life of me I can't recall who that could have been, anyway it was a long time ago, but my memory of the Youth Club is still fresh.

 

If anyone out there recalls attending Blessed Edmund Campion Youth Club and has any anecdotes to share, I would be happy to add them to this piece, in the knowledge that it will be a permanent record, and not some thing that disappears in the ether such as a social network sites. contact me please on bradfordeye@yahoo.co.uk

 

Martin. BradfordEye 24th August 2011