Golden times with a galaxy of stars
It may have looked unimpressive from the outside, but Wythenshawe’s Golden Garter club played host to the biggest names in showbiz
IT may have seemed the most unlikely location for an internationally renowned music venue. But Wythenshawe’s Golden Garter cabaret club once opened its doors to some of the biggest names in showbiz.
Stars including Dusty Springfield and Roy Orbison walked the lavish gold and crimson carpets of the former bowling alley, on Rowlands Way.
And what the club lacked in kerb appeal, it made up for in reputation.
Revellers travelled from as far as Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to enjoy a three-course meal and a night of dancing, all for 15 shillings (75p).
In its heyday, the 1,400-capacity club promised an uninterrupted view of international stars, who performed on the automated extending and rising stage.
Doors opened at 8pm and on most nights, wouldn’t close until the early hours.
John Orchard was working as a computer programmer in Newall Green when the first club opened its doors in 1968. The aspiring musician bagged a gig as a pianist for the resident warm-up act, Sheps Banjo Boys, after seeing an advert in the M.E.N.
Now aged 73, John lives in London following a music career spanning nearly 50 years – which began at the Golden Garter.
He runs a website dedicated to the club, which includes a full list of every performer who played there during its 14-year run.
More than half a century since his debut performance at the club, John takes a look back at its fascinating history.
“In March 1969 I saw an advert for a job as a pianist at the Golden Garter and decided to apply as I had been to the venue and seen the band play,” John said.
“I saw the advert in the Manchester Evening News because on Thursdays there would be a section for aspiring bands, artists and singers.
“I sneaked off in my lunch break to audition and they asked me to play Alexander’s Ragtime Band. I got the gig after the first chorus.
“I was living this double life where 9-5 I was a computer programmer and at 10pm I was a pianist with a band supporting unbelievable big-name stars.”
Local residents say the uninspiring flat-roofed venue was originally a bowling alley called Daryl’s, with a disco inside called Batmans.
The Golden Garter officially opened on October 7, 1968, with singer and entertainer Bruce Forsyth as the first name on the door.
In the following years, the likes of Lulu, Dusty Springfield, The Hollies, Al Read and The Dallas Boys would all take to the stage.
“We used to get incredible stars,” John said.
“The club was a converted bingo hall which looked very unimpressive on the outside, but the inside was amazing.
“You would arrive at the club at 8pm and have a drink, then you
It was a big club with huge names and it was on a council estate in Wythenshawe John Orchard
would be shown to your seat and given a three-course meal.”
A grand selection of prawn cocktail, golden fried scampi, grilled gammon and pineapple, and American apple pie all featured on the menu.
“After the meal there was an eight-piece band and the main act would usually come on at about 11pm and play till 12.30pm,” John said.
“Then the dancing would usually carry on until about 1am.
“How the customers got up for work the next day, I’ll never know.”
John says many of the international acts would stay in what is now the Crown Plaza at Manchester Airport.
“I think the stars usually got booked by their agents and wouldn’t actually know where they were playing until they turned up in the middle of nowhere,” John said.
“It was a big club with huge names and it was on a council estate in Wythenshawe.”
American singer and dancer, Eartha Kitt played the club on three occasions, an ex-employees still talk of her generosity to staff who worked there.
“You had this bizarre situation where the likes of Roy Orbison would turn up in a chauffeured car, play his set and then head straight
out the back door,” John said. “There’s a lovely memory of a Garter employee baby-sitting Eartha’s seven year-old daughter while she appeared on stage.
“An ex-member of the kitchen staff recalls being gifted Eartha’s mink coat on a whim.
“Then there’s the story from another employee who remembers her brother, who owned a local butcher shop, being visited by Eartha. He greeted her with ‘don’t tell me – Shirley Bassey!’ To which she replied without missing a beat, ‘she should be so lucky’.
The club rebranded itself a number of times over the years in a bid to keep up with the everchanging scene, eventually becoming The New Golden Garter.
By May 1980, numbers began to dwindle and the instead of a six-day show, the Garter only opened on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
“I think people’s wants had changed and people were more interested in a disco than a threecourse meal,” John said.
“The other thing was that the stars wanted more and money and this just wasn’t possible.”
The Golden Garter shut its doors in on New Year’s Eve in 1982, with English band The Fortunes playing the final gig. In 1990, the club was gutted by fire – with little left standing.
In its place today is a bingo hall.
John left Wythenshawe and moved to London where he now lives with his wife, children and grandchildren.
He has his own solo sing-along event at a pub in Soho.
He and former employees of the Golden Garter still meet up in Wythenshawe every October to reminisce about the ‘good times.’