A short story of JB’s
JB's in Dudley once lay claim to being the longest-running live music venue in the country, and for a venue in a Black Country town, that’s no small claim.
Over a period of 43 years, the likes of Radiohead, The Stone Roses, U2, Blur, The Charlatans and Judas Priest all performed on the legendary stage there before they cracked the big time. “We turned down Queen though because they wanted an extra £50,” says Sam Jukes, the club's owner.
The legendary Frank Sidebottom maintained that his set at JB’s, which was so sparsely attended the audience decided to play football instead of watching the show, was the best gig he ever did.
In 2000, the venue celebrated its 30th anniversary by hosting a two-day music festival within the grounds of Dudley Castle featuring Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Terrorvision and The Wonder Stuff frontman Miles Hunt who cites the venue as a major influence on the bands early years.
Sam Jukes and his wife Sue originally opened JB's at Dudley Town Football Club (the site of Castlegate Island now) before it moved to King Street in the early 1970s. The club took its name from the initials of DJ John Bryant, a local face about town, who Sam says was a hit with the ladies:
“I was always into the bands and at the time Dudley Town football club was going bust so I bribed the chairman to let me put on bands and music. It was a disco at first and the geezer I got to do the DJing was Johnny Bryant (JB). He was good looking so I asked him to do the DJing. He was a bit like George Best only better looking. The women used to love him to bits and he'd fill venues so we thought it would be a good name for the club.”
Sue: “Well we hadn’t got a name for it, so we just called it JB’s after him and it just took off.“
Sam started the club after his football and speedway career ended prematurely after a bad accident in a race meeting with Cradley Heathens.
The former Wolves and Walsall FC trainee, who played for semi-pro teams Kidderminster Harriers and Dudley Town, says he was riding Speedway for Sheffield during the mid-60s when he fractured his leg and knee. “I got ‘crocked’ down Cradley and that brought everything to an end," he said. "My thigh was broken in three places, I've still never seen an accident like it - somehow I hit the starting gate going down the straight."
The club has had three different homes but only one owner, Sam Jukes from Tipton.
"No one had heard of U2 when we booked them," he said. "People would ring up and say; 'Who's on tonight?' and we'd tell them, and they'd say, 'Who're they?”
Not all of the bands went down well with the Dudley regulars though. Sue: “Dexys Midnight Runners played, but they were so bad we had to go around the audience and give everyone their money back.”
There were plenty of non-famous regular characters too. “We had a geezer come over to us,” says Sam, “I’ve got a complaint. There’s somebody standing where I normally lie.”
Sam also recalls the time when the Sex Pistols showed up. Not to perform, but to avoid the rioting crowd they had attracted in Wolverhampton. When The Sex Pistols secret tour hit Club Lafayette in Wolverhampton on 19th August 77 JB’s was there to help out.
“I remember my mate Jake Elcock from the Club Lafayette in Wolverhampton ringing me the once to say there was riots in Wolverhampton and asked if we would look after the Sex Pistols, so they came to JB’s. I tried to bribe John Lydon to do a set but he turned me down!"
Barry Cain wrote at the time in Record Mirror about the band’s pre-gig visit to JB’s:
“We're in JB's, an aircraft hangar of a club in Dudley five miles outside Wolverhampton. The band are due on in an hour. Rotten's hunched up on the floor. Vicious is asleep on another chair. He looks quite cute with his eyes closed.
Steve's chatting up a local. He seems as much in the ignorant dark as anyone else. "I really dunno what's happening. I dunno if we're supposed to be doing this surprise tour or not." He's referring to the top-secret gigs at selected venues around the Black Country heavily reported in last week's press.
Rotten looks tired. "I am tired. . Heavy night, as usual." The same sluggish monotones. Johnny Rotten drools. OK. "What about the new album? Don't you read your RECORD MIRROR? It's brilliant That's 'cos it's the Sex Pistols. Anything Sex Pistols is brilliant." Scandinavia? "It was boring." Nervous? "We ain't rehearsed for this. Straight out of record studio to gig. It'll be all right."
To Paul. Is it right Elton John's gonna play Malcolm McLaren in the forthcoming Sex Pistols film? "I dunno. I dunno anything about the film." You get the impression Paul dunno.
Meanwhile, their beefy Spartan of a bodyguard is busy vilifying a greasy hip in a trench coat "Can I have your coat? Remember how they all used to wear 'em. They needed 'em, queuing for hours in snow, knee-deep, waiting to see Black Sabbath. I betcha did that eh? I betcha did. Mug."
The hip ain't bothered none. But Steve loves it.
Right time to go. Outside a fleet of four motors is waiting to transport the timeless tearaways to the Lafayette.
Despite being a safe haven for touring Punk bands the venue took a little time before they clicked with the boys in blue. Sue explains: “The police were never on our side, they wanted to close us down from day one because we was drugs, sex and rock ’n' roll. They used to come and tell us that you can’t dance on a Sunday, so we had to go and tell folks to stop dancing, we was really up against it.”
Sam takes up the story: “But once the police come in you couldn’t get rid of em’ they loved it! I’d be on the door of the club and the drugs squad would be outside saying we want to raid you but we can't get in. Honestly, it was that packed, both inside and outside, but after that, once they’d got in, we couldn’t get bloody rid of them. They’d stay for hours with a Newcastle Brown Ale and they never took their thumb off the top. They was the drug squad and they was frightened of getting spiked. Couldn’t get rid of them, they’d loved the music.”
Despite not having Police support in the early days the venue did have its own unique way of handling any trouble that came their way. “I used to do the door in King Street and Dougie, the alcoholic, always used to be stood with us,” recalls Sam. “I was on the door one night and this bloke come in with a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun pointing at us. And Dougie at the door says “pull that trigger mate and I’ll punch yer earhole off”. O was not going to argue with the geezer… I put my arm around Doug and shut the door.”
Thanks to Sam and Sue for taking the time to meet us in Dudley and share their amazing story.