Western Union Jive Club About Us

About Us - The Western Union Jive Club

The Western Union Jive Club is a 1950s style rock 'n' roll club. Although you will hear a little Swing from time to time and our dancers do enjoy the occasional Stroll and Bop .... but Jive is the main focus.

Club Nights
Our regular DJ Club Nights are held at St Dominick Parish Hall (full address on our Home Page) on the second Saturday every month (unless we have a band night arranged, see our Diary). Whenever possible, we also hold another DJ Club Night later in the month at the Lamerton Sports & Community Centre (full address on our Home Page). On each occasion we have a local guest Rock 'n' Roll DJ to provide the music. Doors open at 7:30pm for dancing from 8pm - 11:30pm. We usually get 45 - 60 people turning up at our DJ Club Nights

Band Nights
About every 4 months we host a Rock 'n' Roll Band Night . For this we need a larger venue than St Dominick or Lamerton and so on these occasions we use Tavistock Town Hall (full address on our Home Page). Our Band Nights are always 'Tickets Only'. If you want to come along then you must but a ticket in advance. Tickets are sold at our DJ Club Nights or you can contact Malcolm on 01822 615894 or Pauline on 01822 833549 and post a cheque.

Membership
From January 2011 we are introducing a membership scheme for the Western Union Jive Club. It will cost just £5 per year to become a member (renewable at the end of the year). For this modest fee, members will get a £1 discount on the ticket price to our Band Nights, and will continue to gain entry to our DJ Club Nights for £3 (for non-members this will increase to £4 from the beginning of January 2011). Also members can enjoy priority allocation of tickets to our Christmas Parties and other special considerations.

History
Back in the late 1990's and early 2000's a small but dedicated group of rock 'n' rollers used to meet on the first Sunday every month at the Cross House Hotel at Metherell, East Cornwall for a record hop hosted by a local DJ Brian Stimpson. These evenings were busy if twenty people turned up, but we persevered.

Due to a major refurbishment project at the Cross House in 2003, we found ourselves looking for an alternative venue. Brian managed to secure us the old clubroom at St Dominic Park at Harrowbarrow, just down the road from Metherell. The last people to use this venue were a group of line dancers a couple of years previously.

So the trusty band of rock 'n' rollers set about redecorating the clubroom to make it our home. It was a big job .... walls to re-plaster and paint, ceiling to paint, floor to sand down and re-seal. We worked the Autumn of 2003 and were ready to open as the Western Union Jive Club on Saturday 6th December 2003. It was Brian who thought up the name 'Western Union' (named after the Elvis Presley stroller track) which, we all agreed, perfectly reflected our location and fellowship.

During the Summer of 2005, the licensing laws went through a major change which meant that licensed premises had to re-apply for their licences. Problems with our venue meant that at the beginning of 2006, we were on the move again.

Only a short distance away we found the Parish Hall at St Dominick which matched our requirements perfectly ..... and here we are today, very happy in our venue with our very friendly rock 'n' roll and jive club. The loyal group who have been with the club since our humble beginnings are still the backbone of the club ........ always welcoming newcomers into our very happy environment.

By 2007, the club had become successful to the point that we felt confident enough to stage our first Band Night. We wanted to be able to stage the event in a venue that was large enough to seat around 140 people and provide plenty of room for dancing. Tavistock Town Hall was the answer. Our first band night was in June 2007 with Big Boy Bloater and his Southside Stompers and it was a sell-out.

We followed this with :

December 2007	Crazy Jay and The Partytimers
February 2008	The Lennerockers
June 2008	Joey and The Jivers
October 2008	The Jukebox Eddies
February 2009	Jive Street
June 2009	Mark Keeley's Good Rockin' Tonight
October 2009	The Firebirds
February 2010	The Revolutionaires
June 2010	The Atlantics
October 2010	Joey & The Jivers

Every band night has been a sell-out. Not only do our audience enjoy the venue and atmosphere, but the bands seem to love it as well. The Lennerockers said it was one of the best venues they had ever played. Some accolade!

In 2011 we have three top band nights lined up.

February 2011	Class Of '58
June 2011	Bernie Woods & The Forest Fires
September 2011	The Alligators

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