The 1in12 Club, as an entity concerned with live music, began as an
itinerant event circulating around the back rooms of pubs in Bradford
in
the early 1980's.
Eventually folks began to wonder if there was an alternative to dealing
with landlords, bouncers, and constantly moving sound equipment in and
out of venues. If you've ever done that kind of thing yourself, dealing
with the grouchy landlord who never thinks for a minute that he has a
roof over his head because of the effort you and your friends have put
into getting people to come to the place...you can imagine the
attraction of the crazy notion that you could get your own place and
have the whole scene show up there instead.
Somehow, some people got it together and in June 1988 the 1in12 club
began to arrange concerts on their own premises in Albion Street.
Since that time the young excitable people with a thirst for promoting
gigs have mainly found new occupations more fitting to their advancing
years, and the 1in12 club now makes itself available to new groups of
excitable young people so that they can use the facilities. (See
elsewhere for the boring legalities)
Maintaining the PA against the backdrop of changing faces, and on a
shoestring budget, has not always been easy. Sometime in the early 90s
a visiting band loaded some key parts of the PA into their van and
drove away with it, leaving the club somewhat reduced in facilities for
a while...
However, the PA has been restored and we continue to provide a space
which meet the needs of most visiting bands.
There are some lovely pictures of bands at the 1in12 club here
(and here)
taken by Keighley photographer David S. Brett,
which will give you an idea of what the stage and room
looks like.
If you have any 1in12 event photos - particularly of the early days -
please send us a scan or a link if they are online. Thanks.
For more information follow the link to "More Sound History Part 1"
(and so on).
