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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Jess Molyneux

Liverpool nightclub with 'Billie Jean dancefloor' where people 'kept on going'

A lost Liverpool nightclub which boasted a "Billie Jean" style dancefloor was a place where people 'kept on going' week after week.

Located on Victoria Street, Gatsby's nightclub attracted many clubbers in the city in the 1970s and 1980s. Outside, the club didn't boast big neon signs or bright colours like other popular haunts in the city centre at the time, but that didn't stop people heading there weekly to dance to the latest hits.

Roy Adams was once the biggest club operator in the city, starting more than 50 Liverpool clubs. The man behind Gatsby's, as well as Pyramid Club on Temple Street and the Chequers Club in Wood Street, he was famously the last owner of the Cavern Club in its original spot on Matthew Street.

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Gerard Fagan, 60, grew up in Gerard Gardens in Liverpool city centre and would often head to Gatsby's with his friends after a pub crawl. Now living in Ormskirk, he said the club would be "would be packed on the weekends."

Gerard told the ECHO: "The first time I went probably was around 1979. The reason I remember that is because of the music out at the time.

Gerard Fagan from Liverpool city centre, around the time he started heading to Gatsby's nightclub on Victoria Street (Image courtesy of Gerard Fagan)

"When I was going I remember the song pop music by M, that was on and The Real Thing You To Me Are Everything, Can't Get By Without You. All those songs had not been out that long only a year or two.

"Then they used to put slowies on for the last couple of songs. Gatsby's was just a ten minute walk for us back then.

"We’d go to Gatsby's and we'd get in a couple of weeks on the run, we were only 17 and then you'd go the following week and the bouncers would say no sorry you cant come in you're too young. We'd say we were in here last week and it was you that let us in, so we’d have to go over the road.

"But Gatsby's was our main port of call after the pubs shut. They were only open till 2am in those days." Gerard said the area at the time had a "very Scouse feel" to it.

Today, the side of the city centre near to Mathew Street attracts tourists from across the world, but back in the days of Gatsby's, Gerard said he remembers the punks could be spotted outside of Probe Records and Eric's nearby was also a massive club..

Gerard said: "We used to go on a Friday and a Saturday after a pub crawl round by where we lived, then we’d head off down there. It wasn't a very good club to look at on the outside.

An advertisement in the ECHO for Gatsby's and Perspective band playing (Image courtesy of Gerard Fagan)

"There was no big neon sign, it was just a Gatsby's sign and two bouncers stood there. As you went in, you'd go down some steps and the bar was over to the right and the dancefloor was straight ahead of you.

"It had one of those like Billie Jean dancefloor’s like in the Michael Jackson music video, where it was all squares lit up. There’s one in flares in Mathew Street now, it looked like that."

Do you remember Gatsbys on Victoria Street? Let us know in the comments section below.

By the early 80s, Gerard joined a band called Perspective and would perform there on Thursday's. He said: "I got into a group because I'm a drummer.

"They didn't have to put a group on on a Friday or a Saturday because it was choker but on a Thursday to try and get more people in they put a group on. They used to advertise Gatsbys in the ECHO."

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Gatsby Club, Victoria Street. October 12, 1978 (Mirrorpix)

Gerard believes Gatsby's closed in the early 1980s, but still holds fond memories of the lost venue. He said: "All the girls used to dance around their handbags.

"They'd put their bags on the floor and they'd dancing around in a circle with their friends because they couldn't leave them on the chairs.

"On a Saturday when we’d all come out drunk there was a hot dog fella on Victoria street with his long white smock on and we’d all be going over for food. It was a great atmosphere and that’s why we kept on going.

"If we went anywhere and thought this is rubbish in here we’d go back to Gatsby's. It was a really good club."

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