Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Papa's Club / Roadhouse, Newton Street


Papa's Club, Newton Street. (c) Manchester District Music Archive.

This venue on the corner of Back Piccadilly is now the popular live music venue, The Roadhouse, but in the 1970s it was a strange café-cum-chippy-cum-nightclub, Papa's, all owned by Thomas Papathomas. The basement club was divided into two rooms, divided by a glass panel divider with openings at each end. One one side (under the chippy!) was a dance floor with alcoves facing, and a stage big enough for a band to play on - where bands still play today. On the café side was the bar area with alcoves against the glass partition and the long bar down the Back Piccadilly side [1].

Roadhouse, Newton Street. (c) googlemaps.

The Distractions at the Roadhouse, 1995. (c) Mark David Cooper.

1 comment:

  1. I had some great nights in Papa s with a lad called Franny Clirkin. You could dance the night away.Dont no if anyone remember s Franny Clirkin great lad often wondered how life treated him.Jackie

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