Jazz Remembered
The Dancing Slipper
Nottingham
How do you capture an image of a jazz club when it was above a row of shops that have changed several times over the years, where the outside does not tell us about the inside and when there does not appear to be a clear picture taken of the exterior of 14 Central Avenue, West Bridgeford, Nottingham at that time in the 1950s/1960s?
The picture above is of the Dancing Slipper building as it was in 2007. It was then the West End Restaurant and Cabaret, above a confectioner’s shop. In October 2009, the Nottingham Evening Post said: ‘Next Thursday we have the opportunity to hear jazz again at this venue, now known as the West End Cabaret Club, when the Nottingham Rhythm Club holds its annual jazz dinner, with music provided by the Antique Six Jazz Band, which will play for diners, dancers and listeners.’Even the picture above has changed - now in 2025/26 the shop at that address is a Bird's bakery shop. 'Street View' online gets you as close as you can to an image of the current building, but that doesn't tell us much about the famous Dancing Slipper jazz club.
Tony Milliner and Sandy Brown at the Dancing Slipper
Photograph courtesy of Johnny Johnstone
Drummer Les Shaw helps draw a picture: "To the best of my memory, the entrance was on the ground floor followed by a narrowish staircase, then a small room with a ticket office window. The main long room had the stage on the left and the long bar opposite on the right." Johnny Johnstone also mentions a 'dressing room': This was a room where all the electrics were, and could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be called a dressing room!"
Derek Tomlinson remembers: "I remember Saturday nights at the 'Dancing Slipper' in the early '60s seeing such as Terry Lightfoot, Ken Colyer and the Dutch Swing College. The one thing that sticks in my mind is going outside for a breather and seeing the garage door down below thumping to the rhythm of the dancers above."
Samantha Statham wrote: “I am an artist and I am currently writing an "unsent letter" to my father. As I am writing it memories are coming back to me. His mother use to own the Dancing Slipper when I was a kid in the early '70s. I remember being there and sitting with my back against the huge speakers on the side of the stage feeling every beat throughout my whole body. My grandmother was called Ivy Brooks, when she died she left the Dancing Slipper to her toy boy husband and not my father. I just had a quick ‘Google' to see if there was any information about it and found your article. Some of my paintings are of jazz musicians as it became a part of me. When I connected the memory of the speaker and the feeling of the music moving through my every cell I suddenly realised that it stayed with me hence my paintings and fascination for old time Jazz and how it soothes the soul.”
Mention of Ivy Brooks led to Les Shaw recalling: "I noticed mention of the owner. It was a woman called Ivy Brooks who ran a dance school there. My best pal said the only way we could be successful with girls was to learn to dance. I had been taking drum lessons from the age of 13. I asked Ivy how the dance sequences worked: 4 bars or multiples thereof? and after two lessons she declared that “I’d never learn to dance as I had no sense of rhythm“! I turned pro when I was 18 !"
Many people remember Bill Kinell who ran the Dancing Slipper for a number of years, and Allan Gilmore who recorded most of the bands who played there. Bandleader Ralph Laing wrote: "‘The dancing Slipper in Nottingham was one of the principal Midlands venues for touring bands. Run by an enthusiastic, one-armed promoter called Bill Kinnell, known to us all affectionately as 'Foo', (you have to say the names together to see why! - Ed). The Slipper was a permanent fixture throughout the entire trad revival, and only finally closed in the early 1970s.
This picture of Bill Kinell is taken from Google Images. The original is in the Notts Music Archive website (here) where you can read more about Bill. If anyone has other pictures of Bill, please let us know.
Our correspondents have their own memories of Bill Kinell:
Alan Field recalled: "'Bill Kinnell ('Foo' to admirers and detractors alike) was the dominant influence in the Nottingham jazz scene throughout the sixties and the Dancing Slipper, his principal venue, the setting for a night that almost fifty years on, still seems like a dream for me and hundreds of local fans. Bill had a reputation for being a hard man to part with a shilling, largely attributed by minor musicians and hangers-on who considered their status too lofty to have to pay to get in to a gig. But despite the impossibility of covering the cost at the door, Bill booked the entire line up of the biggest US mainstream package to tour the UK at that time. Earl Hines : Buck Clayton : Coleman Hawkins. For hours the tiny stage was swamped by a 'Who's Who' of jazz giants, with the usually frowning Foo, moist-eyed and swinging an empty coat sleeve alongside. Crammed against the bar, drummer Les Shaw and I tried to make room for the enormous Joe Turner. "Get you a drink Joe?" the awe-stricken Les asked. "Break the money Honey and keep on traveling" beamed Joe. You couldn't write it could you.."
Ivor James: "Wow - what memories! I knew "Lefty" Kinnell. He once went on stage at Derby Jazz Club (The Corporation Hotel) to be met by a chorus of jazz fans chanting "'Kinell, 'Kinell"! He took it in good part though! In those days I used to play guitar and banjo with the house band at Derby Jazz Club, more particularly after they moved to The Duke Of York on Burton Road. Then a change of job and shift work prevented me, and I'm afraid that after I left Derby in 1969, I got out of touch with the jazz scene."
Derek Tomlinson: "I heard a story that Bill Kinnell had a record shop in a Nottingham arcade off Parliament St. He had a false arm and used to take out a spare and chew it if anyone came into his shop to buy anything other then jazz records. True? No idea. Happy Days!"
David Green: "Mention of Bill Kinnell brought back some memories. He was one of our Chilwell neighbours in the 1940s, and although having the use of only one arm, competently ran the greengrocer’s shop on Chilwell High Road, just round the corner from where we lived. As lads we often ran to the shop when we saw the potato lorry making a delivery and it was amazing to see Bill single-handedly carry full sacks into the shop and later weigh out and bag them for customers. Many years later I met up with him on the Jazz scene, not having realised we had a common interest."
Debby Klein: "I checked out your website with great interest, when trawling for something about Bill Kinnell to refresh my memories. Bill was, bizarrely, my godfather. But this can be explained as I am the daughter of Mick and Betty Gill, so I have many childhood memories of the Dancing Slipper and 'me dad going blowing'. We lived in West Bridgford as some will remember, in the 1950s as I was growing up. I well recall the 'Great Ben Webster incident' - there was a little sticker on our phone in the hall for many years, which proclaimed 'Ben Webster spoke on this phone' although I believe that what he said was rather slurred and along the lines of 'Sorry man, too much'. I remember Johnny Johnstone, one of your correspondents, indeed I have a photo of him at our house in Eltham Road. I also remember many other 'blowers' like Bruce Turner, Ray Crane, etc. They all used to visit us, and/or sleep on our front room floor."
"I note the comment that Mick Gill's cornet style 'did not fit in' with Chris Barber when asked to play at short notice. Well, it wouldn't would it - me dad was a Revivalist, not a Traddie. Also, I don't really think he was that good a musician in retrospect! I have a collection of his recordings on a CD and, er, it's an interesting archive rather more than entertainment!! We idolised him at the time though. Sadly he died young, in 1987. I am sure some will also remember my vivacious young mother Betty, whose raison d'etre was Jive and Jazz 24/7. Sadly she too died, in 1995. They were both in their early 60s. Does anyone have any memories of my family? Now into my own 60s I'm trying to piece things together a bit……. and still listening to jazz. (Debby's father was cornettist Mick Gill).
Dancing Slipper Club membership card
Courtesy of Johnny Johnstone
Another key person at the Club was Allan Gilmour. Ralph Laing recalled: "The sound system at the Slipper was provided by an electronics enthusiast called Allan Gilmour. He was a delightful man with a large moustache and he adored jazz. With the permission of the bands (and I never heard of one refusing) he recorded every session at the Slipper from the early 1960s onwards. Covering every band which ever played the club circuit, this treasure trove of over 1000 hours of well-balanced material was kept private for 35 years. Sadly Allen died recently and LAKE has entered into an arrangement with the estate to issue the best of the library’. [LAKE records have since stopped issuing new recordings, so not all of Allan Gilmour's recordings are available - Ed]
Johnny Johnstone added: "Ralph Laing was nearly right about no band ever refusing to let Allan Gilmour record them - he usually was right, was Ralph. When Henry "Red" Allen appeared at the Slipper in his first of two appearance's, he refused Allan permission to record him, with Humph, because he was under contract to American Columbia, and was afraid of any come back from them. On his final appearance, not long before he died from cancer, he appeared there and asked Allan if he was going to record him, but unfortunately, as on the previous visit, he wouldn't agree to being recorded. Allan didn't bring any recording equipment along. An opportunity lost forever! A shame, but these guys had to be careful with the big recording companies. When Peanuts Hucko guested with a band I was with in the mid 1970's called Jazz Spectrum, I asked him, as I did with all the guests whether he minded if the session was recorded? He initially agreed to this, but when he saw that the recording was being done by Allan Gilmour, he insisted that we stop the recording and that he had the tape, of which he said he would send me a copy - but of course he never did! These sessions involved, at various times, Wild BIll Davison, Bud Freeman, Billy Butterfield, Ralph Sutton, Bob Wilber and Buddy Tate - who borrowed my tenor saxophone for the evening as his had developed a fault. None of those objected to being recorded! I personally paid for these recordings and still have copies of the sessions."
[Sadly we can find no pictures of Allan Gilmour - please contact us if you can help - Ed]
Here is a recording of the Mike Daniels band with Doreen Beatty recorded at the Dancing Slipper and A Good Man Is Hard To Find. Bass player Ron Drakeford says that the photograph below "Was actually taken at the Thames Hotel in Hampton court where Mike was resident on Friday nights. This Daniels band was probably one of my favourites. I had the good fortune to play with them at the Thames Hotel when Don Smith was unexpectedly not available. I lived a mile away so could pop home, get my bass and only miss the first couple of numbers."
Many people remember the bands and guests who played at the Dancing Slipper. The time when Ben Webster played at the club particularly stands out:
Johnny Johnstone: "I was asked by Bill if I would bring the great tenor saxophonist, Ben Webster to the club, where he was to play with the Bruce Turner Jump Band. I was of course thrilled to be asked to do this, and a pal and I went to collect Ben at the Victoria Hotel (still standing, but alas no railway station anymore). We were invited up to his room, as he wasn't quite ready. He welcomed us in and offered us a drink (brandy) which being beer drinkers, we declined. I suppose with the value of hindsight, we should have thought this could be a bad sign, but we were in the presence of one of the giant's of the jazz world, and in awe. We got him to the Slipper alright, and at Bill's request, we showed Ben to the dressing room. When we were at the hotel, we noticed that Ben filled a hip flask with brandy, which I think he must have consumed while waiting to come on stage. You may have heard this story, but sadly Ben was so drunk he just could not play, and in the end, poor Bill had to order Ben off the stage as he started to whistle while the band was playing."
Peter Minkley: "Just reading about the Dancing Slipper on the net. I remember going to the Jazz nights there and was there the evening Bill Kinnell had to ask Ben Webster to get off the stage because he was so drunk. I can hear Bill saying now: 'Mr Webster, will you please leave the stage', massive disappointment. I had seen him at Ronnie Scott's Club and was so looking forward to seeing him again. I also was there to see Earl Hines and remember chatting to him after his gig, I was only 18, It was magic to be able not only to see but to chat to a Jazz legend. Wonderful days never to be forgotten."
Bob Jackson: "I was also there at the infamous Ben Webster gig with Bruce Turner, which Johnny Johnstone describes - this was the 12th June, 1965. I remember Ben being escorted by two policemen down the stairs at the Slipper, and he asked one of them whether he liked Oscar Peterson?! This was not a comfortable occasion for Bruce Turner (Bruce gave me his account of the evening when he stayed with us after a gig guesting with Spicy Jazz in 1989). He did so many wonderful gigs at the Dancing Slipper with the Jump Band. John Chilton was trumpet player with Bruce's band whenever I saw them, with Pete Strange on trombone, and Colin Bates on piano. Later, of course, Nottingham's Ray Crane joined the band on trumpet. It was Ray who later recorded the Splanky album with Sandy Brown at, I think, the Gallery Club in Carlton where I occasionally played trombone with Phil Boyd."
Photograph courtesy of Ben Webster Foundation
Digging around in a box under his bed, Johnny Johnstone came across a programme from a gig he went to at the Dancing Slipper in Nottingham in 1963. The cover photograph is of Alex Welsh, and the programme gives the date as April - May 1963. The back of the programme lists other bands appearing - the Spree City Stompers and the Cave Stompers. The Orchestra of the Dutch Swing College was very popular. It is also interesting to note that impresario Bill Kinnell had other venues at the time in Derby, Leicester and Coventry.
Johnny says: "The Alex Welsh Band also played at the Dancing Slipper and I was very lucky to get to sit in with the band when Archie was in it (1962) at the Trent Bridge Inn where sessions were held by the Nottingham Rhythm Club on Tuesday and Friday evening's. Archie and I dueted on the tunes "If I Had You" and "Pee Wee's Blues". I pushed my luck once more at the Derby Jazz Club, also run by Bill Kinnell at the Corporation Hotel, and Alex very kindly let repeat the duets with him. What an honour that was. I had only been playing for a couple of years so during the interval, at TBI session, I asked Archie how he could go from Pee Wee to Ed Hall? What a dumb question I now realise that was!. He then showed me when he went on!"
Here is one of Allan Gilmour's recordings of the Alex Welsh band playing the Memphis Blues.
Bob Moore wrote to remind us that Ken Colyer played and was recorded at the Dancing Slipper in 1969. Bob says: "The record is entitled Ken Colyer's Jazzmen Live at the Dancing Slipper 1969 and the record number is LC 35 and produced by VJM Records of Kingsbury, London. I bought it directly from Ken Colyer after he played at a gig in a village near Great Missenden Bucks in about 1974. There is a photo on the front of the band which is said to be made up of Ken with local musicians from Nottingham. The personnel are given plus details of the recording and a bit of blurb about the Dancing Slipper and mentions the promotors at that time."
[The personnel on this album were Ken Colyer (trumpet), Tony Pyke (clarinet), Geoff Cole (trombone), John Bastable (banjo), Bill Cole (bass) and Malc Murphy (drums). We cannot see that this particular album is currently available on CD, but an earlier recording by Ken Colyer - Memories - at the Dancing Slipper in 1963 was produced by Lake Records - Ed] .
Here they are with Milneburg Joys:
David Green remembers the Chris Barber band at The Dancing Slipper: "In our late teens a crowd of us, mostly from West Bridgford, regularly went to the Dancing Slipper for the popular Trad Jazz concerts and the Chris Barber Band was one of our favourites in the 1950s and 60s. I remember a particular occasion (in 1957?) when the band arrived without trumpeter Pat Halcox, who had been involved in a road accident and was delayed. An SOS was sent out for Mick Gill, (Mercia Jazz Band I think) who played at very short notice but sadly didn’t fit in with the Barber style and only played a couple of numbers. Chris Barber, on trombone, was accompanied by Monty Sunshine on clarinet, Ron Bowden on drums, Micky Ashman on bass, Ottilie Patterson (vocal) and two banjo players - Lonnie Donegan and a bearded Bill Bishop. Looking back, Donegan was possibly hoping for a solo career and was soon to release “Rock Island Line”; Bishop may have been guesting as a possible replacement when Donegan left the band. I was fortunate to have my camera with me, and took photos of the band members, which they all kindly autographed when they were next in Nottingham; I still have them somewhere in the ‘archived’ stuff in the den!"
Here is an Allan Gilmour recording of the Chris Barber band with Ottilie Patterson and the Basin Street Blues:
There are more tracks from the Allan Gilmour recordings on YouTube, including other bands not mentioned above - the Crane River Jazz Band, Monty Sunshine's band and Cy Laurie's band. You will find them here.
Others who remember The Dancing Slipper and / or who have shared their memories:
The late MP Ken Clarke, who grew up in Nottingham, said in an interview with Harkit Records: "‘There was a big jazz following and there were some jazz record shops. There were quite a lot of places you could go listening to jazz in Nottingham. The Dancing Slipper was one of my regular places. I mean, every Saturday night I used to be at the Dancing Slipper, and it was a base from where my particular set of friends operated and anybody who wanted to look for me on a Saturday night knew they’d find me at the Dancing Slipper. The jazz policy was every Saturday night, but usually trad. I don’t think I ever saw Tubby Hayes there. It was the British trad bands that came through and that was what I liked at first. And because I liked it I decided to go and buy jazz records."
Bob Jackson: "1965 seems to have been an amazing year at the Dancing Slipper, with plenty of American guests, including Earl Hines of course with the Alex Welsh band in April. This was an incredible education for young jazz fans who had never before heard American musicians live. I would have been in my second year at university in Wales, so could only have gone during vacations - but the terms were pretty short. I lived in Ilkeston and used to get two buses to get to the club. I heard Bud Freeman there with Alex Welsh, and on another occasion, Eddie Miller, but don't have the dates. Buck Clayton and Big Joe Turner guested with Humph on different dates, one of them being 14 May 1965; Ruby Braff guested with the Welsh band in July 1965; I was also there at the infamous Ben Webster gig with Bruce Turner, which Johnny Johnstone describes.
Ken Milner: "I have just been reading about the Dancing Slipper. I was the DJ there in the '70s as 'King Ken' along with my friend 'Melody Mike'! Brings back memories :) I can remember in the day time it was the Ivy Brooks Dance School, I didn't have much to do with the Jazz nights (sorry not my scene) but did enjoy Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, I used to work mostly Friday nights if I remember and played Motown Charts etc."
Stu Morrison: "I played The Dancing Slipper, Nottingham with Mike (Cotton), Chris (Barber) and later Ken Colyer.
Alan Smith: "I have many memories of the Dancing Slipper in West Bridgford, Nottingham. It is where I first met my wife, Joyce, in 1963 while I was bass player for the Johnny Johnstone All-Stars (I had replaced his original bassist Ernie Greenwood in 1962). We were married in 1964 and we went to the Dancing Slipper every Saturday, which was then the headquarters of Bill Kinnell’s famous Nottingham Jazz Club. There Joyce and I saw many great American jazz musicians, usually guests of the Alex Welsh Band. These included Earl Hines, Henry “Red” Allen, Rex Stewart, Dicky Wells, Wild Bill Davison, Bud Freeman, Long John Baldry, Ruby Braff, Pee Wee Russell and the fateful evening when Ben Webster - playing with the Bruce Turner Band - became too drunk to continue playing. On the night Earl Hines guested with the Welsh Band at the Slipper, Joyce and I were invited to the hotel on Gregory Boulevard where the band and Earl Hines were staying and he got on a piano there for another impromptu session."
The Sandy Brown / Al Fairweather bands were also featured at the Dancing Slipper.
Bob Jackson remembers: "I very rarely missed a gig by Sandy Brown - including what was possibly the first time that Tony Coe joined the band on stage. He played tenor on just the second half of the gig, and was reading the parts. Tony Milliner was on trombone. I remember that Yaknik (one of Al's tunes I think) was one of the numbers played. On later gigs, with both Tonys in the frontline, there were arrangements of some of the tunes from the Atomic Mr Basie (including Li'l Darlin' with Sandy on bass clarinet), plus numbers like Lunceford Special, which sounded great with the four-part front line. When the Fairweather Brown all-stars were not playing as a totally regular unit, I remember one gig at the Slipper with John Mumford on trombone. There were others with just Sandy and the rhythm section, with Sandy sometimes playing bass clarinet as well as clarinet, and sometimes blues piano and singing. Terry Cox seemed to be a fairly regular drummer on such gigs. I also remember Sandy guesting with the Johnny Johnstone all-stars at the Milton's Head, and I sang Nagasaki with Sandy and the band. Alan Gilmour had recorded the session but later couldn't find the tapes."
The Sandy Brown Band at the Dancing Slipper
L-R: Tony Milliner, Sandy Brown, Tony Coe, Al Fairweather
photo courtesy of Johnny Johnstone
Ken Clarke (above) said that The Dancing Slipper featured Jazz on Saturday nights, but other people remember other music there as well:
Mike Rees: "'I have great memories of the Slipper during the early 60s - I was in the R.A.F at the time and was stationed at Newton. On Wednesday nights, one of my favourite groups was the Graham Bond Organisation, with Ginger Baker on drums and Jack Bruce on bass. The great Americans I saw, not mentioned so far, were: Henry Red Allen, George Lewis, Don Byas, and of course, Ruby Braff. I also remember Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie men, with a new young singer - Rod Stewart (7s 6d to get in). I also remember Tubby and his group visited several times - so it wasn't strictly a 'trad' club. The group I enjoyed best, though was led by Alex Welsh - they always looked if they were enjoying themselves, and Alex was a world class player. Lennie Hastings kept great time and added a lot of humour."
Alan Cutts: "I went there in August '66, started hitch-hiking in July ... from Sevenoaks in Kent with mates to visit ... up at the Uni and also the Art College ... first night there before the gigs started was spent in Yates Bar, off Slab Square, where the buses raced around the quadrangular outer road sending up sparks from the running board as they tilted so much on the sharp bends ! Went to the Trip to Jerusalem for a look, sight-seeing in Arnold and then the big student party ... It was huge, and the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band was playing live, funniest act we had ever seen up to then, Viv Stanshall outstanding, camp was new then, and we heard that The Who might be coming soon ... magic times, and then back on the M1 to Kent. Do you remember those yellow plastic macs that almost all the students wore back then? Trademark gear. Thanks, memories like that last for ever."
Lynne Clifford (nee Hodgkinson): "'I have just come across your website and the Dancing Slipper page and it brings back memories of Friday night at this venue with all my girl friends. I never went on a Saturday night for the jazz, I was probably too young, but I do remember seeing Herman's Hermits one Friday night around 1965. Happy Memories."
If any other readers have their memories of the Dancing Slipper that they would like to add, please contact us.
There is another page here with some information about those who have contributed.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.6