'WHEN was the last time you were in that building?' Someone asked me this when I mentioned I was going on a media tour of the Bradford Live building. I realised it was more than 30 years since I’d set foot in the old place.
My ‘era’ was the Odeon. I queued there to see Star Wars with my dad and my brother, we joined the massive queue snaking round the block and when we finally got near the doors, a man in a suit announced it was sold out.
I saw many films at the Odeon, but I was just a kid and it was just a cinema. By the time I returned to Bradford, years later, the Odeon had closed and was in a sorry state. I didn’t get all the fuss about saving it. All I could see was a derelict eyesore. 'What did it used to be?' people sometimes asked, of the weed-choked building next to the beautiful Alhambra Theatre.
But, despite looking sad and neglected, this building was still very much loved. The David and Goliath fight to save it from demolition was itself the stuff of films. As the axe hovered, protestors in Save the Odeon T-shirts circled the building in a mass hug.
The £50 million restoration has turned it into a world-class venue. It is beautifully refurbished; with original ornate coving and leaded windows, while rich colours and chic lighting make the most of every space, down to the boiler room, now a hip acoustic bar. The magnificent ballroom embraces the Art Deco style that made the New Victoria a very modern venue when, in 1930, it opened as an opulent entertainment palace, the like of which Bradford had never seen before.
When the Odeon cinema was installed, in 1969, the main auditorium was divided into two screens, each in what were effectively 'concrete boxes' suspended from the ceiling, with a Mecca Bingo underneath. A third cinema was in the former ballroom.
Now the main auditorium has been restored to how it looked when it was the Gaumont dancehall in the 1950s and 60s. With capacity for audiences of 3,500, and coloured lighting illuminating exposed brick walls, this is a venue taking live entertainment into the future. There are several bars around the building, and other spaces which can be hired for private events,
For Lee Craven and his team, the restoration has been a labour of love. 'My background is textiles, not construction. I remember thinking 'How hard can it be?' when I first set foot in here in 2010. Famous last words!' said Lee. Reflecting on the highs and lows of the project, he said 2016 'was a particularly grim year'.
'I was standing with a journalist, on a bitterly cold January day, with rain coming through the roof. He said, 'Surely the dream is over'. We had no funding, no operator and the building was crumbling around us. I asked the council for another six months and, to their credit, they gave us another six months.'
Once funding started to come in, 'it all started falling into place'.
'Once we stripped out the old cinemas and bingo hall we could see how it could be,' said Lee.
This was a place of first dates, first love and first concerts. Gaumont regular Dave Welbourne, who kept his programmes for 60 years, told me: 'Every week I’d bring the NME to school, spread it out at dinner-time and scour the pages looking to see who was coming to the Gaumont.'
He remembered Little Richard 'taking off his sweaty shirt and throwing it into the audience' and, at the bottom of the bill, a band he’d never heard of: 'They played a Chuck Berry song, Come On. Some journalists gave them two years at the most. I thought they were great. They were called the Rolling Stones.'
Bradford Live is set to open this autumn - a highlight of Bradford's year as UK City of Culture.
'My dad was from Bradford. I know how proud he’d be that his son is the current guardian of one of Bradford’s greatest buildings,' said Sir Howard, his voice cracking with emotion.
Trafalgar Entertainment, announced as the new operator of the Bradford Live venue earlier this year, is an award-winning live entertainment business with a portfolio of 21 venues across the UK and overseas. Sir Howard said there has been an 'incredible' response from acts - 'our phone hasn't stopped ringing' - and revealed that he has been talking to 'a major comedy star who wants to play here'.
Sir Howard said Trafalgar was investing millions in fitting out the venue, with work on fitting bars and kitchens currently underway.
'This is a venue for the whole of the UK, bringing people into the city,' he said. 'We are not going to be outdone by Leeds because we will have the events people want to see. This is the next chapter of the journey.'
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