Friday 14 December 2007

a fairground life (the kelvin hall)

Things are a little slow at the moment, no doubt as you can tell by the lack of content in the blog lately. There are a number of other showmen awaiting new year fairs around the country. The SECC carnival will kick off next week too. However the Kelvin Hall was the best. I can remember back to the 1970s-80s when the fair was in there. It ran for a much longer period than the secc event does today. Every night was quite busy and when you opened the small back door to get in (trademan's entrance) the atmosphere hit you (aswell as the smell from the elephant pens nearby). The noise seemed to echo around the Hall differently than it does around the secc. All us kids from the winter yards would meet there. Don't forget this was long before texting or email or mobile phones, you had to meet face to face to network! Here was the first place I knew to have a KFC in it! The Stakis (hoteliers) family ran the Kelvin Hall cafe that became a sort of club house for us.
Many showmen worked in the Kelvin Hall during the winter.My aunty had worked for the Glasgow corporation on the turnstiles as there was an admission charge for the Hall, later she moved to the cloakroom. In earlier years both my father and aunty had worked in the circus as ring boy and usherette respectively. I can remember as a small child being shown to my seat to watch a performance and my aunty bringing ice-cream at the interval. If my father was alive today , he would be able to tell some tales of the ring boys pranks. In the very early 80s, I would visit my aunty and keep her company for a while in the cloakroom. The older kids all had jobs on the attractions. Ask anyone of our generation, it was the best time of their lives. The fashion at the time was sweat shirts with your name embroidered across the front, narrow leg jeans and kicker boots (bright coloured), every one collected the kicker tabs and some had dozens laced onto their boots. Whites were still at the top with at least four big rides in attendance here. Many showmen had stances handed down from their parents and some even stored the games in the basement of the hall until the next years event. I bet there are still remnants in there today, hid in some obscure corner or forgotten store. The last year I can remember was when Eddy Grant released Electric avenue, 82/83 I guess. The secc took over the carnival the next year, and the rest as they say is history! Anyone got some old photos from the Kelvin Hall days??? It would be great to see them.

5 Comments:

At 17 December 2007 at 10:59 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Kelvin hall was a Great fair and holds memories of me catching the 7am train from carlisle up to glasgow and walking to the hall and getting back to the train station in time for the last train home.
It had some amazing smells in there and i remember the tallest ride been the wheel in the middle.
it used to attract some good rides to.

Malc

PS, I have some photos from the hall , but very dark due to the lighting

 
At 17 December 2007 at 20:48 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

1984 was the last year at the Kelvin Hall. I remember Lee Codona wearing a Ghostbusters sweatshirt while spinning the cars on the Supreme!

 
At 19 December 2007 at 08:02 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Kelvin Hall was great. The combined smell of paint, warm oil and Elephants plus the din from all the music on the rides and screaming was unique.

Niall Cockburn has put up some old photos of the Hall and SECC on his website at http://scotlandsfunlands.fotopic.net/c1426166.html

This blog is fascinating - I only discovered it about a month ago and have been hooked ever since!

 
At 22 December 2007 at 23:46 , Blogger showman said...

thanks to outrider for the photo link. those pictures brought back some forgotten memories. blakey and I spent an hour looking through them. I was amazed at how many people we recognised in the photos!

 
At 31 December 2007 at 18:09 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have opened in the kelvin hall and s.e.c.c the old hall holds a lot of good memories, or am i just getting a lot older

 

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