Cllr Chris Gibson Interview: Theatre Royal in the 1970s
Title
Cllr Chris Gibson Interview: Theatre Royal in the 1970s
Date
10 April 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Nottingham City Councillor Chris Gibson.
What's the story?
Chris Gibson was first elected as a Labour Party Councillor for Nottingham City Councillor in May 1979. This was the day after Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street for the first time.
Born and brought up in Nottingham, Councillor Gibson has been on many committees, as well being Lord Mayor of Nottingham in 1990 and Sheriff of Nottingham in 1998.
He represents the people of Clifton South and is currently Chair of the Planning Committee, a role he has held for many years.
In this interview Cllr Gibson talks about the Theatre Royal in the 1970s and the concept of the Festival Hall complex, as well as the role of John Carroll, the Leader of the City Council, in the Theatre Royal’s development.
And I remember reading in the papers before I came on, there was a great concern because several orchestras were starting to complain about the poor dressing room facilities, and at the Albert Hall, and it wasn’t really up to scratch and I’m sure maybe one or two orchestras declined to come, so it focused the mind of politicians such as John to want to build what they called in those days a Festival Hall complex, which would include the refurbishment of the Theatre Royal and I think that did get voted through as an intention in 1975.
There was a bit of a blip to that story because in 1976 Labour became very unpopular and was roundly voted, I won’t say completely out of it, but we lost seats heavily and we lost power. It was a very heavy defeat for the Labour Party in Nottingham. The Conservative party took over and Jack Green was Leader and Bill Bradbury was the Deputy Leader and they had a different agenda and they were quite honest about it. They wanted to protect ratepayers’ money and they said we’ll continue to refurbish the Theatre Royal, but we will stop the Concert Hall, as it was becoming known. So everything got stopped on the Concert Hall, but the Theatre Royal did continue and I think it was about 1978 (it was a year before I came on) that it was reopened in all its splendour and with the columns, Corinthian columns, I think they are, and I think we all became very proud of it.
That’s as I know things happened up to when I became a councillor in May 1979. We had a meeting that night, I was quite new to being a councillor and we had what they called the first Group meeting which was that same day, that same night. Votes were counted in the afternoon. I was congratulated. We were always congratulating each other. Seven o’ clock at the Council House, in the building we’re sitting in now, first Group meeting, John Carroll stood, sat in the first Group meeting, there was about 30 of us there, and said “Well, right, the first thing I want to tell you, folks, is this means that the Concert Hall is going to be built again. I’m determined to get it built”. And I remember that being said at his first meeting. He said a lot else, some of which I’d better not repeat, because he said what he thought. You knew where you stood with John Carroll and I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I was very proud to have known him.
Born and brought up in Nottingham, Councillor Gibson has been on many committees, as well being Lord Mayor of Nottingham in 1990 and Sheriff of Nottingham in 1998.
He represents the people of Clifton South and is currently Chair of the Planning Committee, a role he has held for many years.
In this interview Cllr Gibson talks about the Theatre Royal in the 1970s and the concept of the Festival Hall complex, as well as the role of John Carroll, the Leader of the City Council, in the Theatre Royal’s development.
And I remember reading in the papers before I came on, there was a great concern because several orchestras were starting to complain about the poor dressing room facilities, and at the Albert Hall, and it wasn’t really up to scratch and I’m sure maybe one or two orchestras declined to come, so it focused the mind of politicians such as John to want to build what they called in those days a Festival Hall complex, which would include the refurbishment of the Theatre Royal and I think that did get voted through as an intention in 1975.
There was a bit of a blip to that story because in 1976 Labour became very unpopular and was roundly voted, I won’t say completely out of it, but we lost seats heavily and we lost power. It was a very heavy defeat for the Labour Party in Nottingham. The Conservative party took over and Jack Green was Leader and Bill Bradbury was the Deputy Leader and they had a different agenda and they were quite honest about it. They wanted to protect ratepayers’ money and they said we’ll continue to refurbish the Theatre Royal, but we will stop the Concert Hall, as it was becoming known. So everything got stopped on the Concert Hall, but the Theatre Royal did continue and I think it was about 1978 (it was a year before I came on) that it was reopened in all its splendour and with the columns, Corinthian columns, I think they are, and I think we all became very proud of it.
That’s as I know things happened up to when I became a councillor in May 1979. We had a meeting that night, I was quite new to being a councillor and we had what they called the first Group meeting which was that same day, that same night. Votes were counted in the afternoon. I was congratulated. We were always congratulating each other. Seven o’ clock at the Council House, in the building we’re sitting in now, first Group meeting, John Carroll stood, sat in the first Group meeting, there was about 30 of us there, and said “Well, right, the first thing I want to tell you, folks, is this means that the Concert Hall is going to be built again. I’m determined to get it built”. And I remember that being said at his first meeting. He said a lot else, some of which I’d better not repeat, because he said what he thought. You knew where you stood with John Carroll and I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I was very proud to have known him.
Type
Oral interview.
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall.
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Julia Holmes & Sue Threakall
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
