Cllr Chris Gibson Interview: Impact of Theatre Royal
Title
Cllr Chris Gibson Interview: Impact of Theatre Royal
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 impact of the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall on local people.
We’ve had stars in Nottingham we wouldn’t have had to begin with. I know we now get stars also at The Arena and possibly bigger stars, but we’ve had some big stars at both the Theatre Royal and the Concert Hall and that is enabling local people to see a bit of the world, not just to have to go down to London or up to Manchester or Birmingham and I’ve been fortunate to see some terrific classical concerts there: The Hallé and our East Midlands orchestra, the Viva Orchestra, play there. And it’s so nice to have that. It’s good to have that.
I’ve enjoyed both venues ever since now, but because I’ve been so busy you get forgetful of what you’ve seen and what you haven’t seen. But I do enjoy it when I can, when I can get there and see some of the great acts that we can now attract and I’m proud of that.
I remember at the time, in the 80s, the Bristol local newspaper, we were given an extract from their newspaper saying “What’s wrong with Bristol. Look what Nottingham are doing”. They’ve got a terrific football team, even (I don’t want to offend any Notts County supporters) Notts County under Jimmy Sirrell was doing extremely well. We’ve got Torvill and Dean and we’ve got this tremendous Concert Hall and Theatre Royal. And what’s Bristol got? Not very much. I’m not sure about that, I don’t want to do Bristol down, they probably have got quite a bit now, but at the time this was their local paper saying “Look at Nottingham”.
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 impact of the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall on local people.
We’ve had stars in Nottingham we wouldn’t have had to begin with. I know we now get stars also at The Arena and possibly bigger stars, but we’ve had some big stars at both the Theatre Royal and the Concert Hall and that is enabling local people to see a bit of the world, not just to have to go down to London or up to Manchester or Birmingham and I’ve been fortunate to see some terrific classical concerts there: The Hallé and our East Midlands orchestra, the Viva Orchestra, play there. And it’s so nice to have that. It’s good to have that.
I’ve enjoyed both venues ever since now, but because I’ve been so busy you get forgetful of what you’ve seen and what you haven’t seen. But I do enjoy it when I can, when I can get there and see some of the great acts that we can now attract and I’m proud of that.
I remember at the time, in the 80s, the Bristol local newspaper, we were given an extract from their newspaper saying “What’s wrong with Bristol. Look what Nottingham are doing”. They’ve got a terrific football team, even (I don’t want to offend any Notts County supporters) Notts County under Jimmy Sirrell was doing extremely well. We’ve got Torvill and Dean and we’ve got this tremendous Concert Hall and Theatre Royal. And what’s Bristol got? Not very much. I’m not sure about that, I don’t want to do Bristol down, they probably have got quite a bit now, but at the time this was their local paper saying “Look at Nottingham”.
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
