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30-594: The Hammersmith Palais de Danse , in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais , was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith , London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse   to be built in Britain. In 2009, it was named by the Brecon Jazz Festival as one of twelve venues which had made the most important contributions to jazz music in

60-808: A dance hall in Harlem (a black neighborhood in New York City) was the first truly integrated building in the United States — for both the dancers and the musicians. "We didn't care about the color of your skin. All we wanted to know was: Can you dance?" Texas has a high concentration of community dance halls, the largest number of them built by German and Czech immigrants. Following World War I in 1918, dancing became enormously popular in Britain , especially with working-class women. The purpose-built dance hall, or "palais de danse" emerged,

90-556: A documentary for BBC Television about the venue's history, titled Last Man at the Palais . It was first screened on BBC Four on Christmas Eve 2007. Near the end of the film, ballroom dancer Lyndon Wainwright performs " The Last Waltz " on the dance floor of the Palais. Following its closure as a music venue, proposals for the site included use as an office and restaurant complex, or a students' hall of residence. Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council had been expected to rule on

120-399: A pagoda roof with silk lanterns; in the centre of the expensive sprung dance floor , made of Canadian maple, was a model mountain with a replica Chinese village and a fountain; while at each end thereof, was a low-rise bandstand encased in glass, to allow two bands to play alternate numbers for the dancers. The venue, which also featured a restaurant and a café, was considered at the time to be

150-674: A popular dance venue from its start to the late 1980s, from then on hosting mainly live music gigs, but also dance nights and private events. The venue accommodated the popular School-Disco club night with its resident band, On-On, which subsequently moved to the London Forum in Kentish Town . Promoters Onyx Promotions championed Brit-Asian bands and DJs, including DCS , Heera , Juggy D , Panjabi Hit Squad , Premi , RDB , Rishi Rich and Xzecutive/San-j Sanj. The Students' Union at Imperial College School of Medicine frequently hired

180-553: A regular feature every night, except on Monday's "Record Night" when only recorded music was played and no alcohol was served from the bar. The stage and rehearsal room were within earshot of the Chief Superintendent's office in Hammersmith Police Station , leading one of its occupants to observe "where else can visitors to a police station be soothed by the sound of famous dance bands?". In 1960,

210-478: The Mecca organisation acquired the Palais. Other house bands during the 1960s and 1970s included Andy Ross, Ken Mackintosh , Tony Evans, and Zodiac. On many Saturday nights, in excess of 2,000 people would visit the venue. One of the features was a huge revolving stage with a band on each side (this also caused a number of accidents when microphones and stands were left on the revolve). The Hammersmith Palais remained

240-482: The West had at least one dance hall, and almost always featured live musicians playing a range of music from strict tempo ballroom dance music to big band , swing , and jazz . The early days of rock n' roll were briefly played out in dance halls, until they were superseded by nightclubs. Commercial dance halls in the United States began to appear toward the end of the nineteenth century and grew in popularity at

270-416: The settlement house 's dance hall and would be angered when approached by settlement hall staff or residents instructing them to dance differently. According to one report, "a resident would say to a new couple dancing irregularly, "You can't dance that way in this hall." The couple in self-defense would answer, "I can dance that way in every other hall in the city." Starting in the early 1930s, The Savoy ,

300-924: The 1900s into the 1920s. With increased financial freedom, as compared to prior decades, young immigrant and working-class women were able to access dance halls, generally placed within urban areas, that did not require chaperones. Dance halls allowed young working-class women the opportunity to step outside of their extremely stressful home and work environments while not costing too much, or anything in some cases. These city dance halls were especially popular with newly independent immigrant women from more rural areas as country-side dances were often more closely monitored and tended to host styles of dancing that were considered more socially acceptable for performance in public spaces. The styles performed in city dance halls had dancing partners physically close, performing movements that would allow for limbs and body parts to graze each other in ways not seen in other partnered dance forms of

330-872: The Palais as a venue for student nights. The Palais played host to countless artists; among them Bill Haley & His Comets (1974), the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , The Who , David Bowie , the Sex Pistols , Elvis Costello and the Attractions , the Cure , U2 , the Jesus and Mary Chain , the Fall , Robert Plant & the Strange Sensation , Hanoi Rocks , Big Bang and Kylie Minogue and

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360-707: The Police . "There was the night [in 1979] when we drove in an armoured military vehicle from our show at the Hammersmith Odeon to another the same night at the Hammersmith Palais," recalled Police drummer Stewart Copeland , "while the people from both concerts were all on the street." Bands such as PiL , the Cramps and Soft Cell , who played their "farewell" concerts there in January 1984, made

390-715: The United Kingdom. The Palais occupied a large site on the A219 at 242 Shepherd's Bush Road, London W 6, near the circular system under the A4 Hammersmith flyover . The area has two London Underground stations, a bus station, and the road network at Hammersmith Broadway . Built in 1910 on a site formerly occupied by a tram shed for London United Tramways , the Brook Green Roller Skating Rink, which may have been closed since 1915,

420-523: The additions of possibilities for prostitution, as well as access to alcohol, within dance halls reformers and religious leaders were increasingly against the existence of these halls. In order to discourage young adults from frequenting dance halls, media of the early twentieth century used subjective and inflammatory language to sway readers toward ideas that dance halls would morally corrupt young women while reformers petitioned to their local governments for regulation surrounding dance halls. In 1917, with

450-537: The approval of the vice investigation panel the Fosdick Commission , a committee was organized in Louisville, Kentucky to develop rules and regulations for public dance halls. According to middle- and upper-class white vice investigators and social reformers, many young people, who they believed to be lacking in proper moral character, attempted the "irregular dancing in vogue in the commercial halls" in

480-402: The beginning of the twentieth century. These halls were generally frequented by working-class or immigrant teenagers that admired dance halls for their lack of chaperoning and convenience as cheap commercial leisure. The rapidly changing economy of the early twentieth century shifted the views many young adults had about the separation between work and leisure, increasing dance hall popularity from

510-824: The first being the Hammersmith Palais in London , opened in 1919. Dance halls, also termed palais de danse, became popular in Australia too, such as the Palais de Danse and the Wattle Path Palais de Danse , both in St Kilda , Melbourne , Victoria. In Sweden and Finland, open air dance pavilions have been used mostly in summer, but especially in Finland some have also been built to be used throughout

540-490: The largest and most luxurious establishment of its kind in Europe. The Hammersmith Palais de Danse opening night took place on 28 November 1919. Nick LaRocca 's Original Dixieland Jazz Band , in those days on tour from America, played regularly at the Palais from that first night until June 1920. Many of the famous jazz stars of the day would appear in concert there, including American jazz singer Adelaide Hall , who performed at

570-445: The open-air platform which has no roof or walls. The open-air nature of the dance pavilion was both a feature and a drawback. The taxi dance hall was a dance hall with a specific arrangement, wherein the patrons hire hall employees to dance with them. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub . The majority of towns and cities in

600-420: The original London Lions ice hockey team using it as a base. However, the craze proved short-lived, and by late 1934 the rink had reverted to being a dance hall. A new maple dance floor at a cost of £5,000 was installed in the venue. In 1959, Joe Loss and his Orchestra , with singers Rose Brennan , Ross MacManus and Larry Gretton, became the resident dance band at the Palais. For the next decade, they were

630-607: The proposed demolition and development in November 2009; however, on 27 October 2009, the council rejected plans to turn the Hammersmith Palais site into student flats. In July 2010, the Planning Inspectorate held a week-long public inquiry and rejected an appeal by a development company against a council decision to block a proposed development. The developers were London & Regional (Hammersmith), who were given leave to submit an amended application. The Palais

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660-419: The time. Although interests in dance halls were growing, halls attracted negative attention from moral reformers and the media for the types of dancing done at these establishments, the sexual independence these environments allowed women, and the difficulty of regulating dance halls. Simple dance moves were already seen as morally wrong by select religious groups prior to the popularity of dance halls but with

690-469: The venue during the week from 27 March to 2 April 1939, accompanied by Fela Sowande and his Florida Club Orchestra. During the Great Depression , while dance halls saw a reduction in attendance, ice skating came into fashion instead, and replaced dancing as the most popular leisure activity. The Palais site was therefore converted into an ice rink , which was opened on 30 December 1929, with

720-535: The venue popular for London gig-goers. This venue also served as a stage for renowned Latin artists, including the legendary Cuban singer Celia Cruz , known as the Queen of Salsa. From 1999 to 2003, the Palais was owned by the Po Na Na Group, which converted it into a themed nightclub called Po Na Na Hammersmith . On 20 March 2007, despite its importance to Britain's cultural history, the Hammersmith Palais

750-582: The year. Formerly, the dance pavilions were often built at sites with beautiful landscape, for example by the lakes. The Sivakan lava dance pavilion in Sivakkavaara, Kaavi , Finland has a history of more than a hundred years, as according to some sources, dances have been held on pavilion since 1907. London Forum Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

780-464: Was acquired at the end of the First World War by North American entrepreneurs Howard Booker and Frank Mitchell, to convert it into a place to host ballroom dancing and various kinds of dance bands, among which were the new jazz bands. This first incarnation of the Hammersmith Palais was the work of architect Bertie Crewe . Its Chinese-style decoration featured lacquered columns, fretwork and

810-449: Was condemned for demolition. Among the artists playing the last concerts at the venue were Kasabian , Idlewild , and Jamie T . On 31 March, the unnamed Damon Albarn -fronted band, informally known as The Good, the Bad & the Queen , performed a show which was promoted as the venue's official send-off. However, the following evening, 1 April (scheduled before it was known that the building

840-564: Was finally demolished in May 2012. A new building was constructed on the site, and in September 2013 opened as a luxury student hall of residence, advertised as being on the site of the Hammersmith Palais. Michael Monroe 's 1993–1994 band Demolition 23 recorded a track called "Hammersmith Palais" on their 1994 self-titled album. The song, a nostalgic description of the 1980s club scene in London,

870-461: Was to be sold), there was a performance by the Fall, which was also promoted as the Palais' last night. A recording and a video of this concert was subsequently released as a live album titled Last Night at The Palais . In the end, none of these events was truly the last: the final gig at the Hammersmith Palais took place on 3 May 2007, and was by Groove Armada to launch their album Soundboy Rock . Film producer and director Richard Weller made

900-527: Was written by Monroe, Jude Wilder and Little Steven ( Steven Van Zandt ). The venue provides inspiration for the Dan Wilde track "Hammersmith Palais", from his 2016 album "Rhythm on the City Wall" . The venue is named in several songs, including: Articles Videos Images Dance hall Other structural forms of dance halls include the dance pavilion which has a roof but no walls, and

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