"We were selling all the tickets on a Saturday night for the next one" - The Halifax couple who helped music lovers rock around the clock

From 1997 to 2024, Derrick Jackson and Coreen Jennings were the driving force behind Halifax Rock and Roll, a club night in Siddal that became a fixture of the local music and dance scene.

What started as a shared love of rock 'n' roll and jive grew into something much bigger, a monthly meeting place for dancers and music lovers from across Halifax and the rock 'n' roll circuit.

Dancers Derrick and Coreen were the heart and soul of the events, with Coreen working on the door and Derrick eventually becoming ‘DJ the DJ’.

"I really enjoyed doing it and handing it over's been very strange," says Derrick, 83.

"We started it because we used to have to go out of Halifax go listen to bands.

"There were a few of us who liked rock n roll and I decided I'd like to put bands on in Halifax.

"I worked with a lad, Ian Banks, who did karaoke around local pubs and he was into rock n roll so we decided we'd go to one or two working men's clubs and see if we could hire the concert room and put a band on.

"We did one or two clubs and got a good response so we decided to put a rock n roll night on with just a DJ, and decided on Siddal for the venue.

"We then decided we'd do it once a month and Coreen helped us by doing the door.

"The first band we put on was Jimmy and the Jackdaws, from Huddersfield. I had enough money in my pocket to pay the band and for the hire of the room.

"And it just grew and grew.

"The only place round here that put rock n roll bands on was The Ritz at Brighouse, which was a fantastic venue."

Derrick and Coreen's passion for the music, and wanting to create somehwere others could enjoy it, became infectious.

"It got to the stage we had to make it ticket only because we were filling the place every time, and we were selling all the tickets on a Saturday night for the next one," says

Derrick, who worked as an engineer was a Teddy Boy in his younger days.

"If I got 150 in, that was the absolute maximum.

"The club would hold 300 but you wouldn't have a dancefloor.

"We got people from as far as Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield."

All money made from the events was given to charity, totalling £82,000 by the time Derrick and Coreen retired.

"That's one of the reasons we started it," Derrick says.

"We wanted live music and bands but we did it for the enjoyment and thought 'why not give the money to local charities?'

"Christie's was one of them, plus a lot of local ones.

"My favourite was Guide Dogs for the Blind. We paid £5,000 for the training of one dog and named it DJ, of course!"

"We did have helpers, like Ian, and Terry and Glenys Richardson, who we met in Southport, and volunteered to help by doing pie and peas, and the money from that went to the charities.

"Terry came up with the idea of doing a calendar every year too, and we sold a good few of them too, which also made some money towards the charities."

Derrick says Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis were among the crowd favourites.

"It wasn't particular songs, more the artists," he says.

"Big Joe Turner, he was one of the black American singers from the fifties.

"Then the English acts like Tommy Steele, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown.

"But people seemed to like the Americans more, they seemed to have that bit more razzmatazz.

"It's the beat of the music. You listen to rock n roll and you've got to tap your feet.

"I like all sorts of music but it's got to be happy music.

"I like music that encourages people to dance.

"I have speakers in every room at home, so I can put my music on and jig about while I'm doing stuff.

"The best thing for me, on a Saturday night, I'd go to the back of the club, by the bar, and look at the band playing and people dancing.

"Absolutely brilliant. I just enjoyed doing it."