The Silver Web
1975
The Silver Web
"Apart from the Star Club which was really the one
the communist women had started, the first gay club I ever went to was
called the Silver Web in Wolverhampton, loads of gay women from
Birmingham would have gone there. Me and my partner at the time were
taken there by another gay woman who was a very outgoing sort of
person. She said ‘I’ll take you to the Silver Web because it’s really
good, you can have a good bop’. They had celebrity stars on and stuff
like that. We were driving there in her car and as we were getting
nearer she’s saying things like ‘When we get there it’s best really if
we all go in one at a time because you get a lot of hassle’ and she
really worked on this. I was terrified and, of course, it wasn’t true,
she was just teasing. You’d got images of all the literature and all
this stuff in the '70s about gay clubs being difficult to get into,
places in London. I had no idea that there were gay clubs in Birmingham
but there were. We went to the Silver Web about four times a year if
there was somebody good on, a good singer, and it was good. What I
remember about it is that you could have a really good dance there,
there was a big dance floor and people were really friendly, men and
women, it was good fun. I met some really nice people there".
Contributed by: Jean Turley, 72