Swansea: Band return to club frozen in time from 1980s

Cavalier nightclub has been left completely untouched since it closed its doors in 1988

When one rock band last played a city nightclub 34 years ago it looked… well, almost identical to how it does today.

Because for some unknown reason, when the doors of Swansea's Cavalier nightclub closed in 1988, it was left entirely untouched to the present day.

Earlier this month workers found half-full drink bottles, menus, DJ equipment and cigarette packets left abandoned.

Members of the Swansea band By Appointment have now returned to visit the "spooky" time capsule.

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Bassist Craig "Lewi" Lewis and drummer Nigel "Mugs" Morgan played the venue many times during the 1980s before the bookings stopped coming.

"Obviously we found out eventually that it had closed down, but we had plenty of other gigs so we never really looked into the details," said Mugs.

By Appointment played some of their earliest gigs at the Cavalier and say they have "great memories" of it

Lewi added: "I heard something from my agent that the two brothers who owned it might have had licensing issues around exits and fire regulations.

"But that doesn't explain why it was left exactly as it must have been when they closed up on their last night.

"To me that suggests they must have left in one hell of a hurry - it's all a bit spooky really."

The nightclub, located above a former British Home Stores shop, was discovered by workmen who were turning the site into a community hub.

Mugs and Lewi have revisited the nightclub, more than three decades after it closed its doors

Remember Corona lemonade?

Among the undisturbed scene are bottles of Corona lemonade and sweet vermouth Martini Rosso on the bar, both half-full, as well as a jar of cocktail cherries.

There is also a bar menu offering spaghetti bolognaise, cottage pie or faggots and peas for just £1.50 each.

A poster still hangs publicising which horseracing fixtures are due at Bangor, Hereford, Ludlow and Worcester in 1988, alongside period beer mats and a smashed mirror ball.

£1.50 in 1988 would be worth about £4.50 today

The décor has a distinct "Flintstones" cavernous vibe, adorned with chicken wire and concrete palm trees.

The entire derelict Oxford Street shopping unit has been purchased by Swansea council. It will house a new community hub as part of the council's £1bn regeneration programme.

Due to open in early 2024, the hub will be the new home for the central library, West Glamorgan Archives and several other public-facing services.

The site of the old Cavalier is being turned into a community hub by Swansea council

Swansea council cabinet member Elliott King said: "It's exciting that our efforts to repurpose a building to play a key role in the city's future have also reminded us of the recent past.

"Nobody knew what to expect when we went in to start our preliminary surveys, but it certainly wasn't this.

"It's possible that shops used the former Cavalier as a storage area, but why the bar was left untouched is a mystery.

"Some of my cabinet colleagues have vague recollections of who owned and managed the bar - but I'd be really interested for the people of Swansea to let us have their memories using #SwanseaCavalier on social media."

The units were hurriedly constructed during the 1950s to replace the shops destroyed when Swansea was bombed by the Nazis in 1941.

While chain stores occupied the ground floor, upper floors were frequently let out to other businesses.

In the early 1970s the predecessor to the Cavalier opened as the Penthouse Club, and was said to be Swansea's only upmarket nightspot of the time.

'Even the rats used to wear overalls'

However, As Mugs explained, when the Penthouse became the Cavalier Club around 1980, it catered for a very different clientele.

"It was rough - even the rats used to wear overalls in there - and the bouncers were brutal," he said.

"The first time we played there in 1984 we had a guitarist - he could only have been around 15 and his guitar case was almost the same height as him.

"The doormen threatened to chuck him back down the stairs unless we got him out of there."

Mugs says the bouncers on the door in the Cavalier were "brutal"

And the punters weren't very well behaved either, Lewi recalled.

"We'd done a pretty good set - Bowie, The Cult, Lou Reed and some of our own stuff - and we were having a beer in the office, laughing at the band after we got pelted with bottles… until we realised our own guitars were still out on the stage.

"We had to dodge the missiles while we crawled back out there to retrieve them… it was like something out of The Blues Brothers."

For Lewi, in particular, the visit proved highly emotional after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years ago.

Lewi said revisiting the Cavalier brought back memories he thought he had lost

"I've been a performer all my life. First in bands and latterly as a magician, but now I no longer have the slight of hand for magic, and I even struggle to bang out a tune on the guitar these days," said Lewi.

"But worse than the physical side of MS is the effect it's had on my memory. Before today I was stumped as to what songs we even used to play, but coming back here has made it all flood back."

Mr King said the council will consider the future of the material discovered.

He said: "Living memory is hugely relevant to our commitment to future generations.

"Key material will be preserved, documented and made available as part of our responsibility to provide access to local history all for our communities."