Bradford Live to put Odeon artefacts on display after finds revealed

Among the finds was a trilby hat, thought to belong to the Telegraph & Argus's former entertainment correspondent who lost it there during an interview with The Rolling Stones in the 1960s.

Contractors discovered a number of items as the steel and breeze blocks that had subdivided the former Gaumont for 50 years were removed in 2019.

Bradford Live, which is transforming the key city centre building into a 4,000 capacity live music venue, asked for all of these items to be put to one side. These included theatre notices, light fittings, teak hand rails, and pieces of plasterwork that had previously decorated the original New Victoria cinema.

More recently Mark Nicholson, the historian of former Odeon building, helped compile an inventory of the items.

The trilby hat found during the stripping out works

"We had no idea what might be in there," said Mr Nicholson. "We had intended to catalogue the contents earlier this year, but Covid delayed this. We were only finally able to do it this month."

Among the items was a somewhat battered trilby hat.

"I recalled that during my research into the building's history I had located a retrospective piece that Peter Holdsworth had written in 1979 about an interview he did with The Rolling Stones in 1964 at the Gaumont, and he mentioned that Keith Richards had snatched his trilby hat.

"Peter never saw the hat again!"

Mr Nicholson added that they concluded that the trilby hat was "almost certainly the very same one that Keith Richards had been fooling around with in the Gaumont's dressing room".

Artefacts uncovered as Bradford’s Odeon building was stripped back are to go on display

Lee Craven of Bradford Live added: "We found some lovely art deco glass panels that we think came from light fittings; a menu board in the form of a wooden cut out waitress; a price ‘table’ from the New Victoria era; a hand painted film board; an old ‘limelight’ fitting; original pieces of horsehair plaster decoration, and spotlights from the Odeon era."

He said they they were planning to hold an exhibition, working with the city centre Impressions Gallery, in 12 to 18 months, and many of the items mentioned will be included.

Once transformed the building will be run by Birmingham-based NEC Group, which has made a 30-year commitment to operate it.

Last month it was announced that they were beginning the tender process to find a contractor for the main stage of construction - and revealed that the opening date had been put back to 2022, rather than summer 2021.

Mr Craven added that five companies had now been selected to tender for the main contact, and they were expecting their completed tenders before the end of the year.

In the meantime, around ten weeks of work will start shortly to prepare the building in readiness for the main contract.