Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 16 to 30 of 39

Thread: Rialto Ballroom

  1. #16
    Newbie Gina G.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Liverpool
    Posts
    1

    Default

    So glad you have happy memories of the Rialto my father was Hal Graham (he was the band leader at the Rialto and died in 1990 aged 81). Me and my two brothers spent many happy hours at the Rialto at the cinema and as a special treat (when I was 11) we were allowed to stay up late and be at the ballroom to watch my dad at work with his band, Faith Brown was the singer and she married my Dad's bass player Len Wadey.

    My Father was heartbroken when they shut down the ballroom it was his life and to see the Rialto go up in flames was so upsetting for us all, it was such a wonderful place and to me as a child a magical place that I will never forget.

  2. #17

  3. #18
    Martin hmtmaj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Stoneycroft / Old Swan
    Posts
    851

    Default

    I second that, Smurf.
    Welcome to Yo, Gina
    Started the Old Swan Website:

    http://oldswan.piczo.com/?cr=5

  4. #19
    Senior Member John Doh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    214

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by jasper View Post
    I no longer live in Liverpool.

    All those people with their meaningless battle scars from a few days racial violence fail to impress me.

    The loss of the Rialto as a dance venue represents the destruction of a culture and a way or life that gave a kind of dignity and glamour to those of us who knew it and went there.
    I guess that you left Liverpool long before the riots. The Rialto you're speaking of, along with its 'dignity and glamour' were long gone by the time of the riots. Swainbanks and his second-hand furniture shop were allegedly targeted because he made his living by assisting the destruction of the culture by stripping any remaining artefacts and selling them to the Americans at vastly inflated prices.

    More importantly, the Toxteth riots were not in any normal sense an example of racial violence. They were rather the spontaneous uprising of the community, black AND white united against oppressive policing. The only racial element came from the police who routinely used racist language and behaviour in the area.

  5. #20
    Senior Member johnny blue's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    North Merseyside
    Posts
    91

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by John Doh View Post
    I guess that you left Liverpool long before the riots. The Rialto you're speaking of, along with its 'dignity and glamour' were long gone by the time of the riots. Swainbanks and his second-hand furniture shop were allegedly targeted because he made his living by assisting the destruction of the culture by stripping any remaining artefacts and selling them to the Americans at vastly inflated prices.

    More importantly, the Toxteth riots were not in any normal sense an example of racial violence. They were rather the spontaneous uprising of the community, black AND white united against oppressive policing. The only racial element came from the police who routinely used racist language and behaviour in the area.
    So on that night in June 1981, what was the reason for the evacuation of the Geriatric wards of Princes Park hospital on Upper Parliament Street,? The setting fire to the 'Raquets Club' the looting and torching of shops on Lodge lane. It was down to pure criminality, nothing to do with someone exporting furniture to America or racist language.

  6. #21
    George
    Guest George's Avatar

    Default

    Does anyone have any pictures of the Rialto in its heyday? I've never seen any
    These...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	2 cafe.jpg 
Views:	889 
Size:	74.2 KB 
ID:	15243   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	1 balcony.jpg 
Views:	1085 
Size:	72.5 KB 
ID:	15244   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	3 forSale.jpg 
Views:	1435 
Size:	65.1 KB 
ID:	15245  

  7. #22
    Re-member Ged's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Here, there & everywhere.
    Posts
    7,197

    Default



    Uploaded with ImageShack.us






    Uploaded with ImageShack.us


    As a dark cloud of smoke and the smell of burning drifted over the skyline and so us teenagers rushed up to see what was going on. This song was eerily No.1 on that Sunday's hit parade.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4


    .
    www.inacityliving.piczo.com/

    Updated weekly with old and new pics.

  8. #23
    Senior Member naked lilac's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Hawaii, USA
    Posts
    437

    Default

    Cool wheels in that video....You sure could get a lot of people in a car then... ghost town or no ghost town... Good pics.. Ta for sharing the insides of the Rialto..

  9. #24
    Senior Member John Doh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    214

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by johnny blue View Post
    So on that night in June 1981, what was the reason for the evacuation of the Geriatric wards of Princes Park hospital on Upper Parliament Street,? The setting fire to the 'Raquets Club' the looting and torching of shops on Lodge lane. It was down to pure criminality, nothing to do with someone exporting furniture to America or racist language.
    Desperate people do desperate things! I was not trying to justify the violence but was objecting to your categorisation of the riots as racial violence, your use of the word meaningless and the implication that the riots caused the decline of the area and not the reverse.

    I know there are people outside the area who still think of Toxteth as a place where race riots took place, but don't expect to see such statements repeated here; they were triggered by the repeated police harrassment of black youths, but the whole community rose up to defend them.

    Princes Park Hospital was evacuated with the assistance of rioters, who called a halt in the proceedings to allow ambulances access to the patients, some actually helping them personally. This was attested to the following day by letters to the press from relatives, thanking them for this help.

    The Racquet Club, on the other hand, was a deliberate target; it was widely regarded, rightly or wrongly, as an ostentatious bastion of upper class privilege, where judges would drink together after 'sending down' a member of the deprived community on their very doorstep. Ironically, one judge - a very wise judge in my opinion - was able to take a wider perspective: I suggest you read The Scarman Report on the riots, which has no doubt that social deprivation and poor relations between the police and the local community were a major cause.

    Of course there were innocent victims of the looting and destruction and there were those who took advantage of the absence of law and order - my own car was destroyed at the time - but I don't believe this entitles us to dismiss the riots as meaningless or 'down to pure criminality'

  10. #25
    Senior Member johnny blue's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    North Merseyside
    Posts
    91

    Default

    What a wonderful public spirited attitude the rioters had on that night by helping the elderley and infirm from there sick beds.............NOT

  11. #26
    Senior Member John Doh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    214

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by johnny blue View Post
    What a wonderful public spirited attitude the rioters had on that night by helping the elderley and infirm from there sick beds.............NOT
    What are you saying? - That you don't believe it happened? Or that you don't want to accept that some rioters could still behave like human beings even when caught up in such events - because it doesn't fit the false image you have of them? I don't suppose many of them even knew the hospital was there until the flames from the adjacent Racquet Club - which they were very much aware of - began to be a threat to the patients.

  12. #27
    George
    Guest George's Avatar

    Default

    What are you saying?
    To make a stand against police harrasment you don't need riots,these riots were caused by outsiders who came into the area with intent to cause what we have seen in the toxteth riots,but black youths in the area didn't give a monkeys cuss about the how it came about because they seen it as a chance to loot and cause destruction.

    Why didn't they lobby parliment in the form a march on downing street about police harrasment in Toxteth?

  13. #28
    Senior Member John Doh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    214

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by George View Post
    To make a stand against police harrasment you don't need riots,these riots were caused by outsiders who came into the area with intent to cause what we have seen in the toxteth riots,but black youths in the area didn't give a monkeys cuss about the how it came about because they seen it as a chance to loot and cause destruction.

    Why didn't they lobby parliment in the form a march on downing street about police harrasment in Toxteth?
    Do you have any evidence for this? I've not seen any.

    As for marches, I don't think many people of any colour still believe they achieve much, unless they can call on very large numbers, which would have been unlikely in this case.

    Mrs. Simey, as Chairman of the Police Authority and very articulate woman, did her best to curb the racist behaviour of the force, but was up against it when faced with Kenneth Oxford, the Chief Constable, making statements to the media endorsing the actions of his force that would now be seen as racist in themselves.

  14. #29
    Senior Member danensis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    80

    Default

    I's forgotten about Ken Oxford. I remember an interview with him on Radio Merseyside, when someone had been beaten up by theTask Force (Liverpool's equivalent to the SPG in London). He said (and I'm afraid I have to parahrase, as I don't remember the exact words, that anyone on the streets after midnight was up to no good, and if they got beaten up by the police that was their own fault.

  15. #30
    Senior Member John Doh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    214

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by taffy View Post
    Here's a photo of the old Rialto before it was torched in the 1981 riots

    http://toxteth.net/places/liverpool/...t%20street.htm
    I'm getting "Page cannot be found" on my computer. Can anyone else see it?

Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Rialto 1974
    By Colin Wilkinson in forum Colin Wilkinson's Streets of Liverpool
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 07-31-2011, 10:19 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •