Tributes paid to 'wonderful' musician who was familiar face at Doncaster nightclub

Reg Brooks, who has died at the age of 91, led live music and entertainment at Doncaster's Top Rank Suite for many years.

Former Top Rank employee Ron Curry, who runs a Facebook group devoted to the former Silver Street venue, said: “A great age for a wonderful man.

"My condolences to all who knew him from the Top Rank Doncaster Group. RIP Reg, Thanks for the many happy memories”

Together with the Reg Brooks Band, he performed not only at the Doncaster venue but at Top Rank suites across the country.

Former Top Rank DJ Ken Holmes said: “Reg was the first ever band leader at Doncaster, from the opening night in 64/65 and was there until Chris James and his band replaced him, which was probably 1966/67, performing live music for the dancers with a swing sound.”

At the height of its popularity, Doncaster’s Top Rank suite was packed to the rafters, week in, week out with excited dancers and music lovers enjoying some of the biggest names in showbiz.

The club, which was the place to be seen in Doncaster in the late 1960s and early 1970s, hosted the likes of David Bowie, PInk Floyd, Status Quo, Slade, Edwin Starr and many more, during its heyday.

The club later became known as Rotters before a string of names afterwards including Elektrik Avenue, Ritzy, Visage, Trilogy and Kooky.

The Top Rank Suite was the name given to a chain of nightclubs in the United Kingdom owned by the Rank Organisation, the British entertainment business founded by media mogul J Arthur Rank in 1937.

The firm’s famous ‘gong man’ logo adorned the front of the building, with Doncaster’s night owls eagerly queueing outside the shops lining Silver Street before climbing the stairs to the cavernous ballroom dance hall above.

For more memories of Doncaster’s Top Rank suite – including the night David Bowie played there, as well as 25p pints and other stories from its heyday, click HERE