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Article 2 (Written
by Daniel Mayo for the Y Magazine, 29th May 1991) |
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Mention the name Neal Guppy to any fortysomething adult in York and they
may well remember him as their youth leader. That was the case 20 years ago as Neal ran his
Enterprise Club for the youth of the early '70s. But it had been running
since 1961. After the club's humble beginnings in friends'
houses, Neal eventually moved to a permanent home in Walmgate - a cellar
that could be reached only through a dark passage. Soon, 56 Walmgate became the full - time base
for the Enterprise Club and many people passed down the side passage and
through its door looking for an escape from childhood to adulthood. "I wanted to fill the gap that existed at
that time," said Neal. "It included those people who had just
left school and started a job and who thought themselves too old for a
youth club but were too young to go to a pub. "The cellar provided an adult atmosphere
with no - one treating the youths like children. What also helped was
that one room was licensed and the other was not." "This gave the 16 and 17 - year - olds the
feeling they were in a bar and they felt more grown up than they would
going to a church hall for the same activities." Neal found that out fast. He organised dances
in church halls for three years running and no - one turned up at any of
them. When he moved the dances to a house or a room in a pub, they were
packed out. He puts this down to his theory that people one or two years below the legal drinking age wanted to feel they were acting like adults and moving away from adolescence. Neal was originally a trainee teacher at the York campus of the College of Ripon and York. He realised York offered little for young adults and decided to do something about it. So the Enterprise Club was formed in 1961. Over the next few years, it grew into a full-time commitment and Neal had to leave his teaching job in 1964, after great deliberation. "I enjoyed teaching and it was a difficult decision to leave, but the club was getting bigger," he said. The kind of entertainment open to Guppy's club goers was very different to that of today. In the cellar, two types of music were played to the two different groups which Neal described as the boppers and the freaks. The boppers were interested in the pop music of the day, and Neal's freaks were the long-haired blues lovers. He also put on live entertainment as York was then thriving with bands. Famous names such as The Spinners have been through the cellar, and the late Dustin Gee, then known as Gerry B, also made appearances at Guppy's. Neal also added: "The boppers used the cellar room and listened to their music from records and danced. The freaks listened to their music and talked. There was never any violence in the club between the two different cultures, whereas other dances around the city often ended in some sort of fight. "The club broke new ground as no others had mixed groups in close harmony. We used to argue like mad in the coffee bar in the club and nights would go on until 1a.m. or even 2a.m. in arguments." The arguments were often about drugs, especially in he late '60s when flower power and psychedelia were at there peak. Neal said "In 1969 I had to ban about 30 people for using pills. They were known as the In Crowd and after the ban my club suffered immensely. The numbers dropped from about 120 to 40 and this lasted six months." But Neal was determined not to have any drugs in his club. He knew the boppers used pills and the freaks smoked cannabis but he laid down the law the no-one used drugs in his club. He argued against people using drugs. But, he added: "People did not realise that the way drugs were used by the youth was exactly the same way that alcohol was used by parents. It was only a few who were seriously into drugs. "Drugs was a taboo word in those days and people preferred to ignore the situation and refuse to believe it actually went on. When I enforced my ban I was nearly ruined as the club gained a reputation that drugs were used there. "If I hadn't have taken some action it would have got worse and worse, but after six months things started to pick up and people returned," he said. Because of these experiences, Neal joined the drugs liaison committee in York as he thought his knowledge could help combat people's ignorance. After the dust had settled in 1970, Neal had the freaks' room licensed as the club goers were getting older and over the age limit. This helped create the adult atmosphere and the younger members could think they were mixing with more mature people. Neal insists he was not the reason for the club being so popular: "I was just the catalyst for people to use their own initiative and enthusiasm. "It was the members' own enthusiasm and their desire to get involved that made the Enterprise Club what it was." he said. Nowadays, 56 Walmgate is no longer the seedy club it was 30 years ago. Neal has moved to Nunnery Lane and the Brittania Inn which gives him more space to offer more acivities for the community. He bought the Brittania, known as The Old Brit, in 1978 and for a while ran the two places together before giving up the Walmgate site. Neal is now one of the busiest men in York as he also runs a removal business, which he started when he left teaching to support the club financially. Different clubs and societies use The Old Brit every day of every week for meetings and discussions. All ages are involved, from 15 upwards. Even some of his old members from the '60s still go to his club to socialise. Today's club seems a far cry from running a dance in a friends room. To Neal, enjoying himself and helping others is still his life. |
