Shipyards & Sound Systems: The Big Club in Glasgow

It’s called the big club for a reason. On a Tuesday afternoon, I soon find Govan’s Fairfield Club can do many things at once: tea dancing in the front, a funeral in the back, and a solitary snooker fixture upstairs. There’s a hole in the wall, but I’ve a cake in hand and tea on the table that separates all parties involved in a meeting that feels similar to a Ken Loach scene.

On one side sit the club's committee members and volunteers, and on the other, Glasgow’s renowned DIY party crews, Healthy and Sentinel. But after all, it’s a tried and tested collaboration between old and new that, with the help of OH141, has produced some of the city’s most sought-after annual ceilidhs, which recently featured in British Vogue.

"We call them The Happy People because everyone's fucking angry over this side," laughs Jim, the club President, explaining the first encounter between each of their worlds in 2022. "I came into the club on a Sunday around 7pm and I've never seen anything like it in my life... Before I walked up the car park, there must have been 300 bikes all strapped to the fence; it was a bike thief's paradise."

Phil, co-founder of Healthy, smiles, picking up the story, "It was like two crowds, right? The regulars were showing us all how to do the bingo... it took me until halfway through to realise all the ones are in the same column," he says, looking towards Davie, the club's social organiser. "I've been here for 30 years... It's like water off a duck's back, it's easy for me," he says, explaining the six-pint wage that comes with being a bingo caller.

“So, from then on, it’s been about building on how these crowds can overlap even more,” says Phil. “We like taking people places they wouldn't normally go and doing things in venues that are totally different to the norm.” But at one time, on any given day – or evening – in towns across the country, ‘the norm’ revolved around clubs like this.

Tea Dancing @ Fairfield Club. Credit: Ruby Pluhar.

Established in 1895, twelve men in the Fairfield polling ward formed Govan's Working Man’s Club. Thomas, the club President, is quick to dispel early affiliations with the shipyard, which didn’t develop till later, along with their lunchtime drinking habits and the addition of a concert hall in 1975. “The community was a lot different then, there were loads of folk living here and loads of jobs for them,” he says, describing a peak before the decline in local industry, drinking habits, and ultimately club memberships.

This left members with two options: start selling off the space to property developers or set about repurposing it. Siding with the latter, lockdown saw the boys transform the back room into a large multi-purpose function lounge. “I remember we brought one of the long timer's coffins in before they went to the crematorium," laughs Jim. "One of the boys went 'fuck sake, that’s the first time my dad’s been carried into the club'... But seriously, without that room we would have closed like every other club.”

Continuing to keep the club alive, however, means thinking beyond the back lounge, explains Cal, the promoter behind punk outlet Sentinel. “We had a meeting to identify what needed fundraising to keep the space sustainable and landed on a PA,” he says. “It's about installing something they own and can use long term to reduce the costs of facilitating existing events like the cabaret for old members, whilst integrating new ones from the DIY community.”

Although installing the PA, which is set to be custom-built by We Enjoy Sound – the engineers behind the systems at St Luke’s and The Berkeley Suite – the challenge isn’t just technical; it’s about making the space welcoming to new crowds while preserving the character of a working-class community hub. “If you handhold people into a community space and explain the ethics… once they are in, they get it,” Cal explains. “I think people are up for it, you know, people are sick of being ripped off and being skint all the time.”

“You can tell when something’s done for money and when it’s done for love,” says Phil, pointing to the club’s £11 three-course meals and £3.20 Tennent’s as proof. “The bar prices alone show it’s not about profit. It’s difficult, but it’s run the way things should be run. I know it is cool and trendy and there is an element of 'aw look at that' when you first come, but once you feel part of the community, it just becomes a nice alternative to a nightclub," he smiles, showing his membership card around the room.

“What we say is, today’s visitors are tomorrow’s members, and we need young people in here all the time to keep things moving,” says Thomas. “Society will change, but this club should always be here for the people around this area and elsewhere."

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Healthy Fairfield Fundraiser all dayer, Fairfield Working Men's Club & Institute Society ltd, Sat 13 Sep, midday-midnight