That was of course the tagline for the once thriving, and now sadly closed, nightclub and cabaret entertainment bar Foo Foos Palace, which stood proudly on Dale Street in the heart of Manchester’s Northern Quarter for over 27 years.
Opening in 1975, the club was owned by legendary drag artist Foo Foo Lammar.
Named in his The Times obituary as “one of the North of England’s most popular female impersonators”, Frank ‘Foo Foo Lammar’ Pearson was the son of an Ancoats rag and bone man and left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications.
But with a fierce ambition to go into showbusiness, he created his iconic stage persona Foo Foo – adding Lammar in honour of Hollywood actress, Hedy Lammarr – and started performing in the clubs and bars of Greater Manchester.
Appearing on stage in blonde bouffant wigs and expensive sequinned gowns, with an act that was risqué but perfectly-timed, Foo Foo was known for his caustic wit and repartee with tough northern audiences, so much so that he said “I don’t see myself as a drag queen, I’m more of a comic in a frock”.
After finding himself in particularly high demand and attracted a large following, the success of Foo Foo Lammar lead Pearson to opening his first club in 1971 called The Picador in Shudehill, with the infamous Foo Foos Palace coming along shortly after (1975 – 2002), following a brief stint where it was named ‘Celebrity’.
Off stage he became almost as big a celebrity as he was in drag, a familiar sight in his native city dressed in shiny suits and dripping in gaudy jewellery. He owned a succession of Rolls-Royces with the registration plate FOO 1, and he delighted in giving lifts to local people in the neighbourhood.
ADVERTISEMENT
One described him as being as essential a part of Manchester as the town clock.
He was also known for his tireless charity work – raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and The Christies – and even released an album (My Life At The Palace) and published his autobiography (I Am What I Am) a year before his death in 2003.
Foo Foos Palace – now a block of apartments – went on to become a favourite with Manchester United players and was also frequented by many showbusiness personalities, but who could forget its popularity for hen and stag parties in the city too?
This is probably why many Mancunians have memories of a night in those four walls, and here are The Manc – as ‘the people’s voice of Greater Manchester’ – we’re always keen to hear your stories.
So we took to our social platforms Facebook and Instagram this week with a picture of the club’s iconic frontage to pay tribute to the venue and ask our loyal audience to share your memories of this undeniable cultural gem with us.
“Well that’s spooky – I woke up this morning and for some reason I started singing I Am What I Am – with Foo Foo singing it in my head. I went on my first works do at 16 – many years ago. What a great performer Foo Foo was and what a genuinely kind and generous person Frank was.
You don’t get many people like Frank these days.”
Louise Pearson
“I went a couple of times. One night I went in a new dress, and felt amazing in it. Until foo foo himself, walked on the stage in the exact same dress. I don’t know who was more annoyed me, or him.
My mate laughed so much we nearly got kicked out, because you couldn’t hear him over her laughing.”
Julie Diane Gallaher
“They broke the mould after Foo. Amazing man very funny guy. I knew him for many years worked with him on lots if his charity events.
“I had my 18th birthday party there it was the best night out. Everyone was up for a laugh. Good old chicken in a basket. My dad was so up for a laugh, Foo Foo got him up on stage and in typical Foo Foo style humiliated him. My dad thought I was drinking whisky and lemonade and I came back to a table of 30 glasses of whisky. I was drinking Southern Comfort and Lemonade, but we made the best of it.
Remember it like it was yesterday, my dad has passed away and this night will be in my memories always – really was a night to remember.”
Sharon Anne
“Had some great night’s out there. Few years later I walked past down Dale St on my way to work each morning, Foo Foo was often outside the club with his golden Rolls Royce parked at the kerbside. He always had time to have a natter, lovely man with a big heart but very modest, did lots of kind things for people having a hard time but didn’t make a big deal about it.
Was very sorry to hear about him passing away – RIP.”
Barbara Jameson-Taylor
“Had my stag night there. Foo Foo got wind I had fish nets and a thong on under my clothes (for when the lads stripped me off on way home), [so] he got me to one side and said “if you strip off later when I get you on stage, your drinks will be free”.
Absolute legend, I got free drinks and the old fella nearly has a heart attack.
For years, my picture was on the wall as you went down the stairs.”
Mark Carrigher
Do you remember a night in Foo Foos Palace?
We’d love to hear your stories.
You can head on over to our posts on Facebook and Instagram to have your say and take a read of the rest of the memories thousands of memories of the venue that we unfortunately just didn’t have the room to include on this article.
Trending
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
27th November 2020 
