Corby author Clive Smith and nightlife entrepreneur Bip Wetherell take a stroll down Rocky Road in new book

The legendary musician and nightclub owner has now joined forces with his old pal Clive Smith to put together a new book that focuses on the importance of the town’s nightlife and music scene during some of Corby’s toughest years.

Rocky Road: By the Time I Get to Phoenix looks at Corby’s nightlife and music scene between 1970 and 1990 and is the third in a series by Clive.

His first, It’s Steel Rock n Roll to Me, came out to local acclaim in 2004, and the follow-up All Alive in the Dead of Night came out in 2010, both written alongside David Black. They dealt with the explosion of the town’s music scene during the post-war 50s and swinging 60s.

The third in the trio was due to come out in 2012 but Clive lost his beloved wife to cancer and it was delayed.

Now, he’s joined forces with musician and club owner Bip Wetherell to make sure the subsequent decades are committed to print.

The pair have known each other since the age of nine when they were in the Cubs. Bip went on to Corby Grammar School and Clive went to the boys’ school in Rockingham Road.

The book is a trip through some of the town’s toughest times and a look at how clubs, bars and musical entertainment provided a life-saving outlet for many who had lost their jobs when the steelworks closed.

The title refers to the men who used to walk down Rockingham Road to the steelworks, which after its closure was eventually resurrected as a shopping precinct in Phoenix Parkway.

Clive, who was in the works for eight years, said: “The book talks about the entertainment and social side of Corby in the years leading up to and what happened to Corby after the closure of the works.”

Bip added: “It seemed like everyone in Corby came to the pub at that time. They had their redundancy money in their pockets and a lot of it went through my tills.

“Everyone who came out of the steelworks had skills and some of them moved away and went on to do great things elsewhere. They had to go where the work was.

“Others didn’t know what to do with themselves.”

After the demise of the steelworks Clive went on to work for Royal Mail. He said: “A couple of years after the works closed in 1982, RS Components moved into the town. The amount of work they created, the number of jobs they brought here, was quite amazing. It was a lifeline to so many people.

“The town centre was like a ghost town for several years. People didn’t have anything.”

Bip, known to locals as Mr Bip, has now retired from day-to-day work behind the bar. But for several decades he was the most prominent pub owner in the town.

He started out as a barman at The Open Hearth in Studfall Avenue. “After a year, the brewery rang up and asked me if I fancied being a landlord,” he said.

And at the age of 24, in May 1975, he became the youngest landlord in Corby, taking over at the Open Hearth from Clive’s brother Alan.

“That’s when I started a life of double shifts,” he said. “I would come in from work and go out again. The first time I worked a 12-hour shift I came home and went to bed and my legs were so sore. That carried on till 1998.”

In 1976 he went on to run the Nag’s Head in the Old Village.

“It was a dedicated entertainment venue,” said Bip. “We had a dance floor and a stage, dressing rooms and a licence for 300 people.

“There were lots of busy pubs in the Old Village then.”

Eventually Bip had enough money to buy his first nighclub, Mr Bip’s in Dalkeith Place, Kettering, which he ran for four years before Corby came calling, and he bought The Welfare with his wife Elaine.

They had to take big risks to build their empire. When Bip bought the town’s infamous venue Martine’s he had to get a loan.

“My mortgage was £10,000 a month,” he said. But Bip had the magic touch.

“Within 10 years I’d managed to pay it off,” he said.

He owned pubs all over the town and people would go from venue to venue on a night out, starting early on and finishing in the small hours.

“We always had a queue,” he said.

“When they were queueing down Occupation Road for The Welfare we used to get the barman to go out and sell Red Stripe Lager to them.”

Clive worked part-time on the taxis and was a regular Sunday night driver.

“Once the night got going you’d never stop,” said Clive. “There were queues everywhere.”

Bip was also a talented musician and played briefly in the band St Cecelia. He also played around the country with his band The Tornados.

It was while he was gigging in London that he first saw what was then called a ‘disco table’. He bought a pair of decks and brought them back to Corby.

“For your £1 entrance fee you could have six nights out once we started that,” he said.

“We had different types of music going on and it just went through the roof. People loved it. We were getting 2,000 people in a weekend.

“We always ploughed our money back into the business. We changed everything every three years because you have to remember the people coming out would go off and get married and have kids so you’d have a new crowd.”

Rocky Road: By the Time I Get to Phoenix is available online and in book stores.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article stated Bip was a member of the band St Cecelia when in 1971. He did not play with the band until the late 70s.