Music Venue JB’s in Dudley has been saved!

The future of a much-loved live music venue, JB‘s in Dudley, has been secured and its new owners  have pledged to keep its live music tradition alive. JB’s was sold for £225,000 at an auction held at Birmingham’s Villa Park yesterday to a West Midlands business consortium headed by Raj Kumar, who said he wanted to refurbish the site before re-opening it near Christmas.

Located on Castle Hill near the centre of Dudley in the West Midlands, JB’s was one of the longest-running live music venues in the United Kingdom. Opened in 1969 by motorcycle speedway rider Sam Jukes, the club hosted early performances by acts such as Dire Straits and U2. The venue also hosted performances by UB40, Judas Priest, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Elvis Costello, Skunk Anansie, Joy Division and The Stone Roses over the following 40 years as well as regularly hosting concerts by up-and-coming local bands. The three leading bands of the so-called “Stourbridge music scene” of the early 1990s, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, all cite the venue as a major influence over their early careers.

In 2010, administrators were called in and the club closed its doors on 6 January 2011.

Mr Kumar said yesterday: “JB’s has lots of history attached to it and we’re hoping to carry on with that. We’ll be liaising with the previous staff and management about them possibly remaining in place and our target is to be up and running for this Christmas.

We want to keep everything as it is although it does need some investment to modernise it a bit. We’re quite aware of what needs doing there, but we’re very, very pleased to have got JB’s, although we thought we’d pay slightly less.”

Bands in the area should keep their eyes open for an open date as this was always a fantastic live music venue. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out more!