The 1 in 12 Club was set up in 1981 by the Claimants Union to provide affordable entertainment for unemployed people in Bradford, with a focus on gigs and live music. In 1984, through a grant from the local council, it purchased a former mill building on Albion Street and turned it into the premises for the club – with a gig room, member’s bar, and eventually a café and a library over three floors. The 1 in 12 Club is a social centre owned and run by its membership, operating on anarchist principles of self-management, co-operation and mutual aid. Over the years it has hosted countless gigs and become a mainstay of the UK and International punk scene. But the 1 in 12 Club is much more than a venue. Alongside the raucous punk gigs there was not only a host of diverse music events (from raves to folk, jazz and avant-garde experimentalism), but a Peasants (food growing) collective, games and sports teams, theatre groups, political organising, and of course a safe-space for meeting like-minded people that may otherwise not have a place in the city. Crucially, The 1 in 12 Club is more than a building – it is a group of people who work together to promote political ideals and social change. This publication (and accompanying podcasts) offer a portrait of the 1 in 12 Club through excerpts of oral histories gathered from people who have been involved in the club over the last four decades. They reveal it to be not only a fun, warm and welcoming social space, but a place of solidarity, resistance, collective work, transgression, transformation, learning, family and community that has changed, adapted and continues to evolve to meet the needs and desires of its members. Moreover, the 1 in 12 has had transformative, life-changing effects at the individual, local and international level – demonstrating that, through Doing-It-Together, another world is possible!
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