Mecca Leisure Group

This article is about the former parent company. For its social and bingo club leisure subsidiary (now owned by Rank), see Mecca Bingo.

Mecca Leisure Group
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded1933 (as Mecca Agency Limited)
Founder
  • Carl L. Heimann
  • Byron Davies
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key people
Michael Guthrie, Chairman

Mecca Leisure Group (also known as Mecca Leisure Ltd, Mecca Ltd, and Mecca Dance Ltd) was a British business that ran nightclubs, hotels, theme parks, bingo parlours and Hard Rock Cafes.[1] During the 1960s, Mecca was a centre of entertainment with numerous nightclubs throughout major United Kingdom towns and cities. Mecca ballrooms were used for the BBC TV show Come Dancing.[2] Eric Morley was a general manager of dancing at Mecca Leisure Group and was involved in the Miss World competitions.

Notable DJs performing at Mecca nightclubs include Jimmy Savile[3][4] from 1960[5] and Pete Waterman.

The Coventry Locarno is the subject of the Specials song "Friday Night, Saturday Morning", B-side to Ghost Town.[6] Chuck Berry's live version of "My Ding-a-Ling" was also recorded there.

  1. ^ "The Rank Group plc - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on The Rank Group plc". www.referenceforbusiness.com. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  2. ^ "Come Dancing - UKGameshows". www.ukgameshows.com. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  3. ^ "A Study in Branding Popular Entertainment". meccadancing.com. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  4. ^ "Jimmy Savile". DJHistory.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  5. ^ "Leodis - a photographic archive of Leeds - Display". www.leodis.net. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  6. ^ "The Specials - Music / Lyrics". Retrieved 15 August 2015.