Express & Star

Nostalgic look back at popular club once one of UK's longest-running independent boozers

Known as Snoopy's in the 1970s, Silks swiftly became one of Cannock's most popular nightclubs and had served customers across the region for donkey's years.

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It was owned by the same family - the Murray's - since its birth, and was passed down from generation to generation with it's last owner, Martin Murray, glass collecting at the night venue when he was just 13 years old.

Punters from across the region celebrated birthdays, national holidays, anniversaries, engagements and of course, New Years Eve for over five decades.

The club was even believed to have - at one point - attracted more customers through its doors than the entire town it was based in.

In the more than 50 years it was open, Silk's nightclub - originally called Snoopy's and founded by local entrepreneur Alan Murray - played host to some huge names in music including the Bay City Rollers, Ben E King, Geno Washington and Glenn Hughes’ Trapeze.

That carried on until Covid hit in 2019 and the doors were slammed shut shortly after, never to be reopened again as the virus decimated the nightclub scene with around 30 per cent of the UK's clubs closing down due to restrictions, which saw the industry's economy plummet.

But even with the closures, memories, after all, last a lifetime - so here are some photographs from the popular club to shine a light on a special place that was - uniquely - owned by the same family from when the doors opened to the slamming of them back in 2020.