Nottingham DJ, Discotheque Business, Electronics Business and music lover.

A successful DJ, he also ran a couple of short lived clubs, started a discotheque business before moving into an electronics business. In later life he has returned to DJing and appearing on radio.

Kevin Hopcroft, born 1949, grew up and was schooled in Clifton, Nottingham listening to the pop, mod and soul music of the sixties. He appeared in a small story in the Evening Post in 1965 pictured on his scooter with his pet crow.

His father Albert, and mother Eva, were teachers of ‘Old Tyme’ dancing using premises at Norfork Place (Inbetween Long Row and Upper Parliaments Street), the Police Assembly Room (at the Guildhall) and finally settling at the old Bluecote Church School building accessable from Bluecote Street and Mansfield Road. This dancing school was known as ‘Hopcrofts’.

By 1967, 18 year old Kevin had grown a particular interest in Soul, Tamla-Motown and Blue Beat music and persuaded his mother and father to let him use the cellar in the building as a club venue at the weekends. However, ‘The Junktion’ (spelled that way deliberately to avoid connection with the book ‘Up the Junction’ which was considered in very bad taste by the church) was to be a short lived club and disco. It was 2/- to get in and the hours were between 7.30 -11.00pm.

From an interview with Steve Watts in 2020, Kevin recalls those early days.

“It was the cellar of a church. It covered the whole footprint of the church, one great big room, so it was a big place and they didn’t use it at weekends. So, I said to my friends let’s convert it into a night club and I got permission from my parents. When you looked at the ceiling there was steel bars going across the ceiling so we said it looked like a railway staion and we said let’s call it the ‘Junktion’ Club. I went down to London and saw Alan Freeman who was working Pick of the Pops on the Light programme. He wrote an introduction to night clubs in London because he knew the owners of those and we went and got all the posters with the big names of the day on like Jimmy Cliff and Zoot Money. We painted up the cellar and stuck the posters on the walls. We built a twin deck and we were away and within a couple of weeks it was absolutely heaving, packed to the seams. There was only coffee and coke, there was no booze, but then, we were aiming at teenagers, people under the age, but it was absolutely packed. Ten weeks after the club opened my dad died and with him went the music, singing and dancing license so I was thrown out basically. One night (at the Junktion), when I had employed a Nottingham DJ, he didn’t turn up and I picked the microphone up in his place and I didn’t put it down until 17 years later. So, I started DJing with the records. If he had turned up I would of probably had a different career“.

The Junktion Dates
The club ran between April and June 1967. They had DJ’s and the odd group. Union Blues played there featuring Graham Russell, later of Air Supply.

April
7th Friday – Discotheque
8th Saturday – Discotheque

14th Friday – Discotheque
15th Saturday – Discotheque

21st Friday – Motown, Soul, Bluebeat
22nd Saturday – Motown, Soul, Bluebeat

28th Friday – Motown, Soul, Bluebeat
29th Saturday – Motown, Soul, Bluebeat

May
5th Friday – Tamla, Motown, Blue Beat
6th Saturday – Tamla, Motown, Blue Beat

12th Friday – Tamla, Motown, Blue Beat
13th Saturday – Tamla, Motown, Blue Beat

19th Friday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat
20th Saturday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat

26th Friday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat
27th Saturday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat
29th Monday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat

June
2nd Friday – Discotheque
3rd Saturday – Union Blues. 5/-
5th Monday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat

9th Friday – Soul, Tamla, Motown, Blue Beat
10th Saturday – Soul, Tamla, Motown, Blue Beat
12th Monday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat

16th Friday – The Dick-Rys Soul Show
17th Saturday – Big Junktion Sound with Nottingham’s top DJ
19th Monday – Soul, Tamla, Blue Beat

23rd Friday – Management announce they have had to close. K Hopcroft Phone 212541
24th Saturday – Management announce they have had to close. K Hopcroft Phone 212541

= = = = = = = = =

In 1968 Kevin had another shot at running a club:

“So, I DJed in the clubs around Nottingham for a while. Then I took a club in Grantham called the Cat Balou, I ran that under the name of ‘The Junktion Organisation’ so we kept the name. It failed miserably. I was completely penneiless when I left there. I had one suit which was a DJ suit with blue trousers and a pink jacket and that was it and I came home completely broke but that was just at the start of mobile discos and agents were looking for mobile discos at that point“.

From Profiles – A Light-Hearted Look at Industry Personalities:
He returned to Nottingham and became a DJ for one night a week in a pub for the fee of £1.00 per night. This soon turned into two nights per week, just as mobile discos started to appear in the UK. He, and the man who owned the gear, converted the equipment into a mobile rig and the ‘New Junktion Record Revue’ was born. Kevin was soon working six nights a week and decided to buy the equipment off his partner. He was also turning down bookings and so built another set of equipment – you couldn’t buy it in those days – and got a DJ working for him. He soon got this DJ working six nights a week too and immediately set about making his third set of equipment. At this point The New Junktion Record Review became ‘New Junktion Discotheques’, and at its height grew to handling over 400 bookings per month with 30 DJ’s working for the company. Kevin also became a member of Equity and continued to perform, not only a DJ but also as a comedian, dancer and compère.

“I can’t remember if I got in touch with them, or they me, but they said ‘have you got a set of gear’, I said it’s not really mobile so they said ‘make it mobile’ so we literally sawed it in half. I said we can use my old club name if you like so let’s call it ‘New Junktion Record Revue’, disco was still a dirty word in a lot of adult circles back then. So, I started working six nights a week and turning bookings down. I decided to build another set of gear and employ another DJ. Advertising ‘New Junktion Record Revues’ didn’t really role off the tongue so we renamed it ‘New Junktion Discotheques’ at its height I was getting 400 bookings a month, using 30 DJ’s. Everybody called it NJD“

So, Kevin had reappeared as a DJ in 1969 playing soul sets at venues like the The Cocked Hat in Aspley, the 360 Club in Bulwell, the New Inn, Ilkeston and The Imperial but by the mid seventies he had built a successful company “New Junktion Discotheques” employing 15 DJ’s. By 1976 Kevin also had a personal collection of some 4,000 singles and was a regular DJ at the Parkside Cabaret Club on Station Street for many years.

The story here on in becomes one of a very successful business man.

The YouTube interview all the audio clips are from can be heard here.

From Profiles – A Light-Hearted Look at Industry Personalities:
By now New Junktion Discotheques was known to everyone as NJD, its shortened name. During the growth of NJD Kevin also opened a retail shop and teamed up with an electronics expert to form NJD Electronics. The new company soon outgrew the DJ hire side of the business which was discontinued, enabling Kevin to concentrate on retailing and manufacturing, and in 1981 he stopped his career as an entertainer.

During the 1970’s and 80’s NJD grew to become a well known brand exporting to over 30 countries around the world, and many industry companies also used NJD to manufacture their own-branded products. Well known names such as RSC, Roger Squires, Norman Rose, Jem and Abstract all had products manufactured by NJD. But perhaps NJD is most famous for its own-name products and manufacturing some of the most innovative equipment at very affordable prices. At this time, Kevin also became a member of the PLASA committee, quickly rising to the post of Treasurer and then Chairman.

In 2002 Kevin finally sold his interests in NJD and formed his new distribution company Premier Solutions. This distributes products for many well known brands including Futurelight, Eurolite, HZ, Showcraft, Omnitronic, Pulsar, Clay Paky and, of course, his old brand NJD. But perhaps less well known is the other side of Premier Solutions, which specialises in equipment for the Special Needs Market, with particular emphasis on Hydrotherapy.

Having spent 36 years in the industry he has witnessed massive changes in both the products and demands made upon them, but has always managed to stay ahead of the game. When asked why he didn’t retire after he sold NJD, Kevin said: “I was too afraid of being bored to death. There is no other industry that moves so quickly and stays so fresh and exciting. Every entertainer wants something new to excite his audience and this continuous demand for “something different” keeps the industry on its toes.”

Kevin Hopcroft now works for Erewash Sound Radio

Here is their bio:

Kevin Hopcroft started as a DJ in 1960s at the Junktion Club, in Nottingham. During his time as a club DJ he worked at almost every club in the City throughout the 1970s. In the same decade, he was a compère, a stage dancer, and a stand up comedian and became a member of the actors union Equity. He also progressed on to radio presenting for a while with Radio Nottingham.

During the 1980s he concentrated on his business, manufacturing and installing audio and lighting equipment for entertainment purposes.

In 2019 Kevin was invited to join the Goldmine Show, on Erewash Sound, and quickly became an integral part of the show and is now your presenter every Wednesday night for great music from the 60s and 70s from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

You can also find Kevin presenting the Soul & Disco Show on a Saturday from 7:00pm to 9:00pm on two week slots alternating with Deb Marshall.

Kevin’s shows are also co-produced with his wife, Heather. Together they spend hours each week researching and finding interesting information about the tracks featured in the shows.