Popular Radio Norfolk broadcaster hands disco decks to museum

But now the broadcaster has dusted off the decks and handed them over to a museum in a bid to give the "download music generation" some insight into how music used to be played back then.

The 69-year-old is a popular voice and face across the region having been on the local airwaves of TV and radio since the early 1980s.

David Clayton (left) with the mobile disco equipment he is donating to the Norfolk Museums Service (Image: Denise Bradley, Archant Norfolk)

But before he turned professional the presenter - who still appears weekly on BBC Radio Norfolk - Mr Clayton worked across pubs and clubs in the county with mobile disco equipment that was bought in 1971.

Mobile disco equipment David Clayton purchased in 1971 (Image: Denise Bradley, Archant Norfolk)

He played at venues across the county including the Melody Rooms in Norwich which later became The Talk, in Oak Street that closed down earlier this year.

Mobile disco equipment David Clayton purchased in 1971 (Image: Denise Bradley, Archant Norfolk)

The gear was also used at other former city establishments including The Norwood Rooms, on Aylsham Road, The Canary pub at Heartsease - which closed at the end of 2010 - and the King Edward VII pub on Aylsham Road which closed in 2014 and later became a mosque.

David Clayton behind his mobile disco equipment back in the 1970s (Image: Submitted by David Clayton)

But after the coronavirus pandemic hit and the country went into lockdown, Mr Clayton, who is also an associate tutor in voice-coaching on the University of East Anglia's journalism course, wondered what to do with the gear.

He said: "My grown-up kids didn’t want the stuff and it wasn’t really sellable.

David Clayton, left, and Steve Burns, together as Gemini Discotheque, in 1974. (Image: David Clayton)

"Given that a young radio person had said to me: ‘How did you cue up a record,’ it dawned on me the download music generation had no idea this was how we did discos and radio back in the day.

"So I offered the stuff to the museums service given it was half a century old and might be of interest."

David Clayton's mobile disco equipment being loaded into van and being taken away by Norfolk Museums Service (Image: Submitted by David Clayton)

In the past few days the Norfolk Museums Service have collected the equipment from Mr Clayton's home, near Norwich.

The broadcaster fired up the equipment one last time before they were dispatched, describing it as "lump in throat nostalgia".

He likened it to the "the end of an era" but said it was "better they go somewhere for evermore than just rotting in a garage".

Looking good…DC as the DJ in the booth at the back of The Talk in Norwich back in 1974. Picture: Courtesy of David Clayton (Image: Courtesy of David Clayton)

David Clayton. (Image: Supplied)