Reuben (Rubean) Campbell a Wolverhampton life in full.
Wolverhampton's Black nightlife and sporting culture owes quiet debt to Reuben Campbell - often written locally as Rubean - a Jamaican - born entrepreneur, club owner, publican, and community organiser whose story runs through six decades of the city's modern life. In recent years, his journey has been captured on film and celebrated from Bilston to the Grand Theatre.
From Jamaica to the Black County (1962)
Campbell left Jamaica as a 20-year-old he had been a meat cutter back home - arriving in Britain during the notorious winter of 1962-63. After a few days in London, he headed for Wolverhampton, where his first job in the region was "out on railway line" with British Electric Traction, based at the Wednesbury depot. Those early months also meant running into colour bars at the door of clubs and pubs. The Mix of hard graft and harder truth would shape what he built next.
"If we can't get in, we'll make our own" - The Rising Star (1977-84)
Shut out of venues because he was Black, Campbell decided to create space himself. In July 1977 he opened The Rising Star Club in Bilston, which he ran for Severn years. More than a nightclub, it became a meeting place and launchpad: fashion shows, talent contests, a platform for the best local DJ's and visiting performers - a hub where you where young people could gather safely, dance and be seen. Many still speak of it is as a cultural home.
In 1981, Rising Star hosted the first Black beauty pageant held in Bilston. The Miss Unique competition was won by 17-year-old student Shirley Laidley from Smethwick. Beverley Brown came second, and Sugar St John took third place.
The clubs old Mount Pleasant building later became the renowned Robin (known as the Robin), anchoring Bilston’s live - music scene from the later 1990s - a tangible sign of how the site Campbell energised stayed central to town's night life.
Pubs and Firsts
After closing the Rising Star, Campbell moved into the licensed trade and, as he has recalled, went on to run pubs across the area - including what he believes was the first Black - owned pub in the Black Country. That step matters as much symbolically as commercially: ownership in a sector they had frequently refused entry to Caribbean migrants.
Cricket, community, and Commonwealth ties
Campbell also pored energy into sport - helping to form the Wolverhampton Commonwealth Cricket club, part of a wider network of "commonwealth" sides created by Windrush-era cricketers who wanted to keep playing, socialising, and organising in the face of exclusion from some mainstream leagues. (Some histories place Wolverhampton’s club origins earlier - in the mid - 1950- which underlines how Campbell's contribution sits within a longer, Windrush - build tradition in the city.)
Telling the story - on stage and on screen (-present)
In 2021 a sell - performance of RUSH - A Joyous Jamaican Journey at the Grand Theatre set off conversations that led to the venues first self - produced film, A Joyous Jamaican Conversation - an on stage round table hosted by Tonia Daley - Campbell, with Campbell’s memories at its heart. Demand was so strong that extra screaming was added at Light House Cinema.
For Windrush 75, the Grand revived and streamed the film and programmed a wider celebration. Campbell spoke publicly before a sold-out screening of the National Theatres Small Island at Wolverhampton’s Central Library, connecting his 1962 journey with stories on screen.
The theatre also marked his contributions was an honorary seat plaque in its historic auditorium - a small brass acknowledgement that his life and work have widened who feels the Grand is "for them."
The Man today
Campbell remains a gentle evangelist for culture, supporting the Grand and encouraging Black and Caribbean audiences - and younger generations - to fill its seats. His Daughter Carole has publicly spoken of the pride the family takes in what he achieved "despite the obstacles and against the odds" against the odds, " a sentiment echoed widely across Wolverhampton's Caribbean community.
