Early 1970s Blackpool in Summer, UK in HD from 35mm

Crystal clear sea at Blackpool ...

That is very funny :) . I found it was fine for wmc bands to play other venues without too much grief .. but if rock bands , especially those who threw in a few originals played a wmc , were in for a hostile night ... as had happened to us one gig in Barnsley . Bloody scary too I can tell ya .

Workingmens clubs around my hometown Middleborough had their good and bad points .. for one they made me smarten up... comb my hair and wear a tie , and it was protocol to wear waistcoat shirt n tie even though you were playing rock . Those were the days of dots if you were a solo or duo . .So along with stagecraft you learned music .. but most importantly they paid good money.. full houses in those days ... quarter full nowadays . Pubs have now overtook as the older generations fade away . WMCs were like Steam engines , part of a long gone industrial revolution , superceded by Weatherspoons ..(all over Blackpool ) .

In the '60s, Working Men's Clubs were, along with pubs, the major source of gigs for semi-pro musicians. I've played in loads of them. In fact, Be Bop Deluxe's very first gig was at a WMC in Askern, near Doncaster.

Of course, bands had to play whatever was popular at the time, no one was able to play their own music. Nevertheless, I got away with a few non-mainstream performances at different times. I remember, in the 1960s, staging a 'freak out' type 'happening' at Stanley Lane End WMC. This was with my band Global Village. We roped in some of the Holy Ground people to dress up and do performance art type stuff. I still have the hand painted poster I made for the event. The audience, of course, didn't like it. We were considered weird hippies and were not booked again. All they wanted to hear was Jim Reeves songs or Cliff Richards hits.

But Be Bop Deluxe encountered a similar reaction when we did our very first gig at the Askern WMC. It was an audition night where several acts auditioned to try and get 'on the circuit'. Looks of utter incomprehension came from the audience. We thought it was all a bit of a laugh.

Pubs eventually became a more productive performance space for us as there were more young people going to pubs than to WMCs.

But in the early '60s, I'd played in WMCs a lot with bands such as The Teenagers and The Gibson Four. Of course, at that time, we were doing the same thing as other bands, just playing current chart hits and old standards with a bit of '50s rock n' roll thrown in during the final set of the evening.

Bands usually played three sets per evening with games of Bingo being held between sets. Most of the audiences preferred the Bingo to the band, falling deadly quiet and concentrating seriously during the Bingo but talking loudly and downing pints throughout the live music performance. I don't know if WMCs are still as widespread as they once were. every town had several WMCs. But they're where I cut my teeth as a musician and in some respects provided a valuable learning experience.

Brings back so many memories of family Summer holidays in the UK in the late 60s/early 70s - Blackpool, Rhyl, Weston Super Mare, Margate, Butlins at Filey etc. Always the long drive down from Scotland then 2 weeks at a particular resort. I also remember the many "working mens clubs" that my parents always took us to. Do they still have those?

Since Bill has a track on the first record called Northern Dreamer (1957), maybe that's why YouTube's algorithms decided it was time for this? 🤔😊

Blackpool Holiday, 1957 ...

My memories of Blackpool.

Well first of all I used to visit a Courtaulds site in Lancaster in the early 90s. During the summer months I always stayed at Blackpool because there was so much to do in the evenings - seafront, bars, clubs etc etc.

In 1997 I had a holiday on the Isle of Man with a few mates. One of them lived in Lytham St Annes at the time and we stayed at his place before and after sailing there. So of course we had a couple of nights out in Blackpool!

I think the last time I visited was 1999. I 'd been away on business in Scotland. My partner had flow up to Glasgow to meet me, we'd had a Friday night stay and then began our long journey back to the South Coast on Saturday, so we had a stop off in Blackpool!

So some happy memories of Blackpool and for that matter the Isle of Man - well worth a visit!

Thanks for that, Alec. No social distancing on the beach back then, eh?

Found this documentary from 1973. It has a fair bit of Pleasure Beach footage and the Illuminations too. Of course, I was there as a kid in the 1950s and early '60s when the place seemed a bit nicer, but that's maybe just a subjective view I had as a child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq7gL-bdxpA

I grew up in Blackpool Holidays every year . As a kid this was like Disney world . ..so many strange things there . The little dwarfs in the funhouse . Ollie laughing in his box . .and the lights of course . I was last there 2 yrs gone and it was in an appaling state . Very sad .

Had a look...Thought I might spot me, mum and dad, on holiday..well, you never know.

But I didn't...I know we went to Blackpool, just the once, around 1971/72.

Interesting nonetheless.