Drewtg

/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=208913 Just spotted Mike Walker.

I can't watch it because I had this mishap when I used to be an ice-skater. Don't want to talk about it

These were taken at a midweek-night (not a nighter) just for the locals, more or less. I think the age limit was lower, a bit like a youth night. If memory serves they were Daily Mirror stock photo's for a piece they did in the early days. As for the baggies, I think it depended on your crew, I wore them for the first few years - but then we sort of moved on. As for full-length leathers, no way could I afford one as a schoolboy and later a lowly apprentice. Rich boys and criminals only methinks - to use another massive generalisation

Spencers' were just for the tourists, not many wore them. Bit like buying a tee-shirt at Hard-Rock Cafe. But you might be right about the year.

Can't see it. End of era night was jam-packed solid. The pastel colours look late 70's but you have one geezer with a bowling shirt and another with dungarees! Put a gun to my head and I'd say 78/9.

It depends whether you see it as "a market" or just beautiful music. Me; I've always liked the music

Exactly! I met more gays at Wigan than I did mods, does that mean it was a BIG gay venue? It's starting to annoy me now (Meldrewish I know). What is a mod anyway, someone who wears old-fashioned clothes and likes old scooters?

Bloody scooters again! What have scooters got to do with Wigan? I went for eight years and never saw one, and I didn't see any mods (mod's?) either. Arrivistes!

Yeah I feel a bit miffed that I have the CD and DVD but because I don't have Blue-Ray I don't get "The making of", what's that all about? Hopefully someone will bang it on Youtube for us plebs

No. I think the bloke has done a bit too much wacky. He hasn't got a clue what he is writing about...................and neither have I. Maybe he's aiming for contovesy but hasn't got the IQ to figure out how to do it?

Just for the record. When I first had the idea for the plaque, I thought it should have been behind Debenhams. When I started to look more closely (overlaying old maps, etc) I found that the parade in the arcade more or less matched the old Station Rd layout, the big clue is the civic centre behind the shopping centre (back of M's). As we were never going to get the plaque bang on, we decided to put it a few extra yards up Station Rd. The reason was so that if people wanted to have a photo taken, they wouldn't be stood in front of a shop. The plaque is actually next to a fire corridor so it gives open access and full visibility for cctv - and what's a few metres between friends. To find the spot on, actual doorway, you would need a theodolite, acess to all the old land registry maps and a degree in land surveying. Anybody who says it is in the wrong place is either guessing, trying to cause trouble or has the genetic make-up of an Atlantic salmon spawned in Wigan canal. As to people ignoring the plaque, who gives a shit? It is not for us or them, it is for somebody else. I remember living in London, just up the road from a plaque for George Orwell (one of my heroes), when someone pointed it out to me I was chuffed. Hundreds of people walked past it everyday - but some looked Drew

Hey Martyn, hang on in there dude. Remember Northern has always been a very broad church and what goes around comes around! I listen to some of the stuff posted on here and think WTF? It doesn't take away from my equally valid (though minority) opinion that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Keep the faith mate and remember - when you were young EVERYBODY thought you were nuts just for liking this music anyway

I had a scooter (GP250) and I was on the scene throughout the seventies and early eighties, but I can't remember there being any notable 'scooter boy' or 'mod' presence. Always puzzles me to see the two linked. Just saying.

Absolutely. Never bothered what others think of me and, let's face it, we all like other music types as well don't we?

Sounds apocryphal to me but even if it were true, it says far more about the writer than it does about the music. I wasn't aware of a "pop crowd" in the seventies and as a dj, I never got asked to play any "dross". If these are the two records in question it was hardly a ground breaking, history in the making moment was it?

Yeah, this place is mentioned on Wiki but I have never heard of it - keen to hear more. I remember 'cutting a rug' at 'The Great Room' in The Grosvenor, Park Lane. It was in the nineties and not really a northern night, I just persuaded the dj to play a few tracks I had with me (coincidentally), and boogied in my black tie. Of course, I was very, very drunk, as the man says. Apart from that the poshest I ever attended was a benefit held in Rochdale Town Hall for a guy who died without life insurance - biggest dance floor ever I reckon.

I suppose you have read 'To be loved', Gordy's self deprecating (tee hee) auto. biog? It seems pretty obvious he would throw a leg over anything that took his fancy, Chris Clark amongst the many. I can't be arsed to re-read it, so disappointed was I with the flannel. There are definately some clues in there though, good luck to yer.

Surely, your humble opinion? Call me Jocko?

Ditto. Kentish Town in the 80's. Sadly missed, reckon he died of disappointment with Obama.

Wigan Casino Documentary — Pitch Opens with archive footage —this England — man spinning in slow motion Pete Waterman (for it is he) -voice over — “It was basically full of miners. Big, strapping lads. Some of ‘em still had their helmets on having come straight from the late shift at t’pit” Stuart Maconi (to camera) “Wigan Casino, voted the best disco in the world. On the occasion of it’s fiftieth anniversary, it’s time to lift the lid on what it was really like, and I should know”. “Using never before seen footage of things that nobody ever thought it would be worth looking at, we go behind the scenes and speak to some of the people who made Wigan what it was”. Opening credits (Frank Wilson playing) — Guests include: Pete Waterman Lisa Stansfield Marc Almond Anna Ford That bloke from YouTube Tommy Hunt Dave Withers Paul Mason Elaine Constantine Dean Parrish Paul O’Grady Duffy John Newman Bloke from America Cuts to - still picture of factory chimneys and 1984/5 miner's strike. How am I doing?

Yeah, I understand. If you didn't go you just don't get it. One less viewer for Daz's film

à chacun son goût, as the frogs say. or "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe" - Carl Sagan. Your last phrase sums it up Daz. Elaine had a vision, as did Paul, and they saw it through. The amount of hard work, persistence, focus and downright bloody-mindedness to pull off projects like these cannot be overstated. I had a small taste when I got the Wigan Casino plaque put up. You would not believe that it took a year of my life and at every turn I met with negativity, carping, duplicity, ego maniacs and downright apathy. I am no way trying to equate my experience with Elaine and Paul but I can understand the obstacles that must have been put in their way over the years it took to bring the respective projects to fruition. If you really believe that you have a different story to tell, and that people want to hear it . . . . . . . . . . . great journeys begin with a single step

Cheers lads

Twat! I won't be able to sleep now!!! Not Otis is it?

Oh my god NO! Don't start the buggers off.