Kathryn Magson

Hi David - Sorry I don't remember them - but then if I could remember anything even the next morning it would have been a miracle! The night always seemed to fly by - seemed as though it only lasted a couple of hours....lol

The travel was ok if you had a bunch of mates with you - or even just one mate - sometimes there would be a few of us from Bradford all on the same bus off to the Wheel - but often it would only be me, feeling like Billy-no-mates until I got to Manchester. Worse on the home journey on Sunday - most of the crowd from Bradford would go straight home after the Wheel, but I wanted to carry on partying lol. Off to the Top Twenty (after a bit more in the way of chemical refreshments) & party on for the rest of the day.

Well people seem to have enjoyed reading my little story at the top of the page, so I thought I would write chapter 2.

I started going to the Wheel with another mate from Bradford when we were both aged only 15 - our parents would never have allowed us to go, so we said we were sleeping at each other's houses. This worked like a dream for quite a few months - until one day my friend's mum turned up at my parents' house asking for her daughter...…….the brown stuff hit the proverbial fan big time! We were both grounded - my friend's parents soon forgave her, but I turned 16 a few weeks after we were rumbled & I was thrown out of home -  lived in bedsit-land so I was able to do whatever I wanted - FREEDOM!! 

I was at the Wheel every Saturday from then on - I knew people from all over the UK - not only the Lancs area, but Wales, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Cheshire - you name it! There was a guy used to catch the ferry from N Ireland - bus to the port - ferry to Liverpool & train to Manchester & then all the same in reverse on a Sunday! I never envied him that North sea crossing after a night at the Wheel...…. I also got to know a large group of guys from Southend - around 20 or so. They used to come up in a convoy of a Mark4 Jag; a Mini & somebody's works van! They couldn't fit all of them in - only had room for about 16 so they had to take turns. I got to know them on their first  visit to the Wheel - they thought that while they were standing at the bar (unlicensed of course) & a guy started chatting to them out of the blue - that they had strayed into a gay bar! But they decided the music was good so they would stay a while...….then a couple of girls started to chat to them & they said they thought they were being chatted up...…... It was only when they had been there for a couple of hours or so that they realized that people "up North" actually talk to each other! They couldn't believe how friendly we all were - if they had just chatted to someone in a bar down south they would have been thought of as wierdos. The only name I remember is Danny (no surname) - he had the Mark4.

My mate decided to give up the all nighters after a while, but I carried on going on my own for a couple of years after that. I was never daunted at the thought of catching the bus to Mancs on my own - it was a long boring bus ride on my own, but when I got to Manchester I knew lots of people - I've always been a chatty sort (still am lol). Oh those were the days...…..

I was a regular at the Continental from around 1964-67 - until I graduated to The Market Tavern, Pack Horse & Cellar Bar. Lots of happy memories - Coke 1/-  a bottle  making it last all night.....pinball machines.......chewing gum stuck to the ceiling.....Still in touch with a few old mates from back then, but always pleased to hear from   anyone else who remembers those happy days!