WIGAN WAS THE 'DOGS DANGLIES'!! I went virtually weekly from 1975 to the night it closed, and I challenge anyone to tell me of a Northern club before or after it, which generated more publicity, or which was as well attended, more talked about, more influential, and more massive than Wigan was!!! No disrespect to the Torch or The Wheel, but at Wigan you had all those sounds to enjoy PLUS all the newer Wigan discoveries, and you could say that for those clubs like Stafford etc which followed, EXCEPT that those post- Wigan clubs were poor and ill-attended compared to Wigan. Wigan was the biggest and the best and historically bang smack in the middle of all the clubs we know and respect. Additionally as eras go Wigan played a massive part in giving us 'non-mainstream' types some alternative to football violence, crap 70s discos,fighting, drinking, and some other pretty sad nightlife choices.
Funny too, how anyone, (including celebrities!) who wants or seeks street cred or northern 'badge of honour' these days tries to lay claim to having gone to where????? Torch, Wheel, Stafford......................??????? NOOOOO. They lay claim to having gone to the Casino!! Coz on the northern soul map there is no other comparable reference point!!! Yes it played some shit, yes there were some less-than-memorable nights there, but I for one would do it all again and more..........Give me one more night of liquid nicotine drippin off the ceilings, meeting your mates outside in the queue in long leather black coats, Mrs Woods pretending not to allow you in, the smell of Brut in the toilets, Hearing Eddie Parker Im gone, Servicemen Sweet Magic, or Frank Wilson for first time!!!
Its easy to slag Wigan off in retrospect, and diminish its importance to the music we love, but at the time it was HUGE, and significant, meaningful, and important, and the ONLY place to be on a saturday night between 12.30 and 8 in the shitty 70's if you wanted to be 'where its at' and you loved northern! There wasnt anywhere like it before, and there wont be again.............mores the pity! For me it will always be the best northern venue of all time..........BAR NONE!!