Back in time to an era of flares and platforms
SOUTHPORT’S bar, club and music scene of the 70s is to be celebrated in a new book. This was the era of tripping the light fantastic at Tiffany’s in Ainsdale, and stealing a kiss on the River Caves boat ride at Pleasureland.
Big bands played small venues, girls danced around their handbags and the brave ones drank Pernod and blackcurrant and lived to tell the tale.
This was the era when The Dandy Club on Neville Street had its lightup dance floor, Saturday Night Fever style, and many clubs served chicken in a basket to bend the licensing laws and bring in custom.
Many even offered free buffets, including Toad Hall, The West End Club, Shorrock’s Hill, The Dandy Club and The Sundowner.
Former Trinity Mirror journalist Jade Wright has collected memories, pictures and mementoes from people across Southport and the surrounding areas for the book.
She says: “It has been amazing to see how much the area has changed since those days. “It seems like a different world. “I loved hearing about people’s amazing nights out, and the fashions for women - and men!
“It sounds like there were some great nights at The Dixieland.
“With free tickets for nurses on Fridays and the amazing Monday Northern Soul nights, people had brilliant memories of it.
“Another favourite that lots of people mentioned was the Scarisbrick hotel or ‘The Brick’, perfect for a ‘livener’ before a big night out, and Tiffany’s in Ainsdale, which sounded like a big hit with the ladies.
“From The Midnight Lounge by the Marine Lake to Minoo and the Moulin Rouge, The Dandy Club and, of course, The Kingsway, Southport had it all.
“You could go out with £5 and come home with change.”
These were the days of lidos and bathing beauty contests and, while many were embracing mass market foreign package tour holidays for the first time, the long hot summer of 1976 saw the newly created borough of Sefton’s coast filled with sunbathers, desperate to escape the heat of the city.
The book also looks at Liverpool nights out too, with gigs at Liverpool Stadium, cabaret nights at Allinson’s and grabbing a granny at The Grafton, when cabaret was king and wrestling drew huge crowds.
You could see David Bowie at the Top Rank Suite for 50p, before the newly built St John’s Centre venue went on to become Bailey’s, Romeo and Juliet’s, Studio 54 and then Rotters. Down below it had The Moon- stone, The Penny Farthing and, above, the revolving restaurant at St John’s Beacon, or as one diner described it ‘the chippy on a stick’.
The Dirty Stopouts Guide to 1970’s Liverpool is an affectionate look back at the era defined by glam rock, industrial action and the rise of punk, told by the people who were there.
Clubs like The Babalou, The Beachcomber, The Timepiece and Ugly’s drew big crowds to the Ropewalks end of town, where you were judged by the width of your flares and the height of your platform shoes.
The London Road end of town was booming in those days, with The Shakespeare, Sampson & Barlow’s and The Peppermint Lounge, and, as you got over to Hardman Street ,there was Rumblin’ Tum, The Sink, Kirkland’s, Chaucer’s and O’Connor’s Tavern.
Some of the places are still going strong, places like The Philharmonic Dining Rooms, The Everyman Bistro and the Blue Angel, or The Raz, as she’s known to her friends.
Others, like The Mardi Gras, The Royal Tiger Club, The She and The Victoriana are long gone, but live on in the memories of those who spent their formative years there.
The Dirty Stop Outs Guide to 1970’s Liverpool is a reminder of those brilliant nights, and the people who made them what they were.
It’s available now priced £13.95 from Waterstones, HMV and online at www.jadewright.co.uk and www. acmretro. com/ dirty- stop- outsguide-to-1970s-liverpool/.