Today 49 years ago Wigan Casino all-nighters opened their doors for the
very first time. The first record played was The Sherrys "Put Your Arms
Around Me". All-nighters ran every Saturday from 23 Sep 1973 until it's
closure in 6 Dec 1981 with the 500th all-nighter being held on 16 May 1981.
At the end of every all-nighter three songs were always played by Russ
Winstanley to close the night: Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By" (possibly
still one of my all time favourite records), Dean Parrish "I'm On My Way"
and finally Jimmy Radcliffe "Long After Tonight Is All Over". I'm sure
unofficially Gerri Granger "I Go To Pieces" often preceded Tobi Legend
from recollection (another of my personal favourites).
To commemorate the event I've put together a playlist of records I first
heard there (although not all necessarily Wigan discoveries) which I tried
to restrict to 49 but they just kept coming (and there are dozens left out
that could have been included). Most would probably be in the 'played out'
Northern Soul Top 500 but hey this is a celebration of the club that broke
so many of them.
Mentioning the Northern Soul Top 500, Kev Roberts the author of the
original 1999 book has just published a new version, which I believe is
now the fourth edition. Copies available for £39.50 from link on image
below.
As next year is the 50th anniversary, a big weekender event is being held
in Blackpool at the Winter Gardens from Fri 22 Sep to Sun 24 Sep. The event
is being run by original Casino DJ, the 'main man', Richard Searling. Richard
and Russ fell out years ago around the time of the Casino closure so Russ
won't be on the bill but many of the original DJ still around will be.
Tickets for the weekend are £49 from
HERE.
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