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Three wonderful stickys of music and now the history

At 2am in the early hours of Sunday September 23 1973 the doors of the Wigan Casino opened to a crowd of people from all parts of the UK. Northern soul had arrived on my doorstep and with me looking for a new venue after the closure of the Twisted wheel in Manchester and the Torch at Stoke I was more than happy. That night will forever live in my memory and hopefully after writing this article will forever live with you. The line of people waiting patiently to get in stretched almost to the last bus stop on station rd heading to Wigan town centre. It was hard to beleive it was 1.30am Sunday morning,any normal person would have been in bed, clubs very rarely opened past 2am apart from the odd one or two in Wigan. Usually this time of a morning you generally stumble out of a club drunk or half way their. Not for me sober as a judge thats if they stay sober these days. My shoulder bag packed with fresh cloths,shoes,talc, brut and the odd soul record on a black 45 vinyl. I lined up with the crowd, accents from as far north as Aberdeen and south of London. I sensed this was special,something different from the wheel and torch. At 2am Mike Walker god rest his soul opened the doors on Station rd, the crowd moved forward past the very hard faced dicky bowed bouncers and onto the staircase that would eventually take you to what I call the big doors of heaven, paid my quid and entered the atmosphere which anyone who remembers will testify was something I am sorry to say we will never experience again, it was bloody amazing, the smells of deodorant, the taste of sweat, the music thumping and finally the dancing. The Casino and Wigan had arrived on the world stage, well not just yet but nothing was going to stop this roller coaster, X factor, you must be fkin joking.

To be continued