Small Town Saturday Night: Volume Two
by Trevor Simpson

How all roads led to West Yorkshire

The evident magnetism of Halifax and its reputation as a frenetic hotbed of 60s pop activity justifies the emergence of this thicker companion volume to a book published in 2007. The diligently-researched and attractively-presented paperback embraces both homegrown performers and illustrious visitors, its text awash with big names, with many previously unpublished photos scattered throughout its pages.

Reproductions of record sleeves and labels abound, along with contemporary cuttings, including newspaper reports, show bills and adverts. Also on show is a contract for an Andy Williams performance and a snap of blues legend (and local resident) Champion Jack Dupree entertaining pensioners at the WI.

Simpson acknowledges Halifax’s enterprising promoters, among them the future wrestling superstar Big Daddy. He also supplies potted biographies and we learn, for instance, that local group The Four Embers rehearsed amid the coffins in an undertaker’s workshop.

There’s a little suspect wording (“Joe Meek shot himself on February 3, 1967 – the day before Billy Fury appeared at the Marlborough Hall,” reads one non-sequitur), but Simpson does provide the surreal information, almost worthy of TV’s Stella Street, that “Del Shannon stayed with Con Cluskey of The Bachelors in Elland when he appeared at local venues”.

ISBN 9780954896034, 264 pages

Reviewed by Russell Newmark
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