Tag: Music

John Lennon’s Three Fleetwood Summers

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John Lennon lived in Fleetwood for three Summers from 1947 to 1949, just nine miles north of Blackpool. The image below shows him in the front garden of 90 The Esplanade, a large corner house facing the marina in Fleetwood. The background image shows the house as it is today. Lennon’s Aunt Elizabeth ‘Mater’ Parkes was just widowed and working at this address as a live-in housekeeper with her son Stanley, John’s cousin and ‘big brother’. There are several posts on the timeline showing John Lennon’s connection to Blackpool: John Lennon’s Father’s Home in Blackpool, Cynthia Lennon – Born in Blackpool, The… Read more »

Ron Sharples Starts Blackpool’s First Professional Recording Studio

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Berlin Recording Studios was founded in the 1980s by Blackpool entrepreneur Ron Sharples, who recognised that despite the town’s thriving music scene, there was no professional recording facility. At the time, he was also running a sign-making business, RS Plastics, one of the first in Blackpool to use cut vinyl lettering technology. Seeing the demand for a high-quality studio, he embarked on a project to create a space where artists could record professionally.   The studio was carefully designed and acoustically treated by professional builders, incorporating sand-filled walls and sound-absorbing carpet to ensure optimal sound quality. After extensive preparation, Berlin… Read more »

Cuffe & Taylor Bring Major Acts to the Fylde Coast

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One of the UK’s top 10 live music and event promoters, Cuffe & Taylor are experts in promotion, production, and event management. Offering exceptional experiences for artists and audiences like no other, they produce and promote major festivals, stadium tours, arena concerts and theatre shows across the UK and internationally. Founded in 2010, business partners Daniel Cuffe and Peter Taylor dipped their toe into the live music world with the one-night Lytham Proms in their hometown of Lytham, Lancashire. This has now grown into the huge five-day Lytham Festival attracting in excess of 100,000 fans each summer. Alongside Lytham Festival, Cuffe… Read more »

John Lennon’s Father’s Home in Blackpool

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The Fylde coast played a significant role in John Lennon’s early years. As a child, Lennon spent many summers with his cousins, Leila and Stanley, who were at boarding schools in St Annes and Rossall. He would often take the tram to Blackpool, where he enjoyed performances by George Formby, Dickie Valentine, and Arthur Askey. He also learned to swim at Fleetwood’s old open-air baths, and it’s even rumoured that he and Stanley supported Fleetwood Town. In June 1946, John’s father, Alfred, visited his sister Mimi at 251 Menlove Avenue and took John on what seemed like a long “holiday”… Read more »

First Leisure’s Reign in Blackpool

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First Leisure Corporation Plc was a leisure operator in the UK between 1981 and 2004. Originally based in Soho Square, London, and with other offices in Blackpool and Leicester, its operations included Blackpool Tower, the town’s Winter Gardens and all three Blackpool piers, as well as five other piers, health and fitness clubs, nightclubs and bars, tenpin bowling centres and other mainstream UK high street entertainment venues. Behind the company was Lord Bernard Delfont. By the 1960s, he and his brothers – Lew and Leslie Grade, as well as his nephew Michael Grade – were all very successful and were said to have a… Read more »

Jane McDonald Returns to Blackpool

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Jane McDonald is set to return to the stage in 2024 with her brand-new tour, With All My Love, which will begin with two special nights at Blackpool Opera House on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 October. The tour will see her visit over 20 theatres and arenas across the UK, performing fan favourites as well as new material she has personally written. Audiences can expect an evening filled with glamour, heartfelt performances, and her signature Yorkshire wit. Tickets go on sale at 8:30 am on Friday, 24 November via cuffeandtaylor.com. Speaking about the tour, Jane said: “Over the years,… Read more »

John Simm Gets His First Big TV Role

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John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970 in Leeds) is an English actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, the Master in Doctor Who, and DS Roy Grace in Grace. His other television credits include State of Play, The Lakes, Crime and Punishment, Exile, Prey, and Cracker. His film roles include Wonderland, Everyday, Boston Kickout, Human Traffic and 24-Hour Party People. He has twice been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. In April 2004, Simm married actress Kate Magowan in the Forest of Dean. Simm and Magowan have appeared… Read more »

Ian Levine Co-produces Take That’s Brit Award Winner

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Ian Geoffrey Levine was born 22 June 1953 in Blackpool and went to Arnold School. He is a songwriter, producer, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million. He is openly gay and known as a fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who. His parents owned and ran the “Lemon Tree” complex in Blackpool, including its casino and nightclub. He suffered a major stroke in July 2014, leaving him with severely limited movement on the left side of… Read more »

Josef Locke’s Summer Show at the Opera House

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Josef Locke made an immediate impact when featured in “Starry Way,” a twenty-week summer show at the Blackpool Opera House in 1946 and was rebooked for the following summer, then starring for three seasons at the Blackpool Hippodrome. He appeared in ten Blackpool seasons from 1946 to 1969, not the nineteen seasons he later claimed. Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 – 15 October 1999), known professionally as Josef Locke, was an Irish tenor. He was successful in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Derry, Ireland, he was the son of a butcher and cattle… Read more »

Jools Holland’s ‘A Blackpool Big Band Boogie’

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Jools Holland’s ‘A Blackpool Big Band Boogie’ was specially recorded for BBC Four on 24 June 2015 at the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens, Blackpool. Jools Holland and his band were joined by special guests Rumer, Marc Almond, and Ruby Turner. More than 14,000 people applied for tickets, with only a fortunate 800 securing a spot in the audience. By the end of the concert, Jools and his orchestra had almost every attendee on their feet. The concert celebrates the golden age of big band music from the 1930s to the 1950s, with Jools presenting his interpretations of classics… Read more »