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Who Where The Big Boys Back In The Day?


ImberBoy

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Who where the big boys back in the day?

Who booked the coaches and organised the rabble?

I remember a coach outside the New York Pub at the top of Anlaby Road in Hull ready to take us off to Wigan Casino, we heard of this through the grape vine, never saw a flyer and it was way before most had telephones.

We kinda take these organised trips for granted but they where a real fabric of the Northernsoul Scene, I certainly couldn't afford the train fair and owning a car was for big boys.

Who organised the coach trip from Hull?

Who organised the trips from your end?

"I never ever thanked any for this, bit late now but ................. thank you"

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I'm sure it was nice for you little tiddlers to have a coach laid on, I know Sylv's Newcastle coaches were run by Alex Lowes and Bill Swift who started the Southport weekenders, but it was a bit naff; hitching or jumping the train was the only way to travel.

Yep - we went everywhere by train.

But we weren't hardcore....we bought tickets unsure.gif

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Train jumpin' (sounds like a title for a tune),half fare on the buses till i was about 30 :) thumbin' it,beggin' coach drivers,walkin',any way but push iron.

Edited by ken
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Yep - Reckon you were on my coach, a time or two, Ken!

Never let you off with half fare though, mate.

You were much taller than all the others!

:thumbsup:

Sean

How time changes,now i'm much fatter than the others now :)

Edited by ken
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Guest SteveJohnston

I'm sure it was nice for you little tiddlers to have a coach laid on, I know Sylv's Newcastle coaches were run by Alex Lowes and Bill Swift who started the Southport weekenders, but it was a bit naff; hitching or jumping the train was the only way to travel.

Not the only way back then Ady :lol: a metal coat hanger and a set of wire snips came in handy now and then :lol:

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Well back in the day i used to borrow a van(legaly) and meet everyone at a pub in Letchworth on a Friday night at 6.00,Mick Smith,Roger Stewart,Taffy,Diane plus a load more would pile in this shitty old van to get to Wigan on the Oldies all nighter.

It had a petrol tank that had a hole in it so every so often we would have to pull up someplace and borrow petrol from someone elses motor ,one of the lads Russ used to be a perfect man for the job,untill he set fire to himself one night,oh and he missed Wigan he didnt have much hair left .

Same problems getting back next day

But it was worth it...i think..oh happy days

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How is John? Not seen him since he ran the Vertigo Nights in Leighton Buzzard!? :lol:

On behalf of Martin, Jon is well last I heard. I know Sue has been poorly and Jon has been looking after her.

These Wigan travelling stories are a treat. If I was seven or so years older, I'd probably have a few more to tell.

Remember Nige organising a coach to Odfellows via Victoria, got there and it's cancelled. A copper said we could spend the night in the cells (serious) as when the pubs turned out in Leicester, we'd get our faces pushed in if they heard or soft southern shytey accents.

Happy days - was it all really worth it? Probably not.:lol:

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Guest POTTERIESPECK

The BIG BOYS to avoid at WIGAN were the ones in the gents boggs. SAW quite a few scuttle out of their and doing some tasty footwork across the dance floor to avoid getting turned over.

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I'm sure it was nice for you little tiddlers to have a coach laid on, I know Sylv's Newcastle coaches were run by Alex Lowes and Bill Swift who started the Southport weekenders, but it was a bit naff; hitching or jumping the train was the only way to travel.

Hello Ady

The late much respected Tony Connolly also ran buses from Newcastle to Wigan and wee Duncan Mcallister - I think there may have been 3 coaches at one time. It was coach wars for a while with buses being cancelled at the last minute by mysery callers. Great times and quite funny now when you look back. Coaches did take the fun out it a bit though - I missed the shady characters that used to hang out in Rowntrees Sounds in Manchester and the drug squad at the station dressed in bomber jackets carrying holdalls asking if you had any gear.

Cheers

Manus

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Guest tomaokeh

Hi Manus

Even the Leamers had a buses on ran by Paul Conroy + John Cornwell thats five i can recall

pulled into a car park in Leeds and the driver smashed the side window of the coach.It was basterd freezing all the way to Wigan that night

coach wars you bet Alex Duncan Tony Paul & John

Duncan was abit pissed off if you got on anyone elses coach.He never spoke to me and paul and a few others for a while boxing.gif

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boxing.gif ORIGANAL HARDMAN AT THE WHEEL WAS FRANKIE BAGGOT FROM WILINHALL, I SUPOSE THERE WERE A FEW AT THE TORCH ,HOWEVER "SMOKEY"STEVEN STOKES IS A HARD MAN TO PUT DOWN, AND MICK SMITHS MATE A COCKNEY "BIG CLIVE"EVERETT, DEFANTLY HARD. AS FOR MYSELF I WOULD SHOOT YOU RATHER THAN GET MESSED UPph34r.gif DAVE KIL..A TRUE WEST HAMMER WITH THE SPIRIT OF 69wicked.gif
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Cant remember who organised the coaches from Poole in Dorset (probably Nik Mak or Andy Golding) but when the interest started to die out it was Steve Carter who took the lead and got a 12 seater mini-bus organised for regular trips to the Casino.

Whether he was a 'big boy' or not i don't know - us southerners dont tend to get into them sort of games :lol:

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Who where the big boys back in the day?

Who booked the coaches and organised the rabble?

I remember a coach outside the New York Pub at the top of Anlaby Road in Hull ready to take us off to Wigan Casino, we heard of this through the grape vine, never saw a flyer and it was way before most had telephones.

We kinda take these organised trips for granted but they where a real fabric of the Northernsoul Scene, I certainly couldn't afford the train fair and owning a car was for big boys.

Who organised the coach trip from Hull?

Who organised the trips from your end?

"I never ever thanked any for this, bit late now but ................. thank you"

i used to know a young girl i met at casino wish i could remember her name lived on anlaby rd . i can even remember the number of her house but not her name ,how bizarre is that.she probably caught the same bus.must have been about 16 then same as me. 1979 ,80

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paul reynard sorted my first excursion to station rd, in a minibus taxi 7 of us.whole journey is indelible in my memory. Jumped on scarborough coach a few times think it was nick ward, he took our brass anyway.think we paid a fiver, for the privilege of listenin to an eight track tape of Barry Manilow all the way there and back, think it may have have been that and fact it was as dear as train that started us jumpin the train or hitching. it cost 2p for a pltform ticket in keighley , then off at ince.

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Good memories of Jonathon's coaches from Nottingham - late Wigan Sat nights, pick up outside The Salutation, a few to The Fleet and a never to be forgotten expedition to a Yate Anniversary when the coach broke down on the way back well south of Brum - a stabbing on the coach and an epic journey to get home via public transport...

Edited by Robin S
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Frank and myself organised the Bedford coaches with a few stops along the way. We used a small village family firm, emblazoned on the side in large letters was

'SOUL BROTHERS' with 'OF ONLEY' in tiny writing despite many taken never seen any pics of our coach outside Wigan

The firm still runs today but is known as SOULS now.

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Hi Manus

Even the Leamers had a buses on ran by Paul Conroy + John Cornwell thats five i can recall

pulled into a car park in Leeds and the driver smashed the side window of the coach.It was basterd freezing all the way to Wigan that night

coach wars you bet Alex Duncan Tony Paul & John

Duncan was abit pissed off if you got on anyone elses coach.He never spoke to me and paul and a few others for a while :boxing:

Yeah they certainly were the "good old days "Toma. Great to see you on Friday and numerous other old friends I really enjoyed myself.

Cheers

Manus

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Guest gordon russell

Jethro - Donald - Jacko, theres 3 for a start

Jethro.......now thats a laugh.........remember him when he first started coming up the cats in his lovely hooped swearshirt and holding hands with his girlfriend....think bad ole SMOKEY made him cry once..........so big boy err no

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Guest gordon russell

I inherited running the Gloucester coaches from Richard Selwood after he had his collection stolen, nearly every week chocker full Gloucester-Cats- Torch, and before Wigan opened we used to go to Hanley Top Rank.

Always hard work trying to turn away (if they wouldn´t pay) the likes of Smokey and Robbo etc at the Cats, remember one time when the "normal" plod stopped us just after we got on the motorway out of Wolvo! panic all-round, pills going in every directionohmy.gif copper gets on the coach and says that some old dear had telephoned because we were .....OVERCROWDED!!biggrin.gif wasn´t so bad though(not too many) he let us carry on ´cause we were not rowdy football fans(as suspected).

Steve

hey hey steven smith how are yathumbsup.gif .......was it your coach that got stopped at hilton park and we all sang the mint cracnel song.....you know the one the chorus goes IT'LL TAKE THOSE BLUES AWAY lol......sounds like the night to me.

If we're gonna talk bad boys ect what about WILKY from corby and his mate SNOTTY ( yeh yeh I know lol) Snotty hammered larry lightning at cleethores one night when larry tried to steal his 200 cannister of BB'S. Steve has already mentioned the legendary ROBBO there was also PAUL ROBERTS,TERRY THOMPSON and BILLY WHIZZ from the wolves area.A nyone remember CLICK from liecs.....nails ....BARRY McKAY from the pool whoa!!,we all know of the DERBY boys fiyak and co..........definatlely fun times and you sure wouldn't call that lot "SOULIES"if ya valued your hide lol

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Went on the coach once - National Express from Victoria to Manchester. Took all day Sunday to get back. Never again, we renamed ourselves the "Inter City Firm" :lol: and from that moment on were regulars on the 20.25 out of Euston, change at Crewe......That way at least I could be back home before me Mum's sunday lunch was totally ruined....

Iain Stewart's mag = Soul Symbol :lol:

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Jethro.......now thats a laugh.........remember him when he first started coming up the cats in his lovely hooped swearshirt and holding hands with his girlfriend....think bad ole SMOKEY made him cry once..........so big boy err no

You missed the point entirely, the question was who ran the coaches to Wigan and the three people I mentioned ran coaches to Wigan. If you knew Donald you would know I wasn't referring to these people as hard men :sweatingbullets:

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Frank and myself organised the Bedford coaches with a few stops along the way. We used a small village family firm, emblazoned on the side in large letters was

'SOUL BROTHERS' with 'OF ONLEY' in tiny writing despite many taken never seen any pics of our coach outside Wigan

The firm still runs today but is known as SOULS now.

boxing.gif The Bedford Coach was a good one to be on, and yes it was the SOUL BROTHERS coach, I remember Charlie Frost from Norwich while living in Letchworth organising a mini bus to Wigan, Taffy gave me a photo of the event, but it is so poor its not worth putting on, The thing I remember about that night I had a few wraps on me to sell? as soon as we parked up next to the Casino I can remember the Bedford coach across the road (see my photo) and Charlie got pulled by the Squad and frisked (charlie never took any Drugs) while I just walked by saying "constanoon aftable" The Bedford Coach, didn't Bootlace run the Stoke Coach as he fitted myself and ChrissG on it at Blackpool Mecca going to Wigan? thumbup.gif I think Ady C comments about traveling to all nighters in the early-mid 7ts is apt as we really payed our dues going up "t"northph34r.gif DAVE KIL
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boxing.gif The Bedford Coach was a good one to be on, and yes it was the SOUL BROTHERS coach, I remember Charlie Frost from Norwich while living in Letchworth organising a mini bus to Wigan, Taffy gave me a photo of the event, but it is so poor its not worth putting on, The thing I remember about that night I had a few wraps on me to sell? as soon as we parked up next to the Casino I can remember the Bedford coach across the road (see my photo) and Charlie got pulled by the Squad and frisked (charlie never took any Drugs) while I just walked by saying "constanoon aftable" The Bedford Coach, didn't Bootlace run the Stoke Coach as he fitted myself and ChrissG on it at Blackpool Mecca going to Wigan? thumbup.gif I think Ady C comments about traveling to all nighters in the early-mid 7ts is apt as we really payed our dues going up "t"northph34r.gif DAVE KIL

Bloody ell theres a name from the deep dark past thumbsup.gif

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Guest POTTERIESPECK

DID'NT Bootlace run the Stoke Coach as he fitted myself and ChrissG on it at Blackpool Mecca going to Wigan? I'D BE SUPRISED IF BOOTLACE WAS RUNNING THE STOKE to MECCA - WIGAN COACH IN THE EARLY TO MID 70's ? MIGHT BE WRONG BUT BOOTLACE WAS ONLY 18 WHEN HE AS TRAGICALLY KILLED JN A CAR ACCIEDENT IN MAY 1975, LIKE I SAID I MIGHT BE WRONG.

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used to get the coach from birmingham,cant remember the drivers name or who organised it, vcouple of names i do remember were taffy ,moxy,

Skippy and Mozzel (spelling?).

Was the driver called Ken?

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thats right skippy his mate taffy benny and mozzell , drivers name wasnt ken though

I wasn't there on the night but the story was the driver looked after some goodies when the coach got pulled.

Some right characters on the coach - Mick from Kiddy, Val from Droitwich, Donald, Sam etc etc.

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DID'NT Bootlace run the Stoke Coach as he fitted myself and ChrissG on it at Blackpool Mecca going to Wigan? I'D BE SUPRISED IF BOOTLACE WAS RUNNING THE STOKE to MECCA - WIGAN COACH IN THE EARLY TO MID 70's ? MIGHT BE WRONG BUT BOOTLACE WAS ONLY 18 WHEN HE AS TRAGICALLY KILLED JN A CAR ACCIEDENT IN MAY 1975, LIKE I SAID I MIGHT BE WRONG.

boxing.gifYES INDEED HE WAS A CHARICTOR, AND WELL LIKED BY ALL, ANY WAY IT WAS BEFORE HE PASSED, I REMEMBER THE NIGHT VERY WELL! DID HE NOT SWALLOW A FEW GREEN & CLEARS, A REMEMBER A GOOD DANCER WHO USED TO MEET US NOW AGAIN FRON BENTILLY? MARLENE JONES, WE ALL HAD A BRILLIANT NIGHT AT LEEDS THE BIGGEST ALLNIGHTER EVER? WITH LIVE ACTSph34r.gif DAVE KILpost-13241-12536625944903.jpg

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