Arcadium Ballroom, Knowlemere St, Accrington

 This was a great little gig which probably only held 100-150 which operated on Saturdays and Sundays, though Sundays was the group night.

It was owned by this big fellow Clifford Davidson, one of those guys who never smiled, and you wouldn’t argue with him unless you where wrong in the head. Though after saying that, he was a great guy.

The venue is still there and nowadays looking at it I suppose it may have been a old Church Hall or something, but nowadays it’s a small electrical company (see photo).

I was a regular patron every weekend, along with many others which included Jon Anderson (then Warriors – later Yes and the rest is history), and also the great snooker player Alex “Hurricane” Higgins - he was there every weekend also.

Out of the hundreds of bands which must have played there I can only remember: The Fourways (Rawtenstall), The Nosmo Kings (earlier called Lenny & The Teenbeats from Great Harwood), but there must have been scores of others.

Bryan Yorke