Blackpool's Syndicate aka ABC Theatre

On Satuday as I was walking through Blackpool with camera at the ready I stopped to take a photo of the old Syndicate night club building.

I always think of it as the ABC Theatre, but it started life as the Empire Theatre and Opera House in July 1895. The opening performance included turns by Miss Maggie Duggan, who was a male impersonator and also Mr Quinton Gibson, who impersonated females. If they had only got together they could have saved a lot of bother...

Plagued by financial problems the Empire closed in 1900 to be turned into the Hippodrome and opened as a circus, but ten years later was refurbished inside with a raked floor which allowed use as both a cinema and variety theatre. Associated British Cinemas (ABC) took over the building in 1929 but a planned rebuild was interrupted by the Second World War and it was 1963 before the theatre was rebuilt and opened in grand style with a lavish Summer Season show called Holiday Carnival and starring Cliff Richard and the Shadows, who released an extended play album (EP) also named Holiday Carnival.

The stage had a revolving section built into it. Some of the greatest names from the 1960s and 70s played there, including The Beatles, Morecambe and Wise and many more. ABC used it to stage the televised Blackpool Night Out shows during the 1960s.

Then in 1981 the cinema became a triple screen cinema and that was the end of the live shows, though the stage, orchestra pit and dressing rooms still existed at this point. The name changed again to Cannon (1986) and MGM (1993) but at the end of 1998 the cinema closed for good. Four long years later it reopened as the Syndicate nightclub after a massive refurbishment that saw all of the theatre interior and workings removed. It closed in 2007, reopened and stuttered along for special events and a spell as a Polish night club.

The council have plans for a car park for a few years before it turns into something else. One idea has been for a high quality hotel to try to woo conference trade back to the Winter Gardens. We shall see.

At the moment, the Syndicate cladding is coming off and some of the old decorative brickwork from pre-1963 days is being uncovered. There was a lot of feeling in the town that the building should not be lost, but conversion to almost anything else would have been prohibitively expensive. The days of variety shows that I remember with such affection are sadly all but gone. Britain's Got Morons (sorry - "Talent", though that is patently untrue...) is about the last bastion of variety these days.

Very, very, sad.

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On The Buses

I have never described myself, or even thought of myself as a bus enthusiast. But a few photos went through the scanner recently of a commercial vehicle rally in Blackpool from 1983.

These used to take place every year along the Middle Walk - and still may do these days for all I know. Though the last event I noticed seemed to have lots of modern buses and a drivers' competition and seemed by far more about today's bus companies than about nostalgia and older vehicles.

The above bus, NTF 466, is a 1952 Daimler CVG6 (someone will know what that means...) in the livery of Lancaster City Council. At the time and for a considerable number of years we used to see it regularly on the roads of the Fylde and Wyre districts as it was available for hire.

DGS 625 is a 1951 Leyland Tiger PS1 in the livery of Lonsdale Coaches and with a totally weird angled window across the corner of the half-cab...

Although these photos were taken almost 30 years ago and the vehicles were already over 30 years old themselves at that time, I had no problems at all in finding out the details about them, thanks to lots of interest in bus preservation. Simply by putting the registration number into Google, I found not only all these details but lots more besides.

Whilst I found scores of photos of these vehicles, some from the same event as here, I have to admit I don't get all that excited about knowing the chassis number...

But for the die-hards, here's a shot of a double decker with the bonnet up! NLE 882 is an AEC Regent III from around 1953, fleet No. RT 3775 with London Transport.

These were the real London double deckers and instantly recogniseable. Two at least achieved fame on the silver screen - one being driven to Athens by Cliff Richard in the film Summer Holiday and one being driven under a low bridge by Roger Moore in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die. I know who I'd rather drove me out of the two...

They are made of sterner stuff than the James Bond film would have you believe. Roger Moore, in his book about the filming of his first Bond film, recalls they had already cut the top and put it on runners so that it would immediately zip to the back of the bus and drop off, allowing the lower deck to drive on!

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We Almost Visit Dubrovnik...

Saturday, 2 May 2009. Ocean Village Two sails into Croatia and is moored up at the dock in Gruz, a couple of miles northwest of Dubrovnik.

I know very little about Croatia other than it used to be a part of Yugoslavia and all I know about Yugoslavia was a feeling of mild terror, formed as a child watching Cliff Richard forced into marriage by gun-wielding peasants in the film Summer Holiday. All in all, not the best preparation and grounding for a holiday visit. But at least I was going on a ship and not in a red bus...

As we sailed in, we passed another cruise liner, MSC Musica, anchored in the bay. She was putting her passengers ashore in tender boats.

We had elected to take an excursion this day called Easy Adriatic Coast, which was basically a coach trip with a stop in a coastal town called Cavtat.

We got off the ship and again marvelled at the sheer size of it. We had cruised for several years on the old Island Star which weighed in at 42,000 tons. Ocean Village Two's 70,000 tons was a whole new kettle of fish! Then we walked over to the coaches and found our coach. We were told to have our passports ready for examination, but the officer on duty was talking on his mobile phone and waved us through. The coach turned northwest out of the docks up to the Ombla river and then climbed the hillside, before turning southeast towards and past Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Known as the Pearl of the Adriatic, it has been a major centre of power in the Mediterranean since the 1200s. Despite earthquakes and wars as recent as 1995, it has retained its ancient walls and churches. But we're not going there and it is already receding behind us as the coach continues along the coast...

Just off the coast is a small island, uninhabited but landing by day-trippers is permitted. There is a wildlife sanctuary there and it is popular with locals who take picnics to eat on the beaches of the island.

After a spectacular cliff-road drive along the coast, we come into a small bay and the coach pulls to a stop with a hiss of air-brakes.

Next time: Doggy-doos in Cavtat... has anyone got a tissue?

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Dailey and Wayne [2]

And I've got the spelling right this time too!

I mentioned the 1960s-70s comedy duo Dailey and Wayne quite a while ago after a relative of Billy Wayne sent me a signed photograph of the pair.

Recently Dinah, the daughter of Pat Dailey has been in touch, leaving a number of comments on the post linked above, but she was also kind enough to send me some fabulous memorabilia on the act some of which I reproduce here with her permission.

Having been brought up in a time when Variety was one of the major types of entertainment, both in live theatre and on television, it always seems a shame to me that some of the great acts I remember - even if only vaguely - are never seen or heard about. Variety now seems to mean half entertainment and half showing people on television solely so we can laugh at their naivety and lack of sense of reality on shows like The X-Factor. It's a cross between the exploitation of the likes of the Jeremy Kyle show and Variety.



Some of the posters and programme covers Dinah sent were from shows that my parents had taken us to see, such as the one above right, which starred The Shadows at the ABC Theatre in Great Yarmouth in 1964.



I have a feeling we saw the Val Doonican show at Great Yarmouth too and I remembered with great fondness another show Dinah mentioned - that at the ABC Theatre in Blackpool in 1963 following the theatre's refurbishment and renaming with Cliff Richard as the headlining act. We must have seen that show at least three times that year with various female members of the family swooning...

Pat Dailey is involved in a new website that is currently in development and he and Dinah are involved in charity shows to give artists the experience of some professional productions and a chance to appear at no less than the ultimate starred place on any Variety map - The London Palladium.

So is there any chance of meeting up with Pat and Dinah and having a chat with someone who gave me so much laughter during my childhood that I can remember their names with great affection, even without remembering details of the act? Oh, I do hope so! And dare I wonder whether the world is ready for the band to tread the boards at The Palladium? All will be revealed...