Blackpool Steam and Transport Day, 1992

It was possibly a full weekend event, but my records show that we visited Blackpool Airport on Sunday 13 September 1992 for that year's Steam and Transport Spectacular.

Whatever the truth (and someone might remember better than I) we found the airport field full of old cars, lorries, traction engines and steam rollers and the odd one or two steam fairground organs. I had the pleasure of driving one of these old Bentleys for a while as a young lad, working in a photographic studio in Oldham. It sucked in petrol at an alarming rate...

Even more personal to me was this Mark III Ford Zephyr 4 as I had one of these cars myself way back in the 1970s. This car pre-dates the number plate year identifier which places it as dating from before February 1962, but mine was a C reg, so it was a 1965 model. A lovely car with full bench seat in the front and gear lever on the steering column.

The apparent favourite of most people who remember the Zephyr/Zodiac models was the Mark II of which this is the Zodiac and a convertible open-top as a bonus.

Blackpool Airport at this time was not as fully developed as it was to become and there was plenty of land available for events like these. Health and safety wasn't quite as stringent as modern times either. It has gotten ridiculous now due to the willingness of people to sue for damages for any incidents which are really their own fault and the bewildering way judges are reluctant to say "Well you shouldn't have been so stupid...". Here I am standing behind the barriers (a length of red and white striped tape) at the end of the runway to take this photo of a Pitts Special stunt biplane taking off to give a show.

One of the strips of tarmac was occupied by steam traction engines. The forerunners of petrol or diesel-fuelled machinery tractors they were, even within my memory, once a regular sight working as road rollers although by the 1950s the much lighter diesel-powered tractors had taken over most duties on farmland. The showmen's engines worked generators to power fairground rides and lighting.

In addition to the full-sized machines was a collection of working scale models. Mostly, if not all, built from scratch they must have represented hours of painstaking work by enthusiasts.

The showmen's engines were usually covered with a roof which not only protected the driver but the generator that was mounted in front and above of the boiler. Water and electricity not generally being the safest of combinations, this was a safety feature rather than an acknowledgement that farmers were a hardier breed, not minding the weather!

A feature of any steam engine is smoke. Generally of the thick, black and choking sort. Showmen's engines, usually parked next to the ride they were powering had tall chimneys that carried the smoke upwards rather than release it just over people's heads. These chimneys were detached and stored horizontally on the roof when the engines were not in use at the fairground.

I used to take a small cassette recorder with me to some of these events to capture "atmosphere", the sound of engines and background noise and announcements from Tannoy systems etc. I still have a couple of tapes somewhere with music from these wonderful old fairground and street organs. I ought to look them out and see if they will still play and if so get them digitised onto the computer. One day...

A row of classic lorries. So many of them were open-sided. Just a flat deck on which goods were stacked, I remember being bowled over once in my teens by a coalman's lorry, being hit on the back of the shoulder by a bag of coal that was sticking out a bit too far and caught me as I was walking over a narrow hump-back bridge where the pavement had petered out. I suppose the lorry should have waited until I was across - I was facing away from it and already more than halfway along the bridge before the wagon came up behind me. I was lucky not to end up with my legs under the lorry's back wheel. He didn't stop of course...

Bringing this article to a close is this photo of a beautiful luxury Pullman motor coach. Complete with curtains, tables and shaded lamps, this 1934 coach would have been the pinnacle of coach travel of its time.

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Blackpool Steam and Transport Day, 1982

Sunday, 6 June 1982. We walked down to Blackpool Airport to the Steam and Transport day. Stand by for traction engines and fairground organs galore!

It wasn't the best of days as far as the weather was concerned, but the weather is never all that predictable in Blackpool anyway and can change ten times in as many minutes. The scene as we walked in alongside the steady stream of cars heading for the car parks.

Visiting the site today, you could be forgiven for wondering where all these fields were, but at the time the terminal building was a lot smaller and the hotel and pub restaurant were not even thought of, so there was a lot more space than there would be in later years.

Prospector up close and personal. This is the last surviving showman's engine built by Foden. Dating from 1910 it was built for W Shaw & Sons of Sheffield and toured all over Yorkshire, hauling fairground rides and providing their power until 1939 when it was sold to someone for preservation.

I can just about remember the last days of steam rollers, puffing away in the 1950s as hot tarmac was poured onto a road, followed by shovelfuls of grit, the resulting mixture then compressed by these leviathans to thin layers on top of previous layers to form a road. Feeling the earth shake as they went by and watching the hot steam rise from the newly-made surface. The clanking of chains and rollers as the steam roller was steered by the simple method of the steering wheel causing the chains at either side of the front roller to pull on one side of the axle whilst going slack on the other to allow it to swing. This is Cinderella - all these steam engines seemed to have a name as well as the registration (MB 5846) and a serial number (10906). It was made in 1924 by Aveling & Porter.

DH 2482 Goliath was a traction engine commissioned by the War Department in 1917 and delivered the year after to pull artillery guns to the front in World War I. Made by J & H McLaren with 3 gears, serial no. 1623. Used after the war as a showman's engine.

FA 2316 Dolphin the last showman's engine to be built by Charles Burrell & Sons Ltd at their Thetford factory in 1925. Serial no.4030, she had 3 gears and passed through several owners before becoming bogged down in a field and finally rescued for preservation.

A display of vintage motorcycles standing in a row.

An early (1920s?) Indian motorcycle from the famous American manufacturer. Unfortunately I've been unable to ascertain the exact model. Usually if a vehicle of this age is still in existence you can google the make and registration number and find out the required details, but in this case I drew a blank. If anyone knows more, please leave a comment.

An early motor scooter. I fared just as well with this as I did with the Indian above. There is a Mrs W.R. something or other that lives at No. 4820 of her road in Maine USA...

The other big draw to the day for me was the reason for this gathering of folks whose attention has been gathered so fully...

There was a good collection of fairground organs at the show!

Large ones, small ones, some with wooden flutes, some with metal pipes.

Almost all with animated figures. Some with percussive instruments like castanets all the way up to sets of drums and glockenspiels.

The largest of them had all of these things; full sets of both wooden and metal pipes and auxiliary instruments too.

I had taken a tape cassette recorder with me and still have a set of recordings made on this day of the different organs. Plus some of the sounds of the steam engines and noises of the fair. It was the start of an ongoing family joke, where I used to take a small cassette recorder on holiday and capture sounds of sea and events and family. I christened it Captain Slog from the Star Trek phrase: "Captain's Log..."

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Creeping Bentgrass Gig Catch-up

Memorial Concert

Saturday 14 May 2016. We played a memorial concert for a young lady, wife and mother who died tragically of cervical cancer. She was too young to be called for a routine test and by the time the cancer was found it was inoperable.

Remembering Rachel.

Eccleston Steam Fair

Saturday 4 June 2016. We found ourselves driving down twisting country lanes somewhere to the west of Eccleston in Lancashire. The Heskin Hall Steam Fair that we had played for years has moved from this year and we were heading for a farmer's field out in the country.

The event looked bigger than ever and with our long-time collaborator, Jack Gerrard at the helm, we knew that the facilities would be top notch. The marquee is always the size of a small palace and with a dance floor and twinkling LED lights set in the draperies over the stage area, it looks the biz, particularly once it goes dark.

There's always been a good crowd in the marquee at this event and so it proved this year. Despite the new venue, we recognised lots of regular faces and we gained some great feedback and a couple of future gigs too!

I even got to play a couple of instrumentals too - that'll teach him to "lubricate his throat" so much...

Myerscough College Open Day

Sunday 12 June 2016. Everything was looking good for this year's open day at the land-based campus of agriculture college, Myerscough College.

The weather started out fine and sunny, though the forecast was for rain around late afternoon. In the event though it arrived a bit before schedule and by 1:30 we had to admit defeat and move all the gear out of the wet. Our wet-weather alternative spot were showing the Euro football to a disinterested few and that was that. Hopefully we'll have a sunny day all day next time!

Birthday Party at Coast Riders

Monday 13 June 2016. We had been asked to play at the significant (must have been 21...) birthday party of the lovely Andrea who rules our favourite venue, Blackpool Coast Riders Diner & Bar, with a rod of iron. (That is what you asked me to put isn't it Andrea?)

Here's the birthday girl with the two of us after our set. The venue has recently started a carvery project which we went to try out the other Sunday lunchtime - yummy!

Not only was it Andrea's birthday celebration but someone else who had reached the age of 70. Obviously I cannot mention a lady's age, but added together they would have been 110... Hang on kids... Did you just blow those candles out...?

I'd brought out the ice blue guitar at Myerscough on the previous day, so tonight I gave the woody a chance to come out and rock and roll! A lovely looking guitar, but I still personally prefer the tone from the cherry red guitar. Everyone else says they can't tell the difference, so maybe it's just different, not necessarily better. Another great night at Coast Riders - and (why was I expecting this?) a couple of challenges for next time in the form of half-forgotten songs from way back!

Fylde Farm Weekend, 2016

Friday 24 June 2016. The Fylde Farm Weekend. We are once again in a marquee, this time in a field next to the M55 motorway in Treales.

The weather had been a bit damp during the day, but it was fine and the field was firm enough as we drove in and made our way towards the back of the field where the beer tent was situated.

This is usually a quieter event for us than the Steam Fair, but there was a good-sized audience of between 70-80 people for most of the night and as usual there were some regulars and familiar faces to be spotted.

Nice lighting effect!

Instrumental time! Photo opportunity!

Another good night - favourite quote of the night: "We come here every year and always say you couldn't possibly get better - but you do!" Thank you kind sir and we hope your hearing improves soon!

Creeping Bentgrass 10th Year at Heskin Hall Steam Fair

What a brilliant night last night! The best comments are those you overhear and early on in the night Fran heard someone say "Oh this is the band everyone's been raving about..."

Four and a half hours of non-stop joy followed with four or five encores. Tense beginning though, as it took me a while to get both speakers working on the PA - perhaps time for another major purchase grrr!

The dance floor filled up nicely and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. At the end someone said "We've been coming here for eight years and you just get better each year!"

Heskin Hall Steam Fair 2014

Saturday night, Spring Bank Holiday weekend saw us driving out Chorley way to Heskin Hall where they had the big steam fair on over the weekend.

With a large number of steam traction engines, tractors, classic cars and much more this is a great day out for those with a machinery fetish, or just those who like to feel nostalgic about how things were just a few decades ago.

We were headed for the massive marquee - I'm sure this gets bigger every year... This would be the tenth year we have done this particular fair. It's been at Heskin Hall for eight years and the first two years were in a field not too far away.

Last year we had difficulties in making ourselves heard at the far end of the marquee without experiencing feedback problems, but this year the dance floor was set up in the middle of the marquee and we set up at the side of it and had a great night with no problems with the sound.

With ten years playing the same event there were lots of people waving to us as they came in during the evening and lots of new faces as well. Some great comments from members of the audience when we finally bowed ourselves off stage after an incredible four and a half hours solid performing!