The Phoenix

Sent in by John Blakeney: My first memory of The Phoenix (1976) is of it being mainly a student pub with a billiard table (where the dancefloor was later built). The downstairs was just a loud extension of the pub above. Live music and the rock disco started in 1977 with 'Big Steve' the DJ, and he later introduced the good old Southern boogie nights. Piccadilly Radio use to have nights there, with James Stannage as the DJ. Mike Shaft visited the place and a few of the local biker gang were very prominent, as were the police, who regular searched the cliental outside the entrance. We had a football team and made regular trips to Blackpool and Edale together, and to music festivals Deeply Vale to Stonehenge. We Rocked. ;-) The MEN wrote an article about the place in 1981: all very cringeworthy, as it was a "straight" writing about something they did not understand, 'with our air guitar and long hair flying'. A guy called Hank, known as the Fonz, said to the journo, "Baby if you dont know me, you don't know anyone." And according to the article, 'Sex was tossed around as freely as the long hair'. The girls were not very happy about that description of them by the MEN.