At the top of the page are 4 views very familiar to anybody who attended allnighters at Wigan casino in it's height of success. The first shows a typical Sunday morning scene after the allnighter people walking aimlessly around. Looking for there coach home, or friends, or talking about the night to anybody who would listen. A background sound of several cassette players all playing the allnighter everybody there had just spent 8 hours in. The whole scene after a allnighter varied little each week the same faces all wide eyed showing very little sign's of fatigue at all. A big talking point was the venue where a alldayer was on a big majority of the people in the casino. Instead of heading home for sleep where now on there way to a alldayer in a location miles away. The whole thing was that good everybody there just could'nt get enough of it. Back in the time about 1975 the casino was about as good as it ever got the records played where unique loud applause followed the top sounds. I went to almost every top allnighter at the time there was'nt another to match the atmosphere and the excitement that Wigan casino had. I went to Yate, st Ives, Cleethorpes, and various other places all over the UK nowhere got close to the tingle you got waiting in Station road for the doors to open and the allnighter to start.

Almost every member was a teenager or in there early 20's going home was a subject never mentioned at all. I was remembering the times the other day. I had a CSE exam at 9 am Monday it was 2.15 am Monday morning. I was listening to Shelia Antony "living in love" in Sheffield at a flat the exam had no interest to me at the time. As I had no way of getting to my Kidderminster home in time you put the thoughts of doing the exam out of your mind. I woke up on a Monday morning in beds all over the north east, Nottingham, Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, and a list of other places. With girls I had known since Friday or Saturday night but where now the best girl you had ever met in your life. Because she had said you where a good dancer you now loved her for that week anyway.    

 Wigan casino in the height of it's unequalled success was more than a club where teenagers went. It was a community nobody was ever seen as less valued than anybody else. Race, upbringing, or education did'nt matter the casino had member's who where from the best class of people. It also had members from across the entire social spectrum of life all there for 1 reason to enjoy it. How much money you had never came into it the vast majority of members left there normal life at home. The whole northern soul scene at that time as nothing today you could compare it with. My personal view is there are now too many easy ways to earn a living by avoiding work altogether. At the time of Wigan casino allnighter the country had very little to resemble the UK like it is today a far more sharing feeling.

   Over recent times at events and allnighters all over the UK even today you still get prats who tell you how it was at Wigan casino allnighter. You cant get a more detailed account of it than by some prat who had'nt been born when it was open but will explain what took place in detail. I must admire there nerve and there memory for something that took place before conception did for them. Or the other annoying kind of person is the 1 who went to the last night but instantly became an authority on the previous 8 years will even say your wrong. If your experience of Wigan casino is after 1976 you never went to a allnighter that was real Wigan casino at all it was the same building and DJ's but no longer the atmosphere and excitement it had in the beginning. Or the large amount of barbed up idiots who suddenly flocked to the casino after the media spotlight had shone in the allnighter. That in itself was a outrage the week prior to the film crews arriving the people there where asked to cast a vote by a show of hands if they should be allowed in a 2 to 1 majority not to let them in was clearly visible to everybody in the casino that night. It must of been obvious to Mike Walker who conducted the vote himself. But even a large majority showing they wanted no public unveiling of our private world to everybody in normality to look on like the people that went where some sort of strange creature being displayed to the normal world. In the end Granada made the worst film ever about Wigan casino and the meaning the allnighter had on the members who went there it was a insult to Wigan casino the thousands who attended the the allnighter since it opened in 1973. But most of all it gave the impression the majority of people there just caught the bus down the road to get there. Nothing was mentioned about the history of northern soul music in the UK at clubs that where open before Wigan casino was opened like the Twisted wheel, and the Golden Torch but portrayed it as a teenagers night out in a club in Wigan. I have been a fan of the music since being at secondary school I travelled over a 100 miles to get to Wigan weekly I was on the program briefly but I really think it started the end of Wigan casino allnighter. There where many more allnighters. e who had much longer trips than me to get there my friend Susie travelled from Cardiff to Wigan. Almost double the journey but regularly attended Wigan casino.                                      Scotland, Berkshire, and even Holland had people that attending Wigan casino every allnighter that was staged. But nothing was even mentioned on "this England" only 2 people who could of pissed on it from there homes. The true meaning of why the casino allnighter was such a outstanding success was left to the viewers own discretion as it was not mentioned once in the dismal portrayal of it by Granada television. All that remained was a view of a club in Wigan that stayed open all night nothing else was covered the whole TV event was a dismal thing for northern soul music in general. All it achieved was lowering the high standards the casino had achieved and filled it with a new kind of regular dick-heads that had no interest in everything the allnighter had achieved in the 4 years before it. The excitement you felt in the electric atmosphere being at  Wigan casino live is impossible to recreate unless you experienced it. There is nothing to compare it to since it closed no matter what promoters claim.                                                                                                                 There are now many more people who attended every allnighter than when it was open. To listen to some people go on about the things they had done at the casino. Often makes me cringe the funniest tale I ever heard was some idiot who came up to me. Then said it's no good you looking at all my badges if you had got off your ass you could of gotten a few like mine. I just replied 1 more remark like that and you'll be on your ass and need to get of it yourself. My tolerance of idiots was never my strong point if the place closed over 30 years ago and your 20. You don't need Carol Vordermans mathematical brilliance to work out your telling crap. Buy as many crappy badges as you like leave the memories to those who made them.

                    

                                                                          Every person at the casino in 1973-75 was a caring type of person which gave Wigan casino allnighter the atmosphere it had. It was a community at the allnighter it was'nt nessacary to know people very well to offer them your help. Then just to disregard anybody who was in trouble from my recollection of the time. Was'nt a common event ok you are always going to find some git nobody gets on with. I can't seem to remember anybody of hand that nobody would help people from 1 area had a person they did'nt like. This was for things that happened outside the boundaries of the northern soul scene might be. For unrelated issue's people would still help them out. There are problem's that effect you and 1's that don't why worry if it does'nt concern you. The whole time then was that way never make somebody else's problem yours.                                                                                             Having said that if you can help somebody but don't you would'nt of been the type the casino was attracting. You always get the con artist's who sold a variety of things as Amphetamine's. Many of the crowd had no idea what the difference between SK+F and any other blue tablets. So a vast number of nieve people where sold anything the physiological effect was all they got but plenty did'nt know.             

    memories to cherish
 
      how the casino looked

 you wont ever recreate it

as much a part of it as anything