Anyway, me and Steve finally decided we would thumb it to Wigan as no one we knew was going that weekend that we could cadge a lift from.  We never had the faintest idea of how to get there but decided to follow our instincts and a grubby little map which was all moist and torn in my pocket, besides it was not that far, only about the same distance as Cleethorpes, it certainly wasn't hard to find either, all we had to do was head for Birmingham then get onto the M6 north to Wigan a journey of about 5 hours tops, easy weren't it? wrong. 

We set off early in the morning about 10 o'clock starting on the old A45 which is now the A14 heading towards St Neots where we would pick up the A1 onto the M1 then on to the M6 at Rugby hopefully stopping off at the famous Knutsford services to try and cadge a lift from other Wigan Casino Pilgrims. 

One bloke who picked us up would not stop talking, I thought he was verballing because he was blocked, Steve sat in the front so he got the ear bashing while I fell asleep. 

Another bloke picked us up from Rugby, he frightened the crap out of me but Steve was obviously oblivious to the fact that we were being given a lift in a "stolen car". This bloke was a maniac on the motorway he weaved in and out of the traffic like the bloody Sweeney, Steve thought he was great, he mentioned he had borrowed the car without asking the owner and I reckon Steve thought he had borrowed it from his dad or something, but I heard him mention dumping it when he got to Stoke. I also remember thinking I must try not to touch anything in the car to avoid getting any fingerprints in it.

This bloke finally dropped us off at Knutsford services after about 13 hours of bloody travelling, we were knackered before we even got to the allnighter.  We went into the cafe at knutsford for a coffee a pee and a swallow.  

We met up with some nice blokes who were going to the Casino, I don't remember where they were from but they offered us a lift right to the Casino door which I thought was nice of them, so I climbed I the back with Steve, it was a bit of a squeeze specially with Steve's record box and our overnight bags, they offered to put them in the boot but I said no, (I don't know why but I didn't trust them)

The bloke in the passenger seat at the front asked Steve what records he had in the box so Steve handed him the box to have a look.  At that time I  remember Steve had some really nice vinyl in the box of which the bloke commented on but declined to buy anything from it handing  it back as we pulled up to the Casino.

Arriving outside the Casino building I remember how disappointed I was that the place didn't look that nice from the front, a bit like a railway station actually, well it was in "Station road" I suppose. I was expecting something really posh from a building with a name like "Casino Club" above the doors, but then again the main thing I suppose was the chocolate and not the wrapper.  

We got out of the Car, thanked the bloke for the lift and just hung around for a while just looking at the building; we were finally there.. 

Eventually we started to walk towards the entrance when Steve happened to look in his record box and discovered that the bloke in the front of the car had taken about ten of his rarest and best vinyl  obviously when he had been looking at them. Steve was devastated but we knew we could do nothing about it really as we could not prove anything and could hardly go threatening a group of lads who we hardly knew, specially being so far from home.

Finally entering the club, when the doors opened we were awe struck at the place, although quite dark inside [see pics] it had some lights on and you could see pretty well, the atmosphere was electric and the music was great. loads of people dancing and also standing watching from the edges of the dance floor and balcony. We made our way through the crowd to the loos and came back to settle in a corner near the mirror column on the edge of the dance area [I am leaning on it in pic totally out of it by now] we joined in the dancing and just watched the magic in front of our eyes.  

There was a couple of lads from Cambridge we knew there but didn't see much of them over the night, we never even saw the blokes who gave us the lift; the place was so buzzing , I didn't really  remember what they looked like anyway.  The night seemed to go quickly and we saw quite a few things that opened our eyes that night, we learned that you should never trust anyone with your record box without keeping an eye on it, we also saw some lads nicking handbags from some of the girls by standing next to the ones sitting on the edge of the dance floor later on in the night, and dragging the bags away with their feet to another lad standing behind, I had never seen that before at an alnighter and have never seen it since either.

Well what an experience we had at Wigan; we set off home after extracting the last piece of music from the DJ's, what that was I cannot remember but I can remember the buzzing in my ears as we left [or was it my head] it was always like that wasn't it? the light was blinding as you walked out of the building in the morning and the first thing I always used to want was a cold bottle of milk, so we used to do the [jump out of the bush when the milkman was halfway up the garden] trick, yeah ok, I know now it was not a nice thing to do but we had no money left by then and he had so much milk.

I returned to Wigan on a coach trip "the next year if I remember rightly" and it was also a fantastic night but a little easier to get there this time what with not having to thumb it all the way there, there was a lot more people interested in going by then as Wigan casino" although very well known" then was not quite as popular here in the Cambridge area as it was in the North and Midlands and was only visited by the select few,  until a bit later on after it got established, then everyone wanted to go to the famous 

"Wigan Casino"

I think this is me? what a matchstick eh! At Wigan Casino 1975   (If I stuck my tongue out I would look like a zip!) 

Oh my God!! me at Wigan Casino  (Blockhead)

Above Thumbing it to Wigan Casino 1975

Me and Steve outside my Bedsitter in Mawson rd, 1975

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