The Wheeltappers & Shunters Social Club 1974

RandallFlagg

Noel's a fan:

Dominic

Gosh ; that was a boring song

Shrews

A couple of things, the old girls in the video were actually only about 25 - times were hard back then.  And that whole clip was much better than anything on a Saturday night at the moment.

Nitefly

There's many a band made a decent living playing the club circuit in the 60's and 70's...

The first one I ever did, we got introduced with "After these lads have been on, we'll have the bingo, and pie and peas".

munckee

I worked in a working men’s club after college it was like nothing I had ever seen. On Christmas Eve a woman glassed her husband in the face, people regularly pissed themselves they were so plastered. Loads had their own tankards. Ladies darts was the worst the women would always scrap over who was looking at who’s girlfriend. 

Musicwolf

I remember the show and it was a fairly accurate representation of a Northern working men's club of the period (and the chairman wasn't that far off some of the committee members who Lorded it over said clubs).  When I was playing the clubs in the early 80s things were already in decline (it was also the time of the miner's strike) but there were still plenty about.  For those who don't know - a Wheel Tapper was the guy who checked the integrity of the train wheels by tapping them with a hammer.  A good wheel would chime but the sound was different if it was cracked.

DB1

I played (mainly) the Potteries Working Men's Club circuit - I did three stints really. About 1982-1986, 1990-1992 and 200-2003. In the earliest stint, the clubs were pretty decent, blokes would put a collar and tie on, no swearing allowed, that sort of thing. It was a proper night out. Second stint, it was noticeable that they'd declined in attendance and etiquette, with more vandalism and decay outside the club - the third stint was worse, to the extent that we just decided to call it a day.

I still remember the earlier days fondly though - mind you, I was younger then (obviously) and it was newer and more fun. The W&T programme was a bit OTT in terms of the way the audiences were in the Potteries, but less of a caricature the further north you went. 

jonnyburgo

They were funny places, the committed men were usually men who were bullied by their wives and got to play the big man when at the club, giving the yay or nay to new members. Loads of fat lardarses at the bar thinking they are important.

Dominic

Did the fastest Whippet get you an honorary membership ?