AFTER years of dance halls and dance bands, a new phenomenon hit the music scene with the arrival of the sixties.

As The Beatles, Cliff Richard and Gerry and the Pacemakers hit the top of the NME charts, hundreds of East Lancashire teenagers began plucking guitars in a bid to make their name.

A new book, the third in a series, now records this vibrant era and the hundreds of singers, groups and venues that were so much a part of it.

Lanky Beat III, has been researched by Bill Hart, who said: “Dismissed by our elders as a mere teenage fad, the tiny ripples of the mid 1950s became the musical tsunami of the present day.”

The major role played by East Lancashire is also set in the work – as it is in Bill’s first two Lanky Beat books and his website of the same name.

It tells of a generation of teenagers who helped shape the era alongside the chart-toppers and made venues such as The Imp at Nelson and The Astoria at Rawtenstall the places to be.

Bill’s new book features such local groups as The Cyclones, from Darwen, The Weather from Blackburn and the Nosmo Kings, of Accrington.

Then there was the 59th Street Bridge and the Rev Black and the Rockin Vicars, both made up of Burnley lads.

The Electones, from Blackburn, comprised lead vocalist Barry I’anson, lead guitar Jim Hopwood, singing drummer Peter Taylor, bass guitarist Peter Eccleston and Bernard Dryden on rhythm guitar, who was later replaced by Fritz Fryer, from the Four Pennies. The band appeared with The Beatles at Darwen Co-operative Hall in January, 1963 – dubbed the Greatest Teenage Dance, and organised by the Baptist Church youth group. Tickets cost just 6/-. including a buffet.

Also making their appearance alongside the Fab Four were the Mike Taylor Combo and The Mustangs, with Ricky Day.

Alan Birchall joined The Phabulous Phantoms, from Rossendale, as lead guitarist in 1963 but left after two years, when the band turned professional, to continue his apprenticeship as a design draughtsman.

They played gigs in Burnley and Blackburn and at the Imp, where it supported big names such as The Hollies, the Four Pennines and Big Dee Erwin.

The lads made an EP in 1964, selling 1,500 over the counter at their manager’s record shop in Haslingden.

The Rest, from Blackburn, played at the town’s Mecca ballroom on several occasions and were regulars at The Salchow, in Great Harwood, playing alongside The Rogues, later known as Gloria’s Phonograph.

Copies of Lanky Beat III and the previous volumes are available at blurb.co.uk. There is a pdf at £2.99.