A WEBSITE championing Lancashire bands from the 50s, 60s and 70s has returned years after being hacked by cruel scammers.

Among the Bolton bands included on the site are The Answers - a 60s group commemorated with a brick on the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool.

The Night Boppers, a skiffle group from Ainsworth, are also on the site.

Bill Hart set up the website in 2010, spending countless hours creating a huge catalogue of bands and artists. He was left devastated when hackers took over the website in 2016.

They demanded cash for its return, which Bill was reluctant to do, so had to with the website he had built from nothing. But Bill recently discovered that the site had been saved in the web’s archives - and was mostly intact.

He said: “When I got hacked, I didn’t have the stomach to go back through and put all the information in new site - it was just too daunting. I also didn’t want to pay the hackers any money so I just left it.

“All of a sudden, only a couple of weeks ago, I’m browsing and I decided to put Lanky Beat in and it came up on the archive website. here are a few things missing but I’m so pleased that its back so I’m telling the world about it.”

The site became one of nearly 500bn web pages to have been saved by the internet archive.

In addition to artists, the site also showcases venues of yesteryear like The Farnworth Monaco, The Bee Hive in Horwich, The Casino Club, The Ponderosa and The Hole in the Wall.

Lanky Beat champions Lancastrian rock bands form the mid-50s to the mid-70s - a generally unknown and under-reported aspect of musical life in the area.

Bill added: “The site really captures the history of Lancashire. Liverpool and Manchester always get all of the glory and they still do. Lancashire is a huge place that has spawned dozens of bands over the years. I wanted to put the record straight and tell the world about some of our bands.