HOW sought-after a 1960s rock star's handkerchief would be nowadays is something that perhaps only an auction of pop memorabilia might decide.

But when a red one belonging to a teenagers' heart-throb suddenly came up for grabs in East Lancashire 40 years ago, it was literally fought over -- by the girls in the audience at Barnoldswick's Majestic.

It belonged to Liverpool rocker, the late Billy Fury, who was topping the bill there that August, 1961, Saturday night. Earlier that summer, his eighth hit, Halfway to Paradise, had shot to No 3 for a 23-week spell in the charts -- enabling him to command the fantastic fee of £250 from the Majestic's owner Boris Hartley.

It was the contrast of that sum and the £12 paid to the entire five-man Accrington-based group, Mark Day and the Knights, appearing on the same bill, that set memories stirring for Billy Fury super-fan, estate agent Peter Davies, when it was mentioned in Looking Back's recollections last month of the beat group boom in East Lancashire in the 1960s.

Great Harwood-based Peter sent a picture of the rock legend with the Knights at the Barlick show, together with recollections supplied to him by the group's vocalist Mark Day -- real name Pete Hibbert -- for the Billy Fury fan club's magazine, to which he is a regular contributor.

Already, with the help of fellow fans, Peter, an avid Fury follower for more than 40 years, has traced the rock star's long-ago appearances elsewhere in East Lancashire -- to such now-vanished venues as the Starlight Club in Little Harwood, Blackburn, and the Ace of Spades in Whalley, as well as Brierfield and the Manxman pub at Higher Croft, Blackburn. He has even been supplied with a picture of Billy -- real name, Ronald Wycherley -- pictured in a Nelson back garden with his dog Crackers.

When he appeared at Barnoldswick, Billy -- who chalked up 17 UK Top 30 hits before dying from a heart attack in 1983 aged only 42 -- was backed by the Blue Flames, a group which included Georgie Fame who was destined to reach the big time himself three years later with with his No 1 hit Yeh, Yeh.

But that night, as Mark Day -- Pete Hibbert -- related for the Sound of Fury fan mag, all the attention was on the 21-year-old Liverpool pop star.

"When Billy was due to go on stage, there was a problem getting him to it from the dressing room which was at the other side of the building," he said.

"The management solved it by providing Billy with four bouncers who ran with him to ensure his safety until he jumped on stage and stood with his back to the audience with one dropped shoulder until the introduction music to his first number. The whole place then exploded."

Pete recalled that Billy stormed with Majestic in a brilliant show that night but the most memorable moment was when the girls went wild for his handkerchief.

"Billy took a red hankie from the top pocket of his jacket to mop his brow when things got hot. He then threw it into the audience and girls were fighting for it where it landed," he added.

Where now might that hankered-after item be -- among among the treasures of an East Lancashire grandmother as a souvenir of a halfway-to-paradise night, never to be forgotten?

If you know or have any other eye-witness memories or photographs of Bill Fury, tell Peter on 01254 888255.