WITH regards your Musical Map of East Lancashire. Some of the acts I remember seeing locally in the 70s and 80s were the Sex Pistols at the Lodestar, also the Boomtown Rats at the Lodestar.

The Rats played on a Thursday evening. They turned up but their gear didn't, so they used the gear belonging to the support band on the night (Demolition) and promised to return on the Saturday with their own gear, which they did (we got in free too on the Saturday).

I also went to a Student Union do' at the Mecca in Blackburn, the headline act were Manchester band Sad Cafe and their support band was the Buzzcocks, who played on the dance floor (Sad Cafe used the small stage). That would have been 1976 or early 77.

Bands I saw at King George's include Blondie, The Pretenders, The Police, The Clash (twice, possibly three times), The Jam (three times I think), The Buzzcocks (at least twice), Squeeze (supporting Curved Air and again a few years later when they headlines), The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Dr Feelgood, The Beat and many more punk/new wave acts.

In the early-mid 70s at KGH, I saw Slade play, with Queen as their support band (Alex Harvey Band supported them at a later date), Status Quo (twice I think -Quo also played at the ice rink a few years back), Hawkwind, Judas Priest, Lindisfarne (Chris Rea supported them).

In the very early 80s, I also saw Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons at KGH and an ageing Chuck Berry (who was superb).

Some acts I missed were the Two Tone Tour package (The Specials, Madness, The Selecter etc) at Blackburn Mecca, New Order at KGH, David Bowie at KGH, Deacon Blue at KGH and The Smiths at the Elizabethan Suite (or was it the bar below - Margo Grimshaw's pub anyway).

In the early 60s my eldest sister saw the Rolling Stones play at the Odeon Cinema on Penny Street and I think the Walker Brothers played at the Starlight Club in Little Harwood in the mid to late sixties.

There have been some brilliant talent passed through our towns over the years, not least, as someone else mentioned, the Beatles at KGH (supporting Roy Orbison and others). Didn't the Beatles also play at the Co-op in Darwen and the Nelson Imp (a few times)?

COLIN PRITT, Blackburn.