Blackpool Opera House 1980
The stage door of the Opera House in Blackpool is one of the grandest in the UK. Situated in the 'Floral Hall' of the Winter gardens complex, a Victorian extravaganza of cast iron, glass and glazed tiles, the stage doors themselves are a pair of highly polished oak doors around 3m tall. The doors lead you into a hallway where, back then, a uniformed hall-keeper guarded the stage entrance like a rotweiler. I was there on the recommendation of the NATTKE union boss in Manchester. The previous day I had taken a train from Blackburn to Manchester and had turned up unannounced at the union offices opposite the library in St Peters Square. I asked if I could speak to whoever was in charge and this turned out to be the senior union official for the north of England. I was shown into the office by a kind receptionist, who coincidentally I reconnected with some years later when I started working at the Manchester Palace theatre and we shared many a lunchtime wandering around the Ci...