Music At The Rink

A Memory of Spennymoor.

I played guitar with a skiffle group in a talent competition at the Rink during the 1950s. Frankie Vaughan appeared there and I saw the Temperance Seven and Screaming Lord Sutch, amongst others, on the Rink stage. Many of the country's biggest stars appeared in Spennymoor in those days - a tradition which continued after the Rink became a Variety Club.

Everything revolved around the Friday dance (10pm until 2am) and my most treasured memory is of the Friday afternoon when Bandleader Matt Bell knocked on my parents' door at 5pm and invited me to play piano with his band at the Rink that very evening. His regular pianist had been taken ill and later that day (in the late 1950s) it was a great thrill to realise that I was playing with my favourite local band on that long, elevated stage.

I was helped along by the bass player who showed me how to handle the musical score during the dancing! I subsequently played a few gigs at the Dunelm Hotel in Durham which was Matt's resident Saturday night venue in those days. Then his pianist came back but I had already learned a lot.

Many years before all of this and during the 1930s my aunt won the North of England roller skating dance championship at the Rink, when the venue was a skating arena, and I still hold the certificate she was awarded. Aunt Bet is now 100 years old and living in Darlington. I'm still so proud of her!

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