A number of local hopefuls used to turn up at singers' nights at the old Blackpool Folk Club (Higson's King's Arms, Talbot Road, resident group the Blacpool Taverners) in the sixties (before my time, I'm relying on tales told against himself by the late Pete Rodger). Among them were writer Allan Prior's daughter Maddy, Roy Harper and Ian Anderson. According to Pete, he refused them all floor spots at one time or another. The only one who seems to have held anything against this cavalier treatment was Roy Harper, who returned in the seventies in a white Rolls-Royce, presumably to impress Pete with his success in foreign parts. He lived locally in the eighties and maintained a good relationship with Pete and the club. Ian Anderson contributed to one of Roy Harper's later albums, and apparently said at some point that the only reason he left Blackpool was that Roy Harper left.

Ross