Tony Wilson was indeed the Lancs Captain way back when. Us west coast types used the 'Elsinore' as a base and the Yorkshire contingent supped in the 'Star.'
In the days when the pubs closed in the afternoon (2.30pm I think) and there were nowhere near as many official events, we had to make our own Wars Of The Roses fun. This entailed a race up and down the Abbey steps, beach cricket, a tiddlywinks championship when Wilson flipped his wink into a full pint glass and somehow (the stuff of legend) ended up swallowing the thing. Yard Of Ale drinking, a wallpaper dance where rolls of lining paper replaced Morris sticks - ahh, the innocence of it all. I stayed in a complex of rooms on the Esplanade the first time I went, must've been about 20 of us in there with one toilet!!!! - no really. Time has thankfully erased the more ghastly details. Malcolm Howarth booked it and I paid him 30/- (that's erm, £1.50 for the entire week)
Another early venue I recall apart from the Mission To Seamen was the Drill Hall - can't recall the exact location but it was a dusty old place.