For a decade from the end of the 1950s, West Yorkshire was well served by the pop-music industry.

There were visiting artists galore appearing at the region's theatres, mostly on package tours. And there was a lot of home-grown talent, too - much of it good enough to match what was coming out of Liverpool. But it lacked a Brian Epstein to create and promote a corporate image.

Derek A J Lister has chronicled much of what went on locally during that era in Bradford's Rock'n'Roll, and now Trevor Simpson has done the same for Halifax in Small Town Saturday Night.

It's a remarkable book, packed with information and detail, crammed with illustrations (many of them previously unpublished photographs) - good to look at and a terrific read, in fact, researched and written in the manner of the respected pop historian Spencer Leigh with much of the information taken from verbatim interviews with the surviving singers and musicians themselves.

There are detailed biographies of the scores of people who appeared in the town - from big names like The Beatles, Billy Fury and Dusty Springfield (who made her first solo appearance in Halifax) to forgotten pop heroes and heroines like Nelson Keene (a little-known member of Larry Parnes's stable who released two singles and had a Blackpool summer season in 1960 then faded away) and The Caravelles (one big hit in 1963 with You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry).

The most fascinating material for me, though, comes in the sections about local bands and performers whose memories conjure up the spirit of the times.

Take Johnnie Casson, for instance. The comedian and former drummer with first The Avengers and then The Cresters remembers: "I got into rock and roll when I was at school. I was at St Bede's Grammar School in Bradford and I had a bus into Bradford from Halifax, then I had to walk to the bus station past the Gaumont Cinema to Forster Square for the second bus to school.

"I walked past the Students' Club where The Cresters started. I saw Buddy Holly at the first house in Bradford and he had an amplifier like a wardrobeI also saw Bill Haley and the Comets, and Eddie Cochran with Gene Vincent.

"Eddie Cochran was fantastic with the big Gretsch guitar and he combed his hair between songs which drew a wolf whistle from the crowd. He stopped and said, Hey Mister, you and me in the car park after the show'."

Fellow Cresters member Richard Harding, regarded by Johnnie as "the finest British guitar talent bar none", also has a powerful memory of the Students' Club, which used to be in a basement in New Victoria Street.

"It had originally been a jazz club," he says. "There was no booze, just coffee and soft drinks, and it was a real dump. A lad came in one day and said that he would paint some murals on the walls to smarten it all up and he made a great job of it. His name was David Hockney.and the club was demolished with all Hockney's early masterpieces on the walls."

Batley-born Sammy King was another St Bede's lad and Bradford rock'n'roller who was on holiday in Anglesy in 1968 when, seeing bright lights across the water, he was inspired to write a song called Penny Arcade and later made a demo of it in Heckmondwike.

He took it to Batley Variety Club where Roy Orbison was appearing and met the man himself.

"He said he was going for a meal after the show and invited me to go along and bring my tape with a promise that he'd listen to the song. So I went along to the Beefeater Restaurant just up the road from the Batley Variety Club and they were all sat there, him and his entourage. He said Let's listen to your songs' and I was a bit embarrassed because I thought he'd just get me in a corner and only he and I would listen to them. I had to play them all for everybody and at the end he took the tape back with him to America."

The embarrassment proved to be worth it. Within weeks Orbison went into the studio in Nashville and recorded Penny Arcade. It became his last hit single of the 1960s in England.

  • Besides a day job as manager for the Abbey bank (from which he has now retired), Trevor Simpson has been a Football League referee (his CV includes officiating at two Wembley finals) and local disc jockey and is a contributor to various music publications. He also formed the Calderdale Hospital Radio Charity in 1981. All proceeds from the sale of Small Town Saturday Night will go to that charity. It costs £15 from Fred Wade's Ltd, Rawson Street, Halifax or by phone (plus postage) through Jennifer Pell on (01422) 354400.