A world-famous working men's club has published a booklet about its history to mark the Millennium.

Members of Idle Working Men's Club also gave three performances of a show called Music, Song and Dance Through the Last Century.

The production was written, produced and directed by Lynn Strickland and featured a cast of 18 dressed as everything from Flanagan and Allen, and the Phantom of Opera to the Spice Girls and the Supremes.

President Frank Johnson said: "It went really well. We did two performances on Millennium Eve and on New Year's Day as well as a preview for people who couldn't make it. For the Saturday night we had to put up the 'full' sign on the door by 8pm."

Organisers first started planning the event in February and printed a 24-page booklet about the history of the club to go with the official programme of the show.

The club is well-known around the world because of its name, which sounds like it could be a club for idle workers. Its fame spread across the Atlantic in 1972 when it was mentioned jokingly by chat show host Jack Di Manio on his TV programme.

It was founded in 1920, originally by shift workers at Esholt sewage works so that they could have a drink after work.

The original club was at the Old Mission Hall in Briggs Yard, Hampton Place, Idle, but in 1928 it moved to its present home in High Street, which was built at a cost of about £4,000.

Members' wives and widows were accepted as social members as early as 1927 and an historic vote to allow women as full members was approved five years ago. Half its committee members are now female, including vice-president Linda Henry.

Videos of Music, Song and Dance Through the Last Century are on sale at £8 and Mr Johnson said 100 copies had been ordered already, many of which were being sent to relatives and friends abroad. The Souvenir Millennium Programme is also available to buy for £1. For more information, ring (01274) 613602.

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