The story of Blackpool Mecca
Blackpool Mecca was a big Mecca dance hall on Central Drive that opened in 1965. The bit everyone remembers is the Highland Room. It put on soul nights from 1967 to 1979 and became one of the main rooms on the Northern soul scene.
It was not an all-nighter. Saturdays ran from 8pm to 2am, so plenty of people did the Mecca first and then drove over to Wigan Casino for the rest of the night.
The DJs were Ian Levine and Colin Curtis. They were known for finding records nobody else had, and tunes like Tony Clarke’s Landslide and R. Dean Taylor’s There’s a Ghost in My House were broken there.
By the mid 70s they were playing newer, smoother records like The Carstairs’ It Really Hurts Me Girl. Not everyone liked it. It split the scene between the people who wanted fast 60s stompers and the people who wanted the new sound, and that new sound is where modern soul came from.
The building closed in the 1980s and was knocked down in January 2009.
Did you go to the Highland Room? Share your rave memories with us.
Nights it hosted
Key moments
- 1965: The Mecca opens on Central Drive
- 1967: The Highland Room starts putting on soul nights
- 1970s: Ian Levine and Colin Curtis make it one of the biggest rooms in Northern soul
- 1977: The Commonwealth Sporting Club opens in the building
- 1979: The soul nights come to an end
- 2009: The building is demolished in January
Sets & mixes from Blackpool Mecca
Mixes hosted on Mixcloud by their uploaders. Tap to play.
Memories of Blackpool Mecca
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