With the festive season upon us we thought it was time to bring you a story of an Eccles Christmas fair with a difference.
In December 1965 Eccles Grammar School fair was opened by none other than Salford pop star Graham Nash, then the rhythm guitarist in chart-topping group The Hollies.
A little further down the page you can watch our exclusive video with Mr Nash when he returned to Salford in 2011 to settle music history with Tony Flynn (and to pick up an honorary doctorate at Salford University).
How Graham came to open the Christmas Fair is a fairytale in itself: the visit was organised by 16-year-old pupil Margaret Muskett who lived on Trevelayan Street, Eccles.
Margaret worked as a Saturday girl at a small bakery on Regent Street, Eccles, where one of the regular customers was Willie Nash, Graham’s father who lived at the nearby Flint House, Ladywell Flats.
When he came into the shop, Margaret plucked up the courage to ask him him if Graham would kindly open her school’s Christmas Fair which was organised by sixth formers with all profits going to The Sunshine Home for Blind Babies.
True to his word Graham turned up at the school to do the honours and as you can imagine was met by 750 screaming fans all wanting to meet the great man.
He took to the school stage and announced that this was the first time that he had opened a fair but added: “I’ll have a try at anything,” and then urged the audience to dig deep in their pockets for this most worthwhile charity.
He then posed for for photographs, signed autographs and gave away photographs of the band.
The Eccles and Patricroft Journal reported that the crowd got so excited that he considered doing a ‘back door’ exit from the school.
He took refuge in a classroom with school prefects keeping the excited fans at bay.
To the rescue came the school headmaster Mr R. K. McKewan who solved the problem in a more dignified way.
The newspaper reported that: “With the quiet word an air of authority which would have been the envy of every policeman who has faced a crowd of pop fans, he dispersed the enthusiastic youngsters and Graham left unscathed.”
Nash then left for his home near Manchester Airport to have a ‘rest’ before playing with his group at the Salford Technical College’s Christmas Dance.
We learnt that the Hollies had just released the George Harrison song, ‘If I Needed Someone’ and it had just entered the charts at number 28.
I managed to find the advertisement for the Hollies’ appearance at the Salford Technical College dance on Wednesday 15 December and it is interesting to see that the line up included The Rocking Vickers, a band who featured at that time a young Lemmy who would go on to fortune and fame with Hawkwind and Motorhead in later years.
You would have had to pay the princely sum of 12 shillings and sixpence for this show which included support from The Teddy Bears, Stage 4, two unnamed folk groups, a cartoon show and hosted by DJ Pete Doyle.
It is well documented that the Hollies would eventually go on to sell millions of records and have over 30 charting singles in the UK and 22 in America.
Graham would leave the band in November 1968 and became part of one the world’s first supergroups, Crosby, Still, Nash and Young, and would record such classic albums as Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Deja Vu becoming one the worlds most famous and highly paid groups, who still occasionally tour to this day.
Graham Nash was given an Honorary Doctorate at Salford University in 2011 where he kindly gave a candid, humourous, exclusive interview to SalfordOnline.com where he talked about his love of Salford, Manchester United and many more great stories.
It’s hard to imagine one of today’s pop stars opening a Christmas fair at the request of a schoolgirl fan, but as you all know, we do things differently here in Salford.
