MY recent pictures of dance bands of years gone by have brought a letter from Mr George Butler, of Manor Road, Clayton Le Woods, near Chorley, who tells me that in 1935, when he was 15 and working in Deansgate at No. 19, the Donegal Tailors, as a junior salesman and dogsbody, he was also required by the manager of the shop to assist him in booking orders for customers outside shop hours.

"One of my most exciting jobs was to dash along to the Aspin Hall Ballroom at around 9pm (during the interval) to measure up the nine members of the Joe Marshall Band.

"They were due to appear at the Theatre Royal to take part in a 'Cine Variety Show', popular with the larger cinemas, and needed white tuxedos. I had the job of booking down the measurements of each individual player for tailor's making.

"It was the first time that I had ever been to a modern ballroom (I had been in long trousers for only a year), and here I was rubbing shoulders with such people as Joe Marshall, Bill France (first sax) and co-owner along with Mr and Mrs Pasquill, not to mention gazing open-mouthed at the lovely young ladies and smart young men who had attended the dance. The manager had virtually to drag me out of the Aspin and send me off home on cloud nine.

"Not surprisingly, a couple of years later I became an ardent fan of dancing at the Aspin, until I became engaged to be married to a young lady I met at the Palais . . . but that's another story."