Neil Anderson’s new book on the boom years of the Working Men’s Club movement has been hailed as “the most accessible and affectionate record of the boom years of the movement ever written”, according to Dr Ruth Cherrington – celebrated academic that is the country’s foremost expert on the movement.
His ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to Working Men’s Clubs’ title records and celebrates the largely under-documented movement that boasted over 4,000 clubs and 4 million members at its height in the 1970s.
Dr Ruth Cherrington said: “The book includes contributions from many club users past and present as well as performers themselves who cut their teeth in clubs, having to compete with bingo sessions and the arrival of the meat pies. Some stories are hilarious as indeed are some of the photos and pictures.”
The book tells the story of the movement from its teetotal Victorian beginnings to its rise to arguably the biggest live entertainment network ever seen in the UK with clubs selling industrial amounts of subsidized alcohol every single week.
“Neil holds nothing back and of course the club strippers are included. It’s a lovely, entertaining read and documents so well the fun that was offered down at our local clubs and what we might miss if they were to all disappear”, says Ruth.