Ron Diggins.

A few years ago Ron Diggins was officially named the world's first disc jockey by specialist music-mixing journal DJ Magazine.

Ron was a professional radio engineer with a business in Boston providing public address systems

"I'd been playing background music and doing voice-overs out the back of my van at school sports days and the like," he told the Boston Standard. "It was nothing to do with dancing – that was the last thing on my mind." But in September 1947, the farm girls from the Swineshead Land Army decided Ron’s gear could be put to better use: "They were passing the office, saw the van and came in to ask if it could be used for dancing. They were having a harvest supper with some of the Italian POWs. Well, I'd never thought of it before, but I didn't want to lose the booking – so I said I'd give it a go."

"Back then there was just the waltz, the quick-step and the Palais glide – and I always ended up with the National Anthem," he explained. "It was unheard of at the time to play records at a dance and it just took off from there – although I had no idea how things would snowball."

Ron’s 78s proved wildly popular, no doubt because his record selections gave audiences slightly grander music than they were used to. "When I started out, the ordinary village halls danced to live piano and drums – that's all. If it was something extra special, they'd have a violin as well."

Three ladies enjoying Ron's music.

In 1949 he built his famous ‘Diggola’ a wonderful art deco mobile DJ booth modelled on the bandstands of the jazz era. The first of six, it came complete with double decks for 78s, a home-made mixer, lights, microphone, amplifier and ten speakers. "It took me about six weeks to build the first Diggola. We couldn't get plywood in those days, so soon after the war. So I had to make it out of coffin boards."

Ron's Hillman Estate Mobile Disco.

In the ’50s Ron Diggin's fame had spread so widely around south Lincolnshire that he had to hire two other DJs to keep up with his bookings. His success angered the Musicians’ Union, who used their clout to prevent him playing larger venues. So sadly, though he’d set his heart on it, Ron never played Boston’s Gliderdrome. He retired in 1995 after playing around 20,000 parties. The most he ever charged was £50.

"I've invented nothing," he insisted on his 90th birthday. "I put the same things to a different use, that's all."

THE GLIDERDROME

The Gliderdrome was opened in 1939 as a skating rink and the management began holding Wednesday night dances but it wasn’t until the 1950s that it became a top spot for big bands such as Joe Loss and Ted Heath. The Gliderdrome moved with the times, and when the rock’n’roll era arrived it continued booking the big names of the day. Among these were rock’n’rollers such as Billy Fury, Johnny Burnette, Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, and John Leyton. It was re-built after a fire in 1959 and was refurbished in November 1964 when the Starlight Rooms were opened with its celebrated revolving stage. Guests were Juke Box Jury presenter and DJ David Jacobs, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (who failed to appear in time to play), Heinz and the Wild Boys and London band The Federals and the evening was even topped off with a drum roll from the then Boston Mayor Councillor Bert Eyre!

Above:  After the fire of 1959 it was dancing again by the time this photo was taken in Jauary 1960.

Above: The building of the Starlight Rooms.

Above: The opening night of the Starlight Rooms, November 1964.

Additions to the Gliderdrome included the now famous revolving stage, a coffee bar on the balcony a 50ft by 70ft sprung dance floor and 24,000 minute fairy lights in the ceiling.
For the next ten years or so Boston was the destination of everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Otis Redding and Elton John to Stevie Wonder and only a few big names slipped through the net.
These included The Beatles. Brian Epstein phoned the Glider in 1962 asking for a booking for his new band and agreeing a date. He then wanted to re-arrange the date, but with the contract still unsigned and with little response from the public, the management decided to cancel. It was quite ironic that in the meantime Beatlemania had hit Britain and it would have been the biggest coup
Boston had seen, especially as they were booked for the bargain price of £50, and the week they were due they were number one with ‘Love Me Do’.

Above: Otis Redding performing at the Glider.

The biggest attendances were for Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder and Elton John, while T.Rex
broke all attendance records with an ecstatic 5,000. The concert, on 15th January, 1972,
attracted the national press for the fact it was a one off, following the band’s successful tour of the previous year. It was also filmed for an ATV documentary,‘Whatever Happened to Tin Pan Alley?’,
which included a backstage interview with Marc Bolan. T.Rex were at the height of their success and fans travelled and hitchhiked from all over the country to see them. Reports said there were sixty policemen on duty, and T.Rex manager Tony Secunda said thirty-three girls fainted.

Above: T. Rex on stage.

The Walker Brothers appeared three or four times, and it seems many other bands were happy to return. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich used to come a lot, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer came twice. The Equals came about once every two months and Alvin Stardust, who was originally Shane Fenton and the Fentones were regulars and Amen Corner gave their farewell performance here.
The soul-oriented Glider crowd were privileged to witness appearances from the likes of Smokey Robinson, Ike and Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and Otis Redding. When Stevie Wonder appeared people queued all the way along Shodfriars Lane (in those days John Adams Way was not there) and into the Market Place, people stood on chairs, tables everything.
The golden years came to an end on 25th May, 1973, just months after Elton John’s show.
Issuing a press statement the management laid the blame with the mindless minority
with the comment that audiences ‘are unwilling to accept reasonable disciplinary rules and ordinary standards of behaviour’ the Gliderdrome became a bingo hall and the big-name artists disappeared
from Boston’s entertainment scene. What a sad day for Boston.

SOME PHOTO ODDMENTS.


Here are a few pictures that I can't find stories for at the moment, I hope you enjoy them.

In 1978 this lorry got stuck when the driver tried to get out of Mitre Lane in Bargate.

One of the many sets of cards given away by Beaulahs of Boston with their food products.

The Railway Mission Hall was in Fydell Crescent. Marriots Motors offices were built on the site and thankfully Marriotts kept this stone and built it into the new property.

The sixties group The Animals, on stage at the "Glider"

The last commercial sailing vessel to leave Boston Dock.

Some Boston nick nacks for the tourist trade.

An old Vesta case (match case) showing the Boston Coat of Arms.

An old picture of Carlton Road School.

Houses that were pulled down in Duke Street.

Looking out onto the Market Place from the Peacock and Royal window, note the Rum Puncheon in top right corner.

The Peacock and Royals curved window on show at the Guildhall.

Lord Nelson's Field in about 1966, built on its place now is the Nelson Way Industrial Estate.

Buildings on the corner of Pen Street and Main Ridge, demolished when John Adams Way was built.

The building of John Adams Way in the 1970's, with The Ram pub at centre right.

An old potato weighing machine used in the old hand-picking days.

The demolition of the Regal Cinema in West Street.

This is the Zion Church which was itself demolished and the Regal built on its site.

An old Lincolnshire Road Car bus and below an old Sharpes bus.

And finally some more nick nacks.

The Gliderdrome

Here are just a few of the famous faces that were photographed at "The Glider" in the sixties and seventies.

The dance-hall, at the bottom of Shodfriars Lane, is now a bingo hall.

P.J. Proby.

T. Rex.

The Animals.

Otis Redding.

Donovan.

Johnny Burnette.