IT was the night of August 24, 1981 that Bradford’s Textile Hall, on Westgate, burned down. A T&A report said a “fierce blaze” ripped through, gutting the top floor, “weeks after an anonymous caller told police the place would be burned down”.

In another report, the T&A’s Stanley Pearson recalled happy nights at the venue which, for many Bradfordians in the 1940s and 50s, was the ‘Mecca’.

He wrote: “On the beautiful maple dance floor, people of all walks of life danced at the Textile. Les Garratt fronted the band, leading it through number after number until a sly glance at the clock told him it was time for a break. There would be a nod to drummer Billy Hill, then Les would glide off to the bar, sitting like a king with his courtiers. The Garratt Band was a swinging combination of some of the finest musicians of the West Riding. Now the ‘Textile’ is gone...and with it something which survived the war years, skiffle, rock ‘n’ roll, jiving, bopping and every other fashion thrown in.”