Had a surprise phone call at work on Thursday, from none other than Richie Monkhouse. The name may not be immediately recognisable to you, especially if you’re under 40, but a lot of people from Cockfield and surrounding areas will remember him from Richie’s ‘Madcap’ disco.

Richie was the ‘main man’ when it came to disco’s in the seventies and early eighties. You have to remember that in this area there were very few night clubs and the workingmen’s clubs attracted hundreds of people to their ‘disco’ nights. Thursday nights at Cockfield was one of the best.

Sure, there were other discos; Number One Sound, Mi Amigo etc, but Madcap was the one we all loved the best. Richie always seemed to be jigging around the stage encouraging people to dance and do all sorts of stuff that now seems a bit ridiculous; The Cockfield war dance springs to mind! He had an infectious smile and a wicked sense of humour and where else would you get this sort of entertainment for a cover charge of 50p?

Anyway, Richie was telling me how he now lives in Chester and had found the blog as his daughter had googled ‘Madcap’ and discovered some of the stuff I’ve written about Cockfield club in the past.

This has put me in mind of a fabulous idea and I would like your thoughts on the subject. How about seeing if we can get Richie back in Cockfield club for a ‘one night only’ Madcap disco?

I think a seventies night (fancy dress optional) with Richie would be a huge success and a fantastic trip down memory lane. Of course, if we can persuade the lad to make the trip up here, we’ll have to charge more than 50p for the privilege and I’ll have to sort it out with the club but, I’m sure we could generate a couple of hundred people if we could swing it for a Saturday night. Just imagine, all those people ‘bopping’ away and all over 50! Of course the younger element would enjoy it too and they could see what all the fuss was about when they heard their parents talking of the good old days of Cockfield club.

Post me your thoughts either in the comments below or on Facebook or, e-mail at nigeldowson@yahoo.co.uk