The Slim Whitman years

Just been listening to Scouser John Bishop on Desert Island Discs and it took me back to the early seventies when I lived in Skelmersdale (Skem as it's commonly known) a Liverpool overspill estate where about two thirds of the population were unemployed single mothers. Scousers have a wicked sense of humour but an inferiority complex when it comes to London and Londoners. Fortunately I was accepted, more or less, because I was a reporter on the local paper. I even stood on the Kop with a bunch of Liverpool fans when my team Crystal Palace surprisingly won one nil. I managed to hold my enthusiasm in! On another occasion I went on a pub crawl along Scottie Road - in those days there was a pub on every corner and I can't remember how the evening ended.
The early seventies were the time of the three day week, factory closures (especially in Skem) and industrial unrest. The Workers Revolutionary Party had quite a following locally and even seemed to make a certain amount of sense. People in Skem were poor, but, being Scousers, resourceful. Everyone knew how to bypass the electricity meters and word got round quickly when the 'leccy' man came around to allow people to quickly replace the connections.
It has often been said that Liverpool people are over sentimental and musically that was certainly the case, despite the Beatles era. John Bishop exemplified this by choosing Jim Reeves' Bimbo and Elvis's Wonder of You among his discs. I think of this period as the Slim Whitman years, as he was one of the most popular singers in Merseyside at the time. I remember seeing him at the Floral Hall in Southport and the place was packed. At the local working mens clubs the audience would stand up in unison when Jim Reeves' You're The Only Good Thing got to the line 'We've had our ups and downs, as all lovers do.' Other favourites were Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man, Marty Robbins' El Paso, Billie Jo Spears' Blanket On The Ground and anything by Charley Pride.
I have never been back to Skem and probably never will. It holds no particularly pleasant memories. It was a run down place then and, I would think, even more run down now. I don't believe that it was typical of the north west, or even of Liverpool, but a victim of being artificially created in the West Lancashire countryside, close to Wigan but definitely not part of it, and cut off from its Liverpool roots. There are other examples elsewhere in the country - New Addington comes to mind: places that don't quite belong to the town or city that spawned it.
As for music in the early seventies, I am well aware that there was a lot more to Liverpool and the north west than country and western, Northern soul being just one example. But in Skelmersdale it was the music of choice for most of the inhabitants.