IT was Cumbria’s golden age of live music...

For decades, Andy Park was at the beating heart of it all ­— first as a local newspaper pop columnist and then as a band manager and successful live music promoter, working with local acts and some of the industry’s biggest names.

The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, The Searchers, the Moody Blues, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds . . . the top performers he worked with read like a Who’s Who of rock and pop.

He has now told the story of his professional life in a new book: Andy Park, Cumbria’s Music Man.

It shines a fascinating light on the decades where Carlisle was at the forefront of the live music business, with club-goers in the city regularly treated to shows by artists who became mega famous.

“I made a living out of what I loved,” says Andy, 77.

He quite literally ‘fell’ into his life as a music promoter, he says. As a 17-year-old apprentice joiner, living in Rockcliffe, near Carlisle, Andy had the misfortune to tumble over a small cliff. The 15ft plunge left him with a hip injury ­— serious enough to keep him in hospital for nine months.

Laid up, and with hours to kill, Andy spent his days listening to radio.

“I had plenty of time to listen to Radio Luxenbourg and the BBC Light programme,” he writes. “This is where my love of Motown and 60s music began.”

In 1963, he was again working at Anderson’s Timber Yard in Denton Holme. But his many friends at Rockcliffe Youth Cub knew all about his twin passions ­— cricket and pop. So when they wanted to organise a concert at the local village hall, they naturally turned to Andy.

That prompted him to contact Duncan McKinnon, owner of Border Dances, a music promotion business ­(which once famously bagged The Beatles for a show at Maryport Palace Ballroom in the early 1960s). Through Duncan, Andy met Bill Forster, a director with The Carlisle Journal.

It was an encounter that was to change his life.

Struck by Andy’s obvious passion for live music, Bill suggested he write a weekly pop column ­— a job that came with a free press pass.

For several years, Andy - guided by veteran journalist Laurie Kemp - revelled in writing about the bands he saw at clubs such as The Cosmo, Talk of the Border, The County, The Queens, and Carlisle Market Hall (Now TK Maxx).

Typical of his scoops was one about local guitarist Frank Kenyon, of The Ramrods, allegedly offered a job with The Shadows.

“Carlisle guitarist NOT for Shadows,” declared the headline on Andy’s column.

As his list of contacts grew, he moved into band management and music promotion. He juggled this initially with a book-keeping job at a Carlisle refrigeration firm.

Then, in 1973, he launched Andy Park Promotions. In the previous decade, he had organised more than 400 live music events and the time was right to do it full time, he says.

It was the year the government ended the city’s pub State Management Scheme, paving the way for the birth of Carlisle’s nightlife, with venues allowed for the first time to stay open till late.

Andy’s big break came when Carlisle nightlife legend­— saxophone player Tom Foster ­— bought The Twisted Wheel in West Walls and turned it into the town’s most respected club. Bands performed there five nights a week. “Tom’s idea of a good club was to get the best of everything,” recalls Andy. “Tom was also the first nightclub boss to ban ‘troublemakers’, working on the principle that his customers needed to feel safe as they enjoyed a night in his club.

A stickler for musicianship, Tom became the city’s Nightclub King, launching a series of successful venues, including The Pagoda in Lancaster Street, and Flops in Lowther Street. Foster is currently languishing in a Los Angeles jail, accused of murdering his wife Donie Vanitzian. A charismatic business genius, Foster adored his wife.

Legal sources suggest that the crime is he accused of - fatally shooting his wife - will ultimately be blamed on poor mental health and the medication he was taking.

Andy plans to send Tom his book ­— a reminder of happier times, when he was one half of Carlisle’s most glamorous couple. Of his friend, Andy says: “Tom wasn’t a loud or boisterous person; he was a quiet character and he knew what he wanted in life. Without him, there’d have been no Andy Park Promotions.”

Andy’s book starts with his account of him stepping on to the stage at Carlisle Market Hall and announcing the night’s bands ­— The Hollies, The Small Faces and The Who. In 1995, he booked Jools Holland for the Pagoda (who delayed his return to London to go with Andy to the Twisted Wheel); and later, for the same venue, he booked Gloria Gaynor. His career truly was star-studded.

“I feel I’ve been incredibly lucky,” adds Andy. In his book’s foreword, his friend Rueben Slater (of Rue and the Rockets fame)writes: “Andy has been involved, one way or another, in the careers of all the local entertainers and still is whenever possible. I hope he continues for many years.” To order Andy’s book, email Andypark8181@gmail.com