Power Cuts.Wrestling by Candelight?

I remember that time very well, as I had to ride shotgun on a mates stag night. He had only been working for Barclays Bank for a short while and his mum was worried that if he had five too many, he'd miss work the next day and be sacked. His mum gave me strict instructions not to let him get drunk! Myself and another pal took him to his local pub and was relieved when his 'mates' who the two of us didn't know, basically ignored us and just carried on playing snooker. About twenty minutes in, the mates started to, one by one, bring shorts over intermittently and the groom to be, was having to sup very slowly as the drinks in front of him started to mount up. We were momentarily saved when the first power cut occurred. We were sitting next to a window that had artificial plants by it and I grabbed as many glasses as I could and as I had seen in many a television and movie show, threw the contents into the pot plants. It wasn't long before the lights were back on and the procession from the snooker table to our table begun again, with the guys delivering the drinks, shooting my mate and I black looks.

After the next blackout had come and gone and the plants had been watered heavily once more, I suggested the three of us casually visit the loo and then make a getaway from the pub, while the guys were still engaged with their snooker. As we stood at the trough, in came five or six of the players and while relieving themselves asked 'you 'avin' a good night Wayne'? They then escorted us back to the table and went back to their game as well as bringing more drinks over. After three power cuts and the with the plant pots swimming in alcohol and my charge looking decidedly the worst for wear, I decided if we had any chance of getting out of the pub, I'd have to call in the 'big guns'. I rang Wayne's dad, who appeared about twenty minutes later and the four of us left the pub unscathed. Well not quite, Wayne who had imbibed quite heavily, despite all the grog my mate and I had managed to throw away under the cover of darkness, tried at one point to disembark the car, whilst it was travelling at speed, opening his door and starting to thrust himself out into the night. I managed to pull him back in and we arrived safely at his home a short time later.

He awoke the next morning, a bit the worse for wear, but managed to get into work and through the day and his mum said she thought I'd done a good job. (He worked for Barclays for a long time afterwards). So that was nice!

The newsworthyness of cancelled Professional Wrestling bouts indicates how mainstream it still was in 1972

Just been reminded there was a period of power cuts in February 1972 as well.Again does not seem to have caused too much disruption to Pro Wrestling events

My memory is that newspapers carried timetables of probability of power cuts and so if there was a high probability shows could be cancelled and with less probability they would take a chance. Like many of you I was there but don't remember and not remembering suggests the situation was managed. I don't remember going to the pictures, pubs or wrestling and being in the dark. Maybe we just had more pressing matters, like where to buy candles.

Around this time I was a student at Leicester and the university held a rag week fund-raiser consisting of a wrestling show featuring a stripper. The promoter was Klondyke Jake. As soon as the stripper came into the ring and started her routine, the lights went off. A group of militant female students had got to the power supply. Jake climbed into the ring and gave a little speech failing to understand why these ladies would stop another beautiful lady from earning a living. He urged us all to surround the ring with our lighters and the girl continued with her routine.

It also reminds me of the limerick:-

There was a young lady called Sally,

Who stripped at the local men's palais,

She pulled down her draws

To tremendous applause,

But the hair on her head didn't tally.

Another thought would be that some halls might have had access to a generator(s), although the majority of halls would have cancelled or rearranged the shows.

I would think that some halls had windows and would push their luck and have the shows in the afternoons especially at weekends, others where they knew the times of the powercuts would time theshows around them, I know we always knew when the power was going off in our area.