HIS services to radio have earned him a knighthood in the latest New Year honours list.

But the 80-year-old veteran broadcaster and one-time crooner was a much younger Jimmy Young -- and still six years away from his first "gong," an OBE -- when Blackburn was honoured by his presence in 1973.

He paid a flying visit to the town to feature it "live" in his popular show.

Dashing about in a radio van on only the second occasion that he had taken the Jimmy Young Programme on the road since it began in 1967, genial Jim called in on the girls at Blackburn's telephone exchange, workers at Roe Lee Mill, shoppers in Whalley New Road, youngsters at Pleckgate School and the lunchtime crowd at the Brownhill Arms at Brownhill... where he came face to face with another Jimmy Young.

His namesake, seen second left in the group watching him pull a pint, was the Jimmy Young who was then licensee of the Seven Trees Hotel, near Bastwell.

Also pictured are Brownhill Arms landlady Mrs Olga Blackburn, Coun Edmund Gregson and (far right) licensee Bob Blackburn.

The price of a pint of bitter in 1973 -- marked on the pump -- was 31p in the Brownhill's vault and a penny more on the "best side."