A NIGHTCLUB boss has launched a hunt for an old friend -- a larger than life stripper called Zulu!

The average man may be more likely to opt for long johns than a G-string but what most don't know is that East Lancashire is where male stripping in the North West started more than 30 years ago.

The Chippendales and The Dream Boys may be household names now, but it was on a cold winter's evening in 1969 that hundreds of women crammed into the Lodestar in Ribchester for what was to be a historic, if titillating, evening.

Club owner Margo Grimshaw, who now owns a pub and club empire across the area, including Blackburn's Never Never Land, Khaz Bar and Bar Ibiza, was believed to be the first person in the North West to employ a male stripper.

And, although it was a tame event, the landmark evening will be featured in a Channel 4 programme Baring All, which will take a serious look at the history of stripping from the Folies Bergere to its more mainstream shows today.

Margo said: "It would seem that I was the first person to employ a male stripper in this area.

"I remember it well. In those days it was considered naughty but nice, and they certainly didn't bare all. We had women strippers for the men, and I decided we should have a male stripper, but we had quite a job to find one because there were very few doing it then. It was very exciting, really, at the time."

"Zulu," a well built man from Leeds, did the honours, dressed as a boxer. Margo said: "I remember it so well because they all went mad when he lifted his T-shirt. He'd got everyone keyed up for it really well. It was very salacious but very amusing at the same time. I think women tend to see stripping as a bit of a laugh, whereas the men take it more seriously."

The evenings became a regular affair on Thursday nights and ended properly with the lights going out at the appropriate moment. Zulu was not allowed to touch any of the audience, and the women were also given strict hands-off orders.

Margo bought The Lodestar in 1964, when it was a farmhouse, before converting it into a pub and eventually a popular nightspot. It closed in the mid 90s. Margo is appealing for anyone who witnessed the spectacle to contact her for the programme. "Anyone who was there will remember it. I don't think they could forget it."

A spokesman for Channel 4 confirmed production company Ricochet South was commissioned to make the show, to be aired next year.

If you were there, or know someone who was, and especially if you took photographs of the evening, contact Margo on 01254 53812. The programme will be broadcast at a date next year.