ROCK 'N' ROLL fans will have one more chance to see the legendary Beat Boys.

Leigh's best-known rockers, who bridged the generation gap and reunited last autumn for what was to have been a grand finale concert, will be taking one more curtain call.

Leader Ronnie Carr and his boys will be strutting their stuff again at the end of next month when they take centre stage on March 31 at Hindley Monaco (8.30-midnight).

The second comeback has been prompted because last year's sellout show at Leigh Miner's Welfare Club meant 300 people who wanted to watch couldn't get in to see and hear their heroes.

Ronnie said this week: "So many people were disappointed because they couldn't get in to see us at the Miners so we thought it would be fair to give them a second crack. "It'll be another double header with my son Paul and his band State of Quo also appearing at the Monaco. Proceeds will go to Wigan and Leigh Hospice and Canfield Special School."

The Beat Boys were Decca recording artists back in the 1960s and the ex-Bedford (Wood End) Colliery mineworker still recalls his debut at the Twist Lane miners' welfare club 43 Christmases ago. Still proud of those mining connections Ronnie said laughing: "I was the first person to play there back in the Christmas of 1957.

"The upstairs room wasn't built and I sang on the billiards tables and we didn't have any amplification back then -- it was a good laugh though."

After 60 years entertaining -- he was only six when he took to the streets in his native West Yorkshire pit village of South Elmsall with an accordion and Oster Milk collection tin and some Christmas favourites -- Ronnie is still on song.

Since he moved to Leigh as an eight-year-old in 1943 the cheeky Tyke has become a true Leyther!

But whether as pitman, milkman or professional musician Ronnie has taken it all in his stride and with the same smiling outlook on life.

Even memories of the record company strike which struck at the Beat Boys' peak and hit their bid for ultimate glory doesn't have him tearing his hair about just how famous they might have been. And although some of their recordings were sold Ronnie shrugs off the problems which befell and prevented them ever getting royalties. The Beat Boys appeared on TV's Thank Your Lucky Stars, Ready Steady go and Opportunity Knocks with The Muscleman, but in those days they used the name the New City Showband.

The talented Beat Boys split in 1965 after which Ronnie went his own way entertaining worldwide and even settling in Australia before the lure of his adopted home-town brought him back to Leigh.

Old fans and some younger charity backers will be at the Monaco next month for a real blast from the past.

Tickets are available from The Monaco in Atherton Road, Hindley or from Ronnie (01942 747663) or Paul (01942 514577).