ONCE again, Snapshots readers have answered a call for information – this time relating to the wonderfully-named Swinging Clink venue.

A recent mention in our Rock Of Ages column brought several calls and emails both to the Echo and to the Bournebeat Hotel which supplies us with the weekly list of who played here in history.

It seems the venue opened in the early 1960s, according to Alan Shepherd from Bournemouth who writes: “The guy was heavily into promotion and to this end he and a colleague dressed up as convicts and cycled around town on a tandem with placards around their persons extolling the delights to be experienced at The Swinging Clink.”

Brian Clarke, from Charminster, remembers the Clink from the early 1970s.

“I was a teenage skinhead in those days – well underage, about 14 or 15,” he says. “It was over a shoe shop called Samuels on Christchurch Road in Boscombe where the Shelley pub is now. All the local skinheads and smoothies used to go there and I’d hang about on the pavement outside hoping to get in which I did a few times.

“They played ska and reggae music and a lot of Motown and soul stuff as well, plus the odd live band.

“Inside it was done up like a prison, an old nick, hence the name. Later on I think it became Cromwells, then it closed.”

Nick Williams from Boscombe emailed the Bournebeat to tell us: “Back in September 1969 through to Christmas that year I used to go to The Swinging Clink.

“I was a skinhead back then and the gang I hung around with were all skinheads and we kind of adopted the Clink because they played a lot of reggae and soul music.

“It was pretty small and dark inside but we liked it.”

Dan Balkwill got in touch by email, recalling: “It had a ground floor access but the club was on the upper floors making it a nightmare for bands such as The Rubber Soul to get their equipment – including a Lowery organ – up the narrow staircase.”

Tony Wickham from New Milton emailed the Bournebeat as well: “The location of The Swinging Clink was bothering me as much as it obviously was you, so I posted a request for help on the Cherries messageboard (there’s always someone on there who knows!). It seems as though it was in Christchurch Road next to a cinema.

“A colleague of mine, Gary Chapman, reminded me that Bournemouth Art College used to use the Swinging Clink as a venue for departmental functions in the early 70s.

“I think over-indulgence when attending gigs there might explain why most people have only foggy memories of the place!”

l Interestingly, the single-screen, 1,650-seater Carlton Super Cinema in Boscombe opened in 1931 but was refurbished in 1971 with new seating in the stalls and the circle closed off, reopening as the ABC on April 29 with Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii.

It ran as a cinema until July 10, 1974 with The Dove, starring Joseph Bottoms, the final film to be screened there.

The venue continued as a bingo club until it too closed in 1988 and remained derelict for a decade before its entrance and foyer – and that of The Swinging Clink – were incorporated in the Sir Percy Florence Shelley pub which opened in 1998.

The actual auditorium though was demolished in 2002.