SOAP Aid saw the stars of Britain’s much-loved soap operas take to the stage in the summer of 1986 alongside leading musical acts.
The cast of Grange Hill, Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale Farm and Brookside descended on town for what was a remarkable gathering of television’s best known actors.
How many can you pick out from this picture?
(Image: SOAP Aid)
The event was the brainchild of Andy Lynch, script-writer of hundreds of episodes of some of television’s most popular series, who lived a drop kick away from the back of the Knowsley Road Popular Side.
The idea was to mix the stars of Britain’s much-loved soap operas – which were pulling in millions of viewers – with music.
A host of bands took to the stage – headlined by Marillion and culminating in a set from Liverpool band the Icicle Works.
Teen star of the 1960s Helen Shapiro, then acting in short-lived soap opera Albion Market, belted out her number one hit single Walkin’ Back to Happiness to delight the crowd.
The title SOAP Aid played on the TV theme but stood for Save Our African People – and it followed a long string of fundraisers started by Bob Geldof in response to the famine that had bitten hard into Ethiopia in the mid 80s.
It even spawned a single – Do it for the Children of Africa – which was belted out on the evening.
Looking back it was a remarkable coup given the cast members were hugely recognisable figures watched by millions on terrestrial TV each week…that sort of gathering these days is reserved for the glitzy soap awards.
It was largely compered and held together by Ricky Tomlinson, a popular figure in Liverpool and St Helens.
He played Brookside’s Bobby Grant at the time and would become even more prominent in years to come as Jim Royle in the Royle Family.
His wife in both programmes – Sue Johnston – was among the Brookside cast present and they were all there from Corrie, with extra loud cheers for Jack and Vera Duckworth (Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn).
Anita Dobson, Angie Watts from EastEnders, made a geographical faux pas by greeting the Knowsley Road crowd with “Good afternoon, Liverpool!” and was promptly corrected and rescued by Pete Dean (Pete Beale) who cajoled the audience with talk of Saints and Wembley.
It was a real mish-mash of an event – from the cast of Grange Hill singing ‘Just Say No’ to Bill Waddington (Percy Sugden) showing just how he had entertained the forces with his ukulele during the war.
Those cameo appearances were interspersed with musical acts of which Marillion were the biggest – coming into it off the back of two top five hits – Kayleigh and Lavender.
Their set was lively – with seven tracks largely from their Misplaced Childhood album.
The event pulled in a large cross section who watched on from the pitch with the stage taking up the spot in front of the ground’s old restaurant end.
Footage of the event can still be found on Facebook.