The days when legends flocked to Shropshire clubs

A fascinating website recalling music legends at small Shropshire venues has clocked up more than a million hits on the internet.

The nostalgic Junk Archive blog which started off as a hobby has gone from strength to strength.

It recalls some of the greats who played tiny venues in the county in the 1970s and keeps fans up to date with some of the bands from that era and what they are up to now.

Pictures include Chrissy Hynde and The Pretenders in Newport in 1979.

And there's also a look at the legendary Paul Weller, playing?Tiffany's with The Jam in Shrewsbury in July 1977 as wide-eyed teenagers look on.

But with a wide-ranging remite, Junk Archive encourages people to share their memories and pictures of the past – and this has resulted in items being posted on sport occasions, music events and venues of the past.

The blog was started just 18 months ago by Jim Heath, from Priorslee, and a couple of his friends with similar interests. At the start it was getting 500 hits a week, but this has now shot up to 5,500 a day.

Mr Heath said: "We didn't really have big expectations, we just wanted a bit of fun. We try to keep it up-to-date and hope people share our views."

Visitors to the site now come from more than 80 different countries.

It was memories of The Town House in Wellington that helped the site pass the million hit mark. That figure has since risen to more than 1.25 million.

Mr Heath, 53, who works in sales and marketing at Telford College, runs the site with friends from Croydon and Hertfordshire who he met when writing for former Wolves fanzine A Load of Bull. He said: "It helps that we're all from different areas, it gives us more ideas. It's a bit of a lads thing really."

Jim's next project is an article on a venue which was The Village in Newport. If anyone has any information or photos which may be of use to Jim, contact him via the website at www.junkarchive.co.uk