Talk:Ballymena/Comments

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The portion in this article which states that Roy Gillespie stopped ELO from performing in the town is very far from the truth.

I was the journalist who covered the story for the local newspaper (the Ballymena Guardian) at the time.

News that the band was to play in the town sparked a debate among councillors on the whole issue of satanism and its alleged links to modern popular music. It centred mostly on allegations that modern music often contains back-masking - references to satan etc. which can only be detected when the music is played backwards.

Not surprisingly, press interest in the debate quickly grew and within a couple of weeks, it was being covered by papers and radio stations from all over the world. The Ballymena Guardian was receiving sackfulls of letters on this one issue each week. Roy Gillespie was one of those who was most vociferous in his demands that use of the Showgrounds venue, which belonged to the Council, be denied to the band.

What is generally not known or forgotten, however, is that the council backed down in the face of legal threats and said that the event could go ahead. It was only when the promoters, who were from Donaghadee, were unable to secure an apparently reasonably insurance premium that the event had to be cancelled.

To say that Roy Gillespie was responsible for its cancellation is way wide of the mark.