A BLAST from the past will greet visitors to Keighley Library as part of this year’s National Heritage Day.

Legendary Keighley band The Presidents are reforming to perform in the North Street library as part of an event focusing on the town’s musical history.

Band members Bruce and Linda Russell, Colin Hodgson and Chris Kelly will play their songs live upstairs in the Local Studies Library on Saturday, September 9 from 2pm.

The Presidents, one of Keighley’s first rock ‘n’ roll bands, played from 1958 to 1961 at venues including Keighley Mechanics Institute, before becoming the Beat Squad.

Bruce and Linda Russell went on to forge a successful career on the northern pub and club circuit, also playing airbases, Butlins and Batley Variety Club.

Kicking off proceedings at 11am will be hugely-popular Keighley indie/folk/punk band Foxes Faux, followed at noon by Nathan Gill as Dayner Sin, and at 3pm by Naimh Mirfield, a 14-year-old singer/songwriter from Glusburn.

There will be exhibition with pictures, information and memorabilia from local rock groups between the 1950s and 1970s.

There will be a talk at 1pm by Gary Cavanagh, co-author of the Noise of the Valleys, the history of 20th-century rock music in Bradford and Keighley.

Mr Cavanagh’s history, published in two volumes, featured photographs, newspaper cuttings and pen-portraits of hundreds of bands active at one time in the district, whether little-known or famous.

Accompanying the books were a series of CDs showcasing songs recorded by local groups and singers from the 60s through to the 90s.

Mr Cavanagh said: “I’ll talk about the 60s and 70s. I’ll give a bit of a profile on each band and play snippets from some of their songs.”

The Local Studies Library staff are as usual working with Keighley history groups for the National Heritage Day event, with the aim of providing something for everyone.

There will be Rhyme Time event for small children in the main library downstairs at 11am, woodwind instruments, a parachute and bubbles courtesy of Little Notes.

Keighley School Heritage will have with archive photographs from many schools, but this year specialising on Eastwood, Worth Village and Parkwood, as well as a history of Worth Village, which they describe as “Keighley's lost community”.

Local specialists will answer questions on local, family and military history in the foyer, and there will also be a an American style diner serving frothy coffee, milkshakes and doughnuts.

The National Heritage Day event runs from 10am to 5pm.