SNAPSHOTS from Keighley’s musical past been revealed from the Keighley News archives.

Photographs mostly from the 1980s and 1990s showcase the town’s strong tradition of local musicians creating their own rock and pop.

Bands regularly played venues like the Grinning Rat on Church Green and Rob Roy’s and Champers on North Street.

We this week showcase our first selection of pictures, many taken during the town’s musical glory days by the Keighley News’s then staff photographer Bob Smith for our weekly music column.

We have delved into a local music historian Gary Cavanagh’s series of books – Bradford’s Noise of the Valleys – for information on the bands that graced the district’s music circuit.

Goth rockers Skeletal Family, one of Keighley’s most successful bands, have had a career spanning more than three decades, from an indie number one in the 1980s to a modern-day following on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our picture shows an iconic early line-up including goth queen Anne-Marie Hurst.

Rattlesnake Shake became one of Keighley’s most popular bands in the late 1980s, young standard-bearers for the town’s heavier rock scene.

In recent years two of the former members, Tony McColgan and Warren Fyffe, have been running a music shop in the Royal Arcade.

In the mid-1990s Warren was still playing live, as one of the Dead Celebs who were among one of Keighley’s most prominent bands of their day.

Krakatoa, formed from the remnants of Keighley’s legendary 1970s band Dawnwatcher and heavy metal band Cyrka, went on to become one of the biggest names on the district’s rock scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Even heavier were Mannix, flying the flag for thrash metal in the early 1990s with honourable mentions in rock magazines Kerrang! and Terrorizer.

Mannix leading light Mick Walsh kept the flame of thrash alive for many years in Keighley, and more recently he’s been part of popular AC/DC tribute act Highway to Hull.

Another long-time feature on Keighley’s music scene is renowned live performer John Gow, who under various pseudonyms has fronted Keighley bands almost non-stop since the 1980s, more recently the Poorboys and Devil’s Rejects.

John is pictured here in his flamboyant 1980s persona of Nashville Hipshake, fronting the legendary Thundering Hearts who took their Georgia Satellites-inspired sound across the country.

The Big Bang have periodically changed line-ups and musical genres over several decades: by 2013 longest-serving members Stan Greenwood, Steve Wilson and BJ Walmsley had a combined time of 73 years in the band!

We have lots of Big Bang pictures in our archives – worth an article on their own – and we’ve chosen to use one with an early line-up including original vocalist Daz Robb.

A later Big Bang frontman Gary Kaye is pictured here in his earlier band Chaos whose indie sound drew on his pagan beliefs.

Gary – in recent years a protest singer busy on the Bradford music scene – is also pictured in a later 1990s guise as one half of acoustic duo Hollow Horse.

Power-pop singer Don Gaudiosi has played for several decades in bands like Unit 3, Suffering in Silence, Hush, Paris Effect and – pictured here – in Kick.

Back in the late 1980s The Ford Prefects were a major attraction in Keighley’s clubs and pubs with their authentic rock ‘n’ roll sound.