Showbiz Personality Reminisces Night Life In Old PH Township

A Port Harcourt based
showbiz personality  and movie practitioner, Mr victor D. Inko-Tariah remembers with nostalgia the peaceful and fun filled night life of yester years in the Old Port Harcourt townships when the Garden City  bubbled with life and entertainment.
Speaking in an interview with The Tide entertainment, Mr  Inko-Taria who is also the manager of Crisano Film Productions, noted that in the yester years, the Old Port Harcourt township bubbled with fun and entertainment, criminal activities such as rape, cultism, kidnapping and militancy were unknown in the society and it was difficult to differentiate between night and day, people from all works of life used to come to the town to enjoy themselves.
He recalled that in those days the cinema culture was in Vogue, there were three popular cinema houses in town namely, Central Cinemas, Rivoli Cinemas, (station Bus stop) and Plaza cinemas behind the town market), there were also night clubs and other entertainment hangouts.
He explained that in those good old days, night life started in the evening when fun lovers came out in their numbers to watch their favourite movies and actors. The popular films according to him were the Indian films, Chinese films and Western Cowbody Films among others. At the end of the cinemas, they moved over to the night clubs such as Copa Cabana, Aggrey road (now MTN office), Nido Night Club at Hospital road, Ragent Night Club Borokini, Club 67 and Orupolo Night Clubs at Harold Wilson drive Borokiri.
The showbiz personality disclosed that on Saturdays and Sundays they used to have life bands. At the Nido night club. There was a resident band called the ‘Nidocans’ and other guest bands. Among the guest bands and Artistes that played in the club then were Tonye Grey, Gyraldo Pino, Sir Victor Uwaifor, etc while the youths preferred Copa Cabana at Aggrey road, then it was Sunday jump in the afternoon by 2.00pm and mostly life bands played, such as wings from Aba, Founders Fifteen from Port Harcourt, the Apostles, the Octopus, B.L.O from Lagos, Action from Ikot Ekpene, Sweet Brceze, One World, among others.
He reiterated that Orupolo night club at Harold Wilson drive Borokiri was very popular for Traditional music groups who played at the club regularly popular among whom were Oliver D’cogue, King Robert Ebisimo, I.K Belemu Etc. The music genre in Vogue were soul, highlife and later reggae.
According to him, the basic drinks were beer such as Star, Gulder, Harp, Guiness, Stout etc while the popular spirits were Gordon gin (Gim and lime) Batola, Jonny Walker etc.
According to the film maker, the music of those days had meaningful lyrics and people understood the message and enjoyed the songs and still play them till date. It was era of life bands unlike today when music has been computerized and digitalized, the artistes of today sound gibberish in their lyrics and promote immorality and alien culture in the society.
He also revealed that the dress code for men were Afro hair, three or four layers shoes and Sopido shoes with Bongo trousers and tight fitting shirts, while for the ladies they wore maxi, labou, ‘Akpola’ shoes and Afro hair do.
It was indeed a beautiful and quiet city where people came to enjoy themselves on daily basis.