A MUSICAL diamond has celebrated a note-worthy date as she clocked up 60 years of working at one of Bolton's top music stores.

Freda Aspinall, aged 74, left school in 1943 to join her family firm, Booths Music, when her father Fred Standring was struggling to recruit due to war call ups.

She said: "I asked him if I could come in and help out and I have worked here ever since and there have been a lot of changes over that time.

"When I first started it was all traditional jazz until the Beatles killed the big bands, but music is always evolving because it is just a fashion that always moves forward."

She added: "We used to have top 10 lists of sheet music and they would go out like hot cakes but that all changed.

"However there are still really old songs being sold now."

Mrs Aspinall played both the saxophone, clarinet and piano and was member of many big bands in the area. She settled down with her husband Trevor, now aged 75, and has two daughters Wendy and Julie and a son Tony who now manages the business in Churchgate with his wife Gene.

She said: "I can't believe how much the business has changed over the years. Because of our website we are now taking orders from places as far away as Nigeria and Switzerland which we would not have thought possible even, two years ago."

She added: "I like a bit of decent blues music and of course the jazz but I can't stand that rap music, but that is the only form I really don't like."

SIX OF THE BEST RECORDS FOR FREDA

Here are the top six best selling records over six decades of Freda working at Booths Music.

1940s: White Christmas -- Bing Crosby -- 31 Million

1950s: Rock Around the Clock -- Bill Haley -- 25 Million

1960s: I want to hold your hand -- The Beatles -- 13 Million

1970s: Rumours -- Fleetwood Mac -- 18 Million

1980s: Thriller - Michael Jackson -- 26 Million

1990s: Candle in the Wind 97 -- Elton John -- 33 Million