IT WAS bucketing down outside -- but by golly the sun was shining in the Albert Halls, writes Frank Wood.

Bolton's young old uns had got their rainhoods and caps off and were letting their hair down -- and this was no place for any faint-hearted stick in the mud.

The town's young ones have had their turn at celebrating the millennium with a string of summer mega bashes -- like Bolton's Biggest Birthday, Radio One in the Park and The Bolt. Now it was the turn of the borough's golden oldies -- and they weren't going to let a good time slip them by.

Thanks to sponsorship by the BEN, car dealers IGW, ICL, Prestons the jewellers, and Fort James, Bolton Council's millennium team has been able to lay on series of big Albert Hall events this week -- without it costing council tax payers a penny.

For just £1, hundreds of the borough's pensioners are getting a slap up meal as well as entertainment.

On Tuesday, I joined 230 fun loving folk who had braved a soaking just to get to the Albert Hall for a meal and an Old Time Music Hall.

On Monday, it was a sing-along special, A Century of Music. Yesterday a band called Orchestra Polytunes from India entertained an audience made up mainly of Asian pensioners. And today and tomorrow, A Century of Music is repeated.

Every one has been a sell out and the question that everyone was asking was "When can we have more?" Even before Tuesday's show began, the place was buzzing. If it hadn't been for the twin sets, a couple of parked zimmer frames and a few walking sticks hanging from chair backs, it could have been a hall full of youngies waiting for some pop icon to take the stage.

And when comedy vocalist Martin Brand got into "Old Man River" he didn't have to shout "All together now" to cajole the audience to join in.

They were already singing their heads off. It was like Martin Brand and Bolton Oldies' Choir.

Someone should have brought in a few teenagers from the town centre to see how the older generation enjoy themselves.

And there wasn't a Budweiser in sight as the revolving golden ball above the Albert Hall dance floor sent dapples of light over a myriad bi-focal spectacles.

"Do you know, these people are marvellous," said Ann Stirling who works in the Millennium Office, as she drew deep breaths. "I have just come up with a 93 year old lady and she wouldn't use the lift."

Mary Tyldesley, 80, from Great Lever, said: "We have had a lovely meal. This is such a bargain."

Her friend Mary Leigh, 77, added, "I wish they had these a lot more often. It has been wonderful."

Fred Sewell, 74, "If there were more events like this I'd never be away."

Cllr Cliff Morris, chairman of Civic and Millennium Policy Development Group said: "We have seen a number of events for young people so we wanted to do something for our elderly citizens. When word got round about these events, there was such a demand that we had to put on an extra day."

As I joined in a rousing chorus of the Frankie Laine hit "Ghost Riders in the Sky" with the bubbliest bunch of folk you could ever meet, I forgot for a moment it would be another eight years before I qualified for a ticket.

Yippee Aye-O.