Couple are reunited after wedding photo appears in retro Sheffield book

When they divorced a few years later, many had forgotten the photo even existed.

Ann, who was aged just 17 when she began dating Chris, says: “It wasn’t as though Chris had done anything wrong – we just never saw one another because he was working the entire time helping run the family haulage business.”

They would have stayed divorced, if it was not for the inadvertent rediscovery of their wedding photo a quarter of a century later and the amazing chain of events it set off.

I was researching my Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Sheffield’ book, my first retrospective focusing on the city’s nightlife.

I had amassed literally hundreds of photos in my research, but one in particular caught my eye – I knew it had to go in the book.

It captured the essence of the style and feel of the era.

That photo was Ann and Chris Jackson on their wedding day.

By the Eighties, their relationship had gone the same way as the flares of the Seventies and they the couple had gone their separate ways.

Chris remained in his native Wrexham where the couple had set up home, while Ann moved back to Sheffield.

They had not set eyes on each other for 26 years when word filtered through that their wedding photo had got pride of place in the Dirty Stop Outs Guide to 1970s Sheffield, a book dedicated to celebrating the vibrant nightlife of the era.

Though Ann ended up remarrying and having two children, she freely admits nothing could ever match the excitement of her time in Seventies’ Sheffield with her first love.

Little did she know that life was about to take a bizarre twist of fate that would put her back in his arms.

She says: “A car suddenly screeched to a halt when I was walking to the bus stop and my friend Jacqueline, who also used to work at the Hofbräuhaus with her husband Orrett, shouted ‘I’ve just seen you in this new book on your wedding day’.”

The couple ended up getting back in touch and the courtship started all over again.

Within months they remarried – and I was guest of honour at the wedding.

Ann says: “Chris told me he had only ever had one love and had sworn never to marry again.

“He kept that promise until he asked me to marry him – again.

“The only thing I ever had a problem with was the fact Chris now looks smaller than he did in the Seventies, but that can be explained easily – he doesn’t wear platforms anymore.”

But that was only the start of the impact of the photo.

The book ended up being such a success it became the inspiration for my dirtystopouts.com – a company dedicated to celebrating the city’s retro night culture that has gone on to re-ignite a string of additional romances in recent years.

Its success has now inspired more than 20 more ‘Dirty Stop Outs Guide’ titles with them being launched in Liverpool, Manchester, Coventry, Chesterfield and Barnsley – with more on the way.

There is even an edition dedicated to famous Sheffield venue The Fiesta Club, which was reputed to be the largest in Europe when it opened in 1970 – it is now the site of the Odeon cinema in the city centre.

It is still hard to imagine such a venue existed in Sheffield. It was the epitome of glitz, like having a slice of Las Vegas on Arundel Gate.

I’m indebted to scores of former staff, clubgoers and artists – without their help I’d never have been able to complete it.

The book is packed with rare pictures, memories and anecdotes that take you straight back to an era when a chicken-in-a-basket meal was all that stood between you and the biggest stars on the planet.

Jobs at the Fiesta became the most sought-after anywhere – it had more than 100 staff and an auditorium capacity of 1,300.

One former member of staff said: “I absolutely loved working there. It was how I imagined London or Las Vegas to be at the time.”