Lowe said he had not dealt directly with Charles and the gig has had various organisers in the past. He said it was originally organised by small-time music promoter Jade Griffiths. Griffiths also ran a merchandising company called Unstoppable Hate Distro. Promoters in subsequent years have been less extreme, he said.

“One organiser wasn’t like that at all because someone did a Nazi salute on stage and he went and banjoed him,” he said. 

In 2018 the Talbot was set to host a far-right meeting called White Victims of Multiculturalism. Speakers included National Front member and BNP MEP Andrew Brons, neo-Nazi activist Richard Edmonds, Holocaust denier Michele Renouf, and White Nationalist Party founder Eddy Morrison. 

Lowe cancelled that event at the final hour following backlash. Booking it, he told The Blackpool Lead, was “a mistake” and he would “never take them again”. He added he would no longer book the Real Rebellion either, only because he has been “messed about”.

“It’s just a revenue exercise to me. I’m not into punk music and I can’t decipher what they’re singing about – it’s just noise. But I don’t particularly want that in here,” he said. 

“If anyone else wants to come and book the room who are decent people, please do. I'd rather give it to decent people than racists.”

Councillor Jon Bamborough has campaigned against Nazi gigs in Blackpool and warned venues not to book gigs with far-right associations. 

"If somebody books them and doesn’t know they’re nasty bands then you can’t blame them,” he told The Blackpool Lead.

“But once they’ve been educated about that fact, if they still want to book them, they’re on a hiding to nothing.”

He welcomed the news that the Real Rebellion had been cancelled.

“A lot of credit goes to Hope Not Hate which has been tirelessly campaigning against this group,” he said, but added he didn’t believe that Charles had sold enough tickets to go forward with the event anyway. 

Bamborough said it’s “difficult” for the council and the police to get involved once gigs are booked. 

“I’d be reluctant to try and get their gig cancelled once they’re coming because what we don’t want is a load of extreme right wingers, with hotel accommodation booked, all coming to Blackpool anyway and then being really annoyed that they have nowhere to go. 

“That’s only going to go one way so I would rather them go to the gig, do what they’re going to do in their obscurity, and then go home.”

Bamborough said that while there is a small “local element” to neo-Nazism, largely these people visit from out of town. 

“It’s easy for them to come here and be lost in the crowd and fit in,” he said. “If they went anywhere else they would stand out but they don’t so much in Blackpool. Blackpool’s always going to attract different groups of people, including undesirables.”

Russell-Smith said security at Rebellion will be “well-primed” to spot and turn away neo-Nazis from the festival. T-shirts supporting the Blackpool-formed white power skinhead band Skrewdriver, Nazi tattoos such as the number 88 – the numerical code for “Heil Hitler” – swastikas and other Nazi symbolism are all cause for alarm. 

“We keep a really close eye on it, especially since these gigs started happening,” Russell-Smith said. “We’re really lucky – a lot of our security are old punks and they knew the score and what to look out for. 

“I have no problem with genuine skinheads and street punk people who are not on the far right but there’s a difference and security has become really good at spotting that. We’re right on it and we don’t tolerate it at all.”

If Rebellion does refuse entry to neo-Nazis, Russell added, police will be informed that they have been turned away into Blackpool town centre. 

“These people are radicalised and it’s fictitious what they’re standing against – it doesn’t exist. I’m hoping that now their gig's been cancelled they just won’t come.”

The Lead has published its first local print edition with a new local newspaper for Blackpool going through 10,000 letterboxes in the town. 

With hard-hitting features from The Blackpool Lead’s email newsletter exploring the history and importance of Grange Park, campaigning to fix a mouldy home and going inside one of the town’s warm hubs the print edition brings The Lead’s content from inbox to living room.

The newspaper contains two sections - the majority of the newspaper is given over to local news, features and opinion - with the back half of the newspaper containing the best of The Lead’s national content including long-form features and opinion. You can see the print edition here.

If you received The Blackpool Lead this week, we'd love to see you with it. You can upload to your social media platform of choice with the hashtag #TheBlackpoolLead or email us on blackpool@thelead.uk

Voters in Blackpool South will head to the polls on 2 May to elect their next MP.

The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Reform and the Green Party have all announced candidates from Blackpool to rival homegrown Labour candidate Chris Webb.

Scott Benton resigned from his position as an independent MP on Monday, amid a suspension from the Commons for a lobbying scandal and a recall petition that allowed constituents to have their say on whether he should be sacked.

The petition was due to close on 22 April and was likely to lead to a by-election in June.

Now the by-election has been moved forward by a month after Government chief whip Simon Hart moved the writ in the Commons on Tuesday.

This process leaves the Blackpool South seat vacant and begins a countdown to a by-election.

Blackpool Council announced yesterday that it would be held on 2 May to coincide with the election for Lancashire’s Police and Crime Commissioner. Polls predict Labour candidate Chris Webb has a 97 per cent chance of taking the seat which was held by long-serving Labour MP Gordon Marsden for 22 years before it became one of the ‘Red Wall’ seats taken by Conservatives in the 2019 general election.

Benton’s majority in 2019 was just 3,690 votes. Webb said on Monday that since then Benton had “brought headlines to Blackpool for all the wrong reasons” but that he had “finally done the right thing”.

“The people of Blackpool South have been in limbo for the past 12 months,” Webb said, adding Benton’s “inability to do the right thing has cost taxpayers half a million pounds on a wasted recall petition.

“People here deserve so much better. Voters now have the opportunity to elect someone who is Blackpool born and bred and who will always put Blackpool South first.”

The Tories advertised the vacancy for a candidate for Blackpool South on Monday at 4pm with a deadline of 9am on Tuesday. Fylde Conservatives chairman David Jones was revealed to be their candidate on Wednesday evening. Jones, who lives in Fylde, has a background in the construction industry and charitable fundraising. The Blackpool South by-election follows five others since October where Labour has won Conservative seats.

The Liberal Democrats have selected Andrew Cregan, a British Gas-employed political lobbyist, to run in the Blackpool South by-election. Announcing his candidacy, Cregan, whose family runs a B&B in Foxhall, said: “I’ve seen with sadness, on every return visit, the tightening grip of neglect and urban decay… I’ve come home to Blackpool because I’m tired of seeing my family and community being let down.”  

Reform has selected Mark Butcher, founder of Christian soup kitchen Amazing Graze, as its candidate. Butcher’s campaign is built around his profile as a homelessness campaigner – values apparently at odds with the party's newest MP. Lee Anderson, the controversial former Tory MP who is now with Reform, previously came under fire after saying people rely on food banks because they can’t cook or budget.

The Green Party is set to announce Ben Thomas as its candidate. Thomas, who grew up in a working-class family on the Fylde Coast, told The Blackpool Lead he will be campaigning for tighter regulations to protect the environment “particularly for companies such as United Utilities which has done too much damage to our coastline and rivers”.

He added that he intends to focus on Blackpool as a whole, however, campaigning for improvements to youth services, greater infrastructure and “community schemes aimed at helping people develop their skills and confidence to increase their employability”.

George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain – which won its first parliamentary seat at last month’s by-election in Rochdale – is said to be considering standing a candidate.

Webb has been campaigning to become a Blackpool MP since 2019 when he stood as Labour’s candidate for Blackpool North in the 2019 general election. He has built his campaign on being Blackpool’s first homegrown MP and his charitable work. He is a volunteer driver for Blackpool Food Bank and chair of trustees for Counselling in the Community.

He said he intends to: “fight for residents through the cost of living crisis, reduce crime and regenerate our town to deliver new, well-paid jobs.

“I’m standing because I care about our town and I want to put Blackpool first. People are hard up and they’re fed up and they want a hardworking MP who will deliver for our town.”

To register to vote visit: www.gov.uk/register-to-vote