The debut of the Revolution in 1979 was the second big new ride of the 1970s after the launch of the Steeplechase two years prior. Roy Ellaby shared his memories of the ride’s introduction on our Facebook page – we’ve published them below:
"We were on holiday at Pontin’s with my mate on opening week for ‘Revolution’. We’d been waiting all season for it to become operational. I recall them having to change the banner that was hung up on the ride. It started as ‘OPENING THIS EASTER’, which came and went. The banner was then tweaked to ‘OPENING THIS SEASON’.
Suffice it to say that word got around the camp that ‘Rev’ was up and running. Loads of us from the camp made the trip and joined the queue. It was a queue that stretched from the top of the ride all the way back to more or less where Burger King is now.
We were there hours but it was worth the wait. Still one of the best rides on the Pleasure Beach. The drops are still belly churning after all these years. It cost 50p to ride which was expensive at the time as the other ‘big rides’ were still 25p. The 50p was also billed as a ‘promotional price’ as they intended to charge 75p! As it happens that didn’t occur and it remained at 50p for quite a while.
I still have my certificate and badge ‘I Survived The Revolution at Blackpool Pleasure Beach’. Halcyon Days indeed."
The following year, the new ride would become known to millions via a legendary TV stunt in which Cub Scouts ate their lunch on the ride.