BY NIGHT he is a DJ, by day a plasterer – and at 82 years old Carlisle’s Gordon Reardon has no intention of packing in either.

Starting out as an apprentice plasterer at just 15, he has now been in the trade for 67 years – taking a break only for National Service.

In his spare time Gordon and his wife Jean, also 82, run two weekly dances and he also DJs on a Saturday night at the Embassy Club, Cummersdale.

Over the years Gordon, of Currock, has suffered some ill health, including heart attacks and strokes, but has always bounced back.

He says he still thinks he’s in his sixties and has no intention of retiring through choice.

“It was in the news this week that young people will have to work until they are 81. I’m saying, So what?” jokes Gordon.

When he is not dancing or DJ-ing, he is running his successful ornate plastering business alongside apprentice Jason Smith.

Yet Gordon, who was brought up in Carlisle’s Caldewgate, went into plastering by pure chance.

“My uncle was a plasterer and tried to get me into it but I was quite young and I wasn’t that interested.

“When it came to leaving school we had interviews and a good friend whose name was before mine in the alphabet said he was going to be a plasterer and I should too,” he said.

“That’s how it happened. My uncle was delighted. I started on January 3, 1949.”

As an apprentice, Gordon was taught both regular and ornate plastering, going on to specialise in the latter.

He became self-employed at the age of 23, operating as Gordon Reardon Plastering ever since – with Jean looking after his books.

He said these days he is one of only a few plasterers carrying out ornamental work in the area.

“There’s not many people that do it in this part of the country,” said Gordon, of Adelphi Terrace.

On his days off he and Jean, who have been married for 58 years, pursue their joint hobby of dancing.

The couple, who have two children and two grandchildren, said their involvement took a back seat when they had a family but they stepped it up again after their children left home.

He is now one of three DJs at the Embassy dance, playing music from the 1940s right up to present day, as well as running dances with Jean at Currock every Tuesday and a tea dance at New Waterton House, Warwick Square, on a Wednesday.

The Reardons also organise dancing holidays. “Jean has danced since she was 16. We both enjoy it.”

Gordon added that balancing his two interests keeps him young.

“I’ve had heart attacks and strokes but I feel fine,” he said.

“I think you need to keep going, to keep your body and mind active.

“I’m a bit afraid of what would happen if I was sitting doing nothing.

“I still don’t feel old. Definitely not 82.”