IT was a case of It Bites past meet It Bites present at Whitehaven Civic Hall on Saturday.

Local rock icon Francis Dunnery, who made his name with It Bites in the 1980s, was joined on stage by the band’s current frontman John Mitchell for a special encore performance of the Joy Division classic Love Will Tear Us Apart Again.

The encore was the culmination of a nearly sell-out charity show, which saw Dunnery performing with the newly-formed Francis Dunnery’s It Bites Band.

Top guitarists Luke Machin and John Gilmour Smith were also on the bill for the event, which raised almost £8,000 to contribute to the annual fundraising weekend in aid of the charity Dunnery set up in memory of his parents, the Charlie and Kathleen Dunnery Children’s Fund.