ARTISTS A – C

Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band – Corn Exchange – 25th April 1959

Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band – Corn Exchange – 20th August 1960

Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band – Embassy Theatre – 26th May 1963

Acker Bilk – A1 Club, Wittering – 31st December 1966

Acker Bilk – Central Park (Peterborough Festival) – 28th June 2008

The Action – Palais, Wentworth Street – 16th April 1966

The Action – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd July 1966

Adam Faith – Embassy Theatre – 19th March 1961

Adam Faith – Embassy Theatre – 15th October 1961

Adam Faith – Embassy Theatre – 20th May 1962

 

Adam Faith & The Roulettes – Ramsey Gaiety – 7th August 1965

Adamski – Canters Nightclub, Bridge Street – 14th December 1989

African Steam – Peterborough Technical College – 1970s

Al Stewart – Peterborough Technical College – 1970s

Alan Dean & His Problems – Ramsey Gaiety – 3rd November 1963

Alan Dean & His Problems – Palais, Wentworth Street – 3rd October 1964

Alan Dean & His Problems – Palais, Wentworth Street – 6th May 1965

The Alan Price Set – Boston Gliderdrome – 11th September 1965

The Alan Price Set – Ramsey Gaiety – 15th October 1966

The Alan Price Set – Boston Gliderdrome – 24th June 1967

The Alan Price Set – Ramsey Gaiety – 29th July 1967

Albert Lee – The Crown, Westgate – 1990s

• guitar demonstration / gig on behalf of The Live Music Shop

Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias – Great Hall, Oundle School – 23rd March 1974

• Manchester based “comedy rock band”

Alexis Korner – The Crown, Westgate (Peterborough Folk Club) – 19th December 1965

Alexis Korner – Halcyon, Netherton – 21st June 1967

Alexis Corner – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 11th December 1972

All About Eve – Met Lounge – 26th February 2000

Alma Gogan – Embassy Theatre – 2nd March 1959

Alma Gogan – Embassy Theatre – 22nd February 1960

Alvin Stardust – Wirrina Stadium – 31st May 1974

• support band Fable were signed to Alvin Stardust’s own magnet label and were a very short lived Wolverhampton band whose main claim to fame was that their vocalist, Peter Goalby, went on to join Uriah Heep from 1980 onwards !

Alvin Stardust – Key Theatre – 13th – 18th July 1992

Alvin Stardust – Cresset, Bretton – 29th January 1994

Alvin Stardust – Cresset, Bretton – 20th October 1994

Alvin Stardust – Cresset, Bretton – 10th February 1999

Alvin Stardust – Broadway Theatre – 28th November 2005

Amboy Dukes – Crown Inn, Westgate – 15th April 1966

• featuring Ted Nugent on guitar/vocals

Amen Corner – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th February 1968

Amen Corner – ABC Theatre – 1st May 1968

• supporting Gene Pitney along with Status Quo

Amen Corner – Whittlesey (“The Barn BBQ Concert & Barn Dance”) – 3rd June 1968

• with Donovan, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall
• see “Donovan” for more details of the festival
• due to support The Move on Sunday but ended up headlining when The Move never showed up !

Amen Corner – Ramsey Gaiety – 29th June 1968

Amen Corner – Boston Gliderdrome – 14th September 1968

Amen Corner – Ramsey Gaiety – 26th October 1968

Amen Corner – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th December 1968

Amen Corner – Boston Gliderdrome – 4th October 1969

• the band’s final appearance

Angelic Upstarts – Wirrina Stadium – 6th October 1979

The Animals – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st November 1964

The Animals – Ramsey Gaiety – 10th April 1965

The Animals – Palais, Wentworth Street – 23rd October 1965

Anti Nowhere League – The Park, Park Road – November 2007

The Applejacks – Ramsey Gaiety – 26th September 1964

The Applejacks – Palais, Wentworth Street – 26th June 1965

• Solihull based Applejacks were the first “brumbeat” band to make the top 10 singles chart !

Argent – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 19th July 1970

Argent – Club 71, Lincoln Road – Early 1970s

Armada – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue (Cloud Nine) – 16th November 1971

The Arrows – Wirrina Stadium – 23rd April 1976

Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come – Great Hall, Oundle School – 28th January 1973

• supported by Longdancer who were the first professional band to feature David A Stewart, later of Tourists, Eurythmics, Annie Lennox fame

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 3rd February 1971

• American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist

The Artwoods – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 7th June 1966

• featured Jon Lord on keyboards who went on to form a key part of Deep Purple

The Artwoods – Ramsey Gaiety – 25th February 1967

Aswad – Wirrina Stadium – 29th September 1984

• “I tried to get (my group) Studio Rockers to be the support band by telling the promoters we had a big local following and would get them more ticket sales but they weren’t having any of it saying Aswad were big enough and didn’t need us. Long story short – I said they hadn’t done enough promotion and hardly anybody knew about the gig so they asked me to help out and I ended up placing ads for them in the local papers and arranging for a doctor to be on call for one of the crew who wasn’t well. My brother Boss helped me (me being young with no drivers license or cheque book) and we got to hang out with them before during and after the show. Watching them soundcheck was unbelievable… lovely modest bunch, particularly Brinsley, Drummie and Tony ‘bass man’ Robinson.”

Atomic Rooster – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 3rd May 1970

Atomic Rooster – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 6th September 1970

The Automatic – Met Lounge – 21st February 2006

Babe Ruth – Technical College – Mid 1970s

• Hatfield based rock band

The Bachelors – Corn Exchange – 7th March 1959

• supporting Wee Willie Harris

The Bachelors – Corn Exchange – 19th September 1959

• supporting Wee Willie Harris

The Bachelors – Corn Exchange – 14th April 1963

The Bachelors – ABC Theatre – 20th March 1967

Back Door – The Falcon, Cross Street – 19th July 1976

Back Door – Wirrina Stadium – 25th March 1976

Bad Manners – The Park, Park Road (aka: “Club With No Name”) – c.1999

Bad Manners – Embankment (Willow Festival) – 2002

Bad Manners – Great Hall, Oundle – 5th November 2006

• Charity gig arranged by landlords of The George on Glapthorn Road who had a former harmonica player with the band amongst their regular drinkers !

Bad Manners – The Park, Park Road – 10th December 2007

Badfinger – Boston Gliderdrome – 31st January 1970

Balaam and The Angel – Tropicana, Bishops Road – 1987 ?

• with The Pleasure Heads and The Frantix

Bandwagon – Boston Gliderdrome – 4th January 1969

Bandwagon – Spinning Wheel Club, Bull & Dolphin – 24th May 1969

Bandwagon – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 28th June 1969

• supported by The Epics
• Bandwagon, a US vocal soul group, disbanded shortly after this gig but later came back as Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon

The Banned – Technical College – 7th October 1978

Barclay James Harvest – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 21st February 1971

• Live set included Mocking Bird, Song For Dying, Ball And Chain, Lady Loves, Happy Old World, Galadriel, Medicine Man, Someone There You Know, She Said, The Poet, After The Day and Dark Now My Sky.

Barclay James Harvest – ABC Theatre – 29th October 1976

• Visited on their 1976 UK Tour with tickets selling at just £2 ! Setlist was Crazy City, Polk Street Rag, Hymn For The Children, The World Goes On, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, One Night, Medicine Man, Suicide, Jonathan, For No One ….. encore was Child of the Universe and Mocking Bird.

The Barron Knights (see “Duke D’Mond”) – Ramsey Gaiety – 16th November 1963

The Barron Knights (featuring Duke D’Mond) – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd August 1963

The Barron Knights – Boston Gliderdrome – 3rd April 1965

The Barron Knights – Boston Gliderdrome – 20th November 1965

Bay City Rollers – Cloud Nine, Trinity Church Hall, Priestgate – 16th February 1974

Bay City Rollers – Cloud Nine, Trinity Church Hall, Priestgate – 11th May 1974

Bay City Rollers – ABC Theatre – 14th November 1974

The Beat – The Park, Park Road – 23rd December 2007

• At their peak in the 1980s two-tone era, the band reformed in 2006

The Beatles – Embassy Theatre – 2nd December 1962

• Brian Epstein had managed to get The Beatles onto the bill of Frank Ifield’s two shows on this night at the Embassy. The show promoter, Arthur Howes, had agreed to letting the Beatles play second-up for just ten minutes per show so that he could “appraise” them for himself ….. and he wouldn’t be paying them either !They had to miss their show at the Liverpool Cavern Club that night for what was their first ever gig outside of their Mersey base. Headliner Frank Ifield thought their act was very good “in spite of the volume” and he found their personal charm was “infectious”. Unfortunately, at this particular time they didn’t seem to manage to convey that charisma to the 3,000 strong Peterborough crowd !The band had been steadily growing their reputation throughout 1962, particularly in the north of England, and the experience taught them that not everyone had yet come under their spell. The Beatles were the second act on stage, closing the first half of the show. The other acts, who were better received, were Susan Cope, Tommy Wallis and Beryl, The Lana Sisters, The Ted Taylor Four, and Frank Ifield. The compère was Joe Black.After the show, the band stayed overnight at the Bull Hotel – the overnight stop of choice for most Embassy stars.In the Beatles Anthology book, Paul McCartney recalled how the Peterborough gig introduced them to stage make-up, “We were playing the Embassy Cinema at Peterborough late that year, very low on the bill to Frank Ifield and below The Ted Taylor Four as well. Ted had a funny little synth on the end of his piano on which he could play tunes like Sooty. He would use it for Telstar – the audience went wild to hear his synth sound. It was Ted that said, ‘You looked a little pale out there, lads. You should use make-up.’ We asked him how. He said, ‘There’s this pancake stuff, Leichner 27. You can get it from the chemist. Take a little pad and rub it on; it gives you a tan. And put a black line around your eyes and lips.’ We said, ‘That’s a bit dodgy, isn’t it?’ He said, ‘Believe me, they will never see it, and you’ll look good.’Right afterwards we were being photographed for a poster for Blackpool. They had been bootlegging posters, which meant we were obviously getting quite popular, and the poster company said we should do an official one. So they did four squares – one of us in. each square. And you can see the black line around our. eyes. We never lived it down!”

• “My sister in law worked at The Angel Hotel and when they showed up to check in, the manager wouldn’t let them stay because they had long hair and leather jackets on! He obviously thought they were a little dodgy. He of course didn’t know who they were or recognise them because at that stage they were only big in Liverpool. This may have been why they ended up at the Bull Hotel?”

  

  

• “On December 2, 1962, the Beatles passed on their usual Cavern Club Sunday night show to appear on a multi-artist bill at the Embassy Cinema in Peterborough, Northants. Although the Beatles had a new record out and were creating a buzz in the north of England, they were not the headline act. Most in the audience were there to see a pop singer who, at the time, had twice topped the charts with singles issued on EMI’s Columbia label. Neither the audience nor the critics were impressed by the four young lads from Liverpool, as evidenced by the brutal review written by Lyndon Whittaker.Whittaker began by saying that “The Exciting Beatles” failed to excite him. He was particularly hard on poor Ringo, commenting that “The drummer apparently thought that his job was to lead, not to provide rhythm” and that he “made far too much noise.” Whittaker was obviously not a fan of rock ’n’ roll or loud music. He stated that Twist And Shout “sounded as though everyone was trying to make more noise than the others.” He thought that the mellow show tune A Taste Of Honey was much better and that their single Love Me Do was “tolerable.” “

  

 

• When the curtain did rise, fingers went to ears. The mixing desk was an invention yet to come: the Beatles had their own gigging amps plus house PA mikes and that was it. The sound balance was bad, everything was way too loud and no one turned it down.”The drummer apparently thought his job was to lead, not to provide rhythm” wrote Lyndon Whittaker in the Peterborough Standard. “He made far too much noise and in their final number Twist And Shout it sounded as though everyone was trying to make more noise than the others”. Another reviewer said the backing vocals were too noisy. Whittaker ended his assessment with a line that pleased him at the time but friends would forever quote back at him ….. “Frank (I Remember You) Ifield is the only one I shall remember”.Clearly this was a long way from being one of the Beatles’ better shows but the degree to which it was disastrous is buried under conflicting recollections. Arthur Howes said the audience “sat on their hands’ — stayed silent after each of the Beatles’ four numbers”. Susan Fuller, his secretary, says they were “yelling and booing — they disliked the Beatles intensely” although she herself was thinking how tremendous they were and Howes was remarking, “Yes, these boys are going to be very, very big.”It was just one of thousands of shows to Frank Ifield ….. “I thought the Beatles were very good, but the audience hated them.”. Reviewer Chris Hornby remembers no boos or silence, just screams: “I was in the balcony, where some girls were screaming for them”; another young journalist, Colin Bostock-Smith, wrote that Twist And Shout “sent a small boy a few rows in front of me into hysterical delight”.A trio of 15-year-old girls thought the Beatles so fantastic they went to their hotel afterwards, called to their windows for them to come down, had a drink and chat with them, fell in love with their personalities, got their autographs and sent away to join the fan club !!!

The Beatles – Embassy Theatre – 10th February 1963 [CANCELLED]

• Beatles appearance cancelled
• touring as support to Helen Shapiro but pulled out as they were due at Abbey Road Studios the following day to record their “Please Please Me” album so travelled down to London instead

The Beatles – Embassy Theatre – 17th March 1963

• This was The Beatles’ second and final appearance at the Embassy. It was part of the group’s tour with Tommy Roe and Chris Montez but also featured local band The Dynatones. Their six song set list was Love Me Do, Misery, A Taste Of Honey, Do You Want To Know A Secret, Please Please Me and I Saw Her Standing There.

  

• “We went to the Embassy stage door before the show and told people working there we were in the fan club. They let us backstage and the group were in there practicing and drinking tea. John Lennon didn’t say a great deal, but the other three were still very relaxed considering Beatle-mania had just struck.They had just bought a small record player but didn’t have any records. So they paid for me to get a cab back to my house to pick up some of my records. We were really annoyed with ourselves afterwards that we didn’t get any photos, but we didn’t take a camera with us because we didn’t expect to get so close to The Beatles again.”
• “I remember the Beatles being on the bill at the old Embassy on a Sunday night. I went to the show and saw Chris Montez, Tommy Roe, The Beatles and the Dynatones. Compere was Tony Marsh. After the concert I had them all back at the Star Inn on Star Road. John Lennon wrote and signed a small piece of poetry to the late Pat Lewis and it went like this …. “To Pat, when you get a flat I will come round and hang my hat”. I drove Lennon back to his hotel in the middle of town (The Bull Hotel) in a red convertible Singer Gazelle”

Beats International – The Park, Park Road

Be Bop Deluxe – Great Hall, Oundle School – 24th November 1974

• supported by Blue Lyas and Butler’s Cross

Belinda Carlisle – Mallard Park Hotel – 23rd May 1990

• “The support band was called ‘One’. This gig was the opening night of the Runaway Horses world tour and was added to the schedule after the tour was first announced. Great night as I was third through the door! Drove down from Sunderland with my two brothers in a Bedford Rascal and slept the night south of Peterborugh! Two in the back and one in the cab!” …. Gavin Dodds
• Set list was Runaway Horses, Summer Rain, (We Want) The Same Thing, Mad About You, Circle in the Sand, Nobody Owns Me, I Get Weak, Valentine, La Luna, Vision of You, Leave a Light On, Heaven Is a Place on Earth. The encore was Our Lips Are Sealed, We Got the Beat and Shades of Michelangelo.

Belinda Carlisle – Broadway Theatre – 11th August 2008

Ben E King – Boston Gliderdrome – 1st April 1967

Ben E King – Boston Gliderdrome – 31st August 1968

Ben E King – Ramsey Gaiety – 7th September 1968

Bert Weedon – Corn Exchange – 4th February 1961

Bert Weedon – Corn Exchange – 21st October 1961

Bert Weedon – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th March 1962

Bert Weedon – Boston Gliderdrome – 13th October 1962

Biffy Clyro – The Park, Park Road – 11th August 2002

Biffy Clyro – Met Lounge- 15th October 2003

• reportedly the first gig that Biffy Clyro had ever sold out !

Biffy Clyro – The Park, Park Road (aka: “Club With No Name”) – 4th July 2004

Biffy Clyro – The Park, Park Road (aka: “Club With No Name”) – 23rd September 2004

• Set list was Glitter and Trauma, Bodies in Flight, Joy.Discovery.Invention, Liberate the Illiterate / A Mong Among Mingers, Wave Upon Wave Upon Wave, Questions and Answers, There’s No Such Thing as a Jaggy Snake, Scary Mary, Justboy, My Recovery Injection, Christopher’s River, Convex Concave, 57, Eradicate the Doubt. The encore was Now the Action Is on Fire !

Big Audio Dynamite – Ferry Meadows

• played one song for a Saturday morning kids TV show from Ferry Meadows

The Big Three – Corn Exchange – 7th December 1963

Bill Withers – Embassy Theatre – 1970s

Billie Jo Spears – Embankment (Country Music Festival) – 1987

Billy Bragg & Riff Raff – Wirrina Stadium – 18th September 1978

• supporting The Stranglers

Billy Bragg – Glasshouse Sessions, Key Theatre – 12th June 1983

Billy Butler – Wirrina Stadium – 31st October 1975

• supported by Ginger & Eddie

Billy Fury – Embassy Theatre – 26th October 1961

Billy Fury – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd October 1965

Billy Fury – Palais, Wentworth Street – 13th November 1965

Billy Fury – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th November 1966

Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas – Embassy Theatre – 29th September 1963

• Appeared with Tommy Roe, Heinz & The Saints, Tommy Quickly, The Fourmost, The Dennisons, Johnny Sandon & The Remo Four.

Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas – Corn Exchange – 29th September 1963 

Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd January 1965

Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas – Palais, Wentworth Street – 29th May 1965

Billy Ocean – Cresset, Bretton – 31st January 2009

Billy Ocean – Cresset, Bretton – 19th May 2010

Billy Ocean – East of England Showground Arena – 29th September 2013

Billy Stewart – Boston Gliderdrome – 18th January 1969

• American R&B singer/pianist

The Birds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 30th August 1965

• according to Lloyd Watson, The Birds never showed, “the two support bands were The Rising Sons and The Blues Society who had to do longer sets as The Birds never turned up !”

The Birds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 14th December 1965

The Birds – Orton Longueville School – 1965

• featured Ronnie “Rolling Stones” Wood on guitar

Black Sabbath – Spinning Wheel Club, Bull & Dolphin – 27th March 1970

• the band were booked when they were pretty much unknown but by the time they turned up to a packed Bull & Dolphin, they had reached #8 in the UK album charts with their first release. Their seminal single “Paranoid” was still four months away !

Black Sabbath – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 11th July 1970

Blackfoot Sue – City Youth Centre, Lincoln Road – 23rd September 1972

• after playing Peterborough, the band travelled up to Bourne to play the Corn Exchange, hitting the stage very late the same evening. The Bourne show was stopped at one point after the band smashed up some old wooden boxes on the stage for effect and threw the bits into the crowd, hitting a poor girl in the process !

Blackfoot Sue – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st October 1972

The Blow Monkeys – Cresset, Bretton – 18th June 1989

The Blue-Jays (see Justin Hayward & Justin Lodge)

The Blues Band – Cresset, Bretton – 26th October 1990

The Bluetones – Met Lounge – 27th June 2003

The Bluetones – Met Lounge – 8th August 2003

The Bluetones – Met Lounge – 4th December 2003

The Bluetones – The Park, Park Road – 6th October 2004

The Bluetones – Met Lounge – 26th June 2005

Bob & Earl – Spinning Wheel Club, Bull & Dolphin – 16th May 1969

Bob & Marcia – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th April 1970

Bob & Marcia – Boston Gliderdrome – 30th May 1970

Bob & Marcia – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th July 1971

Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats – Embankment – August 1985

• “the promoter made a big thing about the man that produced Live Aid was coming to Peterborough and expected to sell all 5,000 tickets for the big top. In the end it did around 1,700 which proves that just because you may have produced the biggest gig ever then if people don’t want to see your band then they wont come!”

Bob Geldof – Cresset, Bretton – September 1990

Bob Miller & His Millermen – Boston Gliderdrome – 13th January 1968

Bob Miller & The Millermen – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 6th September 1969

• UK instrumental band

Bobby Hebb – Wirrina Stadium – 2nd March 1973

Bobby Rydell – Embassy Theatre – 10th November 1963

• appeared with Helen Shapiro

Bobby Vee – Embassy Theatre – 18th February 1962

Bomb Party – The Glasshouse, Key Theatre – Late 1987

• with The Jilted Brides

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th April 1969

Boyzone – East of England Showground (“Truckfest”) – 4th May 2008

Brand X – The Fleet, Fletton – 29th April 1980

• featured Bill Bruford as guest drummer

Brenda Lee – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th November 1964

Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll (see “Steam Packet”)

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Ramsey Gaiety – 15th December 1962

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Ramsey Gaiety – 20th April 1963

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Corn Exchange – 24th August 1963

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Ramsey Gaiety – 6th June 1964

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Palais, Wentworth Street – 16th January 1965

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Ramsey Gaiety – 24th September 1966

Bridget St John – Technical College – Early 1970s

Bruce Ruffin – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th September 1972

Bryan Ferry – ABC Theatre – 4th February 1977

• The “In Your Mind” tour with Chris Spedding in support. Set list was Let’s Stick Together, Shame Shame Shame, (I’m a) Road Runner, All Night Operator, Party Doll, You Go to My Head, Could It Happen to Me?, In Your Mind, Casanova, Love Me Madly Again, Love Is the Drug, Tokyo Joe, This Is Tomorrow, The ‘In’ Crowd, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, The Price of Love, It’s My Party, The Tracks of My Tears and Ticket to Ride.

  

Budgie – St John’s Hall, Mayors Walk – 22nd December 1972

Budgie – Peterborough Technical College – 2nd February 1974

Busted – Embankment – 11th July 2004

• with McFly as support

Buzzcocks – Wirrina Stadium – 26th March 1979

• supported by Ludus

The Byrds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 7th August 1965

Camel – Oundle School, Great Hall – Mid 1970s

Camel – Wirrina Stadium (Tropicana ?) – 20th November 1975

Candi Staton – Cresset, Bretton – 3rd March 2009

Capability Brown – A1 Club, Wittering – 21st November 1973

• UK progressive rock band

Caravan – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 18th October 1970

The Caravelles – Corn Exchange – 31st August 1963

The Caravelles – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th October 1963

Carl Palmer – Broadway Theatre – 2000s

• drum demonstration / gig on behalf of The Live Music Shop

Carla Thomas – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th February 1970

Carla Thomas – Boston Gliderdrome – 27th June 1970

Carter USM – Shamrock Club – 2nd February 1990

The Cascades – Corn Exchange – 23rd May 1964

• final show played at the Corn Exchange before closure and demolition
• other acts on bill were The Cascades, The Ivy League, Hurricane Henry & The Shriekers

The Cascades – Ramsey Gaiety – 6th February 1965

• supporting The Hollies
• could be a local band !

The Cascades – Ramsey Gaiety – 10th April 1965

• supporting The Animals
• could be a local band !

Cathy McGowan – Boston Gliderdrome – 27th February 1965

Champion Jack Dupree – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 11th December 1972

• American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer

Champion Jack Dupree – Whittle Way, Stanground – 15th January 1973

The Chants – Corn Exchange – 11th January 1964

• five piece black vocal harmony group from Liverpool

Chapterhouse – The Attic – 10th July 1991

The Charlottes – The Glasshouse, Key Theatre – April/May 1989

• with The Reg Varney Experience

Chas McDevitt Group – Corn Exchange – 26th July 1958

• one of the leading lights of the skiffle genre

Chicory Tip – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd June 1972

Chicory Tip – A1 Club, Wittering – 24th April 1974

Chicken Shack – The Halcyon, Westwood – 1968?

• featured vocalist Christine Perfect who married Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie in 1969 and went on to star with Fleetwood Mac as Christine McVie into the 1970s and beyond
• “I was sitting in Dad’s car doing my history homework. Christine came out and helped me !”

Chicken Shack – Ramsey Gaiety – 14th December 1968

Chicken Shack – Boston Gliderdrome – 12th April 1969

Chicken Shack – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 9th May 1970

The Chiffons – Ramsey Gaiety – 7th December 1968

The Chords – Fleet Centre, Fletton – 22nd May 1980

• supported by The Name

Chris Andrews – Boston Gliderdrome – 8th January 1966

Chris Andrews – Ramsey Gaiety – 6th November 1965

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Ramsey Gaiety – 1st June 1963

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Drill Hall, London Road – 12th June 1964

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 7th April 1966

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 19th May 1966

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Ramsey Gaiety – 16th July 1966

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th September 1966

• supporting Otis Redding

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Ramsey Gaiety – 3rd December 1966

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Boston Gliderdrome – 4th March 1967

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Ramsey Gaiety – 20th May 1967

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Ramsey Gaiety – 1st June 1968

Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds – Key Theatre – 11th February 1990

Chris Montez – Embassy Theatre – 17th March 1963

• supported by The Beatles (see “The Beatles” for show details

Chris Rea – Mallard Park Hotel

Chris Spedding – ABC Theatre – 4th February 1977

• supporting Bryan Ferry

Christie – Boston Gliderdrome – 18th July 1970

Christie – Ramsey Gaiety – 31st July 1971

• final gig at the venue before it burnt down and closed

Chuck Berry – Wirrina Stadium – 3rd September 1983

• as obscure a gig as this legend has probably ever played but the Wirrina show was actually recorded and released on CD by Magnum America on 17th October 1995 but the “Live On Stage” release is now very hard to get hold of and fetches close to £100 when it appears on auction sites. You can obtain an MP3 download of the tracks from Amazon UK however !
• “It all started when Jed Ford who organised the Peterborough Country and Western Festival approached us at Hereward to see if we’d jointly promote a 60’s rock festival the following week where the headline act would be Chuck Berry.Chuck-Berry-duck-walk-ET“The concert was booked for a Saturday but on the Friday there were storm and gale warnings so Jed rang me up. He was always full of crazy ideas and this time asked me to put out an appeal over the airwaves to pull all the lorries off the A1 to form a circle around the marquee.“It was this big circus big top that was in danger of blowing down so I put out the announcement, and all these lorries turned up! But of course there was nothing going to stop the wind and the Saturday morning we discovered the main tent pole had snapped.“We then had all these frantic phone calls seeing if we could get it moved, and Jed rang the Wirrina who agreed to put it on.”
• “I got a phone call early Saturday morning asking if we could put it on instead, so within a matter of hours we had it moved, all the equipment, lighting and stage so that Chuck Berry could play inside at the Wirrina!
  “We’d had a lot of bands play there over the years so we were used to having concerts, but it was quite something to get everything moved in such a short space of time. We were packed out that evening at the Wirrina with around 1300 people and the concert was recorded by Hereward Radio who later broadcast it over Christmas.”
• “It was a miracle we ever got the show together after all the problems with the weather, but Andrew and the Wirrina really saved us. The place was heaving and there were three other bands on the bill before Chuck Berry who was due on at 10pm. At 9.50pm his limo arrived and he jumped out with his band and manager.“The deal with Chuck Berry was that he always had to be paid in cash. So I’m on stage introducing Billy J Kramer and out of the corner of my eye I can see Jed giving Chuck this briefcase full of cash! I came off stage, Billy J only had time for two numbers and then I was back on stage grabbing the mic and said ‘Here he is, the legend CHUCK BERRY!’ everybody cheered and then he did the most amazing set I’ve ever seen.“He really was the business and it must rank as one of the most memorable gigs to have taken place in Peterborough. The Wirrina absolutely rocked that night. He did an hour, I walked back on but the by the time I’d got the crowd cheering for an encore, he was back in his limo and gone!”
• The CD track list was Schooldays, Sweet Little Sixteen, Roll over Beethoven, Every Day I Have the Blues, Memphis Slim, Bio, Maybellene/Mountain Dew, Let It Rock, Carol/Little Queenie, Key to the Highway, Got My Mojo Working, Reelin’ and Rockin’, Johnny B. Goode.

Cilla Black – ABC Theatre – 25th July 1975

Clarence Frogman Henry – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th July 1966

The Clash – Wirrina Stadium – 30th November 1978

• supported by The Slits and The Innocents. A blistering gig from early in their “Sort It Out” tour. Set list was Safe European Home, I Fought the Law, Jail Guitar Doors, Drug-Stabbing Time, City of the Dead, Clash City Rockers, Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad, Cheapskates, English Civil War, (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais, Stay Free, Guns on the Roof, Police and Thieves, Tommy Gun, Capital Radio, Janie Jones, Garageland, 1-2 Crush on You, Complete Control, White Riot

Cleo Laine – Corn Exchange – 1st February 1958

• with Johnny Dankworth & His Orchestra

Cleo Laine – Great Hall, Oundle School – 19th January 1974

Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth – ABC Theatre – 1980

• “At the end of the show they set up a table and chairs in front of the stage and signed people’s programmes.  I remember it being a very good show !”

Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers – Boston Gliderdrome – 1st July 1961

Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers – Ramsey Gaiety – 19th August 1961

Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th October 1965

• supporting Tom Jones

Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers – Ramsey Gaiety – 5th February 1966

Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers – Ramsey Gaiety – 17th September 1966

Cliff Richard & The Drifters – Embassy Theatre – 17th May 1959

• Cliff played the first ever Sunday show at the Embassy

Climax Chicago Blues Band – Town Hall – 2nd July 1971

• shortened their name the following year to the better known Climax Blues Band

Clyde McPhatter – Boston Gliderdrome – 27th May 1967

Clyde McPhatter – Ramsey Gaiety – 10th February 1968

The Coasters – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th November 1966

• billed as “The Original Coasters”

Comus – Town Hall – 11th June 1971

• progressive folk rock band that counted David Bowie amongst its fans !

Comus – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue (Cloud Nine) – 15th February 1972

Comus – Oundle School Great Hall – Early 1970s

The Contrasts – Corn Exchange – 28th March 1964

• Huddersfield band

The Corn Dollies – Embankment – Late 1988

• with The Late Road Lunatics, The Brides and Two The Dark

The Courteeners – Met Lounge – 31st January 2008

Cozy Powell’s Hammer – Peterborough Technical College – December 1974

• Line-up included Bernie Marsden (guitar), Clive Chamen (bass), Don Airey (keyboards) and Frank Aiello on vocals
• “Screaming Lord Sutch had been booked for an earlier gig but only his band turned up, he was nowhere to be seen. Their managers/agents, the Copeland brothers, apologised, and told the college that they owed them a favour with the next booking so we said we want Cozy Powell’s Hammer and we’ll only pay the standard £300. Even though they had just charted and were charging £1,200 a gig, a deal was done at £300 and Cozy Powell appeared at Christmas. Cozy claimed that he toured with the biggest light show in the country but he wouldn’t get on the stage until we removed the disco lights as they were bigger than his !!!”
• “When the tech booked Gary Moore and his band – this was via the Copeland brothers company (Ian or Miles not sure which one) – only the band turned up and no Gary which didn’t go down well. To make up for it Ian or Miles Copeland told them they could have any band on their books for the Xmas dance that December for the same price as Gary Moore, (£450). Later that year with Cozy Powell’s Hammer’s first hit single running up the charts, the call went out to Copeland that we wanted them. Much discussion about how that wasn’t possible as they were now way more expensive etc. etc but in the end the Copeland brothers agreed that a deal was a deal and they would honour it and that he would be at the Tech that December. Cozy Powell was believed to have had, at the time, the biggest lighting rig on the circuit and when he arrived after his roadies had set up his equipment he was not happy to see the disco’s lighting and equipment also in place on the stage. He demanded that before he came on that the disco equipment/lighting needed to be removed. As my best mate’s elder brother was running the disco (Atmospheric Pressure) and was responsible for the tech dance bookings, I was part of the crew that had to get the disco equipment out of the way. The night was a success – Cozy Powell did a brilliant set and I remember ending up at my best mate’s family’s house drinking till about 5am the next morning”

Craig Douglas – Embassy Theatre – 27th September 1959

Craig Douglas – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st October 1960

Craig Douglas – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th October 1961

Craig Douglas – Ramsey Gaiety – 2nd March 1963

Craig Douglas – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th March 1963

Craig Douglas – Ramsey Gaiety – 6th April 1963

Craig Harris – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th November 1962

The Cranberries – The Attic – 1990s

The Craw Dads – A1 Club, Wittering – 17th February 1968

The Craw Dads – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 12th October 1968

Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Boston Gliderdrome – 11th November 1967

Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Ramsey Gaiety – 28th September 1968

Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 22nd March 1970

Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Great Hall, Oundle School – 1975

• “The concert was, for me, a mind-blowing shamanic ritual. I have never tried acid or mushrooms or any hallucinogen, but with Arthur that night I didn’t need to. Deep, deep analogue-synth sine waves scooped your eyeballs up and planted them in stereo where your ears should be. The single screen of blobs and lights and stars compressed time to a singularity. Then Arthur hit the stage dressed in face paint and a gigantic headdress, standing like an Aztec king before a gigantic tripod, and raised his hands in sacrifice and intoned, in a dark, extended baritone, a command to strip the rust from your soul: ‘Alpha waves compute before eternity began …’ Who cares if it sounds like hippy bollocks? I can tell you I thought I had seen a glimpse of God that night.In 1976 Arthur had a band with no drummer. On top of that tripod was not an altar, but a Bentley Rhythm Ace drum machine. Arthur wasn’t sacrificing or blessing us; he was fiddling with the analogue tape loops of each individual drum, all of which ran at different speeds, and he was probably cursing frequently in frustration. No one but a madman would even have attempted it. There was a lead guitarist and a bass player, and two keyboard players, with every kind of analogue synth going, VCS3, Theremin and Mellotron. Somewhere in the midst of this falling-into-a-musical-black-hole experience, two fellows came on stage dressed as brains to be beaten with a stick, and men danced around dressed as traffic lights. Inspired and deliciously potty.” Bruce “Iron Maiden” Dickinson
• supported by Butch

Crispian St Peters – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th June 1966

The Crunch – Wirrina Stadium – 12th December 1975

Cupid’s Inspiration – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th May 1969

Cupid’s Inspiration – City Youth Centre, Lincoln Road – 22nd November 1969

• Stamford based band

Curiosity Killed The Cat – Outside Miss Pears (“Lazy Sunday Afternoon”) – 29th June 1986

• with Lloyd Watson, Heroes, Laudamus

Curved Air – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 12th July 1970

• played at the Mini Friar Café on Bridge Street earlier on the same day !

Curved Air – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th September 1971

Curved Air – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th February 1972

Curved Air – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st April 1973

• last band to play the venue in its 1960s/1970s heyday

Curved Air – Peterborough Technical College – 1970s