Artists [ S – Z ]

ARTISTS S – Z

Sacha Distel – Embassy Theatre – 1972 ?

• support included Olivia Newton John and Stephane Grappelli

Sam and Bill – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th July 1967

• American soul duo

Sandie Shaw – Boston Gliderdrome – 27th November 1965

Sasparella – A1 Club, Wittering – 25th February 1970

Sassafras – Oundle School, Great Hall – 23rd March 1974

• rock band from South Wales – toured with Fleetwood Mac and Peter Frampton – also apperaed on BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test

Satellites – Corn Exchange – 14th May 1960

• Weekly rock ‘n’ roll contest also featuring The Intruders

Saw Doctors – Cresset, Bretton – 7th October 1992

Saxon – Wirrina Stadium – 22nd December 1980

Saxon – Wirrina Stadium – 9th June 1980

Saxon – Cresset, Bretton – 16th March 1990

Scaffold – ABC Theatre – 23rd May 1968

• supporting The Hollies

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd April 1966

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Corn Exchange – 20th January 1962

• line-up billed as Freddie Fingers Lee – The Flea (pianist/vocals), Scratch & Scrape Bailey (guitar), Slasher Carlo Little (drums), Hopping Ken Rupert Pain (bass)

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Corn Exchange – 2nd June 1962

• included a debut performance from guitarist Ritchie Blackmore of subsequent Deep Purple and Rainbow fame
• supported by Liverpool beat band “The Escorts”

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Ramsey Gaiety – 22nd September 1962

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Palais, Wentworth Street – 24th October 1964

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Boston Gliderdrome – 24th September 1966

Screaming Lord Sutch & The New Savages – Boston Gliderdrome – 12th August 1972

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Peterborough Technical College – 14th February 1975

The Searchers – Palais, Wentworth Street – 23rd January 1965

The Searchers – Boston Gliderdrome – 13th February 1965

The Searchers – Palais, Wentworth Street – 8th January 1966

The Searchers – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th March 1966

The Searchers – Old Wildlife Park, Thorney – 12th July 1980

The Seekers – ABC Embassy Theatre – 28th May 1966

The Selecter – The Fleet, Fletton – 2004

The Selecter – The Park, Park Road (“Club With No Name”) – 2005

Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Technical College – 1972

• appeared without Alex Harvey

The Settlers – Key Theatre – 2nd March 1980

Sex Pistols – City Centre – 24th December 1977

• no show but the Sex Pistols were spotted near to the old Hereward Arcade “enjoying a burger” on their trip from Newport to play The Links Pavilion in Cromer on Christmas Eve – their penultimate UK gig before heading over to the USA where they split up !
• “We spotted them grabbing a burger at a place town side of Hereward Centre …… they gave us free tickets for the Cromer gig !”

The Shadows – Embassy Theatre – 23rd October 1960

• supporting Emile Ford

The Shadows – Embassy Theatre – 4th June 1961

The Shadows – Embassy Theatre – 29th April 1962

• supported by Jackie Trent

Shakatak – Willow Festival, Embankment – 10th July 1999

Sham ’69 – East of England Showground (“Shed Mag Festival”) – 17th July 2010

Shane Fenton & The Fentones – Corn Exchange – 21st January 1961

• Shane re-branded himself as Alvin stardust in the early 1970s

Shane Fenton & The Fentones – Corn Exchange – 5th August 1961

Shane Fenton & The Fentones – Corn Exchange – 11th May 1963

Shane Fenton & The Fentones – Corn Exchange – 10th August 1963

Shane Fenton & The Fentones – Ramsey Gaiety – 4th April 1964

Shane Fenton with Iris – Peterborough Cabaret Club, Queen Street – 26th November 1966 (week long residency)

• “Iris” was his wife Iris Caldwell – sister of Rory Storm

The Shop Assistants – Tropicana, Bishops Road – 1987 ?

Shopping For Girls – Glasshouse Sessions, Key Theatre – 3rd April 1983

• a video of the fans arriving for this show can be viewed HERE

Showaddywaddy – ABC Theatre – 9th April 1977

Showaddywaddy – ABC Theatre – 24th October 1977

Showaddywaddy – ABC Theatre – 30th June 1978

Showaddywaddy – ABC Theatre – 14th September 1980

Showaddywaddy – Cresset, Bretton – 21st May 1982

Showaddywaddy – Wirrina Stadium – 19th November 1987

Showaddywaddy – Granada Bingo – 22nd February 1989

Showaddywaddy – East of England Showground (“TruckFest”) – 30th April 1989

Showaddywaddy have returned a number of times since, primarily at The Cresset, Bretton

Sigue Sigue Sputnik – The Park, Park Road (“Club With No Name”) – 18th May 2001

• watch the entire gig HERE

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound – Ramsey Gaiety – 9th September 1967

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd March 1968

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 24th May 1969

• supported by The Mud who were to go on to be a major 1970s chart band as simply “Mud”

Siouxsie & The Banshees – Wirrina Stadium – 28th August 1981 (CANCELLED)

• gig was cancelled due to Siouxsie having “voice problems” – rearranged for 1st October

Siouxsie & The Banshees – Wirrina Stadium – 1st October 1981

• set list was Israel, Halloween, Spellbound, Christine, Arabian Knights, Sin in My Heart, Fireworks, Night Shift, But Not Them, Voodoo Dolly, Head Cut, Red Over White, Happy House, Eve White/Eve Black, Hong Kong Garden, Helter Skelter

Sisters Of Mercy – Technical College – 23rd April 1983

• supported by Demons Of Youth (aka: The Destructors) and Xpozez
• watch the entire gig HERE
• set list was Burn, Heartland, Valentine, Jolene, Adrenochrome, Floorshow, Body Electric, Gimme Shelter, Sister Ray

Skatalites – Ramsey Gaiety – 11th November 1967

Skatalites – Cloud 9, Grand Hotel – 27th September 1969

• The Skatalites were the first band to play the Cloud 9 club. Returned to Cloud Nine on 10th January 1970.

Skatalites – Cloud 9, Grand Hotel – 10th January 1970

Skid Row – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 23rd August 1970

• featured Gary “Thin Lizzy” Moore on guitar !

Skid Row – The Park, Park Road – 20th November 2007

The Skids – Wirrina Stadium – 18th September 1978

• support to The Stranglers

Slade – Boston Gliderdrome – 20th November 1971

Slade – Wirrina Stadium – 19th January 1981

• supported by Export
• set list was Dizzy Mamma, When I’m Dancin’ I Ain’t Fightin’, Take Me Bak ‘Ome, Everyday, Lemme Love Into Ya, Somethin’ Else, Pistol Packin’ Mama, Keep a Rollin’, We’ll Bring the House Down, Gudbuy T’Jane, Get Down and Get With It, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Born to Be Wild

• watch “Lemme Love Into Ya” on stage at The Wirrina HERE

Slim Whitman – Embassy Theatre – 1954

Slim Whitman – ABC Theatre – 12th February 1976

The Slits – Marcus Garvey Club – 21st July 1977

The Slits – Wirrina Stadium – 30th November 1978

• supporting The Clash

The Small Faces – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th October 1965

• set ended after four songs when the band’s drummer was struck on the head by an ashtray thrown from the balcony which put him in hospital !

The Small Faces – ABC Embassy Theatre – 19th December 1965

• supporting The Walker Brothers

The Small Faces – Palais, Wentworth Street – 14th May 1966

The Small Faces – Boston Gliderdrome – 27th August 1966

The Small Faces – Embassy Theatre – 22nd October 1966

• appeared with The Hollies, Nashville Teens and Paul Jones

The Small Faces – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th January 1967

Smokie – ABC Theatre – 20th October 1978

Snow Patrol – Willow Festival, Embankment – 8th July 2000 [scheduled to perform but pulled out]

Snow Patrol – Met Lounge – 10th August 2003

Solomon Burke – Boston Gliderdrome – 6th August 1966

The Sorrows – Palais, Wentworth Street – 6th November 1965

Sounds Incorporated – Boston Gliderdrome – 22nd July 1961

Sounds Incorporated – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th December 1962

Sounds Incorporated – Ramsey Gaiety – 26th October 1963

Sounds Incorporated – Embassy Theatre – 13th December 1964

• supporting Gerry & The Pacemakers

Sounds Incorporated – Ramsey Gaiety – 28th May 1966

Soup Dragons – Cresset, Bretton – August 1990

The Spellbinders – Boston Gliderdrome – 31st December 1966

• American soul group

Spencer Davis Group – Boston Gliderdrome – 11th February 1967

Spencer Davis – Ramsey Gaiety – 21st September 1968

Spider – Focus Youth Club, Chestnut Avenue – Late 1970s

The Spinners – Technical College – 18th March 1970

The Spinners – ABC Theatre – 10th October 1975

The Spinners – Cresset, Bretton – 7th May 1981

The Spriguns – Technical College – 5th May 1979

• progressive folk rock group

The Springfields – Embassy Theatre – 18th February 1962

• supporting Bobby Vee

Square One – The Cresset, Bretton – 26th January 1980

Squeeze – Wirrina Stadium – 23rd October 1987

Squire – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 26th April 1980

• supported by The Hornets

Stadium Dogs – Technical College – 6th May 1978

• supported by The Dole

Starjets – Wirrina Stadium – 1st June 1979

• supporting Stiff Little Fingers

The Status Quo – ABC Theatre – 1st May 1968

• supporting Gene Pitney with Amen Corner and Simon Dupree
• this was the band’s first ever tour as a standalone band, having only played as a backing band previously
• the band only performed three or four songs

The Status Quo – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st December 1968

Status Quo – Boston Gliderdrome – 29th August 1970

Status Quo – Mallard Park Hotel – 4th December 1989

• set list was Caroline, Roll over lay down, Little Lady, In my Chair, Little Dreamer, Perfect Remedy, Mystery Medley, Hold You Back, Rain, The Power of Rock, Dirty Water, Whatever you Want, In the Army Now, Rockin’all over the World, Don’t waste my Time, Roadhouse Blues, Burning Bridges, Bye Bye Johnny.

Status Quo – Mallard Park Hotel – 13th December 1990

• set list was Down Down, Roll over lay down, Little Lady, Mystery Medley, Hold You Back, Don’t Drive My Car, Dirty Water, Whatever you Want, 4500 Times (full version), In the Army Now, Rockin’all over the World, Don’t waste my Time, Roadhouse Blues Medley, Burning Bridges, Anniversary Waltz/Bye Bye Johnny.

Status Quo – Mallard Park Hotel – 28th November 1991

Status Quo – Mallard Park Hotel – 9th January 1992

• supported by Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts

Steam Packet – Palais, Wentworth Street – 25th June 1966

• band line up included Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll

Steamhammer – Cloud Nine, Town Hall – 11th January 1970

Steeleye Span – Boston Gliderdrome – 1st April 1972

Steeleye Span – ABC Theatre – 1st December 1974

Steeleye Span – ABC Theatre – 5th March 1978

• set list was The Boar’s Head Carol, Galtee Farmer, Awake Awake, Saucy Sailor, The Black Freighter, The Victory, Sweep Chimney Sweep, Montrose, Lumps of Plum Pudding, Treadmill Song, The Atholl Highlanders, Walter Bulwer’s Polka, Cam Ye O’er Frae France, The Maid and the Palmer, Seventeen Come Sunday. Encores (3): (Unknown), Rave On!, False Knight on the Road (including Monks March)

Steeleye Span – Cresset, Bretton – 25th May 1986

Steeleye Span – Cresset, Bretton – 29th April 2006

• a detailed review of this performance can be viewed HERE

Steeleye Span – Cresset, Bretton – 23rd April 2008

Steeleye Span – Cresset, Bretton – 21st November 2011

Stefan Grossman – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 1973 ?

Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy – Outside Miss Pears, Cathedral Square – 18th June 1990

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Broadway Theatre – 7th December 2005

Steve Marriott (ex Small Faces) – Key Theatre

• week long Key Music Festival

Stevie Wonder – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st October 1967

Stiff Little Fingers – Wirrina Stadium – 1st June 1979

• supported by The Starjets

Stiff Little Fingers – Wirrina Stadium – 24th April 1981

Stiff Little Fingers – Cresset, Bretton – 1st March 2008

Stiff Little Fingers – Cresset, Bretton – 1st April 2009

• watch video from the show HERE

Stiff Little Fingers – Cresset, Bretton – 24th March 2014

• watch the last seven minutes of the show HERE

Stone The Crows – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th March 1973

• featuring Maggie Bell

Stranglers – Technical College – 1976

• gig was booked but subsequently cancelled after intervention by “enraged college principal”

Stranglers – Wirrina Stadium – 18th September 1978

• supported by The Skids and Billy Bragg with Riff Raff
• “my first gig was The Stranglers, The Skids and Riff Raff (featuring a very young Billy Bragg) at Peterborough Wirrina in 1978. I was 13, and went on my own, although my mum made my dad drop me off and pick me up after, because she was nervous about ‘all those punk rockers’. It was brilliant, all the punks were gobbing, so I launched a big greenie at The Skids and hit Richard Jobson, right on the chest. As soon as The Stranglers came on, they all stopped spitting though, as the band were reknowned as being right hard bastards !”

Stranglers – Wirrina Stadium – 25th March 1987

Stranglers – Broadway Theatre

The Strawbs – Spinning Wheel Club (Bull & Dolphin), Bridge Street – 1st May 1970

• featured a very early performance from Rick Wakeman on keyboards
• only 40-50 turned up causing the organiser to stop putting on further live shows

The Strawbs – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th November 1970

The Strawbs – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th January 1971

The Strawbs – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th April 1971

The Strawbs – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th October 1972

Stray – Town Hall – 2nd October 1970

String Driven Thing – Oundle School, Great Hall – 24th March 1974

Studio Rockers – Wirrina Stadium – 1983?

Suburban Studs – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 14th January 1978

• supported by the Buster James Band and The Dole

Suburban Studs – Technical College – 1978

The Subways – Cresset, Bretton – 26th May 2008

• watch “Girls & Boys” from the Cresset show HERE

Sugar Pie DeSanto – Boston Gliderdrome – 31st July 1965

Supercharge – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 27th July 1979

• supported by The Stilts and Riff Raff

Supertramp – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st August 1971

Susan Maughan – Corn Exchange – 1st February 1964

Sutherland Brothers Band – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue (Cloud Nine) – 1st February 1972

• teamed up with fellow Scottish band Quiver to have chart success in 1976 with “Arms of Mary”

Sutherland Brothers & Quiver – Oundle School, Great Hall – 10th June 1973

Suzi Quatro – Wirrina Stadium – 25th January 1974

• Suzi was the first “major” artist to play the Wirrina
• support band was Moonstone

Suzi Quatro – ABC Theatre – 28th October 1978

Suzi Quatro – L’Aristos, Newark Road – December 1991

Sweet – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th August 1971

Sweet – Drill Hall, London Road – 19th May 1973

• now the TA centre

Sweet – Cresset, Bretton – 21st February 2004

• just Andy Scott from the original line-up

Sweet Sensation – LaScala Nightclub – 20th December 1980

Sweet Sensation – Saxon Inn, Thorpe Road – 4th June 1982

Swinging Blue Jeans – Corn Exchange – 6th July 1963

Swinging Blue Jeans – Ramsey Gaiety – 9th January 1965

Swinging Blue Jeans – A1 Club, Wittering – 27th March 1965

Swinging Blue Jeans – Old Wildlife Park, Thorney – 11th July 1981

• appeared with The Tremeloes

Swinging Blue Jeans – LaScala Nightclub – 24th October 1981

T Rex – Boston Gliderdrome – 3rd July 1971

T Rex – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th January 1972

• a one-off warm up gig for their forthcoming European Tour
• the crowd at the show was estimated at 5,000 !
• setlist was Cadillac, Jeepster, Thunderwing, Baby Strange, Spaceball Ricochet, Girl, Cosmic Dancer, Hot Love

Take That – East of England Showground (“TruckFest”) – 2nd May 1993

• only played a short set
• video HERE

Tear Gas – Great Hall, Oundle School – 5th December 1971

• Eddie Campbell (keyboards), Zal Cleminson (guitar), Chris Glen (bass, vocals), Gilson Lavis (drums) and Andi Mulvey (vocals)
• Scottish progressive rock band who later teamed up with Alex Harvey to become the Sensational Alex Harvey Band
• supported by Khan who were a progressive rock band and part of the Canterbury Scene formed by Steve Hillage who played guitar at the gig

Ted Nugent – see Amboy Dukes

Teenage Fanclub – Shamrock Club – c.1990

Temperance Seven – Embassy Theatre – 17th June 1962

Temperance Seven – A1 Club, Wittering – 29th May 1965

Temptations – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd September 1967

Temptations – Ramsey Gaiety – 25th November 1967

Terry Dene – Corn Exchange – 8th October 1960

Terry Dene – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th December 1960

Terry Dene – Corn Exchange – 23rd March 1963

Them – Ramsey Gaiety – 12th June 1965

Them – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th June 1965

Them – Palais, Wentworth Street – 11th June 1966

• featuring Van Morrison on vocals

Then Jerico – Outside of Miss Pears, Cumbergate (“Lazy Sunday Afternoon”) – 2nd August 1987

• with The Pleasure Heads, John Otway, Johnny Says Yeah and Boysdream
• “Brilliant day – people sat outside on a beautiful day listening to the bands. Fans came from far and wide, got talking to Then Jericho fans from York. Proved very popular and all for free from what I can remember !”

Then Jerico – Wirrina Stadium – 30th October 1987

• supported by Hard Rain

Thin Lizzy – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 10th April 1971

• supporting The Flirtations who were an all-girl “R&B/Soul” act originally from the USA who were to become a highly regarded act on the UK Northern Soul scene
• the band had only recently moved their base to London so a very early show

Thin Lizzy – Halcyon, Westwood – 25th August 1971

• played during Cloud Nine’s brief tenancy at the pub on Atherstone Avenue
• original three piece band of Phil Lynott, Eric Bell and Brian Downey. Run as part of Steve Allen’s Cloud Nine club
• “I remember seeing Thin Lizzy at The Halcyon. When I lived in London during the 1970’s Phil Lynott became a good friend of my flatmates and I. He remembered the gig too!”
• “Phil Lynott could remember playing at The Halcyon when I knew him in London during the 70’s. He said their van was on it’s last legs and they had nursed it all the way to Pboro. As they approached the railway bridge, the driver was almost standing up on the accelerator in an attempt to get them over the bridge ….. then forgot to take his foot off quick enough when they reached the brow of the hill, so the van shot down at about 70mph with the band desperately trying to hold down amps, drums, guitars etc.”

Thin Lizzy – Drill Hall, London Road – 3rd June 1972

• the band drove straight up to Liverpool after this gig and eventually played their set at 4am the following morning !

Thin Lizzy – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th February 1973

Thin Lizzy – Oundle School, Great Hall – February 1973

• band were booked but pulled out when “Whisky In The Jar” became a chart success in the same month

Thin Lizzy – Wirrina Stadium – 14th June 1974

• the show was cancelled with local support band, Butch, taking on the show on their own

Throbbing Gristle – Oundle School – 16th March 1980

• set list was The Old Man Smiled, Subhuman, Heathen Earth, Something Came Over Me, Don’t Do What You’re Told Do What You Think, Walls of Sound
• “Chris Carter, the late Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, Genesis P. Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti were booked by 17-year-old pupil Nigel Jacklin, who had previously corresponded with P. Orridge. As head of the boarding school’s “Roc Soc”, Jacklin was entitled to choose one band a year to play a concert there and apparently hoodwinked teachers by telling them that TG’s music was akin to that of minimalist composer John Cage !”

Tina Turner (see “Ike & Tina Turner”)

Tom Jones & The Playboys – Embassy Theatre – 13th December 1964

• very early appearance supporting Gerry & The Pacemakers and The Kinks

Tom Jones & The Squires – Palais, Wentworth Street – 3rd April 1965

Tom Jones – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th April 1965

Tom Jones & The Squires – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th October 1965

Tommy Roe – Embassy Theatre – 29th September 1963

• See Billy J Kramer show details above

Tommy Steele – Embassy Theatre – February 1957

Tony Holland & The Pack-a-Beats – Corn Exchange – 25th March 1961

• Manchester band ?
• supported by Linda Lane

Tony Kaye & The Dauphines – Corn Exchange – 3rd February 1962

Tony Orlando – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd May 1964

Tony Rivers & The Castaways – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th May 1966

Tony Rivers & The Castaways – Boston Gliderdrome – 24th September 1966

Tony Rivers & The Castaways – Boston Gliderdrome – 6th April 1968

Toploader – Met Lounge – 20th September 2009

The Tornados – Corn Exchange – 26th May 1962

• supporting Tony Victor
• billed as “Billy Fury’s backing band”

The Tornados – Boston Gliderdrome – 27th October 1962

The Tornados – Boston Gliderdrome – 24th December 1962

The Tornados – Ramsey Gaiety – 28th March 1964

The Tornados – Ramsey Gaiety – 4th December 1965

Toxic Reasons – The Sanitarium, POSH Club – 24th June 1988

Traffic – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th November 1967

Trapeze – Cloud Nine, Town Hall – 17th January 1971

• featured singer/bassist Glenn Hughes who left the band in 1973 to replace Roger Glover in Deep Purple

Trapeze – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue (Cloud Nine) – 23rd November 1971

Trapeze – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue (Cloud Nine) – 18th January 1972

Trapeze – Peterborough Technical College – 17th February 1973

• featured singer/bassist Glenn Hughes who left the band in 1973 to replace Roger Glover in Deep Purple
• supported by Pini

Tredegar – Key Theatre

• offshoot of Budgie

Tremeloes – Boston Gliderdrome – 6th January 1968

Tremeloes – Boston Gliderdrome – 17th January 1970

Tremeloes – Boston Gliderdrome – 13th June 1970

Tremeloes – Old Wildlife Park, Thorney – 11th July 1981

• appeared with The Swinging Blue Jeans

The Troggs – Boston Gliderdrome – 30th July 1966

The Troggs – Ramsey Gaiety – 20th August 1966

Tubeway Army – Bull & Dolphin, Bridge Street – 13th April 1978

Twinkle (Lynn Annette Ripley) – Ramsey Gaiety – 20th February 1965

Twinkle (Lynn Annette Ripley) – Palais, Wentworth Street – 20th March 1965

Twinkle (Lynn Annette Ripley) – Boston Gliderdrome – 24th April 1965

Tygers of Pan Tang – Wirrina Stadium – 9th June 1980

• supporting Saxon

The Tymes – Wirrina Stadium – 30th April 1975

UB40 – Embankment – 2nd September 2007

• set list was Food For Thought, WYFF, One In Ten, Kingston Town, Cherry Oh Baby, Rat In The Kitchen, Homely Girl, Red Red Wine, Bring Me Your Cup, Higher Ground, Keep On Moving, Sing Our Own Song, Wear You To The Ball, Johhny Too Bad, Here I am, Can’t Help Falling. Encore: Please Don’t Make Me Cry, You Could Meet Somebody, Maybe Tomoorrow, The Way You Do
• watch a brief snippet of the show HERE

UB40 – Planet Ice, Bretton – 17th September 2013 (Cancelled)

• cancelled due to an over-run on production of their latest album !

UFO – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 11th January 1972

• an early gig when the band were seen as more of a prog rock band than the heavy metal band that they were soon to become
• line-up was Phil Mogg (vocals), Larry Wallis (guitar), Pete Way (bass), Andy Parker (drums)
• guitarist Larry Wallis only played briefly with the band before moving on to help establish many bands including Motorhead and even had a cult Stiff Records solo success with “Police Car” in the late 1970s

UFO – Boston Gliderdrome – 19th August 1972

UFO – Drill hall, London Road – 25th November 1972

UK Subs – St Barnabas Church Hall, Taverners Road – 2nd November 1978

• 
• with local bands The Destructors and The Dole

UK Subs – Wirrina Stadium – 28th September 1979

• supported by The Blanks from Market Deeping + The Urge
• The band have returned to Peterborough several times for post-2000 gigs, playing the likes of The Park, Club Revolution (18th July 2010) and the Embankment.

Ultravox – Peterborough Technical College – 1977/8 ?

• original band with John Foxx on vocals
• this gig has yet to be substantiated and is very unlikely to have happened !

The Undertakers – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th February 1964

• early Merseybeat band

The Undertakers – Boston Gliderdrome – 11th April 1964

Unit Four Plus Two – Palais, Wentworth Street – 19th April 1965

• supported by The Hedgehoppers

Unit Four Plus Two – Ramsey Gaiety – 8th May 1965

Unit Four Plus Two – Ramsey Gaiety – 14th May 1966

Uriah Heep – Cresset, Bretton – 25th November 1989

Uriah Heap – Cresset, Bretton – 8th March 1991

Van De Graaf Generator – Cloud Nine, Town Hall – 8th February 1970

Van De Graaf Generator – Oundle School, Great Hall – 11th June 1972

Van Morrison (see “Them”)

Vanilla Ice – Mallard Park Hotel –

Vanity Fair – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd May 1970

Vera Lynn – Embassy Theatre – 1939

Vera Lynn – Embassy Theatre – 9th April 1951

• twice nightly (6:15pm & 8:25pm) residence (one week ?)

The Vernons Girls – Boston Gliderdrome – 8th December 1962

Verve – Shamrock Club – 29th February 1992

• I saw The Verve at the Shamrock in Peterborough before they became huge and only played stadium gigs. It was one of the first gigs I ever went to. Richard Ashcroft was a thrilling performer – he writhed around on the sticky bar floor doing a convincing Jim Morrison impression. It was brilliant, it enthused me I went home and told my parents dinner guest all about it !”

The Vigilantes – Corn Exchange – 4th July 1959

• Merseyside band who played support to top bands including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Hollies and more

Vince Hill – Corn Exchange – 18th May 1963

Vince Taylor – Corn Exchange – 3rd August 1959

Vince Taylor & His Playboys – Corn Exchange – 7th November 1959

• supported by Danny Storm

Vinegar Joe – Peterborough Technical College – 1970s

• with Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks

The Walker Brothers – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th June 1965

The Walker Brothers – Boston Gliderdrome – 21st August 1965

The Walker Brothers – Boston Gliderdrome – 6th November 1965

The Walker Brothers – ABC Embassy Theatre – 19th December 1965

Wang Chung – Tropicana, Bishops Road – 1987 ?

Wayne County – Key Theatre

• week long Key Music Festival

Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders – Ramsey Gaiety – 22nd February 1964

Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders – Ramsey Gaiety – 17th October 1964

Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders – Palais, Wentworth Street – 18th September 1965

Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th September 1965

Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders – ABC Embassy Theatre – 13th November 1965

• supporting Herman’s Hermits

We Are Scientists – Cresset, Bretton – 21st August 2008

• watch “Altered Beast” from the Cresset show HERE

The Wedding Present – Cresset, Bretton – 30th November 1990

Wee Willie Harris – Corn Exchange – 21st June 1958

• English rock and roll singer best known for his energetic stage shows and TV performances from the 1950s, when he was known as “Britain’s wild man of rock ‘n’ roll”

Wee Willie Harris – Corn Exchange – 30th August 1958

• with Tony Crombie & His Rockets and The Most Brothers

Wee Willie Harris – Corn Exchange – 19th September 1959

• supported by The Bachelors

Wee Willie Harris – Boston Gliderdrome – 18th November 1961

Wet Wet Wet – Mallard Park Hotel – 8th March 1992

Wet Wet Wet – Mallard Park Hotel – 29th June 1992

Wheatus – The Park, Park Road (“Club With No Name”) – 26th March 2003

Wheatus – Met Lounge – 1st June 2007

The Who – Ramsey Gaiety – 3rd July 1965

• supported by Beats Limited

The Who – Palais (“Palais De Danse”), Wentworth Street – 21st August 1965

• Terry Reid – “Anyway, the Palais was a skating rink. I went to see the Who there, a week after they changed their name from the High Numbers. I remember that the steel rails round the rink were the only thing that saved everybody from being hit by Keith’s drums when he kicked them all in the audience! That was the first time anybody had seen someone do that. It was like minnows coming out of a pike’s mouth when he kicked those drums, with everyone diving for cover.” [Note: The “High Numbers” actually changed to “The Who” in November 1964]
• set list included Heat Wave, Daddy Rolling Stone, Jump Back, Motoring, Daddy Rolling Stone, Green Onions, Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
• supported by The Nemkons and Beats Limited
• a second date at the Palais on 8th October 1966 is listed on some Who websites but this gig never happened.

The Who – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th February 1966

The Who – Ramsey Gaiety – 21st December 1968

Wild Horses – Wirrina Stadium – 2nd November 1979

Wild Turkey – Great Hall, Oundle School – 3rd October 1971

• formed by and featuring ex-Jethro Tull bass player Glenn Cornick
• Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson was an Oundle School pupil at the time and cited this as the first gig he ever attended

Winger – Cresset, Bretton – 7th June 1991

Wishbone Ash – Peterborough Technical College – 1970s

Wizzard – Boston Gliderdrome – 3rd March 1973

Wizzard – ABC Theatre – Early 1974

Womack & Womack – Tropicana, Bishops Road

Wrathchild – The Park, Park Road – 1982 ?

• UK glam metal band

XTC – Wirrina Stadium – 14th September 1979

• supported by The Yachts
• Set list was Beatown, Real By Reel, The Rhythm, Roads Girdle The Globe, Science Friction, Life Begins At The Hop, Helicopter, Battery Brides, Making Plans For Nigel, Scissor Man, Instant Tunes, Outside World, Life Is Good In The Greenhouse, Crowded Room, Radios In Motion, Are You Receiving Me?, Set Myself On Fire. Encore: Meccanik Dancing, This Is Pop, Dance Band, Statue Of Liberty.

The Yardbirds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 12th December 1964

• line-up was Eric Clapton (Lead Guitar), Keith Relf (Vocals/Harmonica), Chris Dreja (Rhythm Guitar), Paul Samwell-Smith (Bass), Jim McCarty (Drums)
• supported by The Hedgehoppers

The Yardbirds – Ramsey Gaiety – 13th June 1964

The Yardbirds – Palais, Wentworth Street – 5th June 1965

• line-up was Keith Relf (vocals/harp), Jeff Beck (lead guitar), Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar), Paul Samwell-Smith (bass guitar), Jim McCarty (drums)

The Yardbirds – Boston Gliderdrome – 19th June 1965

The Yardbirds – Embassy Theatre – 13th November 1965

• the headliners were meant to be Herman’s Hermits, Wayne Fontana, The Fortunes and Billy Fury but when Fury had to drop out of the Peterborough show, The Yardbirds stepped in

Yes – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 29th August 1970

• “The show was in a marquee in a field in the village with a bar at one end. I think there was some wood flooring in front of the stage and the rest of the, small, marquee was on grass.
  I’d never heard of Yes – neither I think had most of the paying punters. There were very few people there and most were at the bar end. Around 20-30 of us were at the feet of the group. I was knocked sideways by the band and their incredible musicianship and professionalism.
  I didn’t know they were playing The Yes Album and I was astounded at the power of Steve’s guitar, Bill’s drums, Tony’s organ, Jon’s vocals and particularly Chris’s bass which cut right through me. The playing resounded around my head for weeks afterwards! I’d never heard anything so amazing before.
  I spent the next 12 months telling anyone who would listen that they would be one of the biggest bands in the world……….. a high watermark of this, then, 19 year old’s life !!!”
• All the Baston gigs were organised by the local Baston Community Association, of whom few if any are still with us ….. sadly ! They were Percy Rous (deceased), Keith Thompson (deceased), Louis Wakefield (deceased), A Thorpe (deceased) and Dixie Howlett.

Yes – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th November 1970

Yes – Boston Gliderdrome – 29th January 1972

Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction – Wirrina Stadium – 23rd April 1987

• set list was High Priest of Love, High Heel Heaven, Bad Girl City, Skull Spark Joker, Hymn of the Speed Kings, Spasm Gang, Kid’s Stuff, Planet Girl, Driving on Holy Gasoline, Untamed Stare, Let’s Break the Law, Prime Mover, Psycho-Active
• read the Melody Maker review of this performance HERE
  

Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction – Tropicana, Bishops Road

The Zombies – Boston Gliderdrome – 6th February 1965

The Zombies – Palais, Wentworth Street – 27th February 1965

Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th April 1965

Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 14th August 1965

Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band – Ramsey Gaiety – 30th July 1966

Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th September 1966

Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band – Ramsey Gaiety – 21st January 1967

Zucchero – Cresset, Bretton – 28th November 2008

Zzebra – Technical College – Mid 1970s

• Jazz Rock Fusion band formed from ex IF and Osibisa members

Artists [ D – G ]

ARTISTS D – G

The Damned – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 30th September 1978

• appeared as “The Doomned” after the original Damned line-up had split a few weeks earlier
• line-up was Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies, Henry Badowski

The Damned – Wirrina Stadium – 24th November 1979

• originally scheduled for 16th November but was put back after the mixing of their album (“Machine Gun Etiquette”) overran

The Damned – Wirrina Stadium – 4th December 1981

The Damned – The Park, Park Road – 19th August 2000

The Damned – The Park, Park Road – 7th December 2000

The Damned – Cresset, Bretton – 2nd August 2006

The Damned – Cresset, Bretton – 28th November 2007

The Damned – Showground, Alwalton – 17th May 2008

The Damned – The Park, Park Road (“Club Revolution”) – 9th August 2009

Dandy Livingstone – Drill Hall, London Road – 6th January 1973

Danny Storm – Corn Exchange – 21st May 1960

The Darkness – Met Lounge – 8th December 2002

The Darkness – Met Lounge – 13th February 2003

• “Justin stood on the monitors, lost his balance and grabbed the ceiling and pulled it down on top of him!!!”
• “They played The Met in Feb 2003 as a warm up to the theatre tour they were just about to do with Def Leppard – which they got after they played The Met in December 2002 and I spoke to Justin and said that they needed to get front of classic ‘rock’ audience in order to break through. I said then that Def Leppard had just announced a tour for March 2003 and that would be the perfect tour to get onto and he txd his agent there and then asking if they could be put forward. Its all started from that Def Leppard tour, they got a show with (I Think) Deep Purple at Wembley Arena and then the Robbie shows and then Radio 1 picked up on them and they were away” Steve Jason, Met Lounge

Darryl Way’s Wolf – Technical College – Mid 1970s

• ex Curved Air

Darts – Odeon, Broadway – 1979

Darts – The Cresset, Bretton – 5th July 1981

Dave Berry & The Cruisers – A1 Club, Wittering – 7th April 1965

Dave Berry & The Cruisers – Ramsey Gaiety – 19th June 1965

Dave Berry & The Cruisers – Boston Gliderdrome – 3rd July 1965

Dave Berry & The Cruisers – Palais, Wentworth Street – 4th September 1965

Dave Berry & The Cruisers – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th March 1966

Dave Berry & The Cruisers – A1 Club, Wittering – 6th September 1967

• support was The Justin Brothers

Dave Clark – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th February 1961

Dave Clark Five – Embassy Theatre – 12th April 1964

• a fantastic line-up also featuring The Hollies and The Kinks ! (see “The Hollies” & “The Kinks” for more details”)

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Ramsey Gaiety – 23rd October 1965

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th February 1966

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Ramsey Gaiety – 30th April 1966

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Palais (“Palais De Danse”), Wentworth Street – 30th June 1966

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th July 1966

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Boston Gliderdrome – 3rd February 1968

Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 14th September 1968

David Bowie (see “Manish Boys”)

David Bowie & The Buzz – Palais, Wentworth Street – 10th March 1966

David Bowie & The Buzz – Boston Gliderdrome – 13th August 1966

• third on the undercard behind Sonny Childe and headliners Johnny & John (ex Merseybeats)

David Essex – ABC – 1976

• his first solo tour

David Essex – Broadway Theatre – 15th November 2001, 17th May 2008

David Essex – Cresset, Bretton – 5th November 2009, 23rd November 2012 and more ?

David Lee Roth – Mallard Park Hotel – 6th March 1991

• supported by Warrant and Jagged Edge

Dawn (featuring Tony Orlando) – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th October 1971

Deacon Blue – Broadway Theatre – 17th November 2001

The Deep Throats – Unity Hall – 9th November 1978

• supported by The Now

Demon Fuzz – Great Hall, Oundle School – 13th June 1971

• afro-rock group formed by UK immigrants from Commonwealth countries
• supported by Heron

Denny Brand & His Rockets – Corn Exchange – 14th February 1959

Denny Laine & His String Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 22nd April 1967

• ex Moody Blues

The Desecrators – The Glasshouse, Key Theatre – 1987 ?

Desmond Decker & The Aces – Ramsey Gaiety – 27th January 1968

Desmond Decker & The Aces – Spinning Wheel Club, Bull & Dolphin – 5th April 1969

• “Desmond Decker arrived in the back of a big old Humber wearing a coat with a fur collar. The Aces opened the set and lit the place up before he even set foot on stage !”
• arrived at the Bull & Dolphin the same week that “Israelites” hit #1 in the UK charts and an estimated 1,000 turned up to a venue holding around 200 !
• support was UK prog rock band “If” who went down so well that the club managers decided to start regular Sunday rock nights thereafter !

Desmond Decker & The Aces – Boston Gliderdrome – 20th September 1969

Desmond Decker & The Aces – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd October 1971

Desmond Decker – The Cresset, Bretton – 29th July 1978

The Destructors – Herlington Centre, Orton Malborne – 25th February 1978

• played with fellow local band The Now

The Destructors – Technical College – 23rd April 1983

• supporting Sisters Of Mercy
• billed as “Demons Of Youth” due to The Destructors being banned from playing in the city at the time !

Diamond Head – The Park, Park Road – 4th November 2007

• set list was Lightning to the Nations (with “Am I Evil?” Intro), Give It to Me, The Prince, This Planet and Me, In the Heat of the Night, Skin on Skin, Sucking My Love, Helpless, Am I Evil?, Mine All Mine, Streets of Gold. Encore: To the Devil His Due

Detroit Emeralds – Wirrina Stadium – 5th March 1976

The Detours – The Gaslight Club – 1987 ?

Dickie Valentine – Embassy Theatre – 10th March 1958

• week long residence with Roy Castle, Jimmy James, Clarkson & Leslie, Lester Sharp & Iris, Kendor Brothers and Three Brittons

Doctor & The Medics – Glasshouse Sessions, Key Theatre – 1980s

Doctor & The Medics – Bourne Festival – 12th June 2004

Doctor Feelgood – Cresset, Bretton – 29th October 2000

Doctors of Madness – Oundle School, Great Hall – 14th November 1976

• setlist was Mainlines, Doctors of Madness, Marie and Joe, B Movie Bedtime, Billy Watch Out!, In Camera, Brothers, Suicide City, Waiting, Please Don’t Shoot The Pianist Encore: Cool, I’m Waiting for the Man
• “We booked them based on their promo boast of the Kw output of their light and sound rigs !”
• “November 1976 was still pre-punk – at least so far as public school Northamptonshire was concerned – we had no idea what was coming and the bleak nihilism and energy the Docs brought to the show blew me away and perfectly set the scene for the coming youth explosion that was punk.”

Dogs D’Amour – Cresset, Bretton – 1989

• supporting Uriah Heep

The Dole – Community Complex, Padholme Road – 4th November 1977

• appeared with fellow Peterborough band Gobblinz

The Dole – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 14th January 1978

• supporting Suburban Studs

The Dole – Technical College – 6th May 1978

• supporting Stadium Dogs

The Dole – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 7th October 1978

• supporting The Only Ones

The Dole – St Barnabas Hall, Taverners Road – 26th January 1979

The Dole – Technical College – 10th November 1978

• supported by White Heat and The Now

The Dole – Technical College – 28th April 1979

Donovan – Palais, Wentworth Street – 5th August 1965

• was scheduled for 3rd July 1965 but “failed to appear” !

Donovan – Boston Gliderdrome – 4th September 1965

Donovan – Whittlesey (“The Barn BBQ Concert & Barn Dance”) – 2nd/3rd June 1968

• with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, Amen Corner
• the venue was a newly built “centrally heated” warehouse on Benwick Road (today’s Lattersey Hill Trading Estate and possibly the “Harveys” warehouse ?)
• Sunday headliners The Move never showed up, leaving Amen Corner to headline !
• “Bundy’s pit was the camping field. The actual event was in one of the warehouses opposite on Station Road. Think it was the Kingsbury’s furniture warehouse.”

 

The Doomed – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 21st October 1978

• see “The Damned” above

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 8th July 1967

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 30th September 1967

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th October 1967

The (“Original”) Drifters – Ramsey Gaiety – 24th February 1968

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th March 1968

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th October 1968

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th May 1969

The (“Original”) Drifters – Boston Gliderdrome – 18th October 1969

The Drifters – Wirrina Stadium – 19th April 1974

The Drifters – La Scala Night Club – 12th October 1983

• “I typed that menu! I’d actually typed up 50 and then we were notified that the woman in America who owned the name “The Drifters” wouldn’t allow it to be used so their management hastily changed it to “Johnny Moore & Slightly Adrift”! I had 1 hour to type another 50 and was definitely slightly adrift myself by that time! Good night though and they were great guys, even if they did arrive early and frightened the living daylights out of me!”

The Drifters – Broadway Theatre – 26th November 2011

The Drifters – Cresset, Bretton – 1st December 2012, 10th November 2013

The Drones – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 14th October 1978

• supported by The Now and The Dole

The Duane Eddy Show – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th October 1967

Duane Eddy & The Quotations – Ramsey Gaiety – 27th April 1968

Ducks DeLuxe – Great Hall, Oundle School – 15th June 1974

Duke D’Mond & The Barron Knights – Boston Gliderdrome – 19th January 1963

Duke D’Mond & The Barron Knights – Ramsey Gaiety – 23rd March 1963

Duke D’Mond & The Barron Knights – Boston Gliderdrome – 5th July 1963

Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts – The Cresset, Bretton – 3rd April 1992

Dusty Springfield – Embassy Theatre – 18th February 1962

• see “The Springfields” for show details

Dusty Springfield – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th January 1966

Dynatones – Various – 1960s

• local Peterborough band who were formed in the late 1950s and had the dubious legend to play before the Beatles on their 1963 visit to the Embassy Theatre. Pianist with band, Adam Titman, remembered how John Lennon offered them some friendly advice after their set. “He said we all played well, but told us to stop being like the Shadows. It was a revelation because up until then most bands did try to be like the Shadows and the Beatles were one of the few who didn’t !”

• Top centre:- COLIN HODGKINSON ( Bass Guitar- who is now a world acclaimed musician ), Extreme left:- TREVOR WRIGHT ( Drummer -Stage Name Trev West ) Deceased, Extreme right:- ADRIAN TITMAN ( Keyboards – Now Adrian King gigging & residing U.S.A.), Bottom Left:- TONY BENHAM ( Vocalist ) Deceased, Bottom Middle:- MICK LEMMON ( Rythmn Guitarist ) Deceased, Bottom Right:- Richard ‘Bugs’ Austin ( Lead Guitarist – living in Aussie & still gigging ).

East Of Eden – A1 Club, Wittering – Early 1970s

East Of Eden – Technical College – Early 1970s

East Of Eden – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd January 1971

East 17 – Orton Longueville School – November 1992

• school pupil won competition to have band play a show
• 200 tickets for the show
  

The Easybeats – Ramsey Gaiety – 17th December 1966

Eater – Bull & Dolphin – 27th April 1978

Ed Sheeran – Cresset, Bretton – 26th May 2010

• supporting Example
• tickets cost £10

Eden Kane – Boston Gliderdrome – 25th March 1961

Eden Kane – Boston Gliderdrome – 20th January 1962

Eden Kane – Corn Exchange – 27th January 1962

Eden Kane – Ramsey Gaiety – 14th November 1964

Eddie & Finbar Furey – City Folk Club, Grand Hotel, Wentworth Street – 25th August 1969

Eddie Calvert – Embassy Theatre – 1953

Eddie Holman – Wirrina Stadium – 12th November 1977

Edison Lighthouse – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th March 1970

Edison Lighthouse – POSH Club – 26th May 1977

Edmundo Ross – Mansfield Palais – Late 1940s/Early 1950s

Edwin Starr – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th January 1967

Edwin Starr – Boston Gliderdrome – 4th March 1967

Edwin Starr – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th June 1967

Edwin Starr – Ramsey Gaiety – 5th October 1968

Edwin Starr – Wirrina Stadium – 1976

Egg – Great Hall, Oundle School – Early 1970s

Egg – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – 29th February 1972

• original “Canterbury Scene” progressive rock band

Electric Light Orchestra – Boston Gliderdrome – 31st March 1973

The Elgins – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd October 1971

Elkie Brooks – Cresset, Bretton – 25th May 1994, 24th October 1995

Elton John – Boston Gliderdrome – 24th February 1973

Elton John – Abax Stadium, London Road – 11th June 2017

Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Wirrina Stadium – 7th March 1980

• a tour of “small venues” which started with a date at the West Runton Pavillion in North Norfolk ….. all tickets were just £3 and only available from local vendors !

Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th September 1970

Emile Ford & The Checkmates – Embassy Theatre – 29th February 1960

Emile Ford & The Checkmates – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th September 1962

Emile Ford – Corn Exchange – 14th March 1963

Engelbert Humperdinck – Embassy Theatre – 1954

Engelbert Humperdinck – Palmerston Arms, Woodston – 1st July 1967

The Enid – Key Theatre – 30th April 1984

• this gig was filmed and shown in part on regional TV

The Enid – Key Theatre – 9th December 1984

The Enid – Key Theatre – 16th June 2011

Enter Shikari – The Park, Park Road – 13th October 2005

Enter Shikari – The Park, Park Road – 15th December 2005

Enter Shikari – Met Lounge – 7th September 2006

Enter Shikari – Cresset, Bretton – 10th October 2008

• set list was Step Up, The Jester, Return to Energiser, Kickin’ Back on the Surface of Your Cheek, Mothership, Hectic, OK, Time for Plan B

Enter Shikari – Cresset, Bretton – 28th April 2013

• set list was System, Meltdown, Sssnakepit, Sorry, You’re Not a Winner, Gandhi Mate Gandhi, The Feast, The Jester, The Paddington Frisk, Destabilise, Havoc B, All Eyes on the Saint, Arguing with Thermometers, Unite, Mothership (Motherstep 2.0). Encore: Return to Energiser, Zzzonked

The Equals – Ramsey Gaiety – 15th July 1967

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 22nd July 1967

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 8th June 1968

The Equals – Ramsey Gaiety – 15th June 1968

The Equals – Ramsey Gaiety – 3rd August 1968

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 12th October 1968

The Equals – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 7th April 1969

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th August 1969

The Equals – Freeman’s Field Marquee, Coates – 1960s

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 11th April 1970

The Equals  – Boston Gliderdrome – 22nd August 1970

The Equals – Ramsey Gaiety – 19th June 1971

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 4th September 1971

The Equals – Boston Gliderdrome – 8th July 1972

Erasure – Mallard Park Hotel – 10th August 1988

• Dogsthorpe born Andy Bell, one half of the Erasure duo, leapt from the Bretton Sainsbury’s meat counter in 1985 to answer an advert from which Erasure was born !

Esperanto – Oundle School, Great Hall – Early 1970s

• Belgo-English rock band

Evelyn Thomas – Wirrina Stadium – 1970s

Example – Met Lounge – 15th January 2010

• this was one of two dates played at the venue (other date unknown)

Example – Cresset, Bretton – 26th May 2010 (see “Ed Sheeran”)

• supported by Ed Sheeran and Ou Est Le Swimming Pool

The Exciters – Wirrina Stadium – 5th September 1975

The Exciters – Wirrina Stadium – 2nd July 1976

Explosive Amazing Gas Medicine Show – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue – Early 1970s ?

Fabulous Flee Reckers – Corn Exchange – 13th August 1960

• early london based rock ‘n’ rollers

Factory – Peterborough Technical College – Early 1970s (numerous gigs)

• London based Psychedelic Rock band

Fairport Convention – Whittlesey (“The Barn BBQ Concert & Barn Dance”) – 2nd/3rd June 1968

• with Donovan, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Fleetwood Mac, Amen Corner
• see “Donovan” for more details on this show

Fairport Convention – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 19th July 1969

• line up was Simon Nicol (guitar, vocal), Richard Thompson (guitar, vocal), Ashley Hutchings (bass), Sandy Denny (vocal, piano), Dave Swarbrick (fiddle, mandolin, vocal), Dave Mattacks (drums, keyboards, bass)

Fairport Convention – Wirrina Stadium – 1987

Fairweather (Andy Fairweather Low) – Ramsey Gaiety – 3rd July 1971

The Fall – The Park, Park Road – 15th October 2001

• “The Joke / Cyber Insekt / Bourgeois Town / Crop-Dust / Antidotes / Way Round / Touch Sensitive / Mr Pharmacist / Folding Money / And Therein / Two Librans / Dr Buck’s Letter / I Am Damo Suzuki. I’m sure that I’ve missed out a couple of tunes, also the running order is suspect. Anyone?A really good show, which I enjoyed far more than the last couple of outings I’d caught (Junction Cambridge UK & Forum London UK 1999).Nice small venue, pleasantly crowded, decent sound. The lads seemed a bit lost on a couple of numbers, with bemused glances being exchanged particularly during Mr Pharmacist & Two Librans. This didn’t seem to dampen their or MES’s apparent good mood though, and when they did ‘get it together’ (which they certainly did on most numbers) things seemed to really take off. Damo Suzuki surfaced as the second encore – blistering after a nervous start. Smith left the lads to it after some amp-twiddling and a friendly wrestle with the bassist. The drummer, by now stripped to the waist & looking fit to drop, eventually underlined the end of the proceedings by kicking over his kit. I’m guessing any more encores & he’d have needed an ambulance – rather than this being a sad rock cliche!”

Family – Boston Gliderdrome – 17 October 1970

• Leicester band

The Fantastics – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd March 1968

• American soul/funk band

The Farinas – St Mary’s Hall – 11th September 1964

The Farinas – The Crown, Westgate – 5th March 1965

• Leicester based band who went on to form the nucleus of sixties prog-rock band Family
• very regular visitors to the city at this time, playing the A1 Club, Elwes Hall and even The Palais

Fatback Band – Wirrina Stadium – 1987

Fatback Band – Wirrina Stadium – 1987 (played two gigs in 1987)

The Felice Taylor Show – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th October 1968

• American soul singer

The Ferris Wheel – Boston Gliderdrome – 28th October 1967

The Ferris Wheel – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd November 1968

Fields of the Nephilim – Wirrina Stadium, Bishops Road

Fields of the Nephilim – Tropicana, Bishops Road – 18th June 1986

• with Gene Loves Jezebel and the Heroes

Fields of the Nephilim – Cresset, Bretton – 29th July 1990

Flamin’ Groovies – Boston Gliderdrome – 29th July 1972

Fleetwood Mac – Whittlesey (“The Barn BBQ Concert & Barn Dance”) – 2nd/3rd June 1968

• with Donovan, Fairport Convention, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Amen Corner
• see “Donovan” for more details on this show

Fleetwood Mac – Ramsey Gaiety – 12th October 1968

• billed as “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”)

Flying Hat Band – Halcyon, Atherstone Avenue (Cloud Nine) – 22nd February 1972

• highly regarded Birmingham based heavy rockers that failed to make the big time
• featured guitarist Glenn Tipton who went on to play with Judas Priest who did make it !
• also featured drummer Steve Palmer who was the brother of Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer fame

FM – Tropicana Room, Wirrina – 27th January 1987

• supported by White Sister

The Fortunes – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th November 1963

The Fortunes – Ramsey Gaiety – 18th January 1964

The Fortunes – Ramsey Gaiety – 18th April 1964

The Fortunes – Ramsey Gaiety – 10th October 1964

The Fortunes – Ramsey Gaiety – 13th March 1965

The Fortunes – Palais, Wentworth Street – 10th July 1965

The Fortunes – ABC Embassy Theatre – 13th November 1965

• supporting Herman’s Hermits

The Fortunes – Boston Gliderdrome – 19th February 1966

The Fortunes – Palais, Wentworth Street – 26th March 1966

The Fortunes – Boston Gliderdrome – 9th July 1966

The Fortunes – Ramsey Gaiety – 12th November 1966

The Fortunes – Fletton Ex-Servicemens Club – 16th November 1979

The Foundations – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th December 1967

The Foundations – Ramsey Gaiety – 2nd November 1968

The Foundations – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 31st December 1969

The Foundations – Drill Hall, London Road – 2nd February 1973

The Foundations – A1 Club, Wittering – 7th August 1974

The Four Pennies – Corn Exchange – 16th May 1964

• their hit “Juliet” made #1 in the charts at the time of the Peterborough show

The Four Pennies – Palais, Wentworth Street – 13th February 1965

The Four Pennies – Ramsey Gaiety – 6th March 1965

The Four Pennies – Ramsey Gaiety – 16th April 1966

The Fourmost – Corn Exchange – 26th October 1963

The Fourmost – Embassy Theatre – 10th November 1963

• support to Helen Shapiro (see Helen Shapiro show details for poster)

The Fourmost – Corn Exchange – 11th April 1964

The Fourmost – Boston Gliderdrome – 22nd May 1965

The Fourmost – Palais, Wentworth Street – 17th July 1965

The Fourmost – Ramsey Gaiety – 11th September 1965

The Fourmost – Ramsey Gaiety – 26th February 1966

The Fourmost – Ramsey Gaiety – 29th October 1966

The Fourmost – LaScala Nightclub – 6th September 1980

Frank Ifield – Embassy Theatre – 2nd December 1962

• Played as headliner on a lengthy bill that was opened by The Beatles (see Beatles show details above) !

Frank Turner – Met Lounge – 20th August 2003, 15th April 2004, 26th March 2005

Frank Turner – The Park, Park Road – 26th September 2006 

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – ABC Theatre – 29th January 1971

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – ABC Theatre – April 1976

Frankie Vaughan – Milton ’80 Fete – 26th May 1980

Frantix – Glasshouse, Key Theatre – 18th August 1986

• with The Pleasure Heads

Freddie & The Dreamers – Ramsey Gaiety – 1st December 1962

Freddie & The Dreamers – Ramsey Gaiety – 27th April 1963

Freddie & The Dreamers – Boston Gliderdrome – 18th May 1963

Freddie & The Dreamers – Corn Exchange – 1st June 1963

Freddie & The Dreamers – Palais, Wentworth Street – 6th February 1965

• supported by The Charioteers (Hinckley)

Freddie & The Dreamers – Boston Gliderdrome – 19th March 1966

Freddie & The Dreamers – Boston Gliderdrome – 1st October 1966

Freddie Fingers Lee & The Shriekers – Palais, Wentworth Street – 10th October 1964

• supporting Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers
• featuring Ian “Mott The Hoople” Hunter on bass guitar
• in March 1964, Hunter chanced upon Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee in a pub. Ian knew of Freddie, having seen him play with Screaming Lord Sutch’s backing band, the Savages. Ian asked Freddie to join The Shriekers as pianist and front man, and Ian switched over to bass. The reconstituted Shriekers played the Midlands circuit in 1964 and 1965, and also travelled regularly to Germany to play in Hamburg, Keil, and Duisburg.

Freddie Fingers Lee & The Shriekers – Ramsey Gaiety – 26th December 1964

Freddie Fingers Lee & The Storm – Ramsey Gaiety – 9th April 1966

Freddie Notes & The Rudies – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 17th December 1969

• their seminal ska classic “Montego Bay” made #45 in the charts in October 1970 before the key members reformed as Greyhound who went on to have three top twenty hits in 1971/1972

The Freddy Mack Show – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th February 1968

Free – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 9th November 1969

• a classic early appearance from Free well ahead of their 1970 release of “Alright Now” that brought them overnight fame and legend !

Free – Boston Gliderdrome – 15th August 1970

Funeral For A Friend – Cresset, Bretton – 15th October 2009

• watch “Into Oblivion” from the Cresset show HERE

Funeral For A Friend – Met Lounge – 6th August 2011

The Gangsters – Wirrina Stadium – 28th March 1980

• Brum Beat Tour with The Quads
• The gig was cancelled !

Garnett Mimms – Boston Gliderdrome – 29th July 1967

• American soul singer

Garnett Mimms – Boston Gliderdrome – 23rd September 1967

Gary Glitter – Boston Gliderdrome – 26th August 1972

Gary Glitter – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th December 1972

Gary Glitter – Boston Gliderdrome – 7th April 1973

Gary Glitter – Mallard Park Hotel – 1990s

Gary Moore Band – Technical College – 2nd November 1973 (band never turned up ?)

• supported by Jasper
• Chris Johnson, “I was at the Gary Moore gig, no doubt printed tickets exist – their gear was even set up on stage with a very impressive drum set up – but the band had a car accident that day and were replaced at the 11th hour – I think the stand ins were either GT Moore & Reggae Guitars or String Driven Thing?”

Gaye Bykers On Acid – Cresset, Bretton – 7th July 1989

• with The Black Sky

Gene Loves Jezebel – Tropicana, Bishops Road – 18th June 1986

• with Fields Of Nephilim and The Heroes

Gene Loves Jezebel – Wirrina Stadium – Late 1987

• with Passion Fodder and Hunting Party

Gene Pitney – Embassy Theatre – 22nd March 1964

Gene Pitney – ABC Theatre – 1st May 1968

• support included Status Quo and Amen Corner

Gene Pitney – Cresset, Bretton – 9th October 1990

Gene Pitney – Cresset, Bretton – 23rd October 1992

Gene Pitney – Cresset, Bretton – 21st October 1999

Gene Pitney – Broadway Theatre – 19th March 2006

• many thanks to Chris Boland for use of this image

Gene Vincent – Corn Exchange – 4th February 1961

• show was cancelled the week before due to “booking duplication” by his agent Don Arden

Gene Vincent – Corn Exchange – 11th March 1961

• “my Dad’s mate saw Gene play at the Peterborough Corn Exchange after he’d recovered (from the accident that killed Eddie Cochran in April 1960) and he came out and sung ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’, dedicated it to Eddie, and then broke down and had to be helped off stage.”
• show was originally set for 4th February 1961 but was rescheduled
• support band was Chris Wayne & The Echoes

Gene Vincent & The Shouts – Elwes Hall, Church Walk – 17th July 1964

• the legendary rock ‘n roller played in France the night before and was at Heacham the following night !

Genesis – Great Hall, Oundle School – 1970

• “complete with Peter Gabriel wearing a box on his head !”

Genesis – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 14th February 1971

• the band were touring in support of their Trespass album released in 1970. Tour set list was Happy the Man, Stagnation, The Fountain of Salmacis, The Light, Twilight Alehouse, The Musical Box, The Knife.

Genesis – ABC Theatre – 3rd April 1980

• set list was Deep in the Motherlode, Dancing With the Moonlit Knight (Intro), The Carpet Crawlers, Squonk, One for the Vine, Behind the Lines, Duchess, Guide Vocal, Turn It On Again, Duke’s Travels, Duke’s End, The Lady Lies, Ripples…, In the Cage, The Colony of Slippermen, Afterglow, Follow You Follow Me, Dance on a Volcano, Drum Duet, Los Endos. Encore: I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band – Palais, Wentworth Street – 11th April 1966

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band – Palais, Wentworth Street – 2nd June 1966

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 14th January 1967

Geno Washington  & The Ram Jam Band – Ramsey Gaiety – 28th January 1967

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band – Boston Gliderdrome – 30th December 1967

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 9th August 1969

• unless the band played the same venue twice in quick succession, this gig may not have happened despite being advertised

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 4th October 1969

Geno Washington – Key Theatre

• week long Key Music Festival

George Formby – Embassy Theatre – 1946

George Hamilton IV – Embassy Theatre

George Hamilton IV – Embankment (Country Music Festival) – 1985 ?

Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames – Corn Exchange – 29th February 1964

• supported by Unit 4

Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames – Boston Gliderdrome – 16th May 1964

Gerry & The Pacemakers – Embassy Theatre – 13th December 1964

with The Kinks and an “unknown” Tom Jones

• Programme courtesy David Boocock
  
  

Gerry & The Pacemakers – Boston Gliderdrome – 2nd April 1966

Gerry & The Pacemakers – Anabelles, Bridge Street – 27th February 1980

Gerry & The Pacemakers – Central Park – 29th June 2002

Gerry & The Pacemakers – Cresset, Bretton – 23rd October 2009

The Ghears – Met Lounge – 2000s

• band featured Paul Archer, vocalist with Snow Patrol and brother Iain Archer – producer & writer for Jake Bugg (among many others) and also one time member of Snow Patrol

Ghost – Great Hall, Oundle School – 24th February 1974

Gilbert O’Sullivan – ABC Theatre – 23rd February 1978

Gilbert O’Sullivan – Cresset, Bretton – 3rd April 2012

Ginger Baker’s Airforce – Boston Gliderdrome – 10th October 1970

Girlschool – The Fleet, Fletton – 6th March 1980

Girlschool – The Fleet, Fletton – 16th July 1980

• supported by Easy Prey

Glitter Band – Wirrina Stadium – 27th September 1974

The Globe Show – Baston Playing Field (Marquee) – 20th September 1969

• well respected UK soul band who supported many top acts including Ben E King and Jimmy Ruffin

The Go-Go’s – Wirrina Stadium – 23rd April 1980

• support to Madness

Go West – Broadway Theatre – 17th July 2010

Gobblinz – Community Complex, Padholme Road – 4th November 1977

• appeared with fellow Peterborough band The Dole

Gobblinz – Bull & Dolphin – 27th December 1977

• based on the adverts for the February 1978 gig, the band probably didn’t play this one !

Gobblinz – Bull & Dolphin – 9th February 1978

Gobblinz – Technical College – 7th July 1978

Gobblinz – Technical College – 10th November 1978

• supported by White Heat and The Now

Gobblinz – Focus Youth Club, Dogsthorpe – 14th October 1978

• with The Dole and The Now

Gobblinz – Cressett, Bretton – 20th January 1979

• supported by T’Birds

Godfathers – Tropicana, Bishops Road – Late 1980s ?

Goldie – Town Hall – 17th November 1973

Gonzalez – Wirrina Stadium – 7th May 1979

Gonzalez – LaScala Nightclub – 27th June 1981

Graham Bond Organisation – Ramsey Gaiety – 10th December 1966

Graham Bond Organisation – Cloud Nine, Grand Hotel – 14th December 1969

Greenfield Hammer – Town Hall – 13th September 1969

• three months after the gig, the Slough based band auditioned to back up singer Tony Burrows and became Edison Lighthouse who had the hit “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” in 1970

Greenslade – Oundle School – 9th December 1973

Groundhogs – Peterborough Technical College – 1974

• supported by Nutz

Groundhogs – Willow Festival, Embankment – 2000

Gwen McRae – Wirrina Stadium, Bishops Road – Late 1980s ?

Gypsy – Technical College – Early 1970s

Gypsy – A1 Club, Wittering – 29th November 1974

Artists [ A – C ]

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 – 1974

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