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This section is a potted history of north east music between 1965 and 1972. It includes northeast gig listings for the major north east venues from the period plus some of my own gigs at lesser known places. There is also a wider look of what was going on in the music world at the time.

(The listings on these pages were compiled from a variety of sources and I cannot, therefore, guarantee the accuracy of information given about any individual gig.)

8 posts

In 1965, the UK charts were dominated by British bands and artists. A few years earlier it was mostly US singles that charted in the UK. In the spring, an all-star Tamla Motown package tour played half empty theatres but…

Years

US soul music continued to thrive in the UK charts in 1966 leading local bands to add songs by James Brown, Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett to their set lists. Bands with a saxophone or a brass section, such as…

Years

1967 became known as the ‘Summer of Love’. Not so much because that year saw a revolutionary new movement, but because that was when the media came to identify and focus on the hippy phenomenon, the underground alternative youth culture…

Years

After a year of flower power, love-ins and psychedelic happenings, 1968 had a bit more of a down-to-earth feel about it with a slight revival of rock ‘n roll and blues music. Locally, bands playing the standard Wilson Pickett/Otis Redding…

Years

By 1969, Newcastle’s legendary Club A’Gogo had come to an end. A new club called ‘Change Is’ opened that year on Bath Lane, Newcastle and featured a mixture of cabaret type acts, bands and dancing. The Mayfair Ballroom continued to…

Years

September 1970 saw the deaths of both Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. It was also the year that an announcement was made that the Beatles had officially broken up. North east promoter Geoff Docherty continues to book top bands at…

Years

The band of the year is the Faces featuring Rod Stewart who also has a mega hit that year with ‘Maggie May’. Rod and the Faces inject a lot of fun into their stage act, generally clowning about and often…

Years

BBC TV’s ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ is a popular programme. The show’s focus on “serious” rock music, rather than chart hits covered on BBC1 by Top of the Pops, is emphasised by a lack of showbiz glitter: bands would…

Years