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1981 - 1982 |
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1981 |
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| 7th - |
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| 9th January |
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Billy Connolly - Rehearsals |
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| 18th |
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| January |
The Boomtown Rats, Atrix |
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| 19th - |
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| 22nd January |
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The Who - Rehearsals |
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| 1st February |
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Hazel O’Connors
Megahype, |
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The Modettes, Prime Suspect, |
| Tea Set |
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| 3rd/ |
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The Who, The Q Tips |
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| 4th February |
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| 5th February |
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Eric Clapton,
Chas & Dave |
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Eric uses The Who's PA
from the night before, by all accounts it was too loud! Chas & Dave
come back on for the encores. This concert was a benefit for Eric's Shelter
Charity. |
| 8th February |
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Burning Spear, Far Image |
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| 11th February |
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Sheila Easton |
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Filming a video for her song "Take My Time" |
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| 14th February |
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Ultravox, Shock, Depeche Mode, Wonder Stories,
Barbie Wilde, Metro. |
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Ex-Blitz kids Steve Strange
and Rusty Egan celebrate St. Valentine's Day in true romantic fashion by
holding the People's Palace St. Valentine's Ball with Also six fashion shows.
This was the moment when the New Romantic scene exploded and went from being
an obscure cult to a global trend. The “People of Romance”,
as the tickets described them, paid £3.50 for a long evening starting
at 5pm. They were expected to hold their own as stars alongside the cult’s
budding bands at a venue renamed for a day The People’s Palace.
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| 20th February |
The Fleshtones,
The Bush Tetras, The Raybeats, The Bongos, The dB’s, Polyrock, |
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New York Band Celebration, Billed as
The Taking Liberties Show, the whole show was recorded an issued as a compilation
album “Start Swimming” on Stiff Records |
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| 21st February |
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Toyah,
Wasted Youth, Huang Chung |
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| 27th February |
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Get in for Bow Wow Wow |
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| 28th February |
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Bow Wow Wow, South 17 |
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Brian Boniface recalls “I particularly
remember this concert. The Rainbow had ripped out the entire seating from
the theatre and replaced them with fairground attractions like "Coconut
shy" etc. I vaguely remember "Football" style terracing
barriers in place as well.
The support band was a 40-piece swing band, in the style of Glenn Miller.
They went down very well to start with but unknown to the audience Annabella
Lwin had gone “walkabout and was nowhere to be seen. Hence the swing
band manfully carried on playing for ages before she turned up to perform
her set. A very surreal concert indeed!!”
Also Lieutenant Lush arrived on the scene. A camp follower of the
group. Lush began co-fronting the group with Lwin and was booed off the
stage at this gig and was dropped from the line-up. Lieutenant Lush changed
his name to Boy George, and created Culture Club.
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| 1st March |
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Filming of the movie "Scandalous" with Bow Wow Wow and John Gielgud |
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| 5th March |
Gillan, Deadringer |
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| 6th March |
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John Kay & Steppenwolf |
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| 7th March |
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The Stranglers, Headline, The
Tea Set, Modern Eon |
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| 9th March |
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Ian Anderson - Filming
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| 13th March |
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Graham Bonnet - Filming
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| 15th March |
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Prince Far-I, Arabs, The Congos, Renegrade |
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| 17th March |
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The 4 B 2s,The Bollock Brothers, Pope Paul & The Romans, Damage Material
with Keith Levine |
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| 19th March |
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The Greatful Dead - Get
in |
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| 20th- |
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| 24th March |
The Grateful Dead |
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| 25th March |
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Whitesnake - Rehearsals |
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| 1st April |
The Modettes, |
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The Tea Set |
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| 2nd April |
John Cooper Clarke |
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| 3rd April |
Ronnie Laine |
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| 5th April |
Black Slate |
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These four concerts were staged in the foyer of the theatre, Billed as Rainbow 2. Those who went descibed them as great little "intimate" concerts, especially the Ronnie Lane show which went on very late |
| 9th April |
Culture, Far Image |
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| 10th April |
Osibisa, Weapons of Peace |
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| 11th April |
Classix Nouveaux,
Theatre of Hate, Biddie & Eve, Kan Kan, Naked Lunch |
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| 22nd/ |
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| 23rd April |
The Undertones - Rehearsals |
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| 26th April |
Johnny Osbourne |
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| 29th March |
George Thorogood and The Destroyers, Alexis Korner's Rocket 88 |
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| 1st May |
The Specials, The People, Dambala, Pigbag |
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This is a benefit concert promoted by
The Morning Star for the unemployment march. The People were ex members of The Selector. |
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| 3rd May |
Roots Reggae Concert |
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| 10th May |
Stiff Little Fingers, The Wall |
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| 16th May |
Jazz Funk Festival - Get in |
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| 17th May |
Jazz Funk Festival with Level 42,
Hi Tension |
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| 21st May |
The Undertones, TV21, Arpeck, Positive Touch |
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| 25th May |
50's Rock 'n' Roll All dayer with Crazy Cavan & The Rythmn Rockers, Dynamite, Stargazers, Deltas, Blue Cats, Zip Gun feat, Dave Phillips, Riot Rockers, 50's Flash, Wild Cat Pete |
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| 29th May |
Squeeze, John Otway & "Wild"
Willy Barrett |
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| 30th May |
The Stray Cats, Lightning Raiders |
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| 31st May |
The Beat, Belle Stars, The Mood Elevators, Linton Kwesi Johnson |
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| 3rd June |
Wishbone Ash, Claire Hamill |
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| 13th June |
The Wanderers, The Wall, The Creamies |
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| 17th June |
The Jam, Apocalypse |
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| 26th June |
The Kinks |
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| 29th/ |
Peter Tosh |
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| 30th June |
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| 4th July |
Aswad, King Sounds & The Israelites, Junior Brown, Dave Rodigan |
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| 5th July |
Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus |
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| 8th / |
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| 9th July |
Rainbow, Rose Tattoo |
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| 11th July |
Iggy Pop, Telephone |
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| 12th July |
Sounds Atomic Roadshow |
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13th/ |
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| 14th July |
Black Uhuru, Sly & Robbie |
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| 24th July |
Bad Manners |
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| 29th July |
Hunble Pie, Hostage |
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| 30th July |
Mike Oldfield, The Battlefield Band |
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A fan recalls: On Thursday 30th July
1981 I travelled to London where I saw Mike Oldfiels in Concert at The Rainbow
Theatre. This concert was incredible for three main reasons, firstly the
music, secondly the precision of his band, and thirdly the support band
who were called The Battlefield Band. For this concert Mike Oldfield had
five other musicians with him to perform parts of Tubeler Bells, Incantations,
Platinum and other Oldfield classics. At the end of the show, for the encore,
he brought the support band back on stage to perform The Sailor's Hornpipe
together (this is the only time I have seen this done). |
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| 1st August |
'Mods' All Dayer with Lambrettas,
Hidden Charms, Question, Dolly Mixtures, Long Tall Shorty,
Reaction, |
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The Retreads, Mods |
| 17th August |
Altered Images - Filming |
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| 19th August |
Top Secret - Filming |
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| 24th/ |
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| 25th August |
Asia - Rehearsals |
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| 7th/ |
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| 8th September |
Hazel O'Connor - Rehearsals |
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| 11th September |
Hazel O'Connor - Rehearsals |
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| 13th - |
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| 16th September |
Icehouse - Rehearsals |
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| 17th September |
The Twinkle Brothers |
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| 19th September |
Mr. Universe |
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| 30th September |
Bow Wow Wow |
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| 1st October |
The Grateful Dead get in |
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| 2nd / |
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| 4th October |
The Grateful Dead |
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| 6th October |
The Grateful Dead |
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| 9th October |
After The Fire Rehearsals |
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| 10th October |
After The Fire, Q Tips |
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| 18th October |
Gregory Isaac, Xpertz |
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| 23rd October |
The Gang of
Four, Wasted Youth, The Lemon Kittens, The Jam |
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This was a benefit concert for CND.
The Jam appeared as a special guest and only announced on the night! Adam
Broadway recalls "they played 4 or 6 tracks and the place went mental" |
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| 25th October |
Gregory Isaac, Xpertz |
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| 27th - |
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| 29th October |
Barclay James Harvest -
Rehearsals |
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| 1st - |
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| 5th November |
Judas Priest - Rehearsals |
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| 14th November |
Woodstock Revisited
with Antipasti, Vice Squad, Erazerhead,Case, Angelic Upstarts, Chron Gen,
Chelsea, |
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The Wall, Charge, The Fools, Splodgenessabounds, Honey Bane, Auntie Pus, The Insane, The Kids next Door |
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| 15th November |
Iron Maiden |
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| 22nd/ |
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| 23rd November |
The Pretenders Rehearsals |
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| 25th November |
Animal Magnet Rehearsals |
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Rock For Jobs "Give us a Future" Concerts |
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| 27th November |
Madness, Clint Eastwood & General Saint, Chris Thompson & The Islands, Alexei Sayle |
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| 28th November |
The Beat, Joe Jackson, Tom Robinson, OK Jive, The Cosmetics |
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| 29th November |
Barry Forde, Black Slate, The Members, Alexei Sayle |
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All three nights Sponsored by the GLC |
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| 4th December |
The Stranglers, Taxi Girl,
Mr Sprattt's 20th Century Popular Motels |
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| 5th/ |
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| 6th December |
Human League |
| 8th - |
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| 11th December |
Dire Straits - Rehearsals |
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| 12th December |
The Exploited, Black Flag, Honey Bane, The
Insane |
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| 15th December |
Iron Maiden |
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| 16th December |
Saxon |
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| 17th December |
Squeeze,Flock of Seagulls |
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| 18th December |
Hawkwind, Miles Over Matter |
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| 23rd / |
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| 24th December |
Elvis Costello and The Attractions,
Jerry Slattery |
| This concert ended up being the last concert ever performed at the theatre! |
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| 1982 |
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| January |
UFO - Rehearsals |
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It was during these rehearsals that
the theatre closed for the last time as a music venue |
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The lease was
put up for sale by Strutworth for £150,000, it was due to expire in
October |
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The seven
permanent staff were informed by a phone call and no redundancy money
was offered! I stayed on so UFO could continue their rehearsals. (They
kindly paid the rehearsal money in cash which I divided with the stage
crew).
Strutworth blamed the G.L.C. for insisting on unreasonable works
on the building and the increase in annual music licence from £500
to £6,000. The company claimed to have spent £100,000, with
the help of Rank, in renovating the venue. The G.L.C. stated that they
only ordered Strutworth to replace missing light bulbs, install self-closers
on the fire doors, sucure loose seating and install extra handrails at
a total cost of approximately £2,000.
I guess we will never know the real story!!
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| December |
Building squatted
by the group “Crass” and a concert was planned for 18th December.
But they were evicted the night before it could take place (They moved to
the empty Zig Zag Club in Harrow Road, where they held the event!) |
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Return to
the top of the page |
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Copyright ©
Rick Burton 2011 |
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