The Who, Floyd, Led Zep and the great college circuit that launched 1,000 bands

Cheap tickets, warm beer, draughty halls and refectories, a whole new cobbled-together rock circuit was born in the ‘60s for an audience who watched and listened intently. Which allowed the music to take a different route. Paul Sexton spoke to Mark Knopfler, Nick Mason, Justin Hayward, Phil Manzanera and many others to piece together ‘Rock Goes To College: the Campus Music Scene That Shaped A Generation’ and talks to us here about the fans and amateurs who ran it and the lost world of motorway caffs and Ford Transits, stopping off at …

… Hendrix, Fairport, Free, Queen, Dire Straits: tales of the campus gig foot-soldiers

… no security, no lightshow, no seat, no stage: how the idea of live entertainment changed in 50 years

… Pink Floyd not being allowed front-of house in Top Rank theatres without a tie

… the Stranglers and the Damned refusing to play college shows “unless townies were allowed in”

… the “chart clause” - £50 extra if a band’s in the Top 3!

… the Stones playing an Oxford ball

… bands market-researching songs before recording them

… why Leeds could afford the Who and Leonard Cohen

… what Harvey Goldsmith, Paul Conroy and Chris Wright learnt from booking bands

… why Wings chose the college circuit

… and the arrival of DJs and disco that put a nail in the college gig coffin, “a golden age with nothing like it before or after”.

Order ‘Rock Goes To College’ here: amazon.co.uk/Rock-Goes-College-campus-generati…

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