[For info about the 1980s band The Impossible Dreamers click here.]
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Release date 1st September 2021...
...Volume 1 paperback now Sold Out! (Kindle only)
The Keele Gigs!
(The Classic University Concerts)

The Keele Gigs! (The Classic University Concerts Volume 1 - 1978-82) by Dave Lee (Proverbial - Sept 2021). Forty years ago the planets aligned for music fans at Keele. For about £1 a ticket they could see a band almost every week at the Students Union Ballroom. Some were in the more mature stages of their career (The Kinks, Wishbone Ash, Alan Price, Dr Feelgood), some were hungry wannabes (Dire Straits, Thompson Twins, Jools Holland, UB40, Level 42, Simple Minds), but many were on the very cusp of success and fame (The Pretenders, U2, Dexys Midnight Runners, Cheap Trick, Teardrop Explodes, XTC, Altered Images, Theatre Of Hate) with Keele students seeing them first & raw (before they became battle-scarred and bitter!) In Volume One Dave Lee covers all these bands and many more in that peak era 1978-82; from the Ballroom’s expansion (allowing bigger bands) to the Thatcherite cuts (culling the budgets of both the venue and the students). The book features gig reviews of the 200 bands (!!) who played in those manic 4 years, with stories you may remember, but many more you may not have known. For example: Which lead singer of a happening band (& darlings of the music press) had actually done the Keele Foundation Year before quitting for fame & fortune?! Which headline act played Keele just as her bitter jilted ex (who’d played Keele the year before) was recording a song about their relationship that would become one of the most famous songs of the 80s? Which major 80s/90s rock band owes its existence to a eureka-moment during a support band’s performance at a 1982 Keele gig? Which support band changed its name, re-arranged its songs, & became a multi-national success? What third-on-the-bill soloist at a Freshers Ball went on to have a No.1 in NINETEEN countries including the USA? There is love, there are fights, there are lock-outs, there are lock-ins, wild quotes and tall tales. With loads of colour illustrations, The Keele Gigs are coming back to life in Dave Lee’s new book. It will take you back to a more innocent age...or maybe it was a less innocent age (?!) The Foundation Year was all very well, but what if Springsteen was right; maybe we did learn more from a 3 minute record than we even learned in school!

The Keele Gigs! was published in paperback on 1st September 2021...But is now SOLD OUT! A Kindle version is now available. There may still be the odd paperback copy available on eBay/Amazon. (Email/message us if you're struggling to get one.)

The first volume (1978-82) includes the Keele stories of:

U2 Dire Straits The Kinks Dexys Midnight Runners The Specials

The Pretenders UB40 Toyah King Crimson Simple Minds

Gillan XTC Roy Harper Rock Goes To College ...and c200 more!