Prefab Sprout

Early dates

Paddy McAloon perfomed with Tony Coyle as part of a duo and sometime trio known as “The Doubles” and also as a band at University known as the “Happy Alberts”

(As “Avalon“)

1976/1977

Avalon line up was Tony Coyle, Vocals; Paddy McAloon, Guitar; Leo McCabe, Guitar and Bass; Roy McCalvey, Bass; Johnny Darmo, Drums

Sunday Nights, Bay Hotel, Cullercoats

Prudhoe Hospital

Unknown Dates

The earliest incarnation of Prefab Sprout was Paddy and Martin McAloon, with Mick Salmon on drums

St Leonards RC School Sixth Form Dinner Dance

“Ill-matched gigs were a feature of that post-punk era. I once saw Prefab Sprout supporting NWOBHM’s Samson in Durham, and Paddy McAloon was hit on the head by a cooking apple thrown by a local rock fan whom we just knew as ‘Reggie Mental’. ‘Reggie’s down the front’ someone muttered before the gig even started. ‘Has he got his cookers with him?’ ‘Yes’ At that point, we all knew that trouble was inevitable…” – Andy Darling quoted from a comment in the Guardan online.

Honeysuckle Pub on Coatsworth Road. Gateshead

“Saw The Eastside Torpedoes with Bren Healey, Toy Dolls, Prefab Sprout”

1980

Rixy’s Nightclub, Durham City

Castle Inn, Durham

Spectro Arts Lab Newcastle (Supporting Dem-Cox)

January 30th: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

February 9th: Dunelm House, University of Durham, supporting the Revillos

February 16th: Dunelm House, University of Durham, supporting the Members

June 29th: Durham Domefest

July 2nd: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

October 8th: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

October 15th: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

October 22nd: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

October 25th: Kings Head, Stanley

November 4th: Brewers Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

November 18th : Brewers Arms, Gilesgate Bank Durham

November 19th: Brewers Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

November 25th: Brewers Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

December 6th : Langley Park St Joseph’s Parish Hall

December 11th: Durham Q Ball Club

December 16th: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham

1981

March 27th: Newcastle Spectro Arts Lab, with Green Eyed Children (later to become Hurrah!)

March 28th: Newcastle Spectro Arts Lab

April: Tom Minney’s Party

May 7th: Newcastle Spectro Arts Lab

June 18th: Newcastle Balmbra’s, with Reptile House

July 21st: Jesmond, The Lonsdale

June 25th: Brewer’s Arms, Gilesgate Bank, Durham.

August 11th: Jesmond, The Lonsdale

September 7th: Annabels, Sunderland

October: Le Metro, Sunderland

October 24th: Green Machine Disco, Dunelm House, Durham University, supporting Punching Holes

1982

Wendy Smith started performing at live dates about February 1982

January 6th: Washington Biddick, Farm Arts Centre

August 26th: The Soul Kitchen, Newcastle

1983

March 17th: Night Moves, Glasgow, supporting Aztec Camera. The Kingfishers were also on the bill

March 18th: Edinburgh University, supporting Aztec Camera

March 24th: Newcastle Soul Cellar at Grey’s Club

March 31st: Newcastle Soul Cellar at Grey’s Club

April 16th: Darlington Arts Centre

June 29th: El Hacienda, Tiffany’s, Newcastle

Michael Salmon left the band about July 1983. A Spinal Tapesque succession of drummers followed, including Daniel James (pseudonym for Graham Lant), Steve Dolder, Louis Connolly, David Ruffy and others, with Graham Lant being employed on the Swoon recordings and some gigs around this period including El Hacienda and Liverpool Poly.

December 7th: Liverpool Polytechnic

December 12th: Monday Club, Newcastle

December 15th: Sunday Drum Club, Sunderland

December 19th: Birmingham Odeon supporting Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Wednesday 21st December: HMV Hammersmith Odeon supporting Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Thursday 22nd December (early and late shows): HMV Hammersmith Odeon supporting Elvis Costello and the Attractions

1984

The “New Way of Life” Tour

January 4th: Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) with Hurrah! and the Daintees

January 17th: Reading University

January 18th: Goldsmith College, London

January 19th: Kingston Polytechnic, London

By this time David Ruffy had joined as a regular drummer for live dates

January 20th: Kings College, London

January 21st: Brunel University

January 25th: Hacienda, Manchester with the Daintees

January 27th: Birmingham University

January 28th: Alcuin (University of York) with the Daintees

February 8th: Leicester Polytechnic (Arena) with the Daintees

February 9th: London Savoy at the Boston with Hurrah! and the Daintees

February 10th: Manchester University (announced at Hacienda gig, seems unlikely from geography of preceding and next shows)

February 11th: Portsmouth Polytechnic

February 13th: Upstairs at Erics, Bournemouth

February 24th: Night Moves, Glasgow

February 25th: Nite Club, Edinburgh

February 26th: Dance Factory Dundee

March 17th (broadcast): Saturday Live Session

All dates between April 27 to May 18 include Hurrah! as special guests.

March 1984: “Swoon” released. The lineup for successive dates included Virginia Astley of the Ravishing Beauties, with Neil Conti on drums.

UK and Ireland Tour:

April 27th: The Buttery, Trinity College, Dublin

April 28th: McMordie Hall, Queen’s University Belfast

May 3rd: Hacienda, Manchester

May 4th: Lancaster University

May 5th: Mountford Hall, Liverpool University

May 7th: Lyceum London

May 8th: Leadmill, Sheffield

May 9th: Victoria Hall, Hanley

May 10th: Polytechnic, Leeds

May 12th: Essex University Students’ Union

May 13th: Studio, Bristol

May 14th: Upstairs at Eric’s, Bournemouth

May 15th: Rock City, Nottingham

May 16th: Birmingham Odeon

May 17th: Mayfair, Newcastle

May 19th: University, East Anglia

German Tour:

May 21st: Cooky’s, Frankfurt

May 22nd: Luxor, Koln

May 23rd: Musiktheater Bad, Hannover

May 24th: KIR, Hamburg

May 25th: Odeon, Munster

May 26th: Loft im Metropol, Berlin

May 27th: Alter Bahnhof, Hof, Germany

May 28th: Media-Werkstatt, Stuttgart

Festival Dates:

May 31st: Pallieterhall Lier, Belgium

June 1st: Brielpoort, Deinze, Belgium

July 27-29th: Elephant Fayre, Port Eliot Estate, Cornwall

1985

The “Great Escape” Tour:

June 1985: “Steve McQueen” released. Virginia Astley left the live lineup at this point, being replaced by Michael Graves, and Kevin Armstrong joined on guitar, leading to a much harder edged rock sound.

July 16th: Triangle Arts Centre, Birmingham

July 17th: Manchester International

July 18th: Leeds Warehouse

July 19th: Porterhouse, Retford

July 20th: Leadmill, Sheffield

July 21st: Underground, Croydon

July 22nd: Dominion Theatre, London

July 27th: Saturday Live Session

August 7th (Broadcast 23rd October): Hold Tight, Alton Towers

August 18th: John Peel Session, Maida Vale

August 23rd (Broadcast): Bliss Channel 4

August 24th (Broadcast): Graham Bannerman Session

Piccadilly Radio Session around this date – referenced in Acrylic Daze Fanzine.

The “Two Wheels Good” tour:

Kevin Armstrong had left the live lineup by this point but was not replaced. Wendy was absent for a considerable number of early dates, between at least October 19th and 31st. She had laryngitis. Dates where she was confirmed absent are noted below, noting she was pretty much certainly absent for the dates in between! Hurrah! were almost certainly the support throughout: noted in a couple of places were they were confirmed as playing.

UK Tour:

October 17th: Ritzy, Aberdeen

October 18th: Dundee University

October 19th: Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow (without Wendy who was sick)

October 21st: Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh (switched from Coasters, and without Wendy who was sick)

October 22nd: Newcastle City Hall (without Wendy who was sick)

October 23rd: Rock City Nottingham (without Wendy who was sick)

October 24th: Leicester University (without Wendy who was sick)

October 26th: Salford University (without Wendy who was sick)

October 27th: Liverpool Mountford Hall (without Wendy who was sick)

October 28th: Powerhouse, Birmingham (without Wendy who was sick)

October 29th: Sheffield University (without Wendy who was sick)

October 30th: Victoria Hall, Hanley

October 31st: Warwick University (without Wendy who was sick)

November 2nd: Riley Smith Hall, University of Leeds

November 3rd: Norwich LEA with Hurrah!

November 4th: Oxford (may have been rearranged to the 15th)

November 6th: Guildhall, Portsmouth

November 7th: Cardiff University with Hurrah!

November 8th: Gloucester Arts College

November 9th: Essex University

November 11th: Top Rank, Brighton

November 12th: Studio, Bristol

November 13th: Exeter

November 14th: Coliseum, St Austell, Cornwall

November 15th: Apollo, Oxford

November 16th: University of Reading

November 18th: Hammersmith Palais

European Tour:

December 2nd: Alabamahalle, Munich, Germany

December 3rd: Lyon, Salle Moliere, France

December 5th: Eldorado, Paris (Moved from Le Palace)

December 6th: Rouen-Exo 7, France

December 8th: Vredenburg Hall, Utrecht, Holland

December 9th: Noordersingel, Borgerhout, Belgium

December 10th (broadcast): Old Grey Whistle Test

December 11th: Mannheim, Germany

December 12th: Frankfurt,Germany

December 13th: Fabrik, Hamburg, Germany

December 15th: Errol’s, Gothenburg, Sweden

December 16th: Circus, Oslo, Norway

December 18th: Ghetto, Stockholm, Sweden

1986

January 31st: ‘Red Wedge Tour’, Newcastle City Hall

February 8th (Broadcast): The Tube Channel 4

February 18th: Milan Rolling Stone, Italy

February 20th: Camelot, Bari, Italy

February 21st: Teatrotenda Partenope,Naples, Italy

February 22nd: Rome, Italy

February 24th: Padova, Italy

February 25th: Bologna, Italy

February 26th: Teatro Tenda, Florence, Italy

February 27th: (originally scheduled for the 17th, but snow prevented the equipment from arriving): Teatro Colosseo, Torino, Italy

March 5th: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Gary Hughes joined the line up for the Japanese dates, standing in for Michael Graves who was not available.

July 2nd: Kousei Nenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan

July 7th: Osaka, Japan

1988

July 4th: KCRW Interview with brief solo performance

1989

January: Midem Festival, Cannes, France

February 19th: Brixton Academy (broadcast March 19th)

March 1st (Broadcast): The Hippodrome Show

1990

August 1990: “Jordan the Comeback” released. Joining the core band of Paddy, Martin, Wendy and Neil for the tour were Jess Bailey on keyboards, Paul Harvey on guitar, and Karlos Edwards on percussion.

UK Tour:

October 5th: Portsmouth Guildhall

October 6th: Birmingham AVLC

October 7th: Cardiff, St. Davids Hall

October 9th: Cambridge Corn Exchange

October 10th: Bradford, St George’s Hall

October 12th: Edinburgh Playhouse

October 13th: Barrowland Ballroom,Glasgow

October 14th: Newcastle City Hall

October 15th: Sheffield City Hall

October 17th: Manchester Apollo

October 18th: Nottingham Royal Concert Hall

October 19th: Liverpool Royal Court

October 21st: Oxford Apollo

October 22nd: HMV Hammersmith Odeon, London, with Trash Can Sinatras

October 23rd: HMV Hammersmith Odeon, London, with Trash Can Sinatras

European Tour:

November 14th: Amsterdam

November 16th: Nighttown Rotterdam

November 18th: Modena, Italy

November 19th: Teatro Olimpico, Rome

November 20th: Teatro Orfeo, Milan, Italy

November 22nd: Montpellier, France

November 23rd: Palau d’Esports de Montjuic, Barcelona, Spain

November 24th: Pabellon de Real Madrid, Madrid

November 26th: Lyon, France

November 27th: La Cigale, Paris

November 28th: La Cigale, Paris

November 30th: Vooruit, Gent, Belgium

December 2nd: Copenhagen, Denmark

December 4th: Rockgarden, Gothenberg, Sweden

December 5th: Daily’s Melody, Stockholm, Sweden

December 6th: Kjellern Chateau Neuf, Oslo, Norway

December 8th: Belfast

December 9th: Dublin, The Point Depot

1991

February 5th: BBC2 Late show performance.

March 16th: Ricard Festival, le Zenith, Paris

September 24th (Broadcast October 20th): “An Eye on the Music”, Paddy McAloon with Jimmy Webb

2000

The 2000 tour saw Wendy leave the band, and a stripped down line up with Jess Bailey on keyboards joining the three remaining core members.

March 30th: Nottingham Royal Centre

March 31st: Bristol Colston Hall

April 1st: Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick

April 3rd: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

April 4th: Philharmonic Hall Liverpool

April 5th: Corn Exchange, Cambridge

April 6th: Southampton Guildhall

April 8th: Newcastle City Hall

April 9th: Leeds Town and Country Club

April 11th: Manchester Bridgewater Hall

April 12th: London Shepherds Bush Empire

April 13th: London Shepherds Bush Empire

April 15th: Dublin Olympia Theatre, Eire

April 16th: Dublin Olympia Theatre, Eire

June 10th: Fleadh Festival, Finsbury Park, London

2007

December: PTA Fundraiser