Caught on tape at the Fairfield Halls
Legendary bootlegs, videos and live albums
Welcome back to Londonist: Croydon Edit! Piloted by Londonist editor and committed Croydonian Will Noble, it's about all things in the borough of Croydon — including features on Croydon's crazily rich history, interviews with the people who make Croydon what it is, the latest on Croydon openings, exhibitions, gigs and events, and lots more.
The Beatles. Muddy Waters. Shirley Bassey. The Who. Nick Drake. Olivia Newton-John. It's a line-up Glastonbury would kill for, and yet over the years all these pop luminaries—and countless others—have graced the stage of Croydon's magical concrete box, the Fairfield Halls. So many of these great performances live on solely in the memories of those who were there (and, if you dig into the archives, some excellent reviews in publications like the Croydon Advertiser). But some can be found online in the form of bootlegs, videos and live albums.
Join me as I borrow Londonist's Time Machine for a joyride back in recent history, to rewatch some of the greatest performances caught on tape at the Fairfield.
Ornette Coleman, 29 August 1965
"Was the Dagenham Alhambra on the tour schedule too?" asked one reviewer in response to the improbable occurrence of avant-garde Texan jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman choosing to record a live album in Croydon. If easy (or even moderate) listening is your bag, you can safely gloss over Croydon Concert—which at time sounds like a saxophone having a panic attack. Carpool Karaoke it ain’t, but the album's revered by proper jazz nuts, and does a fine job flaunting the Fairfield's famous acoustics—once considered among the best in Europe.
Pink Floyd, 18 January 1970
At the dawn of the seventies, Pink Floyd took their Flaming Cow tour to Croydon. Their Fairfield Halls set (like a few on this list, recorded as a bootleg) features one of the earliest live recordings of a track from Dark Side of the Moon—namely an instrumental flutter, which would become Us and Them. The set ends with The Amazing Pudding, which later evolved into Atom Heart Mother. My preference is for really early Pink Floyd, and although by 1970, the band were lighter to the tune of one Syd Barrett, they did perform the cosmic Astronomy Domine; to see this in a Croydon where space age high-rises were springing up all over the shop must've been out of this world.
Free, 13 September 1970
Vic and Bob's favourite band, no less, Free performed at the Fairfield Halls the same year as Pink Floyd, using a handful of the recorded tracks—including the legendary All Right Now—on their Free Live! album. In my opinion, it’s good, clean, no-nonsense rock, although when the band returned to the Fairfield the following year, Croydon Advertiser critic Barry Shinfield (sounds like a poor Jerry Seinfeld tribute act) complained “Why all the fuss? Nothing one heard approached… the Who at their perspiring best.” Free’s Guitarist Paul Kossoff obviously agreed with Pete Townsend's famous sentiment that he could play at the Fairfield "All bloody night", because when he formed his new band, Back Street Crawler, they recorded an entire album here.
Elton John, 28 March 1971
No Dua Lipa hook-ups or grand stairlift exits for Elton John back in 1971—his Fairfield gig is brass tacks rock ‘n’ roll, and it must’ve been fantastic to see him perform Your Song in this relatively intimate setting, at a time his voice was at its sharpest, and his suits, their reddest. Mind you, this wasn’t the smallest venue Elton played in Croydon—he appeared across the road at the Greyhound, a venue that merits its own Croydon Edit post sometime, seeing as it hosted Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Queen and many many more pop luminaries.
Morecambe & Wise, 18 October 1973
"I've never worked in an aircraft hangar before," winks Ernie Wise, taking in the size of the Ashcroft Theatre, before he and his bespectacled counterpart rattle off a joyous 'best of' live show—"Little Ern'' quips, Bring Me Sunshine, paper bag trick and all. It’s unadulterated joy watching the funniest comedians ever to draw laughs work in this live, unedited scenario (they spent many years, after all, cutting their teeth on the vaudeville circuit), and what makes this performance all the more remarkable is that it's somehow the only full live recording of Morecambe & Wise there is. You can watch the whole show in two parts on Dailymotion.
In 2019, Eric and Ern returned in tribute act form: