Sunderland Locarno

The north-east venue hosted a gig that Peel frequently described as his all-time favourite (although this sometimes varied) - headlined by the Faces on the weekend after the local second division football club beat Arsenal to qualify for the 1973 FA Cup final (where they subsequently defeated heavy favourites Leeds 1-0 in one of the biggest shocks in English football history).
Playing gigs in Sunderland was not an unknown experience for Peel, who had struck up a relationship with local promotor Geoff Docherty when the latter was starting out at the Bay Hotel in the same city. Peel later contributed a foreword to Docherty's memoir, 'A Promoter's Tale: Rock At The Sharp End'.
== Peel in Sunderland ==
Gigs below featured Peel on the bill. These were researched from Docherty's listing, at the end of his book, of all the gigs he put on down the years.
(Bay Hotel)
1969
3 March
*Van Der Graaf Generator, Black Sabbath
10 March
*Spirit Of John Morgan & The Music Of Jan Dukes De Grey
21 April
*Liverpool Scene, Bridget St John
(Locarno)
;1969
24 October
*Pink Floyd, Stone The Crows
28 November
*Tyrannosaurus Rex, Spirit Of John Morgan
;1970
13 February
*Blodwyn Pig, Audience - Locarno,
;1973
13 April
*Rod Stewart & Faces - Locarno
27 April
*Status Quo, Good Habit - Locarno
(Sunderland Top Rank)
5 March
*Faces
(Sunderland Polytechnic)
1977
14 October (I think, because this is the day Bing Crosby died)
*John Peel Disco
Category:Clubs