Welcome to another posting of a series of gig listings for 1960s bands. None of these lists is exhaustive and my idea is to add to them in the comments section below over time. They are here for future researchers to draw on. I have also added a few interesting bits of information and will add images in time.
I’d like to encourage band members to get in touch to share memories, or for anyone to send corrections/clarifications to my email: Warchive@aol.com
Equally important, if you attended any of the gigs below or played in the support band, please do leave your memories below in the comments section for future historians to use. If you know of any missing gigs, please add them too, if possible, with the sources.
Paul Stewart – lead vocals
Pete Hammerton – lead guitar
Bob Freeman (aka Rob Tolchard) – rhythm guitar
Ian McIntock – bass
Ray Cook – drums
Sands were formed from the remnants of Hampton, Middlesex R&B outfit, The Others around June/July 1965.
They first worked as The Emotions and then The Army before adopting Sands, named after a coffee bar in New Bond Street, around March 1966. Apart from Cook, who had worked in The Tridents with Jeff Beck, the rest had played in The Others.
8 April 1966 – Marquee, London with Gary Farr & The T-Bones (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
15 April 1966 – Links R&B Club, Maxwell Park Youth Centre, Borehamwood, Herts with Alan Price Set (Simon Gee research)
22 April 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Bluesology (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
23 April 1966 – Jigsaw, Manchester with Gary Farr & The T-Bones (Manchester Evening News & Chronicle)
6 May 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Emeralds (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
13 May 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Move (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
23 May 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Steampacket (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
27 May 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Move (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
Around early June 1966, the group headed to Hamburg to play the Top Ten Club with Irish showband The Woodpeckers but it was not a positive experience and they cut the residency short after briefly rehearsing with Scottish singer Barry St John.
17 June 1966 – Coronation Ballroom, Ramsgate, Kent with Episode Six and Steve & The Corvettes (East Kent Times)
20 June 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Shotgun Express (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
25 June 1966 – Club de Danse, Colchester, Essex (Evening Star, Ipswich)
28 June 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Small Faces (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
1 July 1966 – Cellar Club, Latin Quarter, Leicester with Legay (Leicester debut) (Leicester Mercury)
2 July 1966 – Farnborough Technical College, Farnborough, Hampshire with The Graham Bond Organisation (Aldershot News)
7 July 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Move (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
15 July 1966 – Market Hall, St Albans, Herts (Welwyn Advertiser)
4 August 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Move (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
6 August 1966 – Starlight Ballroom, Boston Gliderdrome, Boston, Lincolnshire with Solomon Burke with The Senate, David Garrick & The Iveys, John McCoy’s Crawdaddies and The Ferryboys (Lincolnshire Standard)
13 August 1966 – Co-op, Rainbow Suite, Birmingham with The Outer Limits (Birmingham Evening Mail)
18 August 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Move (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
20 August 1966 – Burlesque, Leicester with Roaring ‘60s (Leicester Mercury)
28 August 1966 – Starlite, Greenford, northwest London with The Pretty Things (Melody Maker)
Around this time, Sands played the Hi-Fi club in Toulon in the South of France. They also embarked on a short Belgium tour in the second half of the year.
17 September 1966 – Birdcage, Eastney, Hampshire (Dave Allen research)
22 September 1966 – Thorngate Ballroom, Gosport, Hampshire (Portsmouth News)
1 October 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Herd (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
13 October 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Move (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
28 October 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Gary Farr & The T-Bones (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
2 November 1966 – Birdcage, Eastney, Hampshire (Dave Allen research)
4 November 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Duffy Power’s Nucleus (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
5 November 1966 – Shoreline, Bognor Regis, West Sussex with Duffy Power (Melody Maker)
19 November 1966 – Weymouth Pavilion, Weymouth, Dorset with Chapter IV (Dorset Evening Echo/Western Gazette)
20 November 1966 – Pavilion Ballroom, Southampton (Dorset Evening Echo)
21 November 1966 – Discotheque Club, Salisbury (Dorset Evening Echo)
25 November 1966 – Marquee,Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Summer Set (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
2 December 1966 – Starlite Ballroom, Greenford, northwest London with The All Night Workers (Melody Maker)
6 December 1966 – New Sandon Village Hall, Essex (Essex Chronicle) Is this likely with the gig below?
6 December 1966 – Concorde, Southampton, Hampshire (Southern Echo)
9 December 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Iveys (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
16 December 1966 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Ultimate (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
18 December 1966 – Cromer Olympia, Cromer, Norfolk with News (North Norfolk News)
7-8 January 1967 – Old Barn Club, Penzance, Cornwall (West Briton & Royal Cornish Gazette)
13 January 1967 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Roscoe Brown Combo (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
27 January 1967 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with Mark Barry (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
28 January 1967 – Lion Hotel, Warrington, Cheshire with Beachwoods and Principles (Warrington Guardian)
29 January 1967 – Carlton Club, Warrington, Cheshire (Warrington Guardian)
5 February 1967 – Saville Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, London with Cream and Edwin Starr (Melody Maker) Disc & Music Echo had Billy Stewart instead of Edwin Starr originally
17 February 1967 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Condors (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
During late February Ray Cook left to work with Jeff Beck who he’d played with in The Tridents and B J Wilson joined (possibly from Freddie Mack’s Mack Sound). Cook worked with Jeff Beck in the first week of March but left on 6 March
1 April 1967 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel)
22 April 1967 – Lion Hotel, Warrington, Cheshire with Klue and Georgie Germs (Warrington Guardian)
23 April 1967 – Carlton Club, Warrington, Cheshire (Warrington Guardian)
6 May 1967 – The Place, Hanley, Staffordshire (Evening Sentinel)
10 May 1967 – Steering Wheel, Weymouth, Dorset (Dorset Evening Echo)
12 May 1967 – Steering Wheel, Dorchester, Dorset (Dorset Evening Echo)
13-14 May 1967 – Old Barn Club, Penzance, Cornwall (West Briton & Royal Cornish Gazette)
28 May 1967 – Heaven Club, Angel Hotel, Godalming, Surrey with The Other Two Thousand (Surrey Advertiser)
2 June 1967 – Marquee, Wardour Street, Soho, central London with The Wages of Sin (Tony Bacon’s book: London Live)
3 June 1967 – Britannia Rowing Club, Nottingham with The Montanas (Nottingham Evening Post)
9 June 1967 – Club Rado, Belfast, Northern Ireland with Few (City Week)
17 June 1967 – Lion Hotel, Warrington, Cheshire with Beachwoods and Georgie Germs (Warrington Guardian)
18 June 1967 – Carlton Club, Warrington, Cheshire (Warrington Guardian)
24 June 1967 – Hatchetts Playground, Piccadilly, central London (Evening Standard)
Around this time B J Wilson joined Procol Harum. Bob Freeman (aka Rob Tolchard) took over the drum stool
1 July 1967 – Beachcomber, Nottingham with Sons & Lovers (Nottingham Evening Post)
3 July 1967 – Hatchetts Playground, Piccadilly, central London (Evening Standard)
8 July 1967 – Carlton Ballroom, Erdington, West Midlands (Birmingham Evening Mail)
29 July 1967 – Beachcomber, Nottingham (Nottingham Evening Post)
August 1967 – Three weeks at the Papagayo Club, Font Romeu, France (most likely starting second week of the month)
16 September 1967 – Lion Hotel, Warrington with The Fix and The Seftons (Warrington Guardian)
8 October 1967 – Colomba Club, West Wickham, south London (Fabulous 208)
Shortly after this gig, Paul Stewart and Pete Hammerton left and Rob Tolchard and Ian McIntock recorded as Sun Dragon.
Thanks to Mike Stax for his excellent interview with Rob Tolchard in Ugly Things #36 for some of the information. Thanks also to Rob for providing me with additional information.
Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, without prior permission from the author.
I recall as being an absolute highlight of the time – and that was our short residency at the main Papagayo Club in St. Tropez, where we spent Christmas 1966 with a very bohemian French set, with Christmas lunch, all together with Le Patron ( M. Malortigue “Le Chinois”) and his gorgeous partner Ghislaine (a buddy of Brigitte Bardot), the gay DJ, the lesbian cooks (and I mention that because it was all still a little edgy in the 1960s) and anyone else who happened to be there. Amazing to think we drove the length of France with all our gear – and had to convince people we weren’t wearing wigs because “long” hair wasn’t a familiar phenomenon there (“c’est une perruque?”). Such exciting times for us teenagers………
I saw Sands at Quaintways (Wall City Jazz Club) in Chester on 3 October 1966. The headline band was Cream but they didn’t show up because Jack Bruce was ill. Also on bill were the Prowlers, Wall City Jazz Men and Notions.
I remember playing Keele University 4/2/67, the Saturday night before the Sunday afternoon gig at the Saville Theatre, sleeping on someone’s floor and not getting much sleep……..but the gig went really well. Pete Townsend said “how do you get that sound out of that little amp?” (Vox AC30 top boost). My grandmother was there with my parents….she thought Cream were too loud!
The last gig Sands played was a private do at the Royal Garden Hotel in Bayswater, with the Chris Barber band on, I think, 10/10/67.
Brian Epstein died whilst we were at the other Papagayo Club in Font Remeur in the Pyrenees. We were coming back to promote the “listen to the sky” single but NEMS was in melt-down, it was not plugged and we had no one booking our gigs……..we just ran out of steam!
Font Romeu
Corrections & Additions
Hampton School band The Others were on the verge of success when their lead singer, Paul Stewart, was forced to return to school by his parents to study for exams leading to a place at University – a place he never gained. Within a year, he was back with his mates in Sands, swiftly signed by The Marquee Organisation. Brian Epstein saw them at The Cromwellian Club and booked them to support Cream at the Saville Theatre, buying their contract from The Marquee and signing them to NEMS.
Sands were playing The Papagayo Club (twin of the one in St. Tropez) on a residency in Font Romeu, the Pyrenean pre-Olympics training centre for winter sports, when the daily paper announced “EPSTEIN EST MORT”. On their return to London, they were assigned to Robert Stigwood, who had bought into NEMS, despite The Beatles’ loathing of him.
Stigwood was focussing on the Bee Gees, and insisted that Sands record a particular one of their songs for a first single.”Mrs. Gillespies Refrigerator” was a pretty dire choice and despite some revamping by Sands, who wrote an additional hook and coda for it, top DJ Pete Murray opined that it “needed de-frosting”. With carte blanche for the ‘B’-side, however, Sands chose one of the highlights of their live shows, a three-part piece named after the song which introduced it: “Listen to The Sky” written by Rob, but attributed to “Sands”. Rob’s brainchild proceeded to a middle-section of hair-raising guitar and bass feedback effects, with staccato snare-drum strokes, all simulating an aerial dog-fight, complete with air-raid sirens and pyrotechnics. It concluded with a savage rendition of a section out of “Mars” from Holst’s Planet Suite.
Far from being “psych-rock” (thus attributed because of the title, perhaps) it was an example of Sands’ attempt to carve out an individual niche by experimenting with music/theatre crossover, away from their guitar-based Motown repertoire such as other bands like The Action, The Move, Gary Farr & The T-Bones, The Herd and Marmalade were also offering. But as “Doc” Hammerton writes, NEMS was in disarray, the record wasn’t promoted and live work wasn’t forthcoming With zero support from their management/agency, the band couldn’t survive, and split up.