Coventry Hippodrome / Apollo / Theatre

Did anyone see the Beatles at the Hippodrome In November 1963?

There are quite a few reminiscences in this thread, not only of The Beatles 1963 but other concerts/one night stands as well

Yes, saw them but couldn't hear them very well Over the screams. I was also an Adam Faith fan, still have his autograph I queued at the stage door for and he signed it to me

Yes I remember not being able to hear, it didn't really matter just to be there was something. I saw many other bands there also including The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Who and many more. The Rock House (Locarno) used to have well known groups on Thursday night in the 60's, the Jazz club in The Leofric Hotel was a good place to see groups on Sunday nights.

Here's a flyer from 1967

Well would you believe it, I went to 8.30 showing of this concert.

The original entrance to the Motor Museum - just to the side of the Hippodrome.....

I am unsure of the main contractors, but Joe Kavanagh and his son John did some of the rendering on the outside. I think they used condensed milk as a bonding agent on the last few bits!

Hope you like the pics, early days as the Granada Bingo.

Thank you space1 for the photos, I had never gone into it while it was a bingo hall, the last time I went to the Hippodrome was to see a pantomine which starred Frankie Howerd.

What a loss. Whilst still there is had possibilities for future use in a city that is sorely lacking entertainment and suffers as a consequence. Now there is no possibility and it's highly unlikely the current council - who think Coventry is populated by uncultured people - will ever build one.

I must agree with you Flapdoodle, It was a drawcard in its day, and was always packed whenever we went there. I think it lost its identity when it was turned into a Bingo Hall but always thought it was in an excellent position for an entertainment venue. Considering what top entertainers get - correction - demand these days, it would have fallen on hard times.

The NEC probably didn't help, as a lot of the acts that would play big regional theatres like this would just play a single Arena gig. Neither did the catastrophic collapse in the city's economy help. However, the demand for live music has been growing and as, usual, Coventry has missed the boat. If the boat even bothers docking in this place anymore.

It wasn't so much the NEC but Warwicks Art Centre and the Concert Hall that sounded a death knell for the Coventry Theatre, acts signed to the Arts Centre wouldn't then be allowed to play a venue within a certain radius - and the Coventry Theatre fell within that radius. It wasn't much of a consequence to The Belgrade as it was mostly a repertory theatre with it's own acting company (until relatively recently) and so wasn't necessarily looking for the same acts as the Coventry Theatre. A lot of folk say that there's no "call" for large theatres anymore (or for theatre in Coventry but the city boasts 4 as of today) and The Birmingham Hippodrome seems to go from strength to strength. The size of the stage at the Coventry Theatre was comparable - perhaps the only thing that let it down was lack of access to backstage for scenery and storage of shows (their scenery stores used to be in Quinton Road so moving stuff around in a large wagon wasn't too much hassle). In some respects, Mattersons being next door didn't help as it tied up land that could have been used for that... Incidentally in the pictures above - there's a picture of a followspot stood amongst the seating - if memory serves, that unit is now somewhere backstage at The Albany in The Butts - when the bingo hall was closed, we were given all the lighting and sound stuff.