The Edinburgh Gig Archive

The Odeon Cinema in Clerk Street was opened as the New Victoria in 1930, and was designed by architects WE Trent & JW Jordan for Gaumont. The cinema hosted many memorable gigs bookended almost exactly by the years 1970-1981. (Including my first ever gig, the Madness matinee show in December 1980!). Sadly now empty.

1970 20th March Deep Purple 1973 7th April Roxy Music
1973 23rd May Wings 1973 16th & 17th November Cliff Richard (4 shows in total)

1974 8th February Wizzard (2 shows)

1974 19th April Deep Purple, support band Elf

1974 29th May Black Sabbath

1974 4th June Lou Reed (This show may have been cancelled, can anyone confirm)
1974 21st & 22nd October Roxy Music
1974 15th November Golden Earing, support band Lynard Skynard
1974 19th November Sparks
1974 13th December Rod Stewart & The Faces
1976 23rd June Slik
1976 25th September Be Bop Deluxe

1977 30th September Dr Feelgood, support band Mink DeVille

1977 14th November Thin Lizzy, support band The Radiators From Space 1977 15th November Gary Glitter, support band Rosetta Stone

1977 6th December The Boomtown Rats

1978 5th May UK

1978 28th May AC/DC, support band British Lions

1978 31st May Blue Oyster Cult, support band Japan

1978 22nd June The Boomtown Rats, support from local band Matt Vinyl & The Decorators

1978 30th June UFO

1978 30th August Patti Smith

1978 13th September Blondie, support band The Boyfriends

1978 25th September Brand X, special guest Peter Hammill

1978 10th October Wishbone Ash 1978 11th October Steel Pulse, support band China Street

1978 23rd October Buzzcocks

1978 27th October Whitesnake, support band Magnum

1978 31st October AC/DC

1978 7th November Judas Priest

1978 16th November The Clash

1978 1st December John Martyn

1978 13th December Rory Gallagher

1978 22nd December The Rezillos, support band The Undertones & Chou Parrot

1979 23rd January The Kinks

1979 8th February UFO

1979 20th February Herbie Hancock

1979 21st February Steve Hillage

1979 5th March Bad Company

1979 19th March Elton John

1979 26th March David Essex 1979 27th March Motorhead

1979 30th March Frankie Miller 1979 16th April Thin Lizzy

1979 27th April JJ Burnel (The Stranglers) 1979 28th April Rush

1979 2nd May John Miles, support band Bandit

1979 7th May Dennis Brown & The Professionals, support Rudy Thomas

1979 12th May The Tubes

1979 19th May Renaissance 1979 23rd, 24th, 25th & 26th May Status Quo

1979 1st June The Police, support band The Cramps

1979 9th June The Who

Thank you to David for his memories below of The Who at the Odeon

"In the foyer they had a lot of stands advertising Quadrophenia and the Kids are Alright movie which had just been released. We managed to nick a couple of album covers and hung around outside the back of the theatre in the hope of getting them autographed. We saw John "Rabbit" Bundrick the keyboard player, and my mate swears we saw Kenney Jones as well. We did find out however that the band were staying at the Caledonian Hotel in Lothian Road".
"So we went down to the hotel and met Roger Daltrey, Bill Curbishley the band's manager and Harvey Goldsmith the promoter. Roger signed the album sleeves. They asked us whether we had been to the recent outdoor rock festival at Loch Lomond, which we had. They seemed very interested in what we thought of the event. We wondered whether they might have been contemplating playing a festival that summer. They didn't as a matter of fact. Interestingly though, their very next gig after the Odeon was Wembley Stadium".

The gig was amazing!

1979 21st June Steve Hackett

1979 29th June Dave Edmunds Rockpile (rescheduled from 6th May)

1979 29th & 30th July Ian Dury & The Blockheads

1979 7th August The Skids, support band The Berlin Blondes 1979 15th September Louden Wainright 1979 20th September XTC, support band Yachts 1979 5th October The Boomtown Rats

1979 6th October Buzzcocks, support band Joy Division

Thank you to Steve for this Pete Shelley signed ticket

Thank you to ken for his memories of The Buzzcocks gig

Pete Shelley and the guys were as loud, punchy and frantic as I'd expected but I remember being surprised at the high quality of the sound and the tight musicianship.I guess by that time they were honed by a few years on the touring circuit.

1979 17th October Whitesnake

1979 17th November Hawkwind

1979 21st November Motorhead

1979 22nd November John Martyn

1979 29th November Talking Heads, support bands A Certain Ratio & Section 25

Thank you to Ken for his memories of the Talking Heads gig "Talking Heads put on a funky but spooky performance...David Byrne was in full-on sweating, awkward psycho/geek mode and hardly ever looked up at the audience!"

1979 11th December Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen at the Edinburgh Odeon Photo © Alan Wilson

1979 15th December Wings

1980 1st & 2nd January Blondie
1980 16th January UFO

1980 19th & 20th January The Clash, support Josef K & Mikey Dread

1980 23rd January Wishbone Ash

1980 27th January The Ramones, support band The Boys

1980 5th February Robin Trower

1980 6th February Iggy Pop, support band The Psychedelic Furs 1980 16th February Spyro Gyra

1980 22nd February The Tourists

1980 1st March Peter Gabriel

1980 5th March Gillan

1980 9th March Nazareth 1980 19th March Judas Priest

1980 28th March Stiff Little Fingers, support band Another Pretty Face

1980 8th April Gerry Rafferty 1980 23rd April Genesis 1980 8th May Eric Clapton, support Chas & Dave

1980 16th May Black Sabbath

1980 21st May Suzi Quatro 1980 22nd May The Average White Band 1980 30th May The Undertones, support band The Moondogs 1980 1st June Saxon, support band Tygers Of Pan Tang

1980 3rd June Joan Armatrading

1980 6th June Whitesnake

1980 6th August Ted Nugent

1980 15th September Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard Of Ozz

1980 20th September Rick Wakeman

1980 26th September Rory Gallagher And His Band

1980 17th October UFO

1980 23rd October Ian Gillan

1980 3rd November Motorhead

1980 4th November Tangerine Dream

1980 9th November John Martyn 1980 11th November OMD 1980 29th November Hazel O'Connor, support band Duran Duran
1980 5th December The Damned, support band The Straps