Wander the palatial streets of Georgian Bath, witness the history and architecture, stories pour from these walls. Bladud, the Romans, Elizabeth the 1^st and Bath Abbey, Jane Austen, Beau Nash, Frankenstein, the Bideke Air Raids of the 1940’s and now… Rock and Roll.

A music style started in the USA ? Yes… but what of its association with Bath? 

Bath already had its own rich music history through Thomas Linley the first musical director of the Assembly Rooms and his prodigal son, Thomas Junior, who was a contemporary and great friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. There was also the Loader family that lived in Bathwick in the 1800’s the very same area that Frederick Weatherly would later write the lyrics for Oh Danny Boy in 1913.

So where does Rock and Roll come in? We are at the beginning of the 1960’s. Rock and roll mania has swept the UK but there’s sad news. Eddie Cochran had just finished part of his UK tour at Bristol Hippodrome and whilst travelling back to London is tragically involved in a car accident, transported to St Martins hospital Bath and at 4.10 am on the 17 April 1960, is pronounced dead. To commemorate him there is a wonderful plaque in the grounds of St Martins hospital Combe Down.

With the explosion of Rock and roll in the 60’s came the birth of home grown talent from the UK. Bands like the Who, The Rolling Stones and the Fab 4 (The Beatles) were all on tour and coming to Bath. Where they stayed, where they played will all feature on our tour. As the 60’s rolled on more great acts came to play in Bath and the decade finished with the amazing Bath Blues Festival which took place on the Recreation Ground in June 1969… it looked a bit different then!

One of those acts were Fleetwood Mac and in spring 1970 Peter Green was to play his last concert with them at the fondly named Aquae Sulis incident at Twerton Park, home of Bath City FC.

June 1970 and the Bath Blues festival had moved to the Shepton Mallet Showground where a young Michael Eves was to attend and get inspiration for a festival at his farm later that year. His festival is still going and is one of the biggest in the world simply called ‘Glastonbury’. From small acorns do great trees grow…

The 1970’s in Bath started with more outside festivals organised by The Bath Arts Workshop and an indoor one at the Cleveland Hotel Bath where Hawkwind rehearsed and played due to inclement weather. More musical acts were to frequent Bath and the Bell Inn in Walcot’s trendy artisan area became a well-known venue and its sister pub The Hat and Feather became a hangout for many an artist traveling through Bath.

The end of the 70’s and a new venue was to appear, Moles Club, taking over the mantel of Nero’s Club nearby, which had a young Mod band named Graduate as its resident band. In 1980, 2 of the members of Graduate had left and were to form Tears for Fears who played their very first live performance at the afore mentioned Moles, on April 1^st 1982.     

At the same time Bath had acquired its also own new recording studio. Crescent Studios located on Walcot Street by Peter Gabriel’s producer David Lord. In 1977 Peter had his first solo hit entitled Solsbury Hill. The hill situated just outside of Bath near where Peter was living at the time. Many a hit album and single was created at Crescent and an embryonic Tears for Fears recorded their 2 first singles there.

Moles Club became a nationally known venue and many bands were to play there in the 80’s and 90’s ..there are so many to name and it sadly closed as recently as 2023.

There is more to learn about the history of Music in this great city and there is only one way to do it…  

Join us on a rock and stroll tour of Bath and learn more from some of the people that were involved.