People Features

Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart and the Faces and Led Zeppelin are just some of the names that stopped off in Sunderland to rock out at Wearside all thanks to the efforts of one man.

Geoff Docherty was working as a doorman (he doesn't like the word bouncer) at The Bay and took it upon himself to book bands to play live and bring in the crowds.

Geoff Docherty. Photo: Alan Sill

The author of A Promoters Tale didn't want just the small bands though, he wanted to make nights people would never forget.

He was advised to only book bands that cost less than £50. This seemed to fall on deaf ears when the first band that was booked cost £150 from Leicester who went by the name of Family.

"It might not seem much now," said Geoff, "but it was a lot of money and I was only on £2 a night. I was worried, but it was a huge success."

It did not stop there though, Geoff loves live music and so did the people of Wearside. The public wanted more and wanted to know who would be next to perform on their doorstep.

Determined not to let people down, he went to London in search for an, at the time, underground band called Pink Floyd.

"[Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke] said 'ok we'll do it' and I walked out of the office in Mayfair and my head was spinning thinking 'crikey! we've got Pink Floyd coming to Sunderland!'"

Those six words

So what's Geoff's secret to pulling in the big names? He makes it sound so simple: "First of all get the place sorted out so it's a nice place to come to even if there isn't a group on and if everybody is treat correctly, the beer prices are reasonable and the music's good, they'll come.

"If people knew and used the six words 'please', 'thank you', 'sorry' and 'excuse me', you would find yourself getting invited back and it stood me in good stead.

"That's how I got Led Zeppelin, I first booked them for £75 at The Bay. A week before they were due, they were on a signed contract by the way, Peter Grant rang me and said they won't be there, and I said that I would sue them.

Led Zeppelin played three times.

"So I pursued them with great determination, it took me two years and Peter Grant rang me and asked if I wanted Led Zeppelin and I said yes definitely ... and they offered me three dates!

"Ironically on the night, they couldn't get in to the gig, it was sold out of course, but because they didn't have tickets and the bouncers didn't recognise them. But they eventually got in and it was just a fantastic night."

John Peel

Geoff's gigs were right up John Peel's street by promoting the cutting edge of new music and he explains that one of the Radio 1 DJ's favourite gigs was at Wearside.

"Out of the thousands of gigs he attended, I'm very proud, that it was Rod Stewart and the Faces at this very venue in 1973.

"It was fantastic, it was obviously sold out and [Rod] had done what the Beatles hadn't done which was to have a number one single and album in both countries simultaneously [in the US and the UK] and that was his all time favourite gig!

John Peel in 1972

"I think of that gig and there was 3,000 people in and you couldn't get a ticket for love nor money, all the Sunderland football team were back stage and it was just a great night.

"Once we got The Who and Peeley [John Peel] started writing about the venue and how nice it was, suddenly people were ringing me!"

In honour of Geoff's contribution to bring the best music to Wearside, he is now in talks to make his story fit for the silver screen based on his book A Promoters Tale.

"It's a very serious approach," Geoff explains. "We're not messing about and we have made contact with Hollywood, but I don't want to say too much yet."