Agamemnon's 302nd Conception..........a public school hippie band!

Dates: a couple of months in 1969

Claim to fame: Possession of just oneVox AC30 amplifier which was used by the bass player, lead and rythm guitarists and the flute player at the same time. Vocalist just shouted over the top. and the drummer never showed up.

Crowd pleasing anthem: 'Song for a Cuckoo' although we split up when we realised we'd all been playing the wrong chords.

Best gig for the wrong reasons: Bolton School scout hut (only one we did))

Hickory Wind.....a new country band when everybody else played Sabbath.

Dates : 1976/77

Claim to fame: Was the only band around with a pedal steel guitar which none of us knew how to play or even tune. Had it onstage just for show.

Crowd pleasing anthem: 'Six Days on the Road' which was just about the number of gigs we played.

Best gig for wrong reasons: anywhere around Stoke...we just loved draught Bass (and it showed)

The Cakes..............Bolton's answer to the Bonzo's.

Dates: 1975/76

Claim to fame: Was once seen by BBC newscaster Anna Ford whilst playing in a folk club. Played an hour-long version of 'Summertime Blues'.

Crowd pleasing anthem: 'Durex are a girl's best friend'

Best gig for wrong reasons: Chester United Services Club, New Year's Eve. Crowd were expecting a comedy show group unfortunately they got us.

The Alfred Mwazanji Coffeehouse Trashband

a confrontationl punk-folk gang who were too pop for the folk crowd and too folk for the pop crowd, so had nowhere to go really

Dates: 1971/72

Claim to fame: Completely obscure and forgotten now, but for one brief moment we rubbed shoulders with the likes of Lindisfarne, Adrian Henri, Eddie Jobson (later of Roxy Music), and Dr. Feelgood. mind you it was a pretty crowded party. Once caused the power to be shut off at the Vvictoria Folk Club in Whitley Bay by refusing to leave the stage.

Crowd pleasing anthen: Our spoof Western 'The Green Stetsons' contained a few showstoppers. Otherwise the various permutations on 'Duke of Earl' were usually good for a laugh or two.

Best gig for the wrong reasons: A two-night stand at Newcastle's Gulbenkian Theatre accepted as a result of a challenge as to see if we could do it. Apparently all went well, but we were so out of it we couldn't remember.

Unique Spirit .........................the band that travelled!

Dates: 1997/99

Claim to fame: Once travelled all the way to London for one gig and knew every member of the audience by name....just one bloke actually. Venue now closed.

Crowd pleasing classic: Varied, but was generally preceded by the phrase 'And we'd like to finish off with this one'

Best gig for wrong reasons: Similar to the London one, but this time up in Newcastle.

Unexpected Company

Dates: 1990/91

Claim to fame: Fame? What Fame? One of the few Yank bands in the Cambridgeshire area. Our singer had no vibrato in his voice, so he would waggle his adams apple with his finger - really embarrassing....

Crowd pleasing anthem: 'We're an American Band' - it was kind of obvious in a working-mans club in Northamptonshire.

Best gig for the wrong reason: working-mans club from the above. They didn't really know what to think of us - a lot of blank stares.....

The Familiar Strangers ...............................the band that never played a live gig

Dates: 1989/93

Claim to fame: Recorded about 30 original songs, yet never managed to make it out of the basement. One of the greatest bands to never perform live or cut a record!

Crowd pleasing anthem: 'The Ballad of Bryan England'...written by Ricky Cobb in 1989 about the lost love of a fellow bandmate; this was the song that set the wheels in, er, motion. Many localites that collected our bootleg tapes still remember the haunting refrain: 'Bryan England, Bryan England, why did you do it Bryan England?'

Best gig for the wrong reasons: Gigs? ....We were too busy cutting our own versions of songs like 'Mean Mr. Mustard' to make a club date. Much like The Beatles, our instrumentation became too complex to reproduce on stage...and it didn't help that only one member of the band could actually play an instrument!

Lights Out.....................................seriously thought we rivalled Muddy Waters

Dates: 1985

Claim to fame: boasted 'we never play the same venue twice' although this wasn't an act of rebellion, the promoters never asked us.

Crowd pleasing anthem: em....... you've got me on that one!

Best gig for the wrong reasons: Biker gig in Wigan. We'd just got the crowd going when the guitarist snapped two strings. We then learned that he didn't know how to put new strings on as he'd 'never done it before'