The Rainbow Theatre T Shirt

Originally The Astoria, one-night concerts were held on the stage in the 1960s, with the building becoming one of the premier music venues in the capital. It was at this theatre that Jimi Hendrix first burnt a guitar, with the collusion of his manager Chas Chandler and a journalist from NME. Hendrix proceeded to set fire to his Fender Stratocaster guitar on 31 March 1967 on the opening night of the Walker Brothers tour, resulting in a hospital appointment for Hendrix's burnt fingers. The Beach Boys' album, Live In London, was recorded here in 1968. Renamed "Odeon" on 17 November 1970, the theatre was closed by the Rank Organisation on 25 September 1971 with Bill Travers in Gorgo and Hayley Mills in Twisted Nerve. The Odeon was converted into the Rainbow Theatre from 4 November 1971, when the Who performed the first concert in the newly named theatre. The Who later wrote and recorded the song "Long Live Rock", which celebrates the theatre (although still referring to it as The Astoria). The Osmonds made their debut appearance in London at the Rainbow Theatre in the early 1970s. Frank Zappa had serious injuries in the evening of 10 December 1971, when a member of the audience (Trevor Howells) ran up the side steps of the stage and pushed him off the stage, causing him to fracture a leg and cut his head. Zappa was in the hospital for six weeks. Pink Floyd played a four-night stand at the venue during the beginning of their Eclipsed Tour, on which its main set is mostly known as the "pre-Dark Side Of The Moon" set, from 17 to 20 February 1972. The last night performance was partially broadcast on BBC Radio. The band also played two benefit concerts at the Rainbow on 4 November 1973 for Robert Wyatt, who had been recently paralyzed from a fall. In the summer of 1972, Dave Martin of Martin Audio was commissioned to install professional audio mixing consoles and sound support equipment to this, and two other proposed Rainbow theatres in and around London. Thomas "Todd" Fischer, Equipment Manager at the time for the British Rock group "Uriah Heep" had established a friendship and working arrangement with Martin while on a two-week hiatus before resuming a European tour, which required Mr. Fischer to wire up the audio mixing consoles, a somewhat laborious and tedious task that took almost 10 fourteen-hour days to complete. David Bowie performed two concerts there during his Ziggy Stardust tour on 19 and 20 August 1972.