NME Pollwinners' Concert, 1966
The Empire Pool, Wembley (now the "Wembley Arena"), designed by Owen Williams, was constructed in 1933-34 for the Empire Games of '34. The pool itself was approx. 60m x 18m, and could be frozen for ice skating and hockey, and boarded over for music events. See the excellent short account of its history given here.
The NME magazine began sponsoring its poll winners' concerts in 1953, first at the Royal Albert Hall, but moving to the Empire Pool from 1960 - 1968. A digest of participants is given on the NME site. Great pictures of Eddie Cochrane performing in 1960 are available here.
Left, the facade of The Empire Pool, c. 1960. Centre left, the Olympics of 1948. Centre right, brochure for the NME Concert 1966. Right, The Beatles performing.
NME POLLWINNERS' CONCERT 1st May 1966
An array of AC100s, provided by Vox for the participants:
The Beatles; Spencer Davis Group; *Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich; *Fortunes; *Herman's Hermits; Roy Orbison; The Overlanders; *Alan Price; Cliff Richard; Rolling Stones:
The Seekers; The Shadows; The Small Faces; *Sounds Incorporated; *Dusty Springfield; *Crispian St Peters; The Who; *The Yardbirds.
An * denotes the band is known to have used the AC100 backline. Running order as in the annotated programme illustrated above.
Sets from the concert
Crispian St Peters
Alan Price
Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick and Titch; and The Fortunes. Pictures originally posted here and here.