By Richard Lysons. From Billie Holiday to Blondie, Duke Ellington and B.B King to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd to Happy Mondays, Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, David Bowie to The Smiths and Suede, just about everyone who mattered played there. The Free Trade Hall was also the venue for incendiary gigs by Bob Dylan and The Sex Pistols which changed the course of music history. 
 
Richard Lysons' meticulously-researched tome will be of interest to anyone who ever attended a concert at the venue or has an interest in the history of popular music in Britain's most musically important city. Alongside his own expert commentary on every headline act, he gives the reader a sense of what was going on at other venues in Manchester. There are photographs of several seminal blues gigs by Bryan Smith who attended who attended gigs at The Free Trade Hall throughout the 1960's. 
 
Richard Lysons attended his first Free Trade Hall gig in 1972 after a career teaching English. He is now a music researcher and writer. He was 'chief researcher' for the highly acclaimed 'Discover Amazing Women by Rail' project. 'Were You There' is his first book. 
 
Look out for his appearance at our shop when he will be giving a talk on 'Were