Sir Colin Campbell / The Phoenix - Coventry Venue Closes

Sir Colin Campbell / The Phoenix - Coventry Venue Closes.

by Pete Clemons

The times, and interests, they are a changing. And its quite clear that going to the pub and watching live bands are not on the social calendar quite as much as it once was. It is all still there but has somehow become more niche.

As another pub bites the dust, and whose to say it wont bounce back, here is a potted history of the Phoenix/Campbell. In terms of popular music culture the Phoenix/Campbell has an impressive one. This overview is not concise, it's far from complete, far from comprehensive, it's more of a summary.......

The Phoenix in Coventry (located at 122 Gosford Street) has officially announced its permanent closure on 6 September 2026. The building has stood since 1720, but its true musical roots took hold under its previous, legendary identity: The Colin Campbell (or simply "The Campbell").

The Sir Colin Campbell pub in Coventry—which was famously renamed The Phoenix before its final closing in September 2026—hosted hundreds of influential rock, punk, progressive, and alternative bands over its decades-long history as a staple of the city’s underground music scene.

Live music typically took place in the function room upstairs, which operated under various legendary club names over the decades.


1960s Music Scene and Performers

Folk and Acoustic: Local performers such as Ron Shuttleworth and Barry Skinner frequented the venue's acoustic and folk circles during the 1960s.

The Village Rock Club (1970 transition): Moving right at the turn of the decade into the 1970s, the upstairs function room hosted heavy/progressive rock bands like Indian Summer (who played a notable gig there in July 1970), April, Boots, and Flood, accompanied by progressive rock DJ Malv Preece.

The 1970s: "The Village" Prog & Heavy Rock Era

Between 1970 and 1975, the upstairs function room was home to The Village, a legendary rock night and progressive disco advertised in the historic Hobo Magazine:

Boots (also known as Gregorian Chant / Children): A heavy rock group that apparently featured Carl Palmer's brother, who headlined a historic "heavy evening" at the pub in December 1970.

Flood: A popular regional band out of Nuneaton that drew local rock crowds to the upstairs venue.

April: A well-known Coventry folk-rock outfit that played a legendary Boxing Day show at the pub in 1970.

Indian Summer: Performed several times live at the venue during their active early Gosford/local gig circuit days. The Coventry rock/blues band played at the venue in July and August 1970.

Wandering John: Band members like John Gravenor explicitly recalled playing gigs at the venue during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Asgard: Part of the active local Coventry underground and alternative scene tied to the pub and contemporaneous local spots like the Umbrella club. They performed at the venue in January 1971

Junkhouse: A local heavy rock band that frequently played the venue during the peak of the 1970 progressive scene.


Adrian Mitchell and George McBeth: Performed a lunchtime poetry and literary gig at the pub in February 1971


Local Folk and Acoustic Acts: The venue and upstairs spaces played host to local folk figures and club organizers like Pete Willow (who ran acoustic and folk sessions). In particular the Magic Lamp Folk Club alongside Bob Powell.

Posh Annie's (Silk's Graham Wood) above Colin Campbell October 1981/March 1982. Posh Annie's was in the upstairs room and had a short Friday night residency playing rock and progressive music on an in house DJ set up.

The 1980s: The Pilgrim Club Era

In the mid-1980s, the pub’s upstairs venue hosted The Pilgrim Club, which became a vital hub for early indie rock, space rock, and post-punk:

Spacemen 3: The legendary alternative rock band famously played some of their earliest gigs here. Recordings of their 1985 sets at the Sir Colin Campbell have circuited widely among fans.

Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI): Before finding major chart success, the Stourbridge band (fronted by Coventry local Clint Mansell) played the venue numerous times under their early moniker, Wild and Wandering.

The Macc Lads: The irreverent punk rock band played notorious, high-energy shows at the venue.

The Pilgrims / Furious Apples: Local post-punk mainstays tightly tied to the curation of the Pilgrim Club.

The Long Range Weather Forecast: A notable local comedy rock band that performed there in 1985.

Popular Coventry folk blues singer songwriter - Rod Felton organised a folk club at the Colin Campbell c 1981 also.

The 1990s to Modern Era

In the 1990s and early 2000s (when it was known simply as The Campbell), the venue shifted focus toward punk, metal, indie rock, and student-centric nights. The 2000s marked a major transition for the venue. The official shift to The Phoenix in 2003 shifted its identity slightly more toward a modern student-and-sports bar, though it retained its alternative grit and live music spaces for years

Bridges (later The Enemy): Local indie musicians and upcoming university bands got their start here.

Local Dance & Techno Sound Systems: In the early 90s, the venue hosted side-room raves alongside underground DJ crews.

The Student Shift: Rebranded as The Phoenix in 2003, it shifted toward a lively student-centric music hub due to its close proximity to Coventry University. It blended late-night DJ sets, weekly student nights, and grass roots live entertainment.


The "Scream" Era: Rebranded under the "It's A Scream" student chain in the early 2000s, the pub combined cheap drink deals with raw talent, featuring a community-voted "rock hall of fame" feel.

Acoustic and Songwriter Hubs: In the later 2000s, the upstairs room regularly hosted acoustic music nights like Emma McGann's Songbird events and sessions by local artist Kristy Gallacher.

Underground Electronic and Reggae: Beyond guitars, the venue welcomed subgenres including the popular Dub Cave nights, providing a platform for Coventry's diverse sound systems.

The Wednesday Night Legends: Midweek student nights became part of Coventry folklore, acting as a crucial pre-club gathering for music fans heading to the Colosseum (now the Kasbah).

Flyer for the Village Heavy Rock Club 1970

Membership card 1970 Village Heavy Rock Club - Colin Campbell

The Village advertised in The Broadgate Gnome in 1970.

And by 1974 they had moved the Climax and advertised in Hobo (Coventry Music and Arts Magazine) - below

Some later posters

Shel Naylor - One Fine Day

 

Shel Naylor

by Pete Clemons

Shel Naylor, (real name Rob Woodward), was a singer, songwriter, and musician from Coventry who released two singles on Decca Records in the UK. Both singles were produced by Shel Talmy: the debut, "How Deep Is The Ocean" in November 1963, and a second single, "One Fine Day", in March 1964.

Rob was discovered at the age of 17 while performing as Rob Woodward at the Orchid Ballroom in Coventry. He won a talent contest that earned him £50 and a recording contract with Decca Records. His now manager, Larry Page, gave him the professional name "Shel Naylor".

On tour Rob was described in programme notes as follows: Seventeen year old Shel Naylor comes from Coventry where he worked in the car industry. He taught himself to play four instruments, piano, clarinet, guitar and ukulele when he was very young and it was the late George Formby who gave him his first ukulele. Besides being a singer he writes many songs.

He is a very keen athlete and has run the 440 yards in record time. Contemporary art holds a great interest for him and he spends much of his time visiting exhibitions.

Key details about Rob's singles:

First Single: Released November 22, 1963 ("How Deep Is The Ocean" / "La Bamba").

Second Single: Released March 6, 1964 ("One Fine Day" / "It's Gonna Happen Soon").

Both singles were produced by the legendary Shel Talmy. The 1964 release "One Fine Day" is historically significant as it was written by Dave Davies of The Kinks and featured session musicians Jimmy Page on guitar and John Paul Jones on bass.

Shel Talmey remembers: 'I was reminded of this record recently, as one of the favourites I had produced, so I thought I would bring it to everyone's attention one more time.

Although by February 1964 I had gone fully independent, I was still producing discs on behalf of Decca Records. Some of the last sessions I did at the labels studio in West Hampstead in North London was with a group of artists from the Midlands town of Coventry. This included John Goodison, aka Johnny B Great and the schoolgirl vocal trio The Orchids, both of whom I recorded on several singles in 1963.

Another Coventry artist that I produced for Decca was born Rob Woodward, but used the professional name, Shel Naylor (and no I don't know if he stole my first name or not!)

I did two singles with Shel and for the second one, I decided to feature a song by the new group I had just signed to Pye Records - The Kinks

Even though Ray Davies was the leader of The Kinks and the groups chief songwriter, the track we recorded, 'One Fine Day', was written by his younger brother Dave.

The song was a rocker in The Kinks' early style. For the session I used Bobby Graham on drums and Jimmy Page on guitar, so the track came out with some of the flavour of the records I would soon produce with the group.

The single came out in March 1964 and like the early Kinks releases, didn't go anywhere'.

The singles were reviewed by music paper critics as follows:

How Deep is The Ocean/La Bamba (Decca F11776): New boy with a violent vocal style who veritably attacks the oldie. Sings the verse first with biggish backing then roars into the evergreen lyrics. Irving Berlin never, no not never, heard his song treated in this way. But it's in the correct idiom and could easily take off into a sizeable hit status. Good backing (Charles Blackwell). Flip has had a lot of different treatments, dating back to Ritchie Valens. Shel injects a lot of fire.

Another review mentioned:“How deep is the Ocean” has been dressed up to 1963 style with a Charles Blackwell arrangement, augmenting Shel Naylor’s forceful vocal delivery. Seventeen-year-old, six foot tall Shel hails from Coventry, where he works in that city’s motor

One Fine Day/Its Gonna Happen Soon (Decca F11856): Fast beat on this rock disc which moves along at a brisk danceable pace.

Shel Naylor was managed by the manager of Coventry's Orchid Ballroom, Larry Page, who later inserted himself into The Kinks operation and would soon start to claim credit for their success.

While in Coventry Larry would, of course, promote his protege at the ballroom.

A 1963 gig for Decca Records saw Shel performing at a twang night that included Johnny B. Great and The Goodmen, The Avengers, The Chimes and The Orchids.

During 1964 a Shel Naylor gig was advertised: the 18 years old Coventry recording artist and his new group, The Goodmen (who had previously backed Johnny Goodison), are to turn the clock back to the era of rock 'n' roll. He has teamed up with them and we hope that the Goodmen play their favourite type of music.

Rob Woodward did eventually found UK chart success in the early 1970s with the group Lieutenant Pigeon who had a big hit record with an instrumental called 'Mouldy Old Dough'.

One Fine Day Shel Naylor

It's Gonna Happen Soon - Shel Naylor

How deep is the Ocean - Shel Naylor

La Bamba - Shel Naylor

Tony Clarke (Moody Blues) – A Fascination With Space and Astronomy

 

Tony Clarke (Moody Blues) – A Fascination With Space and Astronomy.

By Pete Clemons

NASA’s Artemis program, recently, successfully completed its historic first crewed mission, Artemis II, which launched on 1 April 2026 and safely returned to Earth on 10 April 2026. The focus of today's lunar efforts has officially shifted to hardware preparation and crew training for the next phases of deep-space travel.

NASA has also introduced the designated crew for the Artemis III mission which will return humans to the lunar surface. Reusable Rockets using the frequently used Falcon 9 flights and ongoing test flights of large next-generation vehicles like SpaceX's Starship system will drive down launch costs.

This is all a far cry from the days when music producer, Tony Clarke, took some of his inspiration from the space age days of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Yes, it appears that Tony Clarke, often called the 'sixth Moody Blue', had a huge fascination with space, he visited Cape Canaveral several times as a guest of NASA, and that fascination influenced some of his production work.

Coventry born music producer Tony Clarke had a large telescope and a custom dome installed on the roof of his house for stargazing. Moody Blues band member, the late Ray Thomas, recalled going up to the roof to look at the moon and stars with Clarke while discussing philosophy and music.

Clarke's deep fascination with astronomy directly inspired the space-themed concept for the 1969 Moody Blues album To Our Children's Children's Children.

While the band’s relationship with NASA was extensive—their 1969 album To Our Children's Children's Children was inspired by the Apollo 11 moon landing. The album also had a strong connection to Apollo 15. The Astronaut Playlist for the crew of Apollo 15 (1971) carried and listened to the album To Our Children's Children's Children on cassette tape during their mission.

For the song 'Higher and Higher', the band initially requested a recording of a rocket launch from NASA. When they found the provided audio unsatisfactory, they created their own 'space sound' (partially by dropping a piano off a building) and sent it back to NASA for their potential future use.

'Higher and Higher' opens the album with a dramatic custom rocket launch sound and spoken-word poetry celebrating humanity breaking Earth's gravity.

Another tune, 'Gypsy' (Of a Strange and Distant Time) explores the emotional isolation and vast distances of a long space voyage.

'Floating' a whimsical track by Ray Thomas was quite possibly imagining a low-gravity walk on the moon.

'Out and In' and 'Candle of Life' can be percieved as both reflecting on the quiet isolation, the journey, and the beauty of looking back at the world from the cosmos.

Finally 'I Never Thought I'd Live to Be a Hundred' / 'I Never Thought I'd Live to Be a Million' could be contemplating the immense stretches of time required for deep-space travel.

Dirt Road Band – Godiva Festival 2026

 

Dirt Road Band – Godiva Festival 2026

by Pete Clemons

The much maligned Godiva in the city 2026 wasn't all negative. Yes the administration of the event left room for improvement – absolutely no accountability for tickets appeared to be one of the main issues - but, from what I saw, and I only attended the millennium stage, the organisation and the artists who appeared were excellent.

The Millennium stage, ironically, was set within the area of the site where the long lamented Coventry Theatre once stood. Of course the Millennium square is now in the shadow of the transport museum.

And finding a temporary outdoor event stage on or very near this exact footprint is fitting given the area's rich history. The former 2000 seat Coventry Theatre (originally the New Hippodrome) on Hales Street was a local cultural staple before its demolition in 2002. But this is now in the distant past, generations before many of today's younger music lovers came along.

While there isn't a permanent theatre on Hales Street any more, a variety of exciting performances and theatrical events regularly take place across the city centre. And this festival was no exception.

However, back to the music, and one of the highlights for me was the late addition of the Dirt Road Band.

Don't be put off if you hear that Dirt Road Band are just another blues combo and you prefer your music a bit more edgy. Dirt Road Band are a rock 'n' blues band rolled into one satisfying whole. Dirt Road Band delivers raw power, gritty guitar riffs, and deep emotional grooves. They combine the fast energy of rock with the soul of the blues.

On the Millennium stage Dry Road Band, as they were inexplicably introduced, were positive and aggressive blending their usual attack with tunes like 'Never get over losing you' and 'Worry no more'.

If you enjoy seeing a band playing exceptionally good music please make a point of seeing Dirt Road Band who stand out within their field.

Set list.......

'Never Get Over Losing You'
'Instinct to Survive'
'Cutting Room Floor' – dedicated by Horace to the Smithfield Pub
'Worry No More'
'And Johnny Winter' - the working title of a brand new song
'Down to the Doctors' - Steve dedicated this tune to his 32 years in Dr Feelgood

Fingers crossed the organisation team can have better control over ticketing next year. People intuitively grab anything for free regardless of whether they use it or not. The overused adage 'lessons must be used' has to come into play. Exceptional artists deserve better.

Coventry College of Education (Canley College)

 

Coventry College of Education (Canley College)

by Pete Clemons

Graphic from Hobo (Coventry Music and Arts Magazine) February 1974

For many years any gig I saw on the Warwick University campus I simply referred to seeing the band at Warwick Uni. Generically called the place Warwick Uni when I referred to gigs. Only recently, through research, have I discovered that some of those bands may actually have been at Coventry College of Education.

As such I am attempting to rectify this situation and give Canley College the recognition it deserves.

Also it personally explains a decades old puzzle as to why venues, at times, looked different. I guess I assumed the Uni simply had several band rooms which technically it did. But at that time, bearing in mind I was probably still a teenager, I was more interested in seeing the band rather than wonder about the room they were playing in.

People, me in particular it seems, absolutely got confused, primarily because both venues operated as bustling, high-profile stops on the UK college gig circuit. Adding to the confusion, the former Coventry College of Education was absorbed into the University of Warwick in the late 1970s and became its Westwood Campus.

The history of the college can be traced through several key milestones. It appears that the college began around 1948 when it was established on Kirby Corner Road inside a converted wartime workers' hostel to urgently address a post-war shortage of teachers.

By 1958 the college became coeducational and was officially renamed the Coventry College of Education. Under the long-standing leadership of principal Joan Dillon Browne (who served from 1948 to 1975), the student roll grew to approximately 1,500.

Canley College of Education (historically known as the City of Coventry Training College for Women then Coventry College of Education) was a prominent teacher training institution in Coventry that operated as a separate entity until its incorporation into the University of Warwick in 1978. It expanded significantly in the 1950s and 60s, offering specialist courses in areas like secondary PE. Later, the site is known as the university's Westwood Campus.

From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, the Coventry College of Education (colloquially known as 'Canley College') boasted a fantastic live music scene. Students flocked there to see massive touring acts such as Genesis, Thin Lizzy, Wizzard, Status Quo, Stealers Wheel, The Pirates and many more. Meanwhile, the University of Warwick (and its growing Warwick Arts Centre) was pulling in the likes of Pink Floyd, The Wailers, and The Smiths.

And maybe I am not alone in my generic terminology of 'Warwick Uni'. It appears that because the college sat roughly 2 miles from the main Warwick campus, ticket buyers regularly mixed up which campus venue hosted which artist.

The fact that the Coventry College of Education sat in Canley (while Warwick sprawled out toward Gibbet Hill/Coventry) made directions tricky. Once Warwick absorbed the site, many gig-goers simply remembered seeing historic bands 'at Warwick' without realising the specific venue changed.

Either way the legacy as a whole, whether it be Canley College, Warwick Uni or the Arts Centre is something to be admired. And still today great entertainment can be found at the venue.