The Gliderdrome

The Gliderdrome as it appears today is a vastly different building to the original which was, in fact, an open-air skating rink opened in the mid-Thirties by brothers Ernest and Sydney Malkinson. It soon attracted many of the younger Boston population and changes began just after the outbreak of the Second World War when the building was roofed over as a security measure.

The Sixties became the `Golden Era' for the venue, attracting top class groups and names from England and America and it became the norm almost every Saturday night for a top name or group to be appearing. The Room soon became known nationally and on some of the really big nights it was not unusual for the Market Place to be full of buses from literally all over the country; some nights the queue for admission stretched from the dance hall, all the way down Shodfriars Lane (before John Adams Way was built) and round into the Market Place!

All the top names of the time appeared there - well, almost! It is claimed that only The Rolling Stones and The Beatles failed to appear, but the latter were booked to appear as a support group when they were just starting out. Sydney Malkinson always claimed later that he must have been the only dance promoter to have turned down The Beatles; he cancelled the booking because, at the time, they were unknown, he hadn't heard of them, and £35 was a lot of money (then!) to pay for an unknown group.