Stars of the 50s, 60s and 70s are lined up to play at a revitalised Bradford music venue.

Evergreen rock 'n' roller Marty Wilde is among the big names who will be performing in the new season of concerts at Pennington's Variety Club in Manningham Lane, Bradford.

Also booked for the club, formerly Maestro's, in the coming weeks are 70s chart acts Christie, Slade, The Drifters, and Alvin Stardust.

The Troggs will add a touch of 60s nostalgia while The Manfreds and Gerry and The Pacemakers are on the bill later in the year.

First of the famous old names is Marty Wilde who will be at Pennington's tonight with his band The Wildcats.

Promoter Garth Cawood said: "Marty Wilde is one of the original British rock pioneers. Between 1958 and 1962 he had 13 consecutive hit records and was a regular face appearing on the most popular television programmes of the day."

His daughter Kim Wilde has been a chart star in her own right, bursting onto the scene in with the song Kids In America, which Marty wrote.

"Despite a heavy business life of running one of the country's top recording studios and songwriting, Marty still continues to make as many live appearances as he can, drawing maximum crowds at many and varied venues," said Garth.

Support will be by Jerry Lee Lewis tribute act Fireball, featuring Alan Kilvington.

Tomorrow sees a concert by Christie, who originally shot to fame in 1970 with the enduring pop hit Yellow River. That single went on to notch up 15 million sales worldwide and the band, still fronted by Jeff Christie, won ten gold discs.

The Troggs, best known for their hit Wild Thing and still fronted by Reg Presley, are at Pennington's next Friday. Other nostalgic highlights of the coming months are the Queen tribute band Magic on February 11, Terry Webster's Mighty Juke Box Band on February 19, The Drifters on March 3, Slade on March 10 and Alvin Stardust on March 31.

For more information or tickets, ring (01274) 304455.

Simon Ashberry

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.