Paranormal Investigation Night at The Tivoli
Tuesday 23rd June

Join us for an unforgettable evening of paranormal investigation at The Tivoli. Whether you want to take part in the experience or simply sit back and observe, this is your chance to explore the unknown and discover who — or what — may still reside within the venue…

Throughout the night, guests will have the opportunity to experience a range of traditional and modern paranormal investigation methods, including:

Ouija boards

Table tipping

Scrying

Electronic paranormal devices

Group and individual sessions

Step into the world of the supernatural and see what secrets The Tivoli may reveal after dark…

Are you brave enough to join us?

Tickets are on sale now from link below

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Spike is the founder and front man of The Quireboys – one of the UK’s most enduring rock ‘n’ roll bands. A band that’s been through different chapters and had different line-ups, but Spike is the constant throughout. Song writer, singer and leader of a band with which he has now become synonymous. With Guy Bailey, Spike penned the benchmark Quireboys songs – such as ‘Hey You’, ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’ and ‘7 O’Clock’ – tracks which have defined the band musically for decades and, to this day, remain the hallmark songs of any Quireboys show.

Spike has also had a succession of critically acclaimed solo records and treasured collaborations. Music is Spike’s lifeblood. Always has been and always will be. But buy him a few glasses of his favourite red wine and he’ll freely admit family and Newcastle United come a very close second.

EARLY DAYS

Spike left his native North East for London at the tender age of 16 to get a job, and he found work at St. James’s Army Barracks opposite Buckingham Palace as a brick layer. It was in London that he met his lifelong friend Guy Bailey, at the Surrey Tavern in the Oval Cricket ground, and Spike went on to get Guy Bailey a job working alongside him. Spike moved into Guy Bailey’s flat, both of them never realising their mutual love of music and guitar playing, until one day Spike’s father Frank came to visit so he could watch the cricket, bringing with him Spike’s guitar. Guy Bailey never realised Spike could play guitar and Spike never realised Guy Bailey could play until that day. They discovered they both loved the blues, the Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry. Before that day, their lives had been consumed with working, drinking and playing pool with no mention of music. In the week that followed, they started writing songs together, including ‘How Do You Feel’, ‘Hates to Please’ and ‘Roses and Rings’. Frank was watching the cricket on TV and out the window when he said “You two should start a band.”

They set about starting up a band – Guy asked his old school friend Chris Johnstone to join, at that time Chris played bass, and another of Guy’s friends, Bill Coyne was on drums. Their first rehearsal was in Brixton Community Centre, with borrowed guitars – to see what they sounded like.. the sound was pure Rock n’ Roll – something was clicking.

At that point Spike was playing guitar alongside Guy Bailey. The band had no singer, they’d asked around but had no luck. One night at rehearsals Spike broke the strings on his guitar and Guy said to Spike “We wrote these songs together, you sang them quietly on the acoustic guitar, try and sing them loud through the mic”. Spike was reluctant at first, so Guy got him drunk, and he got on the mic and ‘that’ voice came out after one verse of ‘How do you feel’. Guy Bailey’s reaction was “Where the fuck did that come from, now we’ve got our singer, you’re doing it Spike, no question you’re singing!”

Bill Coyne had an old Fostex 350 recording machine, and they put down ‘Hates to Please’ and ‘How do you feel’ live in the rehearsal room. Now all they needed was a name. Spike suggested The Choirboys, and they copied 20 cassettes to take around the clubs in London, from the Half Moon in Herne Hill, to the Marquee Club in Wardour St, Dublin Castle in Camden, Dingwalls, The Cricketers – anywhere to get a gig. They had their sound – the Stones, Blues and Chuck Berry all wonderfully mixed together.

THE BAND WAS BORN… ALMOST!

The lineup was nearly there. Spike on vocals, Guy Bailey, guitar, Chris Johnstone, bass. Then Guy asked another of his old school friends Tom Golzen to come to rehearsals and it fitted perfectly, an amazing guitarist, with his love of blues and rock ‘n’ roll, plus he looked great – he was in. By this time Bill Coyne had left the band, so they had to find a new drummer. Tyla from The Dogs D’Amour suggested his old drummer Paul Hornby, he had also been in many a band in Liverpool – his hometown, Nightmares In Wax with Pete Burns, Echo and The Bunnymen, Pete Wylie’s Mighty Wah – to name a few, and The Gunslingers in London with John Hall and Wilf Woods. The band did their first photo session and looking back at the photos Paul had obviously dressed them from his shop in Kensington Market in London.

NIGEL MOGG, AND CHRIS MOVES TO PIANO

Spike and Guy Bailey had always wanted a piano player to get the sound they truly needed, Guy had told Spike that Chris Johnstone could actually play piano, so it was decided that if they could find a bass player Chris would move to piano. Around this time Spike had become friends with a bloke called Nigel Mogg. He’d seen him play in a few bands on the London rock scene, The Wigs with Keith Brymer Jones, The Killer Elite with the late Mick Cripps, and Faster Pussycat Kill Kill Kill with Chris Bradshaw and Adam Ross). Spike had an instant connection with Nigel as he already dressed like a queerboy, so he invited him to a rehearsal. They had found their missing link – Nigel Mogg was in the band, and pretty soon, they were ready to play!

NOW.. WHAT TO WEAR

Very simple pinstriped jackets and a waistcoat for £1 from the charity shops, a grandad shirt no collar, and a black and white spotty scarf. Steptoe and Son in a rock n roll band.. To add a bit of glamour black eyeliner like Keef Richards, and a very small but significant thing that turned out to be tradition, a red carnation – thanks to Dick Emery’s posh tramp!

THE NAME

Spike and Guy were still working on the building site at this point, they had done one gig in Bill Coyne’s basement as The Choirboys. At work one day an Irishman working on site said “I hear you have a band what are you called?” Spike responded “The Choirboys”. He said “with that fucker in the band (Guy) you should be called The Queerboys!” “Fuckin’ brilliant” was the response. That name is synonymous now for the early years and hundreds of shows, up until the point they met Lemmy in the St Moritz on Wardour Street, who pointed out they would never get on Top of the Pops with a name like that. So a few letters were changed and the Quireboys were born.

A BIT OF WHAT YOU FANCY

As a songwriting duo the pair proved prolific and set about penning enduring fan favourites ‘7 O’Clock’, ‘Hey You’, ‘There She Goes Again’ and ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’. All four songs became staples of the Quireboys’ chart-busting debut ‘A Bit Of What You Fancy’ — the album that went all the way to number two on the UK charts and won the band coveted awards and gold and platinum albums all over the world.

For a while Spike and Bailey proved unstoppable as purveyors of good time rock and roll classics. Smitten with their singalong anthems, Sharon Osborne made a bold move to become the Quireboys’ manager and the band joined Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Poison and Thunder on the 1990 Monsters of Rock bill at Castle Donington in front of 72,000 fans. The band were on a roll, selling out headline concerts all over the world.

The next two years saw them constantly touring, and there can’t have been many countries they didn’t play. They were out on the road, and playing festivals with Aerosmith, Guns n Roses and David Bowie to name just a few. Through the band’s hard work, ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ became the second biggest selling album on Parlophone EMI that year.

BITTER SWEET AND TWISTED

Spike and Guy Bailey went straight from that extensive world tour and located themselves in Ireland for some rest and recuperation. After a few weeks they had written their second album, ‘Bitter Sweet and Twisted’. Excited with their new songs they flew the band into Ireland for rehearsals. They booked 4 days in a recording studio and the band were on fire. 14 songs were put down along with barely any overdubs, capturing the essence of the new songs and the Quireboys distinctive British rock ‘n’ roll sound with 3 days recording and 1 day mixing.

To Spike and Guy the album was done. Raw pure rock ‘n’ roll, just how the band should sound. Now they felt ready to release this album and go back out on tour and capitalise on all the amazing success of A Bit of What You Fancy.

However, the powers that be at Parlophone had other ideas. Wondering how can a band record an album in 4 days, with no backing singers, no brass section, no orchestra? They wanted the full production and a top producer, not an album recorded in a small studio with a house engineer in Ireland.

The producer they wanted was Bob Rock. Unfortunately for the Quireboys they would have to wait months and months before they would actually start recording, in Vancouver Studios, Canada. However in that time, Vancouver became home for the band,and several other new songs were written there. Famous parties and nights out in every club in town became gossip all over the world. The Quireboys had gold and platinum album sales in Canada, they loved Vancouver and Vancouver loved the Quireboys. It was a match made in heaven.

Some months later, Ireland, Canada, Los Angeles, Hawaii and London were the countries the band had visited in the process of rerecording ‘Bitter Sweet and Twisted’. Eventually the final Bob Rock mixes were done.

According to press reports Parlophone refused to let the album be released, so Spike and Guy (Bailey) went back to London and asked producer Chris Kimsey of Rolling Stones fame to remix the album. According to interviews, it was a lot quicker just to re-record a lot of the songs again. The digital, and 2 inch recording tapes that were delivered to Metropolis studios in London filled an entire room. Other reports suggest that the band actually wanted to release the original songs they recorded in Ireland (the ones that had taken 4 days). But Parlophone would not release the tapes and said they had been lost.

‘Bitter Sweet and Twisted’ was finally released in 1993 to critical acclaim all over the world. The Quireboys returned to touring with sold out shows and festivals, releasing ‘Tramps & Thieves’ as their first single.

The highly under rated Brother Louis was released in some territories. The song ‘King of New York’, has become an iconic song, which showed Spike and Guy Bailey’s songwriting in an new impressive light.

AFTER THE SECOND ALBUM

After the Bitter Sweet and Twisted tour ended, Spike, Guy Bailey, Chris Johnstone, Nigel Mogg had to make a decision – after almost nine years of touring and recording since they started the band, should they make the sensible choice to stay alive and have a break, have a rest, go on hiatus, go into the real world? None of the other band members from 1984 to 1989 could quite handle the Quireboys lifestyle. They did the right thing. They all went their separate ways, Guy Bailey moved back to London, Chris Johnstone moved to London, Nigel Mogg moved to New York, Spike moved to L.A., Toronto, to L.A., to London, to L.A., and then to Newcastle, they were all still making music and collaborating with friends in the music world, but did not tour.

THE BAND REFORMS

In those years lots of offers came to get the band back together, all of them turned down as they didn’t want to go back on the road. Then in 1999 Spike got an offer from Sanctuary Records to record an album, which he passed on to the band. Spike wanted to do it, he wanted to hit the stage again. He asked Guy Bailey, in Guy’s press release he stated to Spike – “I’m sorry darling but I shan’t tread the boards anymore, but you have permission to use the name. I may even pop down if you play in London and play a couple of songs depending if there is nothing good on TV that night.” Chris Johnstone had a new life and was in agreement with Guy. Rudy Richman, their long time drummer, had a family and was happy at home. Nigel Mogg however had just left New York and wanted to do it. Guy Griffin was in L.A. and wanted to do it, so Spike did the deal and moved to L.A. to record “This is Rock ‘n’ Roll”. So a new album, a new tour then the ‘Well Oiled’ album, another album, another tour, the story goes on. Another album, another tour etc. Until it all ended in shambles.

THE RESTART OF THE QUIREBOYS

In an immediate and powerful show of loyalty, original co-founder and guitarist Guy Bailey reunited with Spike. This legendary songwriting duo, responsible for the Quireboys’ most iconic anthems, planned for the first time in over three decades, on writing a new Quireboys album, tapping back into the chemistry that defined their early sound, even unearthing unreleased classic material from the ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ era.

The resurgence of the true Quireboys spirit and sound gained momentum as original bassist Nigel Mogg also returned to the fold, standing firmly by Spike. Nigel’s decision to rejoin Spike and Guy Bailey wasn’t just a reunion, it was a declaration, solidifying the reformation of the original and early days band. These are the musicians who crafted the band’s sound, and their coming together was driven by a shared vision, to make new Quireboys music, the way it was always meant to sound. Drummer Rudy Richman, now living in Canada also returned, and excitement was growing about what the band had planned musically and with live shows.

In December 2022 the band played a one-off show at Islington Academy, with original bassist turned keyboard player Chris Johnstone, drummer Rudy Richman and other friends of the band. The show also featured an appearance from Guy Bailey who was unwell at the time and unable to play onstage but who joined the guys to rapturous applause.

GUY BAILEY

Tragically, as this powerful reunion was building a new legacy, the Quireboys and the music world suffered an immense loss with the untimely passing of the irreplaceable Guy Bailey.

Spike and the band were heartbroken but vowed to continue, which Spike says is exactly what Guy Bailey would have wanted, particularly due to how he felt about the situation with the band. Finding a replacement for Guy and his unique way of playing was a daunting task, and Spike didn’t think it was possible. He reached out to old friend Luke Morley of Thunder, asking if he could play on the first single ‘Jeeze Louise’. Luke agreed, and very soon became a part of the band, playing on the album and producing it, artfully fitting in with the Quireboys sound and becoming like a long lost band member.

The recently released album, poignantly named ‘Wardour Street’ was dedicated to Guy Bailey’s memory.

QUIREBOYS LIVE SHOWS

Honouring Guy’s spirit and the history they had created together, Spike and the band continued, taking to the stage at festivals and dates across the UK and Europe for live shows that served as both a tribute and a statement of resilience. At different shows they were joined by Willie Dowling, formerly of The Grip and co-writer of ‘Whipping Boy’ from the debut album, Simon Hanson, drummer for Squeeze, and Harry James, drummer for Thunder. The line up for live shows this year is Spike, Luke Morley, Nigel Mogg, Harry James and Willie Dowling, however Chris Johnstone and Rudy Richman are still very much part of the band.

WARDOUR STREET

The release of ‘Wardour Street’ was met with widespread critical and fan acclaim, celebrated as a true return to form and a fitting homage to Guy Bailey’s outstanding contribution to rock ‘n’ roll. Riding this wave of heartfelt support and renewed energy, the Quireboys are set to command stages across the UK and Europe, headlining major festivals throughout the Summer of 2025. Following this, the band play a festival headline slot at Planet Rock’s ‘Rockfest’ followed by a run of select UK dates. This winter tour will also mark a special milestone, as the band celebrates 35 years of their iconic debut album, ‘A Bit of What You Fancy,’ bringing its beloved anthems to a new generation of fans and those who’ve been there since the very beginning. The original spirit, now more poignant and powerful than ever, endures and the future for the Quireboys is just beginning..

So As Spike always says, he’ll see you at the bar in a venue near you and thank you for keeping rock ‘n’ roll alive with the Quireboys.

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With the reinvigorated lineup which sees Original members Gary Stringer (Vocals) & Jack Bessant (Bass) now joined by one of the UK’s most highly revered drummers Luke Bullen (Bryan Ferry/ Joe Strummer/ K.T Tunstall) as well as also being bolstered by the addition of North Devon virtuoso Guitarist Amy Newton the band have arguably never sounded so good.

That said it’s hard not to feel that this is a band destined for even greater and bigger things as anyone that has seen the band recently will attest to. Gary Stringer is on the vocal form of his life and alongside him Jack Bessants Bulldozer Bass riffs have never sounded so good. The spirit of this band is infectious and the bands new repertoire is going down a storm wherever they play as well as the bands outstanding version of the Fleetwood Mac Classic the Chain which has been a live fan favorite ever since the band performed it live on Virgin Radio a year ago.

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Their 1987 triple-platinum debut album, “The Christians”, entered the album chart at No.2 and featured the Top 30 singles “Forgotten Town”, “Hooverville, “Ideal World” and “Born Again”. A sell-out tour of the major British cities followed, including consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Odeon, with additional appearances in Holland, Germany and France. In 1988 they released a cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Harvest for the World”, with all proceeds going to British Third-World charities. They also performed with other Liverpool artists Paul McCartney, Holly Johnson and Gerry Marsden on a version of “Ferry Cross The Mersey”, released in aid of those affected by the Hillsborough football disaster, which stayed at No.1 for 3 weeks.

Their second album, “Colour”, was released in 1990 and went to No.1 in the album chart. The most successful single was the atmospheric “Words” but others released included “I Found Out” and the uplifting “Greenbank Drive”. “Happy In Hell” (1992), their third album, reached No. 18 in the album charts and included the singles “What’s In A Word” and “The Bottle”.

The band continued to tour and released a greatest hits album, “The Best Of The Christians”, in 1993 which also featured a new track, “Perfect Moment”, and a version of Bob Marley’s “Small Axe”.Lead singer Garry Christian moved to Paris in the mid-90s to produce a solo album (“Your Cool Mystery” (1998)) with the band reforming and touring at the end of the decade.

2012 was the 25th anniversary of their first album’s success and The Christians released “Speed Of Life” to mark this milestone. DE LUXE versions of both their debut album, The Christians, and Colour were also released including a number of bonus tracks and remixes. The Christians continued to tour extensively receiving rave reviews for their live performances. Chris Evans described The Christians set on air in December 2013 as “the best gig I’ve ever been to”. Another album, “We”, was released in late September 2015. Their loyal fans “crowdfunded” the album in advance and the band themselves covered the production duties. 2017 saw the 30th anniversary of their debut album. Additionally, the album “Sings & Strings” was released which featured the reworking of 8 of their best known songs (plus “Harvest For The World” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone”) with a gospel choir accompanied only by a string quartet and piano.

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Foundation and Institutional Support

The band’s origins are rooted in sound system culture, specifically inspired by the Iration Steppas, and the long-running SubDub nights in Leeds. This foundational focus on low-end theory earned them early and sustained backing from the UK’s primary reggae tastemakers.

Notably, the band has been consistently championed by David Rodigan MBE, who has labeled them “one of the most energetic and exciting live bands in the country.” Their music has been a staple on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, receiving rotation from figures including Don Letts, Huw Stephens, and Mistajam.

Collaborative History & Discography

Studio Collaborations: The band has recorded with legendary vocalists and producers including Bitty McLean, Hollie Cook, Lady Chann, and Kiko Bun.

The Nextmen: In 2018, they released the collaborative album Pound for Pound with The Nextmen, featuring guests such as Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), Joe Dukie (Fat Freddy’s Drop), and Gardna.

Remixes & Jungle: Their catalog has been reworked by industry heavyweights like Mungo’s Hi Fi, Prince Fatty, and London Elektricity, reflecting their cross-genre appeal within the DnB and Jungle scenes.

Twenty Years on Stage

Since their debut EP Members Only (2009) and their breakthrough full-length FOURtyFOUR (2013), the Gents have maintained one of the most rigorous touring schedules in the industry. Their 20-year milestone follows performances at Glastonbury, Outlook Festival (Croatia), Boomtown Fair, Boardmasters, the West Coast America, India, Rototom, Summer Jam, to name a few.

With eight studio albums to their name—primarily released through the influential Easy Star Records—the band enters 2026 with their core lineup largely intact, continuing to serve as a vital link between the heritage of UK dub and its future evolution.

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On the 8th of August, 2026, we’re taking you back to the 80s at The Tivoli! Join us for a totally rad Bottomless Brunch, packed with neon vibes, classic 80s hits, and, of course, bottomless drinks and delicious bites!

Dust off those leg warmers, tease that hair, and come celebrate with us. Book your spot now—it’s going to be totally tubular!

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