The Cooper Allen Music Archive is the product of research into the music of Portsmouth during the quarter century leading up to 1969. The two researchers Mick Cooper and Dave Allen are both Pompey born & bred, falling in love with ‘pop’ and popular music in the 1950s and ending up playing around pompey and elsewhere in the 1960s and beyond (they played in the bands Heaven and Rosemary respectively).
The backbone of the archive is a timeline running from 1944 to 1969, much of which was culled from The (Evening) News. Mick researched the years 1944-1959 whilst Dave concentrated on the 60s. Their approach to the task differed slightly in that Mick recorded events on a date by date basis whilst Dave adopted a more descriptive style. Both chose to include some events outside the city limits as well as wider cultural influences, but these have been omitted from the edited version published here. The original research in its entirety can be see on Mick Cooper’s website
The Timeline is supported by further detailed research into specific areas of music, such as the principal venues, the bands and their personnel. These sections will be added in due course.
The Timeline
The Music of Portsmouth in 1944
The Music of Portsmouth in 1945
The Music of Portsmouth in 1946
The Music of Portsmouth in 1947
The Music of Portsmouth in 1948
The Music of Portsmouth in 1949
The Music of Portsmouth in 1961
The Music of Portsmouth in 1967
The Music of Portsmouth in 1950
The Music of Portsmouth in 1951
The Music of Portsmouth in 1952
The Music of Portsmouth in 1953
The Music of Portsmouth in 1954
The Music of Portsmouth in 1955
The Music of Portsmouth in 1956
The Music of Portsmouth in 1957
The Music of Portsmouth in 1958
The Music of Portsmouth in 1959
The Music of Portsmouth in 1960
The Music of Portsmouth in 1962
The Music of Portsmouth in 1963
The Music of Portsmouth in 1964
The Music of Portsmouth in 1965
The Music of Portsmouth in 1966
The Music of Portsmouth in 1968
The Music of Portsmouth in 1969
