The Blue Moon, a club above Burton’s on Cheltenham High Street, existed for less than two years from July 1965 to May 1967, but in that time the compact 250-capacity venue with a tiny stage hosted Elton John, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, The Yardbirds and (on February 11, 1967) Jimi Hendrix.
As suggested by the simple graphics to this very rare poster, one of the first performers at the venue on a Wednesday night in August 1965 was The Who. The band had only formed the previous year but was already enjoying the success of two hit singles (I Can’t Explain and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere) ahead of the release of the classic debut album My Generation.
The support act that night was a three-piece band called The Silence, including on bass guitar Pete Overend Watts (1947-2017), later of Mott the Hoople. He recalled sitting on the neck of one of Pete Townsend’s guitars and breaking it during afternoon rehearsals.