THE glory days of Malvern Winter Gardens as a rock venue, is being revisited in an exhibition which opens tomorrow.

From the early 1960s until the 90s, Malvern Winter Gardens - now Malvern Theatres - rocked to the sounds of bands such The Jam, The Kinks, The Who, Pink Floyd, Motorhead, Hawkwind and more.

Now, Rock Around the Hills has created an exhibition celebrating the story of rock, prog, punk and post-punk at the venue.

The exhibition features more than 400 posters, tickets, flyers and fanzines, as well as memories from audience members, musicians and promoters who were all part of the story.

Last year, Rock Around the Hills was awarded £63,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to pay for the creation of the exhibition.

The charity has also received funding from Postcode Community Trust, a charity funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery, as well as the Bransford Trust.

Music legend Paul Weller of The Jam, when interviewed about his memories of touring, mentioned his fond memories of performing in Malvern.

He said: “I’ve played everywhere in Britain, pretty much. But there’s lots of places I’d love to go back to. Malvern Winter Gardens, somewhere like that.”

Gig-goer Steve Hutchings said: “I saw my first band, Generation X, at Malvern in 1979. The gig made a massive impact on me.”

The exhibition runs until June 29 at Malvern Library, and then on July 2-30 at The Hive in Worcester.

I went on to learn guitar, and still play in bands nearly 40 years later. I guess that’s the point of having such an archive, so that we don’t forget all these momentous, life-changing occasions of our youth.”

The exhibition runs until June 29 at Malvern Library, and then on July 2-30 at The Hive in Worcester.

One recalls: “All the famous bands, sooner or later, they would turn up at Malvern. I didn’t realise how unusual that was until much later. It was totally normal for us.”

Another said: “We didn’t have to travel to Birmingham or Bristol, we had this venue right on our doorstep. I could walk into town after school, and walk right past someone who would be on stage that night.”

And another said: “We could go and see a top-of-the-charts group and be stood five feet away from them.”

Paul Weller of The Jam, interviewed about his memories of touring, said: “I’ve played everywhere in Britain, pretty much. But there’s lots of places I’d love to go back to. Malvern Winter Gardens, somewhere like that.”

The exhibition runs until June 29 at Malvern Library, and then on July 2-30 at The Hive in Worcester.