Peter Coe's The Road to Peterloo

Doors open 7pm Show 7.30pm

Tickets available from the office 0191 261 0385 or online here.

Pete Coe, Brian Peters and Laura Smyth

‘The Road to Peterloo’ tells the tale of one of the most notorious incidents in British labour history – the ‘Peterloo Massacre’ in Manchester in 1819 – through some of the many street ballads that were printed around the time of the event. Three singers and musicians from North West England, Pete Coe, Brian Peters and Laura Smyth, begin the story in the early 19th century, sketching out the background with songs of the Napoleonic Wars, the Luddite uprising, and the poverty and hunger suffered by handloom weavers, cotton spinners and other workers. Ballads written in the immediate aftermath of the carnage, describe the terrible events of the day, when mounted soldiers charged a peaceful crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators and killed or injured many men, women and…