Preston Guild Hall has hosted some legendary acts over the years

Preston awoke to some important news this morning.

It was confirmed that Simon Rigby would be buying Preston’s Guild Hall and injecting £1m into the venue to give it a much needed facelift.

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The news doesn’t come a moment too soon, after we recently revealed that 53 Degrees would be shutting its doors to the public after Christmas.

With this exciting news in mind, we took a look at five of the best gigs to have taken place at the Guild Hall over the last few decades.

Did you make it to any of them? Did we miss anything? Let us know.

James – April 9, 2010

The Manchester legends quite bravely opened with Sit Down at this gig, getting their most obvious sing along moment out of the way right at the beginning.

Although the setlist tragically didn’t include Out To Get You, the rest of the set was everything you could ask for from a James gig, with Tomorrow, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) and closer Laid more than capable of seeing out the show that Sit Down had started so strongly.

Editors – March 7, 2010

Editors mixed in the best tracks from In This Light and on This Evening with their biggest hits resulting in a gig that was equally full of intense and beautiful moments.

Songs like An End Has A Start and Munich were obviously brilliant but the gig surprised by creating the real highlights in two of their lesser known tracks. No Sound but the Wind, inspired by The Road and misleadingly rewritten for Twilight, opened the encore in stunning fashion. Closing track Fingers in the Factories then sent the crowd into chaos.

Manic Street Preachers – May 20, 2007

Manic Street Preachers popped in on the Send Away the Tigers tour and delivered a set that leaned heavily on their newest album while also keeping their long term fans more than satisfied. Closing with A Design for Life, they went on to be named NME Godlike Genius the following year showing that they hadn’t missed a beat.

Iron Maiden – October 1, 1990

They might’ve moved onto much bigger venues in the time since, but their gig showed that the Guild Hall is more than capable of hosting the huge arena acts if they decide to visit.

Iron Maiden played a huge 19 song setlist that took in all their greatest hits – from The Trooper to Number of the Beast and Run to the Hill.

The Stone Roses – May 30, 1989

One of the most revered bands in history came to Preston in their prime. Before their second album and even longer before their questionable reunion gigs, they played their very best material at the Guild Hall. It’s one of those genuine “I was there” moments for those lucky enough to have been gone along.