THE BEATLES MARATHON sessions at the Star-Club, Hamburg are legendary. Seven- and eight-hours a night was the norm.

I can't say The Raiders played sets this long, but it was by no means uncommon to go onstage around 8pm and carry on until the early hours with only a couple of short breaks.

Even in the earliest days, The Tarm Diaries (see The Raiders home page) record "..on for about 3 hours. Long session of solid non stop twist..." (Saturday April 21st 1962).

This sort of pace didn't let up. At a gig on Saturday

The Tarm Diaries Saturday 16th May 1964 "Went over to Ralph’s in aft for practice with Paul, Ralph & Beau. Robin looked in for an hour. Got through 50 numbers in the aft. Tea there. Set off for the evening booking at 7.15, met agents on way over. Went to Selby, a party after a wedding. Played in huge marquee in garden of really posh house with posh guests. Went OK but we had to keep it quiet, ended at 12.00. (2 hrs early). Most of guests & us moved on to remote private house & carried on … Took Paul home & got home myself at 2.15. Ralph & Beau got a lift back from a drunk chap. Terrified!"

March 14th 1964, the big man makes the point "..Played from 8.45 - 1.30 & played most of time apart from supper time...".

Perhaps even more telling is the Diary entry for Saturday May 16th 1964 (see insert). Fifty numbers in one practice session! And this isn't a fanciful memory! It comes fresh from jottings that were put down at the time.

And that started me thinking; "Just how big was The Raiders' repertoire?"

OBVIOUSLY, WHILST THE ODD popular number could be repeated, it wouldn't have gone down too well if the band had kept churning out the same twenty or thirty tunes. So what did we play?

The Raiders began as a (mainly) instrumental unit, then branched out into other genres as the scenes changed. Straight rock 'n' roll, R&B, pop, even skiffly/folky things came into - and, in some cases, swiftly passed out of - the repertoire as we kept audiences entertained.

IN THE TABLES BELOW, I've only included details of tracks that I can remember playing, or that have been thrown up by The Tarm Diaries.

I remember several numbers that we rehearsed but never included in the live show. "Can Can '62" was one. Ferrante and Teicher's "Theme From Exodus" was another. And I distinctly recall spending a lot of time on an early song of mine called "By My Side" the day before our 2 "I's" Coffee Bar set in Soho in 1964. That never made it, either!

I KNOW THE FOLLOWING repertoire lists are incomplete. I can remember about one hundred and thirty songs. But there are others; probably many more.

So, if you had a favourite number, The Raiders played it, and I've missed it, please e-mail me and jog my memory!

Now, how many of these ring a bell...?