How the list will be researched

Where & When — preserve first, prove gradually

The important word is “Unconfirmed”. If an artist appears in the surviving Where & When list but we have not yet found independent evidence, the entry stays on the website as Unconfirmed. It is not being called wrong, and it is not being removed.

Why we are doing it this way

The Where & When document is part of the history of the archive. It records what was written down at the time, including dates and spellings that may later turn out to need checking. The aim is to preserve that evidence first and improve our knowledge over time.

What happens after the website is up

Keep the whole surviving list available to browse.
Work through the Unconfirmed entries gradually, rather than holding up the website while trying to prove every name.
Look for tickets, posters, newspaper and music-press adverts, photographs, programmes, band gigographies, oral histories and local archive material.
When good independent evidence is found, upgrade the entry and create or connect the appropriate event record.
If sources disagree, keep the disagreement visible and explain what each source says.

What the labels mean

Established elsewhere — the current archive already contains supporting evidence or an event record.

Unconfirmed — the original Where & When entry survives, but independent confirmation has not yet been found.

Uncertain — there is evidence to investigate, but the date, venue, spelling or other detail is still disputed.

Needs cleanup — the recovered source entry itself needs reconstructing before it can be assessed properly.

Unconfirmed is a holding position, not a verdict. A future ticket, advert, photograph, memory or archive discovery may move an entry from Unconfirmed to Established. Equally, if research eventually shows that an entry was copied incorrectly, that finding will be recorded with the original source preserved.

Start here

Browse the original Where & When list →

Open the Where & When Verification Audit →