The leisure centre that hosted 90s pop legends

Boasting an ice rink, swimming pool with a wave machine and bowling alley, Guildford Spectrum leisure centre is a school trip favourite.

But back in the 90s it was also a top concert venue, hosting The Backstreet Boys, Peter Andre and PJ and Duncan, attracting crowds of up to 3,000 people.

Rob Price, an event manager at the time, remembered the Backstreet Boys' concert in November 1996, the year their first album was released.

"It was absolutely freezing, snowing outside and we had people turning up at seven in the morning to be the first in the queue," Mr Price said.

"We had to bring them in and give them something warm to wear and warm to drink."

The standing concert was held in the Spectrum's main sports arena, now usually used for sports like badminton, five-a-side football and basketball.

Mr Price remembered The Backstreet Boys "chucking about an American football" before the sold-out show in the arena.

Lorraine Bursey, from Farnham, saw the Backstreet Boys when she was 21.

As a "massive" fan, she saw the band in later years at larger arenas, but said you could end up "way back", unlike the "intimate" feel of the Spectrum.

"The Guildford one - it felt like it was your concert," she added.

PJ and Duncan, better known now as Ant and Dec, hosts of I'm A Celebrity and Saturday Night Takeaway, performed the previous year as part of an event that also included Peter Andre.

It was held in the venue's ice rink, which had a 3,000 capacity in a mix of seated and standing, the ice covered in a large carpet.

Dominic Pocock also worked at the venue at the time, and remembered helping to lay the carpet on the ice, and getting Ant and Dec a can of pop while they were waiting "in a tiny windowless room" backstage.

Ms Bursey also attended the £9.50 Chart Invasion event at the Spectrum, with a friend who didn't yet know who Andre was.

But she was already aware of the British-Australian singer, who went on to have numerous number one hit singles and two number one albums, and later took part in Strictly Come Dancing.

"I had a big door poster from Smash Hits," she explained.

"People were coming in, working out and having their swimming lessons, around all these concerts going on," Mr Price said.

But, with "little to no production" and acts having to bring their own lighting and sound equipment, he said putting on the concerts "quickly became not viable".

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