Formed in 'Royton' in 1966/67 and later Newton Heath up to 1969, the band played all over UK at Universities (which were the big audiences of that time) and cellar bars like 'Twisted Wheel' , 'Jungfrau' , Mr. Smiths' , 'Liverpool Cavern',   Belle Vue, Alma Lodge, Bredbury Hall, Bernard Manning's Embassy Club, and the Domino/Nothern/Southern Sporting Clubs (ie Moss Enterprises, where they shared dressing rooms with jugglers/snake dancers to female impersonators).

They were a support band for lots of name bands of the time.   -  Who / Status Quo / Crazy World of Arthur Brown/ Long John Baldry/ Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band / Hollies / Dave Dee etc / Andy Fairweather-Low, etc.

Agent was 'Alan Arnison Agency'  - Wilmslow/Stockport  -  anybody remember Heather, his secretary and Stuart Littlewood (booker)  ?

The Puzzle's first line-up culminated in them going pro in 1967 to back Jimmy Powell and become the Dimensions. That eventually ended and they reformed to continue their most successful phase until 1969 when they were approached to become the backing group to 'Kirk St. James' - a limited venture.   

Two of the original members went on to wide acclaim in top national bands :-  

James (Jimmy) Litherland  became a founder Member of Jon Hisemans Colosseum, the members included Dick Heckstall Smith, Dave Greenslade, Graham Bond and later Chris Farlowe.  He went on to form 'Mogul Thrash'. He also worked with Leo Sayer plus many more named acts.

He played on the following albums:

• Colosseum. "Those who are about to die" [1969].
• Edwards Hand. "stranded" [1971].
• Long John Baldry . "Everything stops for tea" [1973].
• Leo Sayer. "Just a boy" [1974].
• Bandit. "Bandit" [1977].
• Steve Marriot. "30 seconds to midnite" [1989].

Steve Bolton (Bottom) - 'Boltz' joined Atomic Rooster as Lead Guitar ( 1971-1973) , which at the time featured Chris Farlowe as lead singer. He was a founder member of the P aul Young Band - 'No Parlez'  1983-85  -  and was invited to play with the 'Who ', as Lead Guitar on their 25th Anniverary World Tour. Townsend was unable to play electric guitar at that time. 

Steve played with:

• Atomic Rooster [1971].
• Headstone [1974].
• Joe O'Donnell band [1978].
• Vampire bats [1982].
• No Parlez [Paul Youngs band] [1983].
• Richard Strange and the Engine Room [1988].
• The Who [1989].

Steve has also worked with:

Carl Palmer. John Otway. Mark Ashton. Dominic Miller. Bill Smith. Mark Pinder. Ian Kewley. [Plus many more].

Brian Cochrane remembers:

One of the most interesting moments was protecting our newly acquired Marshall gear (2 days old and on an HP agreement from Barratts) from annihilation from the antics of the Who when we supported them at York University in 1967/8. All their equipment was in ruins! We just managed to anticipate Townsend's rotary arm!

When Jimmy Litherland left to go to London and join Jon Hiseman's Colloseum - I replaced him as the 'Singer' and Steve moved over to 'Lead Guitar'

Steve and I would keep in touch and visit Jimmy, who was living with Dick Heckstall-Smith, and generally mixing and playing with the top Blues / Jazz musicians of that time - Alexis Korner , Graham Bond etc...... in fact many of those players at that time went on to play in such top bands as The Average White Band, Emmerson Lake and Palmer, Crazy World of Author Brown, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers etc.

Some Video and Audio clips of Steve Bolton and Jimmy Litherland from the late sixties/early seventies.

Atomic Rooster - Breakthrough 1973

Colosseum German tv special part 4

Colosseum German tv special part 5

Colosseum German tv special part 6