NEWSVIEW: For Sale - one Peterhead granite and Turriff freestone hall of fame

There may be mass hysteria in the clamour to get tickets for the Aberdeen concerts by pop group Oasis later this year but do they really compare with the likes of Calum Kennedy and Cambuslang's own Robert Wilson?

Around 16,000 youngsters will see Oasis in two concerts at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre but that pales almost to insignificance compared to some of the runs at the city's Tivoli Theatre.

Calum Kennedy attracted 12,000-strong audiences every week for a year, with a constant change of programme, while tenor and former draughtsmen Robert Wilson achieved a record 73 weekly engagements and was so popular that Aberdeen Corporation had to provide late-night transport to allow fans to attend a special Friday midnight performance in addition to Saturday matinees during a two-week engagement.

Times have changed, however, and in spite of a brave bid by Calum Kennedy in the 1960s to keep the magnificent theatre open, the curtain finally fell.

The Category A listed building which regularly posted ''house full'' notices came to life again with the shouts of ''full house'' when it became a bingo hall.

Now, however, even these cries have fallen silent and the future of the Tivoli is unsure as owners Top Flight Leisure seek a buyer for the building which is one of the first seen by travellers arriving by train or sea.

It is a century and a quarter since the Tivoli, then called Her Majesty's, with its graceful curved auditorium with seating for 1744, was built for just #8400.

The imposing front of the building was created from Peterhead granite with bands of white and red Turriff freestone and six pillars of polished red granite at the base.

William Gomersal, who came from the Theatre Royal in Sheffield, rented the theatre for #600 a year and on December 19, 1872, the inaugural play, Lord Lytton's Lady of Lyons opened it.

All forms of plays and operas were performed at Her Majesty's, as well as Christmas pantomimes, with owner, theatrical agent Robert Arthur, including it on his extensive circuit, which included four London theatres.

In 1906, Her Majesty's closed when Arthur opened the splendid His Majesty's Theatre in Rosemount Viaduct, at a cost of #35,000. The curtain remained down for three and a half years until, refurbished and under new ownership, it reopened as the Tivoli and flourished.

One of the first acts was WC Fields, who at that early stage of his career was predominantly a juggler. For years to come, the famous names rolled in, even through the First World War.

They included Chung Ling Soo who mystified the audience with a trick which involved holding a plate in front of his body while an assistant fired a gun, breaking the plate but leaving him unscathed.

Even greater mystery still surrounds his performance a few months later at the Wood Green Empire in London when Chung (actually an Englishman called Robinson) was shot dead still clutching his plate.

Everyone who was anyone, including Will Fyfe, Bud Flanagan, Will Hay, and Harry Gordon, appeared at the Tivoli until it was again sold in 1938 and refurbished to ensure uninterrupted views from all its 1049 seats. When the ''house full'' signs went up, there was room for 110 standing.

During the Second World War, the shows went on and when the orchestra was depleted, the Gordon Highlanders Band sent along a few members to boost the numbers.

However, it was after the war the theatre enjoyed its heyday.

The Logan Family, Chic Murray and Maidie, Lex McLean, Jack Milroy, Stanley Baxter, Sydney Devine, and of course Robert Wilson who formed the White Heather Group, were amongst the household names who kept the Tivoli full through the 1940s and 50s.

As the swinging 60s arrived, so did a battle for survival against the growing popularity of television.

Calum Kennedy, the Grampian TV personality of 1963 as host of his Calum's Ceilidh, took up the challenge but even Larry Marshall, Frankie Vaughan, the Billy Cotton Band Show, and Tony Hancock were not enough to save the Tivoli and in June 1966 it became a bingo hall.

North-east compere, comedian, and radio star Robbie Shepherd has fond memories of the Tivoli: ''It had a tremendous atmosphere. It was an intimate theatre,'' he said.

''It was the same people every week and I loved playing there, except once,'' he said.

''I did a Saturday matinee and it turned out to be for children and you can just imagine how my humour went down with them. I was pelted with tomatoes, ice cream, and everything.''

The Tivoli also provided Robbie with the chance for his first summer season as top of the bill but the typhoid outbreak in Aberdeen deprived him of it.

He would have been competing for an extremely limited audience against Andy Stewart at His Majesty's and, had it flopped, it would have been Robbie who footed the bill.

''The Tivoli was very dependent on people from the country for its audiences and they decided it was too big a risk for me. It was to be my first summer show and it was also my last.

''The Tivoli is a beautiful theatre and I would love to see it in use again. There are many stories I remember and two of them relate to whisky.

''There was a Christmas ceilidh and part of the show involved a bottle of whisky being put on the table and I had to take a dram.

''Of course of it was not real whisky. It was a mixture of sugar and all sorts of things. The following year, I had to repeat the scene but no-one had bothered to check the whisky and when it was put on the table it had crystalised and all sorts of things had grown inside the bottle.''

Robbie, in true showbusiness style, still took his dram.

''But I can assure you not much crossed my lips,'' he said.

''I also remember Calum Kennedy being concerned about the alcohol consumption of one personality who shall remain nameless. Calum had to tell him not to take drink into the theatre and the next night he arrived empty handed but with two cigar tubes sticking out of the pocket of his blazer.

''Calum asked, 'What's the celebration?' to be told, 'It's my birthday.' It was only later we discovered the tubes were filled with whisky!''

The Tivoli also holds a very special place in the heart of Aberdeen's Lord Provost, Mrs Margaret Farquhar. Her late husband, William, popped the question at the start of a Tivoli show and gave her the engagement ring at the interval.

''It was 1950 and I cannot remember too much about the show. I was on a bit of a high. I do remember that Julie Andrews , who was a teenager at the time, was in the show.''

She was on a high in more ways than one. ''We were in the Gods - the cheap seats. We couldn't afford to go to the theatre a lot and only went when there was something we really wanted to see.

''It is a beautiful theatre and if the council had been able to afford it I am sure they would have gone for it because I think there is a real hankering by the people of Aberdeen to keep the Tivoli as a theatre.''

Aberdeen chartered surveyors DM Hall are selling the building on behalf of the current owners Top Flight Leisure and a spokesman said the asking price had been set at around #300,000.

He said they were currently in discussions with interested parties: ''Ideally, it would be sold as a theatre or to the local authority for a museum-type development but it would also make an ideal theme restaurant or theme bar in an area of the city which is being revitalised.''