Rock: London Clubs

If it is possible to be both a midwife and a father figure, Alexis Korner played both roles for British rhythm and blues in 1962. He opened the Ealing Blues Club in a basement on Ealing Broadway and encouraged, inspired, and employed a number of musicians in his band, Blues Incorporated, some of whom went on to form the Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, and the Cyril Davies All-Stars. The Stones launched their career with a residency lasting several months during 1963 at the Crawdaddy Club, operated by promoter Georgio Gomelsky at the Station Hotel in respectable Richmond upon Thames, London. When the Stones left on a national tour to promote their first single, the Yardbirds, featuring guitar prodigy Eric Clapton, took their place at the Crawdaddy. Other suburban rhythm-and-blues and blues venues included the Railway Hotel in Harrow and the Caves at Chislehurst in Kent.

In central London deejay Guy Stevens played the latest American rhythm-and-blues and soul records at the Scene near Oxford Circus, and the Marquee and the 100 Club featured jazz bands in basements on opposite sides of Oxford Street. In 1964 the Marquee moved halfway down Wardour Street, where its new identity as London’s base for blues-oriented rock was cemented by Eric Clapton’s successive appearances with the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and Cream. Farther down Wardour Street the Flamingo Club attracted a different audience, including American servicemen and Caribbean immigrants, whose tastes influenced the more sophisticated repertoire of Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.

Toward the end of the decade, clubs with a late-night-drinking license became hangouts for established stars and launching pads for new ones, notably the Bag O’Nails (on the edge of Soho near the new tourist mecca, Carnaby Street) and the Scotch of St. James in Mayfair, where newly arrived American guitarist Jimi Hendrix made a couple of legendary appearances. In another basement on Oxford Street, the Middle Earth featured new psychedelic bands such as Pink Floyd amid smoke machines and projected light shows.