Music Pilgrimages - Venue

Venue - Le Beat Route

Le Beat Route was a club in Soho that operated in the 70s and 80s. It played host to many bands that would go on to international fame such as Spandau Ballet, Sade, Animal Nightlife and Boy George. The club was also to be very influential in 80s fashion.

Venue - Scotch of Saint James Club

The Scotch of St James club was a popular meeting place for musicians and bands in the 1960s. Paul McCartney frequently visited it, as well as bands like The Moody Blues.

The Club was also the first place where Jimi Hendrix played in England on September 24, 1966, when he joined for some blues standards with the house formula 7 band. On 19 October, 1966 the Jimi Hendrix Experience played their first UK gig as a private showcase at Scotch of St James. The Beatles (and many other rock stars) hung out here and had their own table. Today it's the site of the Directors Lodge Club, a gentlemen's hostess club.

Venue - The Troubadour basement

The Troubadour is a 50s style coffee houses in Earls Court, underneath the main cafe area is a live music venue. Through the 50's and 60's this was one of the big centres of London intellectual and artistic life.

Over the years the live venue has played host to many famous artists, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Elvis Costello have all played here.

Venue - The Hope & Anchor

Artists/bands that have played here to date, Spandau Ballet, Madness, The Damned, Joy Division, U2, Ian Dury, The Stranglers. It's 70's pub rock/punk history is very well documented as is it's involvement with Stiff Records and Elvis Costello/Clash manager Jake Riviera.

Less is known of it's 80s squat punk era, but a valuable platform for incisive Hardcore combos from The Stupids to Rudimentary Peni was assured.

Venue - The Gyre & Gimble

In the 50s the Gyre and Gimble coffee bar was Londons very first skiffle coffee bar. Despite not being as high profile as it's high profile Soho rival the 2i's it still attracted many musicians. One such group of musicians was the Brighton Buskers, as their name indicated they would travel from London to Brighton to busk on the beach. The guitar player of the Brighton Buskers was Tommy Hicks, and would later be known as Tommy Steele. The Gyre and Gimble was the place where he would be discovered and signed by agents Roy Turvey and Geoff Wright.

Today 28 John Adam street is the site of pub Theodore Bullfrog, rebuilding has removed all trace of the original doorway that led downstairs to the coffee bar.

Venue - The Roxy

Neal Street is a street of the Convent Garden area of London, it is the centre of a fashion-focused mid-market retailing district.

In the 70s Covent Garden was a run-down area filled with warehouses, and in late 1976 Andy Czezowski decided to open a venue here exclusively for punk bands. 41-43 Neal Street, had previously been a prog rock basement bar called 'Chaguaramas' in 1971 and had become a gay club in 1974. On December 21st in 1976 it opened as 'The Roxy' featuring a double bill with Siouxsie And The Banshees and Generation X.

The Roxy in Covent Garden was to become central to the rise and spread of Punk Rock in 1977. It would feature an array of major and minor punk acts of the time as well as key faces on the scene. The Clash, Sham 69, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, Buzzcocks, The Adverts, The Stranglers, Alternative TV, Cherry Vanilla, Wayne County, Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers, X-Ray Spex, The Jam and The Police were all bands that played at the Roxy. Regular DJ was Clash associate Don Letts, playing Jamaican dub and old US garage punk.

The club closed early 1978 and today 41-43 Neal street is occupied by a very un-punkish Speedo swimwear shop.

Venue - The Roundhouse

The Roundhouse is a former circular railway engine shed converted into an arts venue. It's situated in Chalk Farm, in the borough of Camden in north London.

The Roundhouse was originally built as a turntable engine shed in 1847 for the London and Birmingham Railway. Technical developments meant that within 20 years locomotives became too large for the roundhouse to handle, and it use changed. In the late 60s it was converted into a theatre and concert venue.

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the Roundhouse was to become an important venue for UK Underground and music events. The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Sinceros, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Incredible String Band, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Elkie Brooks and Motörhead all played at the Roundhouse.

On the 20th of July 1975 Motörhead played their first ever gig here.

On the 4th of July 1976, the Roundhouse hosted the first ever UK appearance of The Ramones, this is often regarded as the gig that started off the UK punk rock movement.

In 1977 Kraftwerk played the Roundhouse.

In 1983 the Greater London Council had passed the building to the local authorities of Camden and it closed as a venue. There was plans to develop the building and turn it into a centre for black artists, but this project ws cancelled in 1990. The Roundhouse stood empty for a while until the Norman Trust, led by Torquil Norman, started the Roundhouse Trust to lead its redevelopment.

The renovated Roundhouse opened on the 1st of June 2006 and was to serve as venue for the BBC's Electric Proms in 2006 and 2007. It has also served as venue for the BT Digital Music Awards and the Vodafone Live Music Awards.

Venue - Heaven

Many famous acts have performed here such as the Pet Shop Boys, Madonna and Cher.

Venue - Castle Donington

Castle Donington is a village in Leicestershire with a population of around 7000. It is close to Derby and Nottingham and on the edge of the National Forest.

Castle Donington has played host to many heavy metal festivals, throughout the eighties and nineties the Monsters of Rock festival. And from 2003 and onwards the Download festival. Big named rock bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Sepultura, AC/DC, Status Quo, Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe and Whitesnake have all performed here.

Venue - The Warehouse

The Warehouse is one of the oldest clubs in Leeds, it is situated in the heart of the office disctrict in the centre of town.

The new romantic band ABC played their first gig outside of Sheffield at this venue in 1980. Frankie Goes to Hollywood played their first gig outside of Liverpool. Also in the early eighties Marc Almond used to DJ here.

Venue - The Ruskin Arms

This east London pub has got a dual reason for fame, it appears on the front cover of a number of Iron Maiden albums, the band also played a gig here on friday the 5th October 1979.

It is also connected to the East London band the Small Faces, the pub was run by the parents of Jimmy Winston (real name Jimmy Langwith), the Small Faces' original keyboard player. Jimmy's old bedroom is now an Indian restaurant attached to the pub.

It was here that Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane met up with Jimmy who had previously told them that he played keyboard in a band with a weekly spot at the pub. On 25 January 1965 Steve joined Jimmy on stage to play harmonica. After the gig, Steve and Ronnie invite Jimmy to join their new band for which they had already recruited Kenney Jones as drummer. Jimmy was not just recruited as an organ player, more importantly his brother had a van. They later used the pub to rehearse upstairs and it was the venue for some of the band's early gigs. Steve Marriott's father Bill used to run a fish stall opposite the Ruskin Arms.

More recently since 1997, the Ruskin Arms has been used as the venue for the Small Faces conventions and the Ronnie Lane Tribute Concert. The pub is also popular among metal fans thanks to it's connection to Iron Maiden.

As of September 2009 the Ruskin Arms is closed and is in the process of being demolished, according to rumours planning permission for a 55 room hotel has been granted by the local council.

Venue - The Crawdaddy Club

In the present day the Crawdaddy Club is a pub called the Bull, but in the early 1960s it was a hotel called the Station Hotel. The very young Rolling Stones was the house band in 1963 and were paid £22 for their first gig, which in 1963 was quite a good pay, but probably not the kind of money that the Stones would consider playing performing for today.

The Crawdaddy club is also the venue where the Beatles first came and saw The Rolling Stones, John Lennon was apparently very impressed with Brian Jones playing the harmonica.

The club also welcomed many of America’s finest Blues musicians and helped kick start British rock.

Venue - The Second Marquee Club

Today 90 Wardour street is site to the upmarket Cuban-themed restaurant and bar Floridita. Above it is Soho Lofts, a collection of very exclusive flats.

In 1964 the Marquee club moved from Oxford street to 90 Vardour street, it remained there until 1988. Many famous bands played at the Marquee during the course of those years.

Among artists who played at the Marquee during the 60s are The Moody Blues, The Who, Yes, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd and The Small Faces.

Famous acts during the 70s included; The Sex Pistols, The Boys, Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Stranglers, Generation X, London, The Police, The Sinceros, Buzzcocks, The Jam, Joy Division and The Cure.

Acts during the 80s included; Prince, Genesis and Wham! During the 80s the club was important to the British metal movement and Iron Maiden, Pendragon, Solstice, Twelfth Night, IQ, Haze, Cardiacs and Liaison all played there.

The venue is also mentioned in the title of a song by The Jam, "A-Bomb in Wardour Street".

The Marquee was also the site of the music video for I'm Your Man by Wham!. Starting off with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley struggling to sell tickets in front of the club. George Michael then phones Simon (probably Simon Napier-Bell, one of Wham!'s two managers) saying "Eight million albums in the last six months, I don't understand why on earth we're playing at the Marquee?". After the conversation on the phone the video kicks off showing a live performance, a sign in the background reads "The Marquee".

Venue - The First Marquee Club

On this site on July 12th 1962, a six piece Rolling Stones consisting of Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Ian Stewart, Dick Taylor and Mick Avory, played there first ever gig in front of a mostly indifferent audience. With a set-list written on a page of Ian Stewart’s pocket diary, The Stones were on their way to superstardom.

The Hammersmith Palais

The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, later known as the Hammersmith Palais, was a ballroom and entertainment venue in London from 1919 to 2007.

The venue was immortalised by the Clash in their classic fusion of punk and reggae White Man in Hammersmith Palais in 1978

Bands such as PiL, The Cramps, and Soft Cell (who played their last ever gig there in 1984) made the venue popular, it also hosted The Cure, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and The Sex Pistols.

As of 2007 the venue was closed down and the building now faces an uncertain future, the site may be used for an office and restaurant complex, or a students' hall of residence. The Hammersmith and Fulham Council is expected to rule on the proposed demolition and development in November 2009.

The Forgotten Venue

Built in 1937, the Gaumont State Theatre was the largest movie palace ever built in England and the third largest in the United Kingdom. The theater's 4,004 seats were split between a massive balcony and an orchestra level. Although it was large, beautiful, and meticulously designed, it was less opulent than earlier Gaumonts, which were more directly influenced by the popularity of Art Deco.