Ealing Jazz Club

Coordinates: 51°30′52″N 0°18′09″W / 51.514402°N 0.302576°W / 51.514402; -0.302576

Entrance to the Ealing Jazz Club.
Fery Asgari, the first manager of the Ealing Club.
Blue Plaque, unveiled 17 March 2012

The Ealing Jazz Club, at 42 A The Broadway, Ealing W5, opened in January 1959. On 17 March 1962, as The Ealing Club, it became London’s first regular R&B venue with a performance by the seminal Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies band Blues Incorporated.[1]

Situated in a basement below an Aerated Bread Company tea shop, opposite Ealing Broadway station, it was reached by descending the narrow steps of the alley that leads to Haven Place, between the tea shop and what at the time was a jeweller's shop. “The club held only 200 when you packed them all in” Korner recalled, “and there was only about 100 people in all of London that were into the blues and all of them showed up at the club that first night”.[2]

The club is also noteworthy as the place where on 7 April 1962, Alexis Korner introduced Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to Brian Jones, and the nucleus of The Rolling Stones first came together.[1]

Other regular musicians at the Saturday night sessions included Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Graham Bond, Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Paul Jones. Manfred Mann (originally the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers) also played there. The Who played there early on in their career, when they were known as The Detours. Eric Burdon, lead singer of The Animals, and Eric Clapton also frequented and performed at the club.[3]

Sometimes referred to as the Ealing Blues Club, the venue is now a nightclub called The Red Room, formerly known as Club Azur. A one-time manager of the Ealing Club was Fery Asgari.

In the late 1960s, the venue operated as a disco called Tabby's often frequented by students from Ealing Art College.

In 2011, a community group of Ealing residents, musicians and music fans known as The Ealing Club initiated a campaign to bring back live music to the venue and highlight its important contribution in the development of British blues and rock. The group's first three events were held on the nights of 18–20 July 2011, with proceeds going towards the installation of the blue plaque unveiled on 17 March 2012.

The nearest rail and tube station to the club is Ealing Broadway.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The Sixties". London: Daily Telegraph. 2001-01-01. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  2. ↑ Schwartz, Roberta Freund (Nov 2007), How Britain Got the Blues: The Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom, Ashgate, p. 126, ISBN 978-0-7546-5580-0
  3. ↑ Schwartz, Roberta (2011-08-05). "Retro West London: The cradle is rocking again". Ealing Gazette. Ealing: Trinity Mirror Southern Ltd. Retrieved 2011-08-06.

External links

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