Ealing Jazz Club
London's first regular blues venue, birthplace of the Rolling Stones.
Roger Green · via Wikipedia: Ealing Jazz Club · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Ealing Jazz Club opened in January 1959 at 42A The Broadway in Ealing, west London. It was run by Fery Asgari, a student from Tehran, who initially held jazz nights on Thursdays and Fridays and R&B on Saturdays. The venue is in a basement opposite Ealing Broadway station, reached by descending narrow steps from an alley leading to Haven Place.
In March 1962, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies moved their blues club from the Roundhouse pub in Wardour Street to Ealing after being asked to leave for using electric instruments. Singer Art Wood had suggested the Ealing location. Korner recalled that the club could hold only 200 people when packed, and that around 100 blues fans in London all turned up on the first night.
The club is famous as the place where the Rolling Stones began to form. Charlie Watts first met Brian Jones there on 24 March 1962. On 7 April 1962, Alexis Korner introduced Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to Brian Jones. The classic Rolling Stones line-up, with Charlie Watts on drums, played together in public for the first time on 12 January 1963, though Watts did not become their permanent drummer until a gig on 2 February 1963. Eric Clapton occasionally stood in for Mick Jagger when the singer had a sore throat.
Regular musicians at the Saturday blues sessions from 1962 to 1965 included Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton, Charlie Watts, Graham Bond, Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, Malcolm Cecil, Dick Taylor, Dick Heckstall-Smith, and Paul Jones. Manfred Mann (then the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers) also played there, as did the Who early in their career (as the Detours) and James Royal. Eric Burdon hitchhiked from Newcastle to visit the club, where he and a young Mick Jagger were picked from the crowd by Korner to sing together. Malcolm Cecil recalled Jagger asking Cyril Davies if he could bend notes on guitar, and Davies replying, "If you gimme some pliers, man."
After visiting the Ealing Club, Harold Pendleton, owner of the struggling Marquee Club, switched its programming from jazz to R&B by hiring Korner's band for a weekly Thursday residency in 1962. Another visitor, John Mansfield, was inspired to set up the Ricky-Tick club in Windsor as a blues venue. The club also saw the first public performance using the classic 'loud' Marshall JTM45 guitar amplifier on a Sunday night in 1963.
- Opened
- January 1959
- Location
- 42A The Broadway, Ealing, west London
- Field
- Music venue
- Known for
- First regular blues venue in London; birthplace of the Rolling Stones' nucleus
- Current name
- The Red Room (nightclub)
Lore & Background
The Ealing Jazz Club opened in January 1959 at 42A The Broadway, Ealing, managed by Teheran-born student Fery Asgari. It was located in a basement opposite Ealing Broadway station, reached by descending narrow steps from an alley. Asgari ran jazz nights on Thursdays and Fridays, and R&B on Saturdays. On 17 March 1962, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies moved their blues club from the Roundhouse pub in Wardour Street to Ealing after being ejected for going electric, at the suggestion of Blues Incorporated singer Art Wood. Korner recalled that the club held only 200 people when packed, and that only about 100 people in London were into the blues, all of whom showed up that first night.
Reader's Guide
The Ealing Jazz Club is historically significant as the venue where, on 24 March 1962, Charlie Watts first met Brian Jones, and on 7 April 1962 Alexis Korner introduced Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to Brian Jones, forming the nucleus of the Rolling Stones. Nearly a year later, on 12 January 1963, the classic line-up of the Rolling Stones with Charlie Watts on drums played together for the first time in public, though Watts did not become the permanent drummer until 2 February 1963. The club also hosted early performances by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Rod Stewart, Manfred Mann, The Who (as the Detours), and Eric Burdon. A Sunday night in 1963 saw the first public performance using the classic 'loud' Marshall JTM45 guitar amplifier. The venue later operated as the Broadway Casino Club and various discos before becoming The Red Room. In 2011, a community group called The Ealing Club campaigned to bring back live music, leading to a blue plaque unveiling on 17 March 2012. The documentary 'Suburban Steps to Rockland' premiered in 2017, covering the club's story.
Did You Know?
- The Ealing Jazz Club was managed by Teheran-born student Fery Asgari, who ran it for fellow students of Ealing Technical College.
- On 2 February 1963, Charlie Watts became the permanent drummer of the Rolling Stones after an Ealing gig.
- Eric Clapton occasionally stood in for Mick Jagger at the club when Jagger had a sore throat.
- The first public performance using the Marshall JTM45 guitar amplifier took place at the club on a Sunday night in 1963.
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