Fact #32458
When:
Short story:
The Rolling Stones play at The Scene Club, Ham Yard, London, England, UK, Europe. This is their first performance at this venue.Full article:
Pete Meaden (mod scenester) : There was a little club called The Scene, in Ham Yard, off of Great Windmill Street, and there, on several nights a week the greatest records you can imagine were being played.
Pete Townshend (The Who) : The Scene was really where it was at, but there were only about fifteen people down there every night. It was a focal point for the mod movement. I don't think anyone who was a mod outside Soho realised the fashions and dances all began there,
Pete Meaden (mod scenester) : There were records like "Ain't love good, ain't love proud" by Tony Clarke; Major Lance's stuff; Smokey Robinson, early Curtis Mayfield's Impressions stuff, you know, which was eminently danceable by people who where not emotionally involved with other people. There was a lack of women in those things. I mean we all dig women, but if you are in the West End, you know that you pay for your women, and well, you don't get them, 'cos the girls that come up are mysteries, right? You get girls that come up and dance around, little girls that just dance around in the pubs, just having a little dance, just having a little groove.
The Club was owned by Ronan O'Rahily of Caroline fame, at the time, but it was run by a feller called Lionel Blake. Now that was the real hardcore fashion situation, system, call it what you will, position of glory if you like, because I used to go down there, it was very private, if you danced yourself to the music, which was new-wave R'n'B.
I used to go down there with Brian Jones, who was a very close friend of mine, he liked to groove around, he used to come down with his snakeskin boots on and his regency stuff and the high scarf and that — regency collars. He'd come down to The Scene Club, and I used to wear Ivy League, which is Canadian-cum-American Esquire Ivy League Jackets — natural shoulder line, you know? I'd groove around in my desert boots, bop around, listen to the music, and Brian came down, and he was top superstar number one, coming up fast, and he felt out of place in The Scene Club, it was so clique-ish, so highly identified with themselves. And he was with the hippiest, heaviest outfit in the world coming up which was The Stones, if they didn't fit in, that meant that something was going wrong somewhere.
(Source : Steve Turner feature in NME, November 17, 1979)
Peter Shertser (mod scenester) : It was one squarish room, with the deejay in one corner and a bar where you could get an expresso or a soft drink in the other. And all you could do was dance. There wasn't room for anything else.
Ronan O'Rahilly (founder, Radio Caroline) : At that time in London there was only a tiny number of people who were into r'n'b. I knew Guy (Guy Stevens, later to become a record producer) had a large record collection, so when I opened The Scene I offered him Monday nights, and it was absolutely immaculate. He would announce every record, tell you who it was and where it was from.
Peter Shertser : The music was the main thing we went for, the fact that Guy Stevens was the deejay. He played the kind of things people wanted to hear and couldn't hear anywhere else.
Ronan O'Rahilly : He used to carry the records around in a huge trunk, and he was so protective of them that he used to sit on top of it while he deejayed. I've seen him sleep on it. It was like religion to him, it really was.
Everybody would come to hear Guy. The Stones, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, all the major stars. People would come from all over the country on Monday nights, and from France and Holland too, it was that good.
(Mojo, August 1994)
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Pete Townshend (The Who) : The Scene was really where it was at, but there were only about fifteen people down there every night. It was a focal point for the mod movement. I don't think anyone who was a mod outside Soho realised the fashions and dances all began there,
Pete Meaden (mod scenester) : There were records like "Ain't love good, ain't love proud" by Tony Clarke; Major Lance's stuff; Smokey Robinson, early Curtis Mayfield's Impressions stuff, you know, which was eminently danceable by people who where not emotionally involved with other people. There was a lack of women in those things. I mean we all dig women, but if you are in the West End, you know that you pay for your women, and well, you don't get them, 'cos the girls that come up are mysteries, right? You get girls that come up and dance around, little girls that just dance around in the pubs, just having a little dance, just having a little groove.
The Club was owned by Ronan O'Rahily of Caroline fame, at the time, but it was run by a feller called Lionel Blake. Now that was the real hardcore fashion situation, system, call it what you will, position of glory if you like, because I used to go down there, it was very private, if you danced yourself to the music, which was new-wave R'n'B.
I used to go down there with Brian Jones, who was a very close friend of mine, he liked to groove around, he used to come down with his snakeskin boots on and his regency stuff and the high scarf and that — regency collars. He'd come down to The Scene Club, and I used to wear Ivy League, which is Canadian-cum-American Esquire Ivy League Jackets — natural shoulder line, you know? I'd groove around in my desert boots, bop around, listen to the music, and Brian came down, and he was top superstar number one, coming up fast, and he felt out of place in The Scene Club, it was so clique-ish, so highly identified with themselves. And he was with the hippiest, heaviest outfit in the world coming up which was The Stones, if they didn't fit in, that meant that something was going wrong somewhere.
(Source : Steve Turner feature in NME, November 17, 1979)
Peter Shertser (mod scenester) : It was one squarish room, with the deejay in one corner and a bar where you could get an expresso or a soft drink in the other. And all you could do was dance. There wasn't room for anything else.
Ronan O'Rahilly (founder, Radio Caroline) : At that time in London there was only a tiny number of people who were into r'n'b. I knew Guy (Guy Stevens, later to become a record producer) had a large record collection, so when I opened The Scene I offered him Monday nights, and it was absolutely immaculate. He would announce every record, tell you who it was and where it was from.
Peter Shertser : The music was the main thing we went for, the fact that Guy Stevens was the deejay. He played the kind of things people wanted to hear and couldn't hear anywhere else.
Ronan O'Rahilly : He used to carry the records around in a huge trunk, and he was so protective of them that he used to sit on top of it while he deejayed. I've seen him sleep on it. It was like religion to him, it really was.
Everybody would come to hear Guy. The Stones, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, all the major stars. People would come from all over the country on Monday nights, and from France and Holland too, it was that good.
(Mojo, August 1994)