The Marquee Club

The Marquee 1

The Marquee first opened on the 4th of January 1958 at number 165 Oxford Street in London. It began life as a coffee bar/jazz club in rooms below the Academy Cinema. It was here the Rolling Stones performed their first gig, they opened for Long John Baldry on the 12th of July 1962, billed then as Brain Jones, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. Fighting broke out at the end of the night, blamed on a gang of Modes. Soon after the owner decided to add a small screen and turned it into a cinema. In 1964 the club moved to 90 Wardour Street, taking most of the fixtures with it. Number 165 Oxford Street is now a Bank.

Marquee II

In 1964 the now world famous Marquee club opened at number 90 Wardour Street Soho. For almost thirty years the Marquee became London's major rock venue with such acts as The Who, Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Yes, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Elton John, Genusis, The Clash, Ultravox, The Pretenders, The Cure, The Damned, Generation X, Siouxie and the Banshees and the Sex Pistols all making a name in their early days. David Bowie would appear on Sunday's and be on stage for three hours with his Sunday Showboat, where he wore make-up fr the first time in front of just twenty people, and done some mime too. Jimi Hendrix only appeared once at the Marquee in 1967, where a queue ran from Wardour to Shaftesbury Avenue all the way to Cambridge Circus. The Sex Pistols where the support act for Eddie and the Hot Rods on February 1976, and trashed the Hot Rods equipment and terrorised members of the audience. The club fell into declined through the eighties, although American bands such as ZZ Top and Metallica were still keen to pay homage to this legendary club. This once famous club moved to Charing Cross Road in 1988, and the Wardour Street club is now the 'Mezzo Bar' and the Marquee is now located at Liecester Square.