Ealing Jazz Club

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.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”.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.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.

Tags: Jazz & Blues Club