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 Link Quartet on stage at the 100 Club in 2011 | |
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| Location | Oxford Street London, W1 |
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| Public transit |  Tottenham Court Road |
| Capacity | 350 |
| Opened | 1942 |
| Website | |
| the100club.co.uk | |
The 100 Club is a music venue located at 100 Oxford Street, London, England, where it has been hosting live music since 24 October 1942. It was originally called the Feldman Swing Club, but changed its name when the father of the current owner took over in 1964. [1]
In 1942, the venue was a restaurant called Macks, which was hired out beginning 24 October every Sunday evening by Robert Feldman at £4 per night to host a jazz club featuring swing music. The initial line-up of the Feldman Swing Club advertised in Melody Maker included Frank Weir, Kenny Baker and Jimmy Skidmore, with guest artists the Feldman Trio, composed of Feldman's children, including then eight-year-old jazz drummer Victor Feldman. [2]
The club's clientele included American GIs, who introduced jitterbug to the club, banned at most other music venues. Patrons included Glenn Miller, who auditioned young Victor Feldman, and the club hosted many top American jazz acts, including Mel Powell, Ray McKinley, Art Pepper, and Benny Goodman. Bebop as well as swing was featured. British musicians such as Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth performed there. The club became a mecca for black musicians from the British Empire, such as Frank Holder, Coleridge Goode and Ray Ellington. [2]
The club was eventually taken over by Humphrey Lyttelton's manager and, during that period, Louis Armstrong appeared at the venue. The lease was sold on to Ted Morton, who promoted it as the Jazz Shows Jazz Club. During this period, jazz fan Roger Horton began working at the club and was promoted to manager in 1964. [3]
Following the Trad boom and UK beat scene the club became associated with Punk rock. In September 1976, the 100 Club played host to the first international punk festival, an event which helped to push the then new punk rock movement from the underground into the mainstream. Bands which played at this event included the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Stranglers and The Damned.
Under the promotion of Ron Watts, the venue then booked punk bands like Angelic Upstarts, U.K. Subs and The Adicts, as well as, from 1981 onwards, hardcore punk bands such as The Varukers, Black Flag, Discharge, Charged GBH, Crass, Picture Frame Seduction, Skrewdriver, English Dogs, etc. Several live albums were recorded at the club, including one by the Sex Pistols.
On 31 May 1982, The Rolling Stones played an unannounced show there as a warm-up for their European tour, and returned again on 23 February 1986 to play a tribute show for their recently deceased pianist Ian Stewart, a concert that was their only live performance between 1982 and 1989.
Other nights would see a range of jazz, rhythm-and-blues and soul groups on the stage, including a "duel" between tenor saxophonists Teddy Edwards and Dick Morrissey in the 1980s. [4] Other notable jazz musicians, including Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz and Archie Shepp, have also appeared at the club.
Manager Roger Horton eventually became a director, and in 1992 took over the ownership, handing it on to his son Jeffrey Horton when he retired in 2001. [3]
The 100 Club has been the home to the world longest running Northern soul all-nighters, the 6t's Rhythm 'n' Soul Club, started by Randy Cozens and Ady Croasdell of Kent Records UK. The 6t's had their 31st anniversary event on 18 September 2010.
The decor remains unchanged since the 1970s, although punk bands no longer appear there regularly. Instead there is a busy programme often booked up many months in advance. Occasionally, big-name touring bands will play "secret" or low-key unadvertised gigs there, relying on word of mouth to fill the 350-capacity space. The "Coda Club", a monthly social gathering of jazz musicians from the Feldman Swing Club era, continues to be held. [2] Limelight changed the venue's musical genre once again, providing "classical music in a rock'n'roll setting", hosting new or well-established classical artists once a month, [5] Since 1988, the London Swing Dance Society have held "Stompin" on Monday nights, a swing dancing evening with classes and regular live bands.
In 2009 Feldman's Swing Club was named by the Brecon Jazz Festival as one of 12 venues which had made the most important contributions to jazz music in the United Kingdom, for its contributions in the 1942–1954 period. [6]
In September 2010, it was announced that the 100 Club would close at the end of 2010 owing to continuing losses. [1] [7] [8] A campaign was launched, the Save The 100 Club, to keep the venue open, supported by musicians including Paul McCartney, [9] [10] and in February 2011 a partnership with Nike subsidiary Converse was arranged, enabling the 100 Club to remain open. [11] [12] DEF Digby were the first band to play at the venue in 2012.
Recent acts to headline The 100 Club include Shame, [13] Alice Cooper, Fat White Family, [14] Black Midi, [15] The Specials, [16] Sisteray, [17] Babyshambles, [18] Idles, [19] Dr. Feelgood [20] and Sleaford Mods. [21]
In autumn 2023, veteran punk band the U.K. Subs played a five-night sold out residency at the 100 Club in a culmination of their final British tour. The residency was attended by Stuart Pearce, a lifelong fan of punk rock. In June 2023, the Buzzcocks headlined at the 100 Club, a warm up gig to their upcoming tour without their guitarist/singer Pete Shelley who passed away earlier the same year.
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, marches, vaudeville song, and dance music. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation.
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.
The 100 Club Punk Special was a two-day event held at the 100 Club venue in Oxford Street, London, England, on 20 and 21 September 1976. The gig showcased eight punk rock bands, most of which were unsigned. The bands in attendance were each associated with the then evolving punk rock music scene of the United Kingdom. Historically, the event has become seen as marking a watershed moment for punk rock, as it began to move from the underground and emerge into the mainstream music scene.
Julian Miles Holland is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Joss Stone, Jayne County, Tom Jones, José Feliciano, Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Ringo Starr, Bono, Rod Stewart, The The and Ruby Turner.
Washington, D.C., has been home to many prominent musicians and is particularly known for the musical genres of Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, bluegrass, punk rock and its locally-developed descendants hardcore and emo, and a local funk genre called go-go. The first major musical figure from District of Columbia was John Philip Sousa, a military brass band composer. Later figures include jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Rouse, Buck Hill, Ron Holloway, Davey Yarborough, Michael A. Thomas, Butch Warren, and DeAndrey Howard; soul musicians, including Billy Stewart, The Unifics, The Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Van McCoy, The Presidents, The Choice Four, Vernon Burch, guitarist Charles Pitts, and Sir Joe Quarterman & Free Soul.
The Music of Nebraska has included a variety of country, jazz, blues, ragtime, rock, and alternative rock musicians. Though many cities and towns across the state have active musical scenes, artists from Omaha and Lincoln have a particularly important musical legacy.
The U.S. state of New Jersey is located in the Northeastern United States and is part of the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are an American swing and ska band established in Eugene, Oregon, in 1989. Formed by singer-songwriter Steve Perry and bassist Dan Schmid, the band has experienced numerous personnel changes over the course of its 30-year history, with only Perry, Schmid and trumpeter Dana Heitman currently remaining from the original founding lineup.
The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music and Lindy Hop dance, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak in the 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, but it was also greatly influenced by rockabilly, boogie-woogie, the jump blues of artists such as Louis Prima and Louis Jordan, and the theatrics of Cab Calloway. Many neo-swing bands practiced contemporary fusions of swing, jazz, and jump blues with rock, punk rock, ska, and ska punk music or had roots in punk, ska, ska punk, and alternative rock music.
Ronnie Scott OBE was a British jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner. He co-founded Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London's Soho district, one of the world's most popular jazz clubs, in 1959.
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The Marquee Club was a music venue in London, England, which opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. It was a small and relatively cheap club, in the heart of London's West End.
The Joe Strummer Foundation is a non-profit organisation which promotes the development of new music. It was established in memory of punk rock singer and guitarist Joe Strummer shortly after his death in December 2002. Strummer's widow Lucinda was the principal founder along with their daughters, Jazz and Lola Mellor, and English artist Damien Hirst. The organisation was known as Strummerville until December 2014.
Band on the Wall is a live music venue in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, England.
A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music, although some jazz clubs primarily focus on the study and/or promotion of jazz-music. Jazz clubs are usually a type of nightclub or bar, which is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. Jazz clubs were in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz, when bands were large and often augmented by a string section. Large rooms were also more common in the Swing era, because at that time, jazz was popular as a dance music, so the dancers needed space to move. With the transition to 1940s-era styles like Bebop and later styles such as soul jazz, small combos of musicians such as quartets and trios were mostly used, and the music became more of a music to listen to, rather than a form of dance music. As a result, smaller clubs with small stages became practical.
Chicago, Illinois is a major center for music in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues, and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.
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Limelight is a classical club night that is held at the 100 Club, in Soho, London. The event aims to broaden the appeal of classical music by presenting artists in an intimate, "rock & roll" environment, undermining conventional notions that classical music needs to be heard in a formal concert hall to be enjoyed.
Frank Holder was a Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist. He was a member of bands led by Jiver Hutchinson, Johnny Dankworth and Joe Harriott.
On December 1, 2010, at London's 100 Club, a benefit concert was performed to help the historic live venue to remain at its home at 100 Oxford Street. Guitarist Stephen Dale Petit, who organised the show, performed at the concert alongside his special guests Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor and original Stones bassist Dick Taylor, as well as British Blues figure Chris Barber. Tickets sold out immediately and the concert was described by The Express as “one of the most memorable gigs to be performed at a venue where memorable gigs are the norm” and by The Times as “worthy of a place in the 100 Club folklore”
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