The Flamingo Club

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Coordinates: 51°30′41″N 0°07′56″W / 51.5113°N 0.1322°W / 51.5113; -0.1322
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This article is about the London nightclub. For venues with similar names, see Flamingo (disambiguation).

The Flamingo Club
The Pink Flamingo
Blue plaque erected on 1 June 2017 at 33-37 Wardour Street
Map
AddressWardour Street
London, W1
England
Coordinates51°30′41″N 0°07′56″W / 51.5113°N 0.1322°W / 51.5113; -0.1322
Public transitLondon Underground Leicester Square; Piccadilly Circus
Operator
TypeNightclub
Opened1952 (1952)
Closed1967 (1967)

The Flamingo Club was a jazz nightclub in Soho, London, between 1952 and 1969. It was located at 33–37 Wardour Street from 1957 onwards and played an important role in the development of British rhythm and blues and modern jazz. During the 1960s, the Flamingo was one of the first clubs to employ fully amplified stage sound and it used sound systems provided by ska musicians from the Caribbean.[1] The club had a wide social appeal and was a favourite haunt for musicians, including The Who.[2]

No 37 Wardour Street was previously the address of the Shim Sham Club, which opened in 1935 and was known as "London's miniature Harlem".[3]

The 1950s

The club first opened in August 1952 under the ownership of

Kenny Graham's Afro-Cubists.[5] Acts were introduced by Tony Hall. The club rapidly gained a strong reputation, attracting visiting performers such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and in 1954, Billie Holiday.[6]

In April 1957, the club moved to new premises in the basement of a former grocery store at 33–37 Wardour Street,[7] where it initially remained primarily a jazz venue, with Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes as members of the resident band.[6] The club became particularly well known for its weekend "all-nighters", staying open on Friday and Saturday nights until 6.00 am, a practice that had started on an occasional basis in 1953.[8]

Jeffrey Kruger and his father Sam continued to own the club, but its management was taken over in 1959 by Rik Gunnell, a former boxer, market worker and

bouncer, who had previously run an all-night club at the Mapleton Hotel with the hotel's manager Tony Harris.[1]
Rik and his brother Johnny launched regular all-nighters and the ethos of the club gradually changed.

The 1960s

The Flamingo was sometimes described as an intimidating place in the early 1960s, where gangsters, pimps and prostitutes hung out with American servicemen, West Indians, and music fans, and fighting among customers was not unusual.

Aloysius Gordon and Johnny Edgecombe[9] both lovers of Christine Keeler, which ultimately led to the public revelations of the Profumo affair.[8]

By 1963, the Flamingo also became known as a centre of the

the Marquee. Everybody came down there and we had some really good jam sessions."[7]

Through the resulting melting pot of music, fashion and social cross-culture, the Flamingo played a small but important part in the breakdown of racial prejudice in post-war British society[11] and the club was one of the first UK venues to introduce ska music to a white audience, with performances by Jamaican-born musicians such as Count Suckle.[1]

Related uses

In the 1930s, the club had been the site of the Shim Sham Club, an unlicensed jazz club popular with black and gay audiences, run by Ike Hatch, and its successor the Rainbow Roof.[3]

33-37 Wardour Street in 2017

The club was later renamed "The Pink Flamingo" but closed in May 1969. The venue then became "The Temple", hosting

prog rock bands such as Genesis and Queen, but finally closed around 1972.[7] Since 2001, the premises have formed part of a branch of O'Neill's Irish-themed pub chain.[12]

The upper floors of the same building were used for the Whisky A Go Go club, renamed the WAG Club in 1981, which closed in 2001.[12][13][14]

Musicians and music

In the early days of the club, artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and in 1954 Billie Holiday, all performed there.[6] Early line-ups of the house band included saxophonists Joe Harriott, Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, drummer Tony Kinsey, vibraphonist Bill Le Sage and pianist Tommy Pollard.

Over the years, the club succeeded in promoting the best in jazz, rhythm and blues, as well as cross-over genres, mixing successful established acts with up-and-coming artists. Many of the emerging acts that the Flamingo promoted went on to become respected music industry names.

Bill Haley, Patti LaBelle, John Lee Hooker and Jerry Lee Lewis.[1] This melting pot of music-industry talent often led to memorable jam sessions. From 1962 to 1965, the resident band was Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, who in 1963 recorded a live album at the club, Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo, produced by Ian Samwell.[7]

Musicians who played at the Flamingo in the 1960s included

Johnny Burch Octet,[18] Alexis Korner, Carmen McRae, Brian Auger, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, the then newly formed Small Faces[1] and Steve Marriott.[19]

Owners and managers

Jeffrey Kruger

Main article: Jeffrey Kruger

Jeffrey Kruger established

MBE in 2002 for services to the music industry. Kruger died in Florida in May 2014, aged 83.[21]

Rik and Johnny Gunnell

Rik and Johnny Gunnell, who took over the club in 1959, later set up a management and booking agency in Soho. Together, they managed artists such as Zoot Money, Geno Washington, Long John Baldry, Cliff Bennett, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Rod Stewart,[2] Slade,[22] and the Gass.[23]

In January 1966, Gunnell and his brother opened the Ramjam Club, named after Geno Washington's Ramjam Band) in Brixton High Road, London S.W 9. Otis Redding made his British debut there, and the Animals and the Who played the club as favours to the Gunnells. During 1967, Rik Gunnell managed the artist roster at The Bag O'Nails, Kingly Street, London, W1.[2]

Later, the brothers joined the

après-ski venue in Kitzbühel, Austria. Rik Gunnell died in 2007.[1]

Discography

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Val Wilmer (18 June 2007). "Rik Gunnell obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Rik Gunnell obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 22 June 2007. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  3. ^ a b Archives, The National (5 February 2020). "The National Archives - The Shim Sham Club: 'London's miniature Harlem'". The National Archives blog.
  4. ^ Bob Solly, "Absolute Beginnings", Record Collector no. 399, March 2012, pp. 48–56.
  5. ^ The Ember Story. jeffreykruger.com Archived 18 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d e David H. Taylor. The jazz clubs Archived 20 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Watts, Peter (August 2019). "We were young - and who wanted to go to sleep when the night was beckoning?". Uncut.
  8. ^ a b "The Flamingo Club in Wardour Street and the fight between Johnny Edgecombe and 'Lucky' Gordon", Another Nickel in the Machine.
  9. ^ "Johnny Edgecombe fired the gunshots that precipitated the Profumo Affair of the 1960s". The Telegraph. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
  10. ^ Maycock, James (16 January 1998). "Pop music: Fame at the Flamingo: golden years in Soho". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022.
  11. ^ "A blast from the past: Rhythm, Blues and Anti Racism, Live at the Flamingo", Organized Rage, 8 April 2011.
  12. ^ a b "London Lost Music Venues: Rock Music 02 - Flamingo Club", KM's Live Music Shots. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  13. ^ "Whisky-a-Go-Go and WAG". www.shadyoldlady.com.
  14. ^ Guardian Staff (26 April 2001). "Alix Sharkey of The Wag club" – via www.theguardian.com.
  15. ^ "Jeffrey Kruger/The Flamingo". jeffreykruger.com/. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  16. ^ Gildart, Keith. Images of England Through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock 'n' Roll, 1955–1976. Palgrave Macmillan (15 October 2013). pp. 57, 58.
  17. ^ Leslie Fran (28 January 2009). Interview with Bobby Tench. Blues in Britain. pp. 18, 19, 20, Vol. 1, issue 94.
  18. ^ Melody Maker, December 26, 1964 - Page 11 Flamingo Jazz
  19. ^ Ferguson, Jim. The Guitar Player Book. Steve Marriott. Guitar Player Books (digitized 14 January 2010). p. 98.
  20. ^ "Jeffrey Kruger". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  21. ^ Leigh, Spencer (5 October 2010). "Jeff Kruger: Businessman who opened the Flamingo Club, which was at the epicentre of the British jazz and r'n'b scene". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
  22. ^ "The Slade story: from roots to boots". blogspot.com. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  23. ^ Joynson, Vernon. The Tapestry of Delights – The Comprehensive Guide to British Music of the Beat, R&B, Psychedelic and Progressive Eras. Borderline. p. 325.
  24. ^ "Jeff Kruger's Jazz at the Flamingo". 45cat.com. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  25. ^ "Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo". discogs. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  26. ^ "John Mayall With Eric Clapton-Blues Breakers". discogs. Retrieved 27 November 2014.

External links

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