A blue plaque for Club A'Gogo

On a recent visit to London it was fun to play the tourist game 'spot the blue plaque'. Wandering through Camden into Bloomsbury (calling in at Judd Books) blue plaques were everywhere (on some streets there are several plaques stating 'such and such lived here'). Artists, literary figures, politicians, scientists, some famous, some less so (less so, as far as the wandering tourist was concerned). And onto Soho ...

Great Newport Street, Studio 51 (Ken Colyer's jazz club) and just around the corner, the 'Old Place', the basement venue on Gerrard Street, home to Ronnie Scott's before the move to Frith Street. Locals hurried by, perhaps oblivious to the jazz history beneath their feet, in contrast to the jazz tourist keen to stand on the pavement to take a photograph. The image in the mind's eye of Roland Kirk on Gerrard Street descending the steps to Ronnie's 'Old Place', all the while locals and non-jazz tourists alike walking on by. 

Meanwhile, on returning to Tyneside, a long overdue blue plaque has appeared on Percy Street in Newcastle. The Handyside Arcade was a one-off, quirky indoor arcade. Home to independent businesses - a shop selling amplifiers, a poster shop (Che Guevara was popular) - if the steeply-sided, horseshoe-shaped building had survived demolition, today it would be a tourist attraction with an array of coffee shops and so-called 'artisan' food outlets, perhaps a micro pub. Alas, the powers-that-be decided to clear the site to make way for a shopping mall. Ironically, today the soulless mall stands all but empty, a desolate monument to 'progress'.

Two floors up above Handyside Arcade was a music venue. In the space of a few short years Club A'Gogo played host to this lot and more: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Georgie Fame, Pink Floyd, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Jimi Hendrix. Jazz musicians were booked to play Club A'Gogo, including Micky Ashman, Ken Colyer, Eric Delaney, Alan Elsdon, Tubby Hayes (the promotional flyer described Tubbs' band as 'Europe's Greatest'), Harold McNair and Ronnie Ross. The local guys were regulars on Percy Street - Mike Carr Trio, later the Emcee 5 - and, of the local bands around at the time, it was a second home to one of Tyneside's most famous exports. The Animals cut (bared?) their teeth on Percy Street. The rest, as they say, is history. Russell