Eel Pie Island Hotel
The island was the site of the now legendary Eel Pie Hotel which was a genteel 19th century building that hosted ballroom dancing during the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1956 trumpeter Brian Rutland, who ran a local band called The Grove Jazz Band, started jazz sessions at the newly reopened hotel. Sometime after Arthur Chisnall took over the running of the club and continued to promote various jazz bands and then in the 1960s rock and R&B groups.
Famous names who performed at the dance hall between 1957 and 1967 include:
- Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men (including Rod Stewart)
- Kenny Ball
- Acker Bilk
- David Bowie
- Ken Colyer
- Ivor Cutler
- Cyril Davies
- Alexis Korner
- John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (featuring Eric Clapton)
- George Melly
- Pink Floyd
- The Rolling Stones
- The Tridents (featuring Jeff Beck)
- The Who
- The Yardbirds
- The Downliners Sect
- The Artwoods (featuring Jon Lord)
In 1967, the Eel Pie Island Hotel was forced to close because the owner could not meet the £200,000 cost of repairs demanded by police. In 1969, the Club briefly reopened as Colonel Barefoot's Rock Garden, with bands such as Black Sabbath, The Edgar Broughton Band, Stray, Genesis, and Hawkwind (then known as Hawkwind Zoo) performing there.
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