The Eel Pie Island Hotel, situated on an eyot between Ham and Twickenham,
hosted all manner of Jazz greats, and early Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, David
Bowie and Pink Floyd gigs during the 60s, and gravitated toward Free, Deep
Purple and Black Sabbath in 1970, before burning down in March 1971. Visit
The Eel Pie Island Museum, located at 1-3-Richmond Road, Twickenham, to
find out the full history of the venue eelpiemuseum.co.uk. The present day Eel
Pie Club, operating out of The Cabbage Patch in London Road Twickenham,
has been keeping the spirit of Eel Pie Island alive since 2000, and features
musos either of that era, or those who still practise the noble art of blues
and R&B that originated back in the 60s. The Club operates fortnightly, see
eelpieclub.com for details.
The Station Hotel in Richmond had been run by Giorgio Gomelsky, of
French-Russian extraction, since early in 1963, and who assumed the mantle
of unofficial manager of The Stones. Galvanised by The Stones' electric effect
on punters, he embraced the R&B music that was becoming all the rage
in the south, and thus renamed his operation The Crawdaddy, which then
moved to the nearby Richmond Athletic Ground (home of London Scottish
and Richmond Rugby Clubs). The Crawdaddy Club has been revived and
operates again out of that eventual location at the Ground's clubhouse. Gigs
are put on every two months, featuring mainly R&B based performers, again
echoing its original fare crawdaddyclubrichmond.com. The Station Hotel's
current incarnation, One Kew Road bar and restaurant, once again hosts
regular live 60s music events promoted by Music Heritage London who also
run the Swinging 60s Experience Bus Tours 60sbus.london.
Kew Gardens regularly hosts open air events during the summer, with the
likes of Jools Holland appearing: for this summer's treats kewthemusic.org
Similarly, Hampton Pool puts on a series of open air concerts
("Summer Picnics") during the summer: for this summer's events
hamptonpooltrust.org.uk/concerts
In 2019, Eel Pie Records in Church Street, Twickenham, organised the oneday High
Tide Festival, whereby a number of venues in and around Church
Street played host to a number of musical acts. Declared a great success and
is now an annual event that happens every July discovertwickenham.co.uk
For more information visitrichmond.co.uk/local/musicheritage
Musical Heritage of
Richmond… then and now
THURS-SUN 12-5:30pm £4 single visit, £6 annual "Passport"
1-3 Richmond Rd TW1 3AB (opposite York House)
"MUSICAL HISTORY, CURATED WITH LOVE" TripAdvisor
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