Crawdaddy Club
The Crawdaddy Club was a nationally known event venue in Richmond , Surrey , England . It was in the Station Hotel, across from Richmond Railway Station.
General
It was founded in December 1962 by the blue enthusiast Giorgio Gomelsky , who had started with the Piccadilly Jazz Club in Soho . The club got its name from Bo Diddley 's music track Doing the Craw-Daddy (LP Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger , December 1960). The music club quickly became a talent factory for British beat bands, which were discovered shortly after their appearances and received record contracts. That is why the Crawdaddy joins the famous London clubs Marquee Club , Eel Pie Island and The Ealing Club . The Crawdaddy can claim that, along with the Cavern Club in Liverpool , it was one of the birthplaces of rock music in Great Britain.
House bands
The club's first house band was Dave Hunt Rhythm and Blues Band with Ray Davies , who recruited some of the later Kinks from here . On February 24, 1963, the still unknown Rolling Stones made a guest appearance and became the house band that performed here for eight months. Here she discovered her future manager Andrew Loog Oldham on April 28, 1963 . On April 14, 1963, the Beatles saw the Rolling Stones perform here , who always ended their concerts with Bo Diddley's song. They played for a fee of one pound per member and a share of the entrance fee. In June 1963, Gomelsky rented the larger premises in the Richmond Athletics Club with a capacity of just under 1,000 people, three times as much as at the old address. The Yardbirds came there on September 29, 1963 , took over the role of house band from the Rolling Stones, made 60 gigs and played here until June 27, 1965. Their appearance with US blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II on December 8, 1963 was recorded and released on the LP Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds (January 1966).
Further appearances
Other, later successful beat bands such as The Animals (January – March 1964), The Who , Moody Blues or Spencer Davis Rhythm & Blues Quartet used the blues platform of the "Crawdaddy". Other artists who also appeared here were notably Led Zeppelin (1968), Long John Baldry , Elton John and Rod Stewart .
reopening
In March 2011, Mike Rivers and his wife Sylvie opened a Crawdaddy Club in the Athletic Ground .
Others
The Crawdaddy Club was the namesake of the American rock magazine Crawdaddy, founded in 1966 ! .