Rock ’n’ Roll Island - Where Legends Were Born: How Eel Pie Island launched a UK rock generation

27 March 2020

Friday nights on BBC Four have long been the place for pop nostalgia, with music documentaries airing after vintage episodes of Top of the Pops. And nostalgia’s what we all need right now, sitting at home dreaming of packed dancefloors and all those times when being out in London felt like being at the centre of the world. Tonight, in Cheryl Robson’s award-winning Rock ’n’ Roll Island: Where Legends Were Born, we’re heading west to Twickenham’s Eel Pie Island, the ait in the Thames that for a brief spell in the early Sixties was rock and roll’s hottest hotspot.

Charles Dickens got there first, sending Morleena Kenwigs to the island for a picnic in Nicholas Nickleby in the 1830s. She danced “in the open air to the music of a locomotive band, conveyed thither for the purpose.” More recently it was a base for indie band Mystery Jets, who gained a buzz and a noise abatement order for their mid-Noughties gigs in a boatyard, as well as Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, and actor Nigel Planer — who narrates this new documentary. Robson’s focus is on 1956-1971, when the ballroom of the shabby Eel Pie Island Hotel became a home for trad jazz, then for local rhythm and blues bands including The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds, and finally a space for harder, weirder rock from Deep Purple and Hawkwind. Rod Stewart recalls seeing the Stones, who played there most Wednesdays from April to September 1963, among an audience of 12.

There seemed to be something about crossing that small body of water — by chain ferry at first, then by footbridge — that allowed people to leave inhibitions on the mainland. “There were bushes everywhere and people used to go off in the bushes with their girlfriends,” says Dave Brock of Hawkwind. “It was the freedom, really.” He and Eric Clapton would swim across, clothes balanced on heads, to avoid paying the 2p it cost to use the bridge.

George Melly put it more colourfully: “The island had a reputation for sex. When you approached it you could see sex rising from it like steam from a kettle. It suited us randy young musicians.” Everybody must have felt like rulebreakers. Promoter Arthur Chisnall got around licensing laws by issuing visitors a passport to “Eelpiland”. It read: “We request and require, in the name of His Excellency Prince Pan, all those whom it may concern to give the bearer of this passport any assistance he/she may require in his/her lawful business of jiving and generally cutting a rug.” Chisnall, who had been booking jazz musicians such as Ken Colyer and Acker Bilk, didn’t especially care for the new thing coming through — pasty local lads who worshipped the raw blues of America’s Deep South — but correctly judged the kids wanted it. Wednesday nights became rhythm and blues from late 1962, which he billed as the “Rock and Twist Club”.

From then on, the roll call is dizzying. You couldn’t cross the footbridge without tripping over a future legend. Blues singer Long John Baldry was a key figure, featuring Rod Stewart and Elton John in his backing band at different times. David Bowie, then Davie Jones, was there in 1964 with his blues band The Manish Boys. Clapton played in John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Jeff Beck was in The Tridents, and The Yardbirds — who featured Beck, Clapton and Jimmy Page at different times — were visitors. In 1967, around the time of their first singles, Pink Floyd appeared three times. “We didn’t realise at the time how privileged we were,” says one regular.

The Who didn’t get there until 1968, though Pete Townshend must have had fond memories. He went on to name his publishing company and his recording studio Eel Pie. But it was the Stones who, with their 1963 residency, really made the island a key part of their rise. They released their debut album in 1964 and 54 years later, in 2018, were back playing down the road at Twickenham Stadium.

Chisnall faced a big repair bill and lost his licence in 1967. The venue flourished once more in 1970 as Colonel Barefoot’s Rock Garden, where attendees could drink “Colonel Barefoot Killer Punch” and watch Black Sabbath, Free and Deep Purple. Dozens of hippies set up a commune and trashed the hotel next door. The place burned down in 1971, maybe or maybe not for insurance purposes. The site is now a townhouse development called Aquarius, but Eel Pie Island Museum is open in Twickenham.

Watching the succession of musicians and fans reminiscing so warmly, it’s clear that the chances of another scene this potent growing out of a single venue are slim indeed. London’s gig spaces go on changing — a smart new small venue, Lafayette in King’s Cross, opened this month and promptly shut due to coronavirus. While live music has ground to a halt, the group that organises Independent Venue Week has created a list on its website of grassroots venues in the UK and US that need help to survive.

Rough Trade Books has just published Roof Dog: A Short History of the Windmill by rock critic Will Hodgkinson. It details the rise of art rock bands like Fat White Family, Shame and Black Midi from beginnings in a scuzzy Brixton pub that might just have Eel Pie vibes. Bands and fans still need these places. Let’s hope they can be back in them very soon.

Rock ’n’ Roll Island: Where Legends were Born is on BBC Four tonight at 9.30pm

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