London’s legendary Marquee Club is due to re-appear on the capital’s live music scene next month.
The club’s current owner, Northern Irish entrepreneur and bar-owner Nathan Lowry, says the Marquee will re-open as a live venue in the week beginning Sept. 3 at a new site, 14 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane, close to the Soho area most closely associated with the club.
“People are saying older generations have fonder memories of the club, and newer generations always want to play where their heroes have played. So we have that musical history, that heritage and that pedigree,” Lowry tells Billboard.biz. “We’ve had a phenomenal response from bands wanting to play.”
The new venue incorporates a replica of the stage from the club’s best-known incarnation in nearby Wardour Street, and is decorated with memorabilia from its 50-year history.
The site houses two rooms, with 100 and 200 capacities, respectively. The firm’s in-house team will book three-to-four bands each week, plus showcases and industry events, Lowry explains.
“We will book a mixture of bands, from rock, indie, alternative and well-known acts who want to do new material and secret gigs. We have a major band who will do that in November, which is very exciting,” Lowry says, without identifying any line-ups.
Lowry is also a producer at recently-launched Glasgow-based film company Sgiandubh Productions Limited. One of the company’s initial slate of productions is a feature film based on the Marquee, which will be distributed worldwide through a deal with Universal, Lowry says. “We have footage which hasn’t been seen since it was first recorded and aired, from the Stones, the Who and Hendrix, which we’re putting together for the 50th anniversary of the club next year.”
Lowry also claims to be in talks with a terrestrial station to produce a “Live at the Marquee Show” TV series.
It’s the sixth location for the Marquee since it first opened its doors in 1958 in the basement of 165 Oxford Street, central London’s best-known shopping street, as a jazz club.
