Hi,
I played at 'the Scotch' many times in the late 60s with my band, THE WORRYING KYNDE, and saw many well known celebs in the audience during that time. Once, the Beatles occupied the band's table while we were playing and had to be asked (by us) to vacate it when we finished as some of our stuff was under it...they obliged. We also saw Micky Most pull a gun one night...never found out why. Many great memories from nearly 50 years ago.
The Scotch of St James club was a popular meeting place for rock musicians during the mid 1960s, situated on Masons Yard, Westminster, London SW1Y 6BU. Paul McCartney frequently visited it, as well as Rod Stewart, Eric Burdon, Goldie and the Gingerbreads, Ronnie Wood and bands like the Moody Blues, the Spencer Davis Group, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Stevie Wonder. The Beatles and the Stones were provided their own private tables at the club.
The club was where a then unknown Jimi Hendrix played his first gig in England on 24 September 1966, when he joined the house band for some blues standards. On 19 October 1966 the Jimi Hendrix Experience played their first UK gig as a private showcase at Scotch of St James.
Located amongst other iconic landmarks such as the Indica Gallery & Bookshop, where John Lennon first met Yoko Ono and where famed rock photographer Gered Mankowitz photographed many a legend in his studio, The Scotch tucked away at the bottom of an alley in Mason’s Yard served as a prominent live venue and historically significant meeting place for London’s rock elite in the 1960s.