This is an empty storefront by day that opens up the doors to the basement below when the night hits and its purpose becomes clear. It’s a typical Soho club, shut off below ground level where its noise is restricted, but it happens to host London’s longest running one-nighter. Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues has been going since the early eighties when Gaz Mayall started playing out his musical education that he’d collected from a life as the son of a musician.
It’s a squeeze in the club, but the décor’s a mixture of neon, whitewash and that homely, varnished wood of the traditional bar and while it gets pretty sweaty it never feels too close. A dance floor fills its own room where at its head is a cave like stage and it doesn’t take much to get it going in here thanks to the low ceilings but the music could take itself to a much bigger venue. At times it feels like the Thursday night set of rockabilly, reggae, R&B and ska can feel under-appreciated by the young crowd and you quickly get the sense that the night has its band of regulars. Saturdays host a bigger mix of genres but the focus is on rock ‘n’ roll and it tends to attract a more varied bunch who see the bargain five pound door charge and whoop their way in.
St. Moritz doesn’t seem like much but there’s a little legend about it- keep it in mind for those nights where you’re wandering aimlessly and no one can decide where to go, then it’s your doozy.
