Our Story
The Troubadour was founded in 1954 by Michael and Sheila van Bloemen; making it one of London's oldest independent music venues. Originally opening its doors as a coffee house: intended as a cultural meeting place for artists and mavericks alike, the Troubadour quickly became accredited as a West London institution; beckoning artists, poets, writers, musicians and advocates from all over the world, and was a cornerstone venue in the British folk revival. After an inspired visit to the Troubadour in it's early years, a young Doug Weston would ret n to West Hollywood from his trip to England and open his own Troubadour in 1957 - which would see its own role of importance in the Laurel Canyon scene and subsequently the American pop-culture of the 60's and 70's. Like us, the Troubadour West Hollywood would go on to influence the rest of the world. It played a formidable role in the launching of the careers of: Jackson Brown, Neil Diamond, Elton John, the Eagles, the Byrds, Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Tom Waits.
The Troubadour became host to London's intellects and free-thinkers and in the late 50's, it was an early meeting place for the Ban The Bomb organisation - later becoming the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Gerald Holtom, a member of the movement, designed the world famous "Peace Symbol" for the campaign.
In the rising sun of a new decade: the 1960's brought about great change in the London political and social scene. And as Chelsea's King's Road was leading in pop-culture and the Mod movement, British Jazz was also rising in popularity once again, and the Troubadour became a regular gig and hangout for London's finest Jazz musicians; most notable of players being Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, who played in 1961 - where he was "found" by Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner and was quickly recruited to join Blues Incorporated. Along with Mr. Watts, other greats of the British Jazz scene such as: Lionel Grigson, Michael "Spike" Wells, Mick Pyne, Dave Gelly MBE, Daryl Runswick and David "Happy" Williams all took the stage throughout the 1960's.
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The satirical and current-affairs news magazine, Private Eye was founded in 1961 and first published and distributed out of the Troubadour.
In December of 1962, a young Bob Dylan made his maiden trip to London after being invited by Philip Saville to appear in Madhouse on Castle Street, a drama Saville was directing for the BBC. Before departing for London, Dylan's mentor, Pete Seeger gave him the instruction to seek out Anthea Joseph who organised many of the folk events at the club and was often credited as "the Manager" of the venue. The Troubadour was the first venue Bob Dylan ever performed in while in the United Kingdom and he did so under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt. Here he would meet fellow folk legend, Martin Carthy who taught him the traditional English ballad, Scarborough Fair. Dylan would later go on to write his own song Girl from the North Country inspired by the English balladeer's rendition of the folk classic.
In 1965, a then-unknown Paul Simon moved to London to play in the British folk scene and played at the Troubadour in his time living in England. The singer-songwriter famously wrote the lyric for the Simon & Garfunkel hit song Homeward Bound - "I'm sitting in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination" - while waiting for a train in north-west England. Decades later in London, the singer would go on to say -"But I have a particular affection for when I was playing in the British folk clubs. They were like tiny little theatres, not even that, because there wasn't even a stage - just a microphone and sometimes there wasn't a microphone."
In 1968 after the Paris riots, the Black Panthers, having left Paris, would use the Troubadour as a meeting place in London.
Jimi Hendrix would perform at the Troubadour in the late sixties, after having moving to London to find popular success after he signed to ex-Animals bassist-turned-manager, Chase Chandler. Hendix was introduced to Chandler in New York by Linda Keith - who was dating Keith Richards at the time - and together convinced Hendrix to move to England.
The 1970's would see the decline of the British Blues Invasion and the psychedelic sixties sound: enter the birth of the blues powered hard rock and heavy metal. One of the most famous bands to come out of this era was Led Zeppelin who, after sell-out shows at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, would come back to the Troubadour and jam late into the evening and early morning.
And in more recent years, keeping with tradition, the Troubadour has had the privilege of seeing new, fresh faces, such as Adele, Ed Sheeran, Morrissey and Paolo Nutini come through on their way to topping the worldwide pop charts.
The Troubadour proudly still hosts live music seven days a week.
