The Roxy

The Roxy was started by Andrew Czezowski, Susan Carrington and Barry Jones in December 1976. The first show, on the 14th of December, was Generation X, a band Czezowski managed. The second on the following night was The Heartbreakers. The third, on 21 December, featured Siouxsie and the Banshees and Generation X. However, it was The Clash and The Heartbreakers that headlined the official gala opening on the 1st of January 1977 – which was filmed by Julien Temple and finally screened on BBC Four on 1 January 2015 as The Clash: New Year’s Day ’77.

The 100 Club

In September 1976, the 100 Club (which had operated since 1942 as Feldman Swing Club) played host to the first international punk festival, which helped push the new punk movement into the mainstream. The Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Stranglers, and The Damned all played at this event.

Blitz Club

Before the New Romantics of the 1980s, there were the so-called Blitz kids (the first mention of this term is in the Daily Mirror of the 3rd of March 1980), a bunch of post-punk youngsters with outrageous styles of clothes and make-up who hung out at the Blitz Club on Great Queen Street.

In 2014 Spandau Ballet earned their PRS first-gig plaque, for their 1979 debut.

The Bell

The Bell on Pentonville Road was the main attraction in the area for a certain type of queers, punks, goths, skinheads, and the likes, looking for good music and great fun. The Smiths, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Associates, The Cult, and Kate Bush have all played here.

Marquee Studios

The Buzzcocks, Elton John, The Groundhogs, The Clash, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Killing Joke, Daevid Allen, Van Der Graaf Generator, and many others used a homemade studio in the garage at the back of the Marquee Club (in its second incarnation, on Wardour Street) created by Moody Blues’ manager Alex Murray in 1964.

The Clash’s Album Cover

In late 1976, The Clash shot the front cover of their debut album in Camden.
It was taken in an alleyway by their recording studio – Rehearsals Rehearsals – which was in a rundown British Rail goods yard that’s now part of Camden Market. Much of the album, released in April 1977, was recorded in the venue.