The Marquee gradually got bigger, as live music of that nature became more popular, and then we wanted to do more blues and so on, not just traditional jazz, so we brought some American blues artists over to Britain, because we thought that the way to get hold of this music better was to have the chance to play with the people in question. You could do that with a blues singer, but you couldn’t with a jazz musician, because the Musicians Union wouldn’t let American musicians play in Britain. However, they didn’t stop singers, because they belonged to the Guild Of Variety Artists!

So people like Muddy Waters came over and we said, “We’ve got to play that music!” Nobody else knew much about it, but I knew Alexis Korner who was a blues artist, because I was at school with him and he had actually played guitar in my very first amateur traditional band in 1949.

Alexis was playing in little blues and folk clubs, along with Cyril Davies who played the harmonica, but he was attracted by us saying we wanted to play proper what they called ‘Chicago blues’ at the time, so they came and joined in with my band.

After a few months of that, Alexis said, “Listen, Chris, I’m getting to play for half an hour a night - I want to play blues all the time.” I said, “The trouble with that is there’s nothing for the horn players to do”, but I put my other hat on as co-owner of the Marquee as Harold Pendleton and I were partners and said, “Look, Alexis, why don’t you take your own night in the Marquee?”

We gave him Thursday night, and Blues Incorporated was born. A lot of people from that band went on to become important in the popular music world eventually, as Alexis himself did, although as rather an eminence grise in the background.

So the Marquee began really out of the frustration of Harold Pendleton and myself, wanting to have a nice place to present jazz in the West End - and me not only wanting to present, but to play in it! - and it grew from there.

Check in tomorrow to find out how the Marquee played a part in the classic film ‘Look Back In Anger’!

Did you visit the Marquee when it was still in Oxford Street? Share your memories here: