Watch Lulu performing ‘Shout’ on ‘Ready Steady Go!’ in 1965:
Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie in Scotland in 1948, Lulu joined a local group, the Gleneagles, and started performing gigs around Glasgow and Edinburgh at the age of 14. She was quickly discovered by her long-time manager Marion Massey who changed the name of the act [...]
Watch Suger Pie DeSanto perform ‘Rock Me Baby’ in the UK in 1964:
Born Umpeylia Balinton in Brooklyn, New York, in 1935, Sugar Pie DeSanto was nicknamed ‘Little Miss Sugar Pie’ by bandleader Johnny Otis when she made her first recording with him in 1955. An amazing R’n’B singer, her single ‘I Want To Know’ was [...]
I joined ‘Melody Maker’ in 1964, but before that I used to go to the old Marquee when it was in Oxford Street, which had a bit of a plush jazz vibe, to see people like Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Then the club moved round the corner into Wardour Street and it became much [...]
Watch a trailer for a documentary entitled ‘Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain’ here:
The Marquee is usually associated with rock and R’n’B, but in the Sixties, DJ Duke Vin, one of the most important figures in popularising ska music in the UK, had a regular slot on the club’s schedule, [...]