Ann Rosenberg and Tony Bell
They’re thinking of putting the Brooks Blues Bar on wheels!
Hammersmith’s popular music club is no stranger to relocation, having had eight different homes in the 14 years since it launched in the cellar of the Brook Green Hotel.
Now it has popped up in a new venue – just hours after it seemed it had played its last riff.
Last autumn, the music club which has hosted Dana Gillespie, Rag Mama Rag, George Melly, Maria Muldaur, Watermelon Slim and Sonny Black, left its home of three years at the Polish cultural centre in King Street to start afresh in Covent Garden.
But when the new venue increased its revenue demands of blues bar founders Tony Bell and Ann Rosenberg – who live in Sands End, Fulham – they decided with heavy hearts that they would finally have to say goodbye to an itinerant club which has been part of west London’s music scene since 2003.
However, a dramatic last-ditch intervention means that the club is saved, and new premises have been found – in Tooting.
“We’re delighted,” said Tony. “Fate has smiled on us!” added Ann.
Brooks Blues Bar is now in the newly opened Sound Lounge, Tooting, meaning the carefully organised programme of gigs from May to November has been reinstated.
The new home has a good sound system, stage and lighting, an informal cafe environment with beer, wine and coffee (three essential ingredients for good blues) and an affordable vegetarian/vegan menu.
Run by singer/songwriter Hannah White and her musician husband Kieron Marshall, it means that the Brooks Blues Bar at last appears settled.
Everything had seemed bright last November when, after three years at the Polish centre, it moved to the Seven Dials Club, Covent Garden, citing greater flexibility and the availability of more dates as the reason.
Now with a new lease of life, Tony and Ann’s first gig in Tooting will feature blues diva Dana Gillespie accompanied by pianist Dino Baptiste on Thursday 4 May, followed on Wednesday 10 May by Rossano Sportiello from the States, with Dave Green and Steve Brown.
The Sound Lounge is at 210 Upper Tooting Road, five minutes from Tooting Broadway tube station.
