100 Club
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The 100 Club is a music venue situated at 100, Oxford Street, London W1, UK.
The 100 Club has a legendary status within the history of modern British music, having played live music since 24 October 1942. In this year the venue was a restaurant called Macks, which was hired out every Sunday evening by the father of jazz drummer Victor Feldman in order to provide his son with regular gigs.æ
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The Trad boom
UK beat scene and R'n'B
The punk years
September 20 and 21, 1976, saw the 100 Club play host to the first 'International punk festival', an event which helped to push the then new punk rock movement from the underground into the cultural and musical mainstream. Bands which played at this event included the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Clash, The Buzzcocks and The Damned.
Under the promotion of Ron Watts, the venue then became a regular venue for 'old school' punk bands like Angelic Upstarts, UK Subs, as well as, from 1981 onwards, hardcore punk bands such as The Varukers, Discharge, Charged GBH, Crass, Picture Frame Seduction, English Dogs, etc.
The 100 Club is still going strong today, with decor unchanged since the 1970s, although the punk bands no longer appear there regularly. Instead there is a busy programme often booked up many months in advance by canny promoters who are aware of the cachet of having a sold-out night at the venue. Occasionally, big-name touring bands will play "secret" or low-key unadvertised gigs there, relying on word of mouth to fill the 350-capacity space. Other nights will see a range of old-school jazz, rhythm-and-blues and soul groups on the famous stage.