(2010 - May)
Don Fuller has seen our feature on the Six Bells and has written to say: 'I worked there in the 1970s. The upstairs (street level bar and disco) was called the Bird's Nest, and was a full-on jazz venue on Sunday afternoons - absolutely brilliant!'
(2010 - February)
Dave Bowen writes:
Does anyone else recall that before the Six Bells Chelsea was a regular
venue for the leading British mainstream bands it was also known as
Trog's Club and regularly featured for a number of years Wally Fawkes
and his Troglodytes (Monday nights?). I was a proud owner of a
membership card for the club in the late 1950s. Wally, with Colin
Bates, Spike Mackintosh (Cameron's dad), Jeremy French etc. recorded an
excellent EP at the time called "A Night At The Six Bells". I saw the
Fairweather-Brown Band there several times and was also there the night
that Ben Webster turned up to sit in with Humph's band and traded fours
with Tony Coe on "Cottontail".
[Click here for a video of Wally playing with Humph in 1983 BUT there is a lot of flickering on this video, so if it is tough on the eyes, click here to just listen to Wally playing Trog's Blues.]
Hugo Strötbaum has also discovered that one of DECCA's recording studios, the Chenill Galleries, was also on the King's Road and right next to the Six Bells.
(From Hugo Strötbaum, Netherlands, April 2008)
What's going on at the Six Bells these days? What does it look like? What happened to the Chelsea Jazz Club? There must be people around that know more about it.
Reply and Discussion:
The Six Bells in the King's Road, Chelsea was a well-known landmark for jazz gigs, and a frequent venue for the Sandy Brown-Al Fairweather band. It is now part of the Henry
J. Bean's chain of pubs, and there is little, if any, evidence of the jazz that used to be played there. Apparently the upstairs rooms have been turned into offices. Henry J Bean's website gives pictures of today's interior www.henryjbeans.co.uk/chelsea
Henry J Bean's (2006/7)
Photo courtesy of Ian Maund
Hugo recalls: 'I don't remember much about those days in Chelsea. I was on holidays in England and must have read somewhere (Melody Maker?) that they (Sandy and Al) were playing at the Six Bells.
The Sandy Brown - Al Fairweather Band at the Six Bells Chelsea, June 1968
Malcolm Cecil (bass), Stan Robinson (tenor sax), Sandy (clarinet), Brian Lemon (piano), Al (trumpet), Mike Scott (drums).
© Hugo Strötbaum
When I see the photographs the whole thing comes to life (I was 22 years old then), very good music, informal atmosphere, glass mugs filled with apple cider and those larger-than-life paintings of jazz musicians on the walls (Fats Waller, etc).
Al and Sandy at the Six Bells, Chelsea, June 1968
© Hugo Strötbaum
I went there two nights and that was all I ever saw of Sandy and Al. Strange, I remember them as two very sympathetic guys, bent on their job of making music'.
We probably each have our own memories of the Six Bells. I remember taking a girlfriend there once - she hated it! The air was clear to about five feet off the floor and above that a haze of cigarette smoke, but the music was unbelievable. Tony Coe was playing with Sandy and Al that night and the whole band was buzzing.
Of course, many other bands played there - please send us your memories and any pictures you have of the Six Bells. Does anyone know anything about the Chelsea Jazz Club? Click here to Contact Us .