Rock ’n’ Roll Chelsea

Event information

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Chelsea was at the epicentre of much of the Britain’s rock ’n’roll activity. Rock stars lived there, or shopped there for stage and street clothes and footwear, ate at its restaurants and visited its theatres and cinemas, rubbing shoulders with fellow celebrities of the film, fashion and stage worlds. If you were looking for the In-Crowd, this was a good place to start. In the mid-1960s, the district became a focal point and shop window for the new “swinging” London, and remained at the forefront of developing cultural trends throughout the following decade until it became the breeding-ground for punk rock, whose sound, look and attitudes continue to shape global notions of youthful rebellion almost fifty years later, covered in depth in Max Décharné’s acclaimed book, “King’s Road – The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World”.
         
Highlights of the walk led by Max will include the locations of the former 1950s King’s Road Coffee Bar which launched a skiffle band to transatlantic stardom on the Ed Sullivan Show; the house where David and Angie Bowie lived while he was making “Aladdin Sane” and Bryan Ferry would sometimes kip on their sofa; where Bob Marley and the Wailers lived in the 1970s when recording in London; where Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious shared a flat in 1977; the pub where Jim Morrison liked to drink when the Doors played in London in 1968; the house where Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg lived while she was filming “Performance” and the place nearby where the Clash shot the video for “London Calling”.


Writer and musician Max Décharné is the author of ten books—his most recent being “Teddy Boys: Post-War Britain and the First Youth Revolution”. He was the drummer of the band Gallon Drunk, and has been the singer and songwriter of the band The Flaming Stars since 1994. His other books include “Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of English Slang”, “A Rocket in My Pocke”t, and “Hardboiled Hollywood”.