The Marquee: new book hails legendary music venue which hosted everyone from Wham! to Pink Floyd

King Tuts in Glasgow, Cavern in Liverpool both tick all boxes of intimacy, exclusivity, noisy, sweaty and crowded. Throughout the years though the Marquee in London has been known as the place to be, especially for emerging acts before they went global. Robert Sellers with insider Nick Pendelton have authored Marquee, The Story Of The World’s Greatest Venue (Paradise Road, £22), and tell stories of how Wham! filmed the I’m Your Man video there or how Guns N’ Roses insisted on this being their UK debut in 1987 with three shows.

Robert has penned numerous authorised biographies while Nick is the only child of Marquee founders Harold and Barbara Pendleton. Initially a jazz club in Wardour Street Soho, the venue became the place to perform along with an audience of fans, pluggers, industry insiders, managers and influencers.

Through the years there were trends as they moved away from Chris Barber and Humprey Littleton jazz residences to embrace rock bands like Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and from the best-selling poster ‘Maximum R&B’ with The Who. In the Prog Rock years, they welcomed Yes, Jethro Tull, Marillion and Genesis if you can image these on a small stage with walls of condensation.

Punk came next with shows from Sex Pistols, Damned, and The Stranglers giving way to New Wave sweeping with The Police, Ultravox, The Jam and Adam & The Ants. It was here David Bowie met Mick Ronson, launched Hunky Dory and said goodbye to Ziggy Stardust. Fans would attend to see the next big thing and were rewarded with bands like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Metallica REM and even Bryan Adams. This fascinating book names much more and covers their Reading Festivals, how the club flourished and was sold and has a timeline of beginnings to the last show at Wardour Street.