Guy Fairbank traces Chiswick’s rock and roll history for the Book Festival

Guy Fairbank, London Blue Badge Guide and leader of the Chiswick Book Festival’s Chiswick Rocks walk

Chiswick Rocks! Local London Blue Badge Guide Guy Fairbank is leading music walks for the Chiswick Book Festival in September. Here’s a taster of what attendees can expect

Guest blog by Guy Fairbank

Chiswick has a surprisingly rich musical heritage. Handily placed for Heathrow, away from the hustle and bustle of the West End and considerably more affordable, the borough has been home to recording studios, record labels, music venues and artists.

The Chiswick Empire, demolished in 1959, played host to the likes of Alma Cogan and Marty Wilde, and when Cliff Richard performed there, a riot broke out.

The Chiswick Empire

Down the road, the Rolling Stones, supported by Marianne Faithfull, filled the Commodore Theatre, which was then a rival to the Hammersmith Odeon.

The Stones’ presence in W4 has continued: they used Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios to record Blue & Lonesome and, only recently, Metropolis Studios for their latest, highly acclaimed album Foreign Tongues.

READ ALSO: Metropolis Studios in Chiswick – one of the best recording studios in the world

Rolling Stones; photograph Tony Gale/Pictorial/DALLE

Another band from the Sixties with roots in Chiswick is The Who. Bass player John Entwistle was a local boy while guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend was born in the former Chiswick Maternity Hospital (as was Phil Collins, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and Kim Wilde).

Townshend once lived in Whitehall Gardens. Phil Collins formed his first band while attending Chiswick School. Kyle Simmons from Bastille is another old boy.

READ ALSO: Celebrating the Rock heritage of SW London

Near the site of the maternity hospital lies Eyot Green, and in 1968 a groovy rocker by the name of Steve Marriott fell foul of his neighbours.

While recording Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake in Barnes’ Olympic Studios, Marriott installed loud speakers and invited his friends over for raucous parties. The genteel next door neighbours the Hasselthwaites pleaded with Marriott to keep the noise down but to no avail.

Marriott’s antics inspired the Small Faces’ classic song Lazy Sunday Afternoon.

Linda Lewis; Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake; The Small Faces

Another songwriter who made their home in Chiswick was Linda Lewis. Self-taught, she was arguably Britain’s first female singer-songwriter. Her self-penned song Rock-A-Doodle-Doo reached the top 20 in 1975, while her version of It’s In His Kiss cracked the top ten.

Two years ago, a blue plaque was unveiled in Arlington Mansions, where she lived in the 1970s. Look carefully in A Hard Day’s Night and you might spot her playing a screaming fan. Which brings us to the Beatles.

READ ALSO: Linda Lewis to be featured in Black music exhibition at the V&A

On a sunny spring day in May 1966 the Fab Four arrived in Chiswick House to film arguably the first pop video.

Before then promotion videos were simple studio performances, but this was different. Along came a film crew and director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Locations were chosen, 35mm colour film was loaded into the cameras and shooting for Paperback Writer and Rain began.

The Beatles at Chiswick House

Chiswick was familiar to the Beatles. The previous year the City Barge pub on Strand-on-the-Green was used in a scene in their follow-up film Help!, when the Fab Four were being pursued along the pathway by a band of bagpipers led by the villainous Clang. They escaped by diving into the bar and ordering two lagers and lime and two lagers and lime.

This time they were left alone, so they could relax in the café with a cigarette as the crew set up filming. To the locals this was very big news and word soon got around that the most famous pop band in the world was in W4.

Annie Evans, a girl who bunked off school to go and see her heroes, managed to climb over the wall by the conservatory and meet John and George, and Ringo, who offered to share his fish and chips with her. She made the front page of the News of the World.

Another local, gardener John Kenton, recalled letting John ride his new Moulton bike around the grounds, much to the amusement of his bandmates.

READ ALSO: Nick Clegg, Kate Mosse and a Beatles anniversary feature in this year’s Chiswick Book Festival

Guy Fairbank is a London Blue Badge Guide and TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award winner, who leads the Chiswick Book Festival’s annual Chiswick Rocks walk.

Guy’s ‘Beatles in Chiswick Walk’ has proved so popular that two walks have sold out and more are planned.

People who are currently on the waiting list are being contacted about these by the Box Office team. It’s worth adding your name to those waiting lists so the organisers can assess future demand. However, please note that adding your name will not give you access to the current pre-sale.

An extra session of Guy’s original ‘Chiswick Rocks Walk’ (starting at Stamford Brook tube station) has also been organised. This will take place at 11.00 am on Sunday 20 September and tickets will go on sale soon on the Festival ticket page.

To book tickets for the book festival, visit the Chiswick Book Festival website.