The Troubadour. The O.G
The Troubadour, Earl’s Court. 08/07/25. Tom Hollister.
It’s a hot one! The U.K is currently in the middle of a heatwave and the air in the back of our gracefully-aging splitter van is rich with regret. Regret that we didn’t op for the air conditioning package. It’s not often that the best coffee around is the venue itself but today, that’s very much the case. So, our journey, dear listener, will start and end within the four walls of this musically-hallowed ground. Let’s get the load-in done and grab a cup…
We’re here for our second warm up show for the North American tour. When searching for a London venue, we picked the Troubadour, in the first instance, because of its obvious similarities to its LA namesake - a feature on the North American Tour - but there’s also a much deeper for us with this venue.
In a different life, we used to play this beautiful little club pretty regularly and for a while, it became our creative London home. Long black ordered, I head outside to the courtyard garden to seek relief from the heat in the dappled shade. Sitting alone among the beautiful melody of competing languages from the other tables, I quietly consider the changes since we last played there some 12 years ago. The most obvious difference is the layout of the the live room downstairs. Covid played an instrumental role in reducing the size of the downstairs by a third but cleverly, a complete redesign means the capacity for gigs hasn’t been affected.
The room change has apparently returned it to its original layout and now I’m about to sing in the exact spot where Jimi Hendrix used to play. That’s pretty fucking cool! The redesign also gave the current owners better chance to pay homage to the Troubadour’s incredible history with its saintly-themed wall of fame. From Jim Morrison to Freddie Mercury who used to live close by and pop in on occasion for a brew, the wall shows off a gathering of legends with Troubadour connections.
Opening its doors in 1954, it quickly established itself as one of the city’s most iconic coffee houses and live music venues. With its ground floor based on the Parisian cafe culture that was sweeping across the English Channel, downstairs was a trailblazing venue that found itself at the centre of the burgeoning folk scene in London. Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell all owe their success in some part to The Troubadour. It was the after party hangout for Led Zeppelin after Earl’s Court performances and more recently has seen the likes of Adele, Ed Sheeran and even guitar phenom Chris Buck…wow!
That post-war creative renaissance feel has never left. Among the Starbucks and McDonald’s that otherwise blight the city, you walk through the doors of The Troubadour and you’re immediately transported to another place and time. You can understand then, why Doug Weston was inspired to open the Troubadour in LA after a visit to the original in London. That sense of creative freedom, unbound by the trappings of commercially-focused music has been at the heart of both venues for over 60 years.
Although its LA brother has become the more globally-famous, we’d be fools for dismissing one of the most important music venues still around today.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Troubadour. The O.G.
Vibe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Coffee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
