“Ruuuush!” screams our guide, Chicago Mike. Rush, you see, is the surname of one of the passengers booked today on the Original London Rock Tour, and as any rock music aficionado will know, Rush are a three-piece Canadian hard-rock outfit from Toronto. As there are only two Rush’s in the meeting place for the Rock Tour on Cockspur Street, Chicago Mike is wondering in jest whether Neil Peart, Rush’s drummer, will be attending. (A lovely French mother and daughter duo look on in somewhat hushed confusion.)
Assembling the other passengers on the tour bus, calling off their surnames and linking them with famous bands, or other celebrities, we board the brightly-painted, classic band logoed, black-tinted window, chrome-wheeled Rock Bus, and we are off! However, not without a prior warning from Chicago Mike: “You need to put your seatbelts on…because it’s gonna get loud in here!”
We blast into Pall Mall to the excruciatingly loud Are You Ready to Rock by the Michael Shenker Group (former guitarist for UFO and The Scorpions). Looking around at my fellow passengers, no one knows what to expect, but the anticipation is in full effect as we whizz past the corridors of some of London’s smartest, oldest and stuffiest gentlemen’s clubs.
Regaling us with stories of Prince Charles’ air-guitaring antics and receiving a mock not-so-friendly groan from the doorman of The Ritz Hotel, we finally reach our first stop, the home of Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. This is where he lived, created one of the greatest phenomena of the twentieth century (Beatlemania), and sadly died at the age of only 32. If it wasn’t for Brian Epstein, Chicago Mike expounds, “no one on this bus would have ever heard of The Beatles”. Not even the woman sitting behind me who was amongst the tens of thousands of screaming hordes greeting the Beatles at Heathrow Airport back in 1964.
It is now that I must take a moment to tell you what makes this tour so special and worth a Sunday afternoon. It is the detailed background and animated style to which the information is disseminated. Yes, you are getting great knowledge and information about the history of rock through the streets of London, but it is the personal twist of Michael that sets the ‘must experience’ tone. Whether you have lived here for life, arrived 10 years ago or just set foot on London ground, this is a must.
After forever changing my perception about The Beatles, Chicago Mike goes into detail about the manager, Mr. Epstein, and what he did that created Beatlemania. He then asks if anyone would like to see a pub where The Beatles used to drink. To which the rock bus pulls an unorthodox maneuver to get us down a tiny, narrow mews, to a nondescript pub which is so out of the way it does not open on weekends, but it is where George, Ringo, Paul and John could happily drink pints and be left alone. How the bus got down there I will never know. Another plus point for the rock bus; big enough to accommodate 16 people, yet small enough to weave and maneuver through the back allies of London’s rich rock history. Not to mention the constant communication our driving tour guide has with his fellow London road users, as Chicago Mike shouts, “Rock tour! Outta the way!”
Most people come for the Abbey Road effect but I think it is safe to say they leave with a plethora of insider news from the past decades of how rock became what it is today. The Kings Road will never be just a place I meet friends, have a shop or see the new exhibit at Saatchi. It is now the most famous street in the world for rock music, everything happened here. From where the mini skirt was invented, where Sunshine of Your Love by Cream was written, where Hendrix had his last meal, where the most iconic rock album cover of all time was created, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the list goes on and on.
My favorite story was when he pointed out the only boutique still left on the Kings Road from the 60s. The owner of the boutique, Malcolm McLaren, clothing designer and husband to Vivienne Westwood, could not stand hippies and thought the whole idea that music had changed the world was rubbish, and he set out to prove it. “I will make a band out of four guys that don’t even know how to play music, take them to number one and then break them up.” And he did. They were called The Sex Pistols.
Searching for real hippies in Notting Hill, counting the milk bottles outside Eric Clapton’s house, hearing about Hawkwind’s notorious gigs at the Tabernacle where they would dose everyone with LSD, lock the doors so no one could leave and play for five hours, painting a naked woman on stage, and of course the simple yet profound story behind the Abbey Road album cover and other tidbits, pervade the tour. This is not your run of the mill tour experience; it expands itself to being something the cool cats of London need to know and need to do. Next birthday, break out your Jimi Hendrix fancy dress and call on your friends to join you for a rock themed celebration. It is amazing the amount of rock history and popular culture that was formed in a small four mile radius of Central London. So much so, that you walk away from the bus at 4 o’clock, high on London and its importance in the annals of rock history. After all, it’s only rock and roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do!
For more information and to book a tour with Mike, visit his Facebook page, or the London Rock Tour website.
