Django's UK Itinerary 1938 - Aged 28

The HCQ recording at the Decca studios, London January 1938. Django is raised up on high chair to project into the central main studio Microphone.  Naguine is shaded out for the painted CD Cover
Roger Chaput, Naguine, Django, Eugène Vées, Stéphane Grappelli, Louis Vola - bass

January 31, 1938 ~ Decca, London
Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France with Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli (v); Djanqo Reinhardt (g solo); Roger Chaput, Eugène Vées (g); Louis Vola (b)
Honeysuckle Rose, Sweet Georgia Brown, Night And Day, My Sweet, Souvenirs, Daphne, Black And White,  Stompin' At Decca

Stephane Grappelli, Eugene "Ninnie" Vees, Django Reinhardt, Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt, Roger Grasset

Chaput and Vola are also mentioned as present for these dates so the Melody Make picture may be wrong or from 1939?

The HCQ has its first performance in the UK at the Cambridge Theatre, Earlham Street, London WC2 9HQ on 30th January.(2.30pm)

This concert was organised by the "Melody Maker" and also had an unknown George Shearing in Clive Bampton's Blind Band. The HCQ was a major success which prompted Lew Grade to organise a UK tour later the same year. 

The concert was a sell-out. Django spent his days in bed in his hotel (Not equipped for English Weather), varying this a bit with visits to a local amusement arcade where he won packet after packet of cigarettes with his usual ease. 

The band returned to France, and in February 1939 toured Scandinavia which involved travelling through Germany.

Chappie D'Amato was a very average band guitarist. He played a variety of instruments competently but not exceptionally well.  He subsequently became better known as a compere and broadcaster. He was, of course, the compere of the 1938 "Melody Maker" Cambridge Theatre concert where the Hot Club Quintet topped the bill with the Mills Brothers on its first visit to the UK.

Britain's Leading Radio Station was the Light Programme - 1938
Stephane Grappelli, Eugene "Ninnie" Vees, Django Reinhardt, Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt, Roger 'Toto' Grasset Bass

Front cover of the Cambridge Theatre concert organised by the "Melody Maker" (1938).
The left picture is the Cambridge Theatre when it was first built in 1930.
It would have been exactly the same when Django played there.

Carlo Krahmer was born in Shoreditch, London in 1914 and from an early age was 'drum crazy' spending his pocket money on drums and records and he was gigging at thirteen years of age. By 1938 he was playing with Claude Bampton's Blind Orchestra which included George Shearing, sponsored by The National Institute for the Blind, at the Cambridge Theatre on the same bill as Quintette of the Hot Club of France. He was active in the recording studios from this time:  Carlo went on the Form the Band in the Nuthouse Club in Regent Street which Django also played.

Jazz Hot (Filmed in Great Britain / 1938)
The story has it that Django Reinhardt was never filmed with synchronized sound and picture (only a few silent images could be seen very quickly in the newsreels). This film, unknown to the historians, is a great event : we can see Django Reinhardt, the master of the guitar, playing in his intimacy or on stage, with Stéphane Grappelli and other musicians during the top level period of the Hot Club de France Quintet, around 1938.

• It is described in Volume 8 of Frémaux & Associés (Intégrale Django Reinhardt).
• Exact context of this movie is unknown. It could have been filmed as a promotional movie for an upcoming QHCF UK tour.
• The bass player is unknown.
• According to Charles Delaunay there was 2 other songs in this movie.

April 22, 1938 ~ Broadcast for the BBC, from Paris
Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France with Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli (v); Django Reinhardt (g solo); Joseph Reinhardt, Eugène Vées (g); Roger Grasset (b)
Daphne, Djangology

10th July: The Gig Club, Bourne Hall/Fishmongers Arms, Wood Green

where Django gigged and gave a 'Cup' to the winner of a Quintet competition. Now could this have been the Wood Green Jazz Club at the then 'Fishmongers’ Arms' - run by Viv and Art Sanders. 287 High Rd, Wood Green, London, N22 8HU now converted to a block of flats.

I worked at Wood Green Jazz Club from about 1962 to 1968-ish.
I helped Viv and Art run the club, cleaned up, picked up glasses, repaired their car and hopefully advised on bands and helped with bookings. I know I am a bit later than the period you are looking for but it was a fantastic club and allegedly the oldest 'hot rhythm' club in the UK, with posters advertising appearances by Django Reinhardt and many others.
 - John Cox

The building is still there and the tiled facade at the bottom and the general exterior seems to have been preserved, including the name Fishmongers Arms at the top of the building. Much of the ground floor is now occupied by Police Station offices, and as one of our correspondents says, the rest of the building has been turned into flats accessed by a small door to the far left. 

Tony Milliner remembers the two doors to the left of the building being those the bands used to take in their gear, and to go into Bourne Hall.  Bourne Hall was part of the Fishmongers Arms, but a separate room at the back of the building, says Tony. Our second picture shows that something was once attached to the side but has since been removed to build new houses. 

Trumpeter Bunny Austin  - The Bourne Hall was a wooden hall attached to the Fishmongers Arms. The Fishmongers pub was on the corner of Trinity Road and Wood Green High Road. This hall became the Wood Green Jazz Club run by Art and Vi Sanders circa 1947-8, but the Bourne Hall was used as a local dance hall during the 1920s. I know this is correct because in 1950 I played in a band with pianist Les Stanford, born in 1902, and Les told me he played in the Bourne Hall during the 1920s and 30s. The Bourne Hall became a favourite venue for the first Alex Welch band, but before he played there Art Sanders booked the Dutch Swing College band about 1949 and Joe Daniels jazz band around 1951 with Dave Shepherd, Alan Wickham, Nevil Skrimshire, etc.

With regards to the the Django  presentation  at the Gig Club, maybe this could have been put on by members of the musicians union North London branch? I was in the MU in 1959 and we used to have meetings over at Bush Hill Park, not far from Wood Green. Lots of the members then were of pre-WW2 vintage and I'm sure they would have been keen to meet Django. 

Clarinettist Alvin Roy recalls:- Bourne Hall was indeed where Wood Green Jazz Club was situated. Bourne Hall was attached to the Fishmongers Arms and as you entered the doorway, you turned left and walked a short distance down a corridor to enter the club. If you turned right you went into the pub, which had its main entrance facing the High Road (Green Lanes). Art Sanders was usually stationed in the corridor at the entrance of the club ready to have a friendly chat as he took your money. The Fishmongers is still there, but Bourne Hall is now flats and part of our youthful memories has gone ... sad but inevitable.  

Mike Durell agrees:  Regarding Bourne Hall and Wood Green, it was part of the Fishmongers Arms pub (at the rear of the pub). I played there many times.  Richard White also writes from south-east Asia: - I am writing in response to your query about the "Bourne Hall" in the Wood Green area.  I do not have access to any written records, but I was a denizen of Wood Green Jazz Club and the Fishmongers Arms from approximately 1960 to 1970.   For a few years I had a flat within walking distance and I am sure that I can recall the name of the hall behind the "Fish" being Bourne Hall. I was sorry to read that it is now a block of flats. I have so many more than fond memories of  Art and Viv and all the great bands and musicians I saw at Wood Green Jazz Club. Tony Milliner also remembers a notice put up for a gig with the Alex Welch band featuring George Melly. It advertised: 'Belch and Belly'!  

(Django Circa 1938)

Django @ Bourne Hall Information provided in collaboration with contributors to Sandy Brown Jazz

11th July: Empire Theatre, Wood Green for a week.

The Wood Green Empire had been opened by impresario Oswald Stoll on 9 September 1912, with a capacity of 1840 and a stage 54’ wide by 37’ deep.

It was on this very stage, in March 1918, that the ‘Chinese’ magician Chung Ling Soo (real name William Robinson) received a fatal injury while performing his (in)famous trick of catching a bullet between his teeth.

Now that would have spooked our Django

18th July: Trocadero, Elephant & Castle
 for a week.  Interior below.  Buddy Holly also performed there with the Crickets 10 years on 1/03/58


The auditorium was designed in a magnificent ornate French Renaissance style, with colours of soft chocolate and old rose, with features being emphasised in gilt. The side walls had a series of draped alcoves which were curved inwards to meet the ceiling and interspersed with Roman eagles displaying outstretched wings.

The ceiling had a large circular dome, illuminated in dark turquoise and surrounded by a ring of large octagonal medallions. Seating was provided on stalls and circle levels.

There was a large fully equipped stage, with dressing rooms and the cinema was equipped with a Wurlitzer 4Manual/21Rank organ which was opened by Quentin Maclean.

The opening night was almost a disaster, as the crowd assembled outside the building, London was experiencing a dense black London 'pea-super' fog. As the 3,500 capacity audience entered via the the theatres two entrances, in rolled the fog, filling the auditorium, which made seeing the screen virtually impossible except for those sitting in the front rows of the stalls.

Even the operator in the projection box had difficulties and was supplied with field glasses. Towards the end of the evening the fog cleared.

25th July: Empire Theatre, Shepherd's Bush for a week.

I promised you a Django anecdote -
way back in 1938, my Dad, Frank Selwyn, lived in Ilford and Django was due to appear at the Shepherds Bush Empire.  My Dad was 13 at the time.  He and his cousins only had enough money either for the fare across London or to get in and see Django.  So they walked 12 miles from Ilford - paid to see Django - and then walked back again.  It was a story told and retold in my family and Django had a major influence in my formative years.  Best wishes, Esmond Selwyn - Guitarist

8th August Metropolitan Theatre, London for a week. Probably Edgware Road - since demolished for the A40 flyover which was opened bizarrely by the busty Jayne Mansfield.

15th August: Empire Theatre, Glasgow for a week

Duke Ellington Orchestra were in Glasgow (June 1933). At the first matinee they started up with 'Three Little Words', and Ivy Anderson sang 'Stormy Weather'. Glasgow was recognised as a centre for hot jazz, and a good starting place for major tours,

The Glasgow Empire Theatre was built on the site of the earlier 1874 Gaiety Theatre which was demolished to make way for the Empire in 1897.  The Empire Palace Theatre, as it was first known, was built at the corner of West Nile Street and Sauchiehall Street. The Theatre opened in 1897 and had a seating capacity of 1,676 with 182 standing. The Empire closed in 1930 for major alterations when it was enlarged and refurbished and the auditorium was radically altered. The Theatre was also extended to the corner of Renfield Street and its reopening was in 1931.  The Theatre closed at the end of March 1963 and was subsequently demolished.

22nd August: New Empress Theatre, Brixton for a week.
Opened on Boxing Day, 1898, this impressive theatre/music hall stood on the corner of Brighton Terrace and Bernay's Grove, offering popular Variety shows (and pantomimes at Christmas). A sizeable venue, the Empress Theatre offered seating capacity of 1,260 with a stage width of 60' and a depth of 40'. In 1909 Bioscope described the Empress as 'one of the finest of London's suburban music halls'. Over the years, the building would be variously described as the Empress Theatre, Empress Theatre of Varieties, Empress Music Hall and Granada Cinema. The theatre was demolished and replaced with a housing development in 1992

Bert Niblett attended this concert series and waited stage door for Django and Stephane's Autographs

30th August: Decca Studios, 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, London.

This building is now a rehearsal space for English National Opera.
From 1920 until 1980, however, it was owned by Decca Records and used as a recording studio by orchestras, West End shows and the big bands that provided the pop music of the day. Nothing remains of the recording equipment, but the internal layout of the building is still intact.  Two large halls dominate the interior, and down the back stairs, at the end of a low corridor, stands the heavy, soundproofed door that still bears its nameplate from the Decca days: Studio Two.

5th September: Palladium Theatre, London topping the bill with Tom Mix and his horse.

The theatre started out as The Palladium, a premier venue for variety performances. It is especially linked to the Royal Variety Performances, where many were, and still are, held. From 1928 it was managed by George Black and was even a cinema for three months.

During the 1930s became the regular home for The Crazy Gang. The ‘London’ part of the name was added in 1934. Black controlled the large Moss Empires group of theatres. Responsible for bookings at the London Palladium was Val Parnell.

Reinhardt was difficult in other ways. In London, he failed to show up for a performance at the Palladium. He also got upset when accompanists played a wrong note. "Especially annoying to him was a wrong note in the bass," Grappelli told an interviewer. "To him, a wrong bass note was an insult and he was often so rude to the bass player that they would leave, and so I was obliged many times to look for new bass players," Grappelli said. 

12th September: Chiswick Empire Theatre, London for a week.
 

It is then unclear exactly where the Quintet performed until its return to France at the end of October.
They certainly returned to the Ardwick Hippodrome for a few days. Circa 4th July 1948.

Django in Manchester

The Collins and Grade Agency provided Lew Grade  with access to all the managements who up till then wouldn't have even given him the time of day. His reputation as a spotter and provider of quality acts grew and grew, and he was fast making a name for himself.

On a business trip to Paris, Lew saw what he described as a "fantastic group" called 'The Quintet de Hot Club de France', whose stars were Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. He returned to England and immediately booked the duo as major 'headliners'. Reinhardt and Grappelli proved so successful that Joe and Lew decided it was time to stage their own programmes. Then in September 1939, Europe went to war and the future of the theatre circuit was thrown into doubt. Collins and Grade, who had built up a reputation providing quality acts from the Continent, perhaps had more to fear than most, but they adapted to the situation and managed to keep their heads above water. As the War dragged on Lew was employed by the War Office to provide entertainment for the Troops. It's an ill wind............