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Where was the Ramjam Club (390 Brixton Rd)?

editor

editor

hiraethified
I'm doing a feature for the site about the famous Ram Jam Club, formerly of 390 Brixton Road, SW9.

The club hosted soul, reggae, Stax gigs and big rock names like Cream and Jimi Hendrix in the late 60s and I want to take a picture of its old frontage.

I took a look around Brixton but couldn't find number 390 - the street numbering suggests that it might be the building now occupied by Backstage Bar (by the Academy) but I'm not convinced.

Any ideas?
 
Has the former club been absorbed by the UCKG (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God)? Although from the road they only appear to have a bookshop at no. 386, IIRC they hold large scale meetings (and religious services :confused: )somewhere on the premises.
 
Right. I've worked out that the Backstage Bar is 410 Brixton Road, so I guess I'll have to take another stroll to see if I can find the real 390!
 
Happened to glance through the door the other day, and behind the bookshop is a big hall for the purpose of preaching in... so there's a fair chance...
 
New readers start here...

miss minnie said:
... above where the gas showroom used to be...
Click to expand...

<ungallant reminder of how long some of us have been around> Which closed how many years ago :confused: ... <return to usual chivalry>
 
indeed! the gas showroom was always my navigational guide to finding the fridge. i always equate the two. :)

"not old, just rich in experiences*
 
miss minnie said:
... the original fridge (which was fab) was above where the gas showroom used to be...
Click to expand...
I'm lost now. Is that where Barndos is now, on the corner opposite the Backstage Bar?
 
no, the other side of backstage and before morley's fried chicken. forgotten exactly which shop replaced the gas showroom - one of those non-descript places - maybe the other fast food or the offy.

edit: i can't remember if the entrance to the fridge was the door on brixton road or if you went round the back via the academy laneway...
 
I'll have another look around tomorrow if I get chance.
But it looks like it's the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God premises, yes?

Here's my mini report (to be updated)
www.urban75.org/brixton/history/posters8.html

I can feel me ending up doing a whole "history of Brixton music" section at this rate - look at this tempting titbit!
60´s: RECORD SHOP
Joe Mansano: "I arrived in London in 1963... If not the only one we were certainly one of the few record shops which imported records from Jamaica. We received shipments from people like Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and many more. When the word got around that the latest records from Jamaica could be bought at West Green Road DJ's came from far and wide. The small shop was literally packed every week to hear the latest releases.

And so it was that around late 1967 the managing director of Island, David Betheridge, visited me at shop to discuss their plans.

At a luncheon meeting in the West End of London they revealed part of their plans where I would be offered my own record shop called Joe's records and that the operation would fall under the new company called "Trojan Records", under the leadership of Mr. Lee Gopthal.

The main outlets for Trojan Records were Webster Shroeder's shop in Ladbroke Grove Market, Joe Sinclair in Ridley Road Market in North London, Desmond's Hip City in Brixton and Joe's Records inside Brixton Market ...It was therefore not unusual to see record artistes in the shop listening to the latest tunes on big, big boom boxes with 18 in speakers booming.

Some of the artistes that frequented the shop were Bob Marley, Bunny Lee, Lee "Scratch" Perry. During some of these visits by musicians they suggested to me that I try my hand at producing. I thought about it and decided to give it a shot. And so as the say "the rest is history
http://www.bobmarleymagazine.com/didyouknow/did1.htm
Click to expand...

And this one!

The venue was formally opened by Mr. Nigel Colman, MP for Brixton on 19th August 1929, with Al Jolson on the "Vitaphone" talking picture 'The Singing Fool', plus a Variety show featuring Winnie Melville, Heddle Nash, Derek Oldham, Fred Kitchen and the Astoria Orchestra, and George Pattman at the Compton organ.

The last 40 minutes of the opening stage show were broadcast on the BBC. Queues for the opening show started at 8.45am and by noon, two queues completely encircled the building! Celebrities in attendance that night included Pola Negri, Betty Balfour and Alfred Hitchcock.
http://www.vfestival.com/brixton/venue_info/history.cfm
Click to expand...
 
hatboy said:
I beleive the RamJam premises became the first Fridge club, if that's not already clear.
Click to expand...
From the page I linked to in the Brixton section:

The Ram Jam Club....

In the late 70s, the venue was known as Clouds before being taken over by Andy Czezowski who sunk £20,000 into the run-down premises, renamed it 'The Fridge' and kitted the place out with Swedish fridges!

Opening in 1981, the venue sported a video lounge, a rubber bar and what was reputed to be the first ever chill-out room in a club.

Bands such as Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, Sade and King all did their first shows there, before The Fridge relocated to the Brixton Ace in 1984.
Click to expand...
 
"was reputed to be the first ever chill-out room in a club."

the chillout room was on the top floor and was called 'the icebox'.
 
miss minnie said:
no, the other side of backstage and before morley's fried chicken. forgotten exactly which shop replaced the gas showroom - one of those non-descript places - maybe the other fast food or the offy.

edit: i can't remember if the entrance to the fridge was the door on brixton road or if you went round the back via the academy laneway...
Click to expand...

Remember going in from Brixton Rd - they had a narrow beam halogen type projector which beamed 'the fridge' onto the pavement - seemed v. cool at the time.

Also wasn't the shop beneath a faded smart shoe shop
 
editor said:
I'm doing a feature for the site about the famous Ram Jam Club, formerly of 390 Brixton Road, SW9.

The club hosted soul, reggae, Stax gigs and big rock names like Cream and Jimi Hendrix in the late 60s and I want to take a picture of its old frontage.

I took a look around Brixton but couldn't find number 390 - the street numbering suggests that it might be the building now occupied by Backstage Bar (by the Academy) but I'm not convinced.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

as a sad lucky old git who visited the Ramjam (to see Prince Buster), I wrote a post on it on the "past businesses of Brixton" back in late July also with the URL for the damn fine flier

390 is a lambeth (housing?) place now, north of the backstage bar .
as far as i remember the Ramjam was in the basement, whereas the old fridge which i asbo frequented was on the first floor ...... but drugs and years do funny things to the memory, now where was I
ah yes pole dancing round the stannah staircase
:oops:
 
good lord - were we all on... drugs or something. :D

nah, deffo upstairs. i can remember looking down on the street from up there.



i think.
 
Did the Fridge operate out of two different Brixton Road venues before taking over the Palladium building in Town Hall Parade :confused:
 
And here, ladies and gentlemen, you can see how hard it is to research even recent history! So far the Ram Jam has been in a basement under the gas showroom and it's also been above the gas showroom too!
 
The premises that time forgot?

Quick search on the Valuation Office database shows no record of 386-390 Brixton Road in the 2000 or draft 2005 business rates valuation database.

386-388 were deleted from the rating list in 1999 - about the time that the current church moved in. (Churches are exempt from business rates)

390 doesn't appear in the 1995 valuation either - maybe the valuers never found it either! ;) .
 
So - is the church premises the most likely location for the vanished No 390?!

(I've noticed other street numbers have vanished - I was trying to find an old shop frontage where Plan B is on Brixton Road and the numbering seems to have gone all squiffy there too)
 
editor said:
And here, ladies and gentlemen, you can see how hard it is to research even recent history! So far the Ram Jam has been in a basement under the gas showroom and it's also been above the gas showroom too!
Click to expand...

I'm positive 390 exists still.
During the late 70s/80s i think Mrs M was right and the ground floor was a Gas showroom. It is now part of Lambeth Council premises, a Housing Office i think.
It is halfway down the block between the Backstage Bar and Stockwell Park Walk on the west side of the street
The Ramjam (one word) was in the basement from the early 60s till beginning of the 70s.
The Fridge began life on the first/second floor in the early 80s
flier here
www.georgwa.demon.co.uk/ramjamfl.htm
 
johnniebutterfl said:
....The Fridge began life on the first/second floor in the early 80s
flier here
Click to expand...
Cheers for that.

I've already 'borrowed' that flyer for my feature (well, I figure you can't really copyright a flyer from a defunct club!)
 
ps it would be great if it could be given its proper title The Ramjam Club, rather than the mispelt Ram Jam Club, pedant that I am.

btw Otis Redding played his 1st UK gig there & i know someone who was a friend of 'Judge Dread', the doorman and who played several gigs there
 
I'm trying to be as accurate as possible but it's a bit tricky - so I've changed the name to RamJam as a compromise.

The club is clearly spelt 'Ram Jam' in the "London's Rock Routes' book (John Platt) and there's capitalisation and what looks like a space in their name on this Nov 67 advert.

ram01.gif


And this article also has a space in its name:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/ayers/254/judge2.htm
 
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