Club where it all started

11 January 2007

ARTY: Christina Ostrom, left and Mary Finnigan at the unveiling of the Bowie plaque in 2001

MEMBERS of the club that launched David Bowie's music career have paid tribute to him in the week of his 60th birthday, writes Kate Mead.

The star formed the Arts Lab at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street, now Zizi's restaurant. It was held every Sunday and included performances by Steve Harley (who went on to top the charts with Cockney Rebel) and Tony Visconti (later a record producer and Bowie band member).

Ken Simmons, formerly 'Ken Smith', from Lewisham performed at the club alongside Bowie. He said: "My first image [of Bowie] was of someone sitting in the corner of the pub with golden curly hair. He was performing and playing the guitar.

"My immediate feeling then is that he had such intense charisma, there was something very special about him.

"To my mind, he was very down to earth and approachable, not pretentious at all and he had a great sense of humour."

Mr Simmons, who ran a folk club in Downham, visited Bowie at his Beckenham home in the now demolished Haddon Hall in Southend Road. Now looking forward to his own 60th birthday in May, Mr Simmonds added: "I visited him when he stopped turning up at the Three Tuns. He told me that he didn't feel like he wanted to play anymore. I did my best to surreptitiously encourage him to play and we jammed a few times together. Then he came back to the club with his band, which included Tony Visconti and Mick Ronson.

"In 1973, when we had lost touch, I heard that he made an announcement that he had had enough and was going to retire from the music business. I thought then, 'he's said that before, he'll come back with something else'.

"He is a bit like Dr Who - every few years he reincarnates, but he is still the same person. I am very pleased for him. He deserves all the success and accolades he has had over the years."

David Bebbington, who met Bowie at the Arts Lab and took some photos of him at the Croydon Road free festival in August 1969, said: "The folk club was a showcase for Bowie, but there were lots of other musicians there who did very well.

"At that time Bowie was reasonably well known but it was before he became huge during his Ziggy Stardust era. He was quite a hippy at the time.

"He asked me to take photos of him at the free festival which was a difficult day for him because his father had died just a few days before. He was very charming and compared to most rock musicians a lot more intelligent than the average. He was very determined that he wanted to be a success but I couldn't have predicted the success he has had."

Stephen Roberts, who also played at the club said: "[Bowie] always had star quality about him. He wasn't necessarily the best guitarist or singer in the world, but he definitely had something about him that made him different. He had the ability to really captivate the audience."

In 2001, the Beckenham Town Centre Residents' Association and the Beckeham Heritage Group raised money for a plaque commemorating the venue that helped make rock history.

As reported in the Bromley Times, fans and former Arts Lab members flocked to the Rat and Parrot pub, formerly The Three Tuns, on December 6, 2001.

Founding members Mary Finnigan and Christina Ostrom unveiled the plaque. Speaking at the ceremony, Ms Finnegan, who had rented a room to Bowie, said: "I was in the garden in the 1960s and I heard this extremely good music coming through the window. I shouted up and this pale, slightly snotty-nosed face appeared. It was David and he had a cold. I said come downstairs and play for me in my garden and he did.

"Later, we asked him whether he wanted to move in with us as our lodger and he did. The rest is history. Those were times of creativity and high idealism. A lot of people from the Arts Lab became very successful, it was not just a hippy fantasy."

The plaque has now been removed from the building since the pub closed two years ago. It is now being displayed at the Bromley Museum, courtesy of the Heritage group.

* To see a video of the events of December 6, 2001, go to www.editpoint.co.uk/bowie or alternatively email video@editpoint.co.uk.



kate.mead@archant.co.uk