London Weeks - Bob Dylan's FIRST EVER London Gig!
The King And Queen Pub!
London Weeks
In our London Weeks-series we want to dive deep into Bob Dylan’s first trip outside of North America. This often overlooked trip was more important for his career than most fans might imagine.
We will deliver bite-sized pieces of a puzzle, bring together the whole story of Bob’s first trip abroad.
So far from the London Weeks series:
Madhouse On Castle Street Pt. 2
From the King And Queen to the Royal Albert Hall!
The King & Queen Pub is the location of Bob Dylan’s first ever live performance in the UK and outside North America!
In December 1962, Bob flew to England to perform in the BBC television play Madhouse on Castle Street. While in town, he visited the local folk clubs. He went into The King and Queen Pub on 1 Foley St on December 21, where British folk singer Martin Carthy organized a regular folk music series in the room upstairs.
Picture above by Brian Shuel shows Bob Dylan performing on December 21st 1962 in the King and Queen pub in London. His first ever performance outside of North America!
Picture below by Nancy Cobb shows the same room in 2022 (upstairs room at the King and Queen)!
In 1991, Carthy remembered seeing Bob there:
“I saw his picture on the front of Sing Out!, whenever the hell that was (it was the November 1962 edition)… and just a few weeks later I saw him sitting in the audience in the King & Queen. There were very few clubs in London at that time and visiting Americans used to just make a bee line for the few ones there were and, you know, anything that was loosely folky. I went up to him in the interval and I said, "Excuse me, your name is Bob Dylan, isn't it?'' He looked up and he said, "Yes'' and I said, "Do you fancy singing?" and he said "No'' and I said ''Oh, all right'' and he said, "Well, maybe I will later on; ask me later."
Needless to say, Bob eventually played. Carthy introduced him as the guy on the current cover of Sing Out!
When Bob finally got up in front of the small crowd, Carthy recalled:
“The audience knew they were watching something that was really good. Anybody who says anything different, that the audience didn't like him, is talking through their hat. The audience loved him. He did three songs and they demanded an encore. He was great, very funny and very dry. He spoke a little to the audience, not a lot, just a little, but then he never did talk to the audience that much.”
Carthy recalled one of the three songs Dylan performed at the King & Queen as “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” and another as a “funny ragtime song”.
This first King & Queen show was reportedly where Dylan heard Carthy perform “Lord Franklin” which inspired the music for “Bob Dylan’s Dream.” On this same trip, Dylan also learned “Scarborough Fair” from Carthy and turned it into “Girl from the North Country.”
Jim McLean, another folk singer who was at this King & Queen folk night, remembers the whole scene differently. He believes that Dylan sang Guthrie tunes and that he was just a “a very kind of wishy-washy imitation” of Woody.
Nevertheless, the importance of this performance in Bob Dylan’s career cannot be denied.
In further posts, we will examine the story behind Bob Dylan and The Troubadour and The Singers Club.
(Below: Today’s entrance of The King And Queen pub. Captured by Nancy Cobb in 2022)
Fantastic Daniel ans very interresting.
I heard about the water rats theatre bar for the first ever concert of Bob in UK. Thé location called "Monto rats theatre"