Ronnie Scott’s closes for refurb with gigs relocated to Ninety One Living Room
Mike Flynn
Friday, July 19, 2024
The globally renowned jazz club will undergo a major refurbishment of its upstairs bar and a refresh of the main room this August
Ronnie Scott’s has announced that the famous club will be closed throughout August for a major refurbishment of the upstairs bar area and an updating of the main room downstairs. It’ll be the first time the club has undergone a renovation since its 2005 acquisition and reopening by Sally Greene and Michael Watt.
Bought from founder and operator Pete King, who’d been running the venue since his friend and the club’s co-founding partner Ronnie Scott’s death in 1996, the refit was then led by interior designer Jacques Garcia. The latter was famed for his design of Hotel Costes in Paris and the resulting refurbishment was sympathetic to the history of the room while bringing it up to modern standards of comfort and design. After nearly 20 years, the main room now needs some TLC, which the club’s manager Fred Nash confirmed will mean “refreshed wall decorations, carpets and ceilings, a new bar in its same location, all alongside upgraded lighting and furniture”.
The club pictured in its early days on Frith Street
With more demand for shows ‘Upstairs at Ronnie’s’ and a vibrant seven nights a week programme word has it that this area will be expanded quite significantly, although full details have yet to be announced.
During the refit the club’s Late Shows will transfer over to Brick Lane’s Ninety One Living Room with the following concerts from trumpeter Jackson Mathod (3 Aug), Phil Meadows’ Future Movers (10 Aug); ShadeINDIGO hosted by rising vocalist Cherise (13 Aug); drummer Myele Manzanza (17 Aug); live jazztronica from London-based, Netherlands-born drummer and producer Creature (24 August) and acclaimed soul jazz diva Vula & Friends (31 Aug).
The club reopens in September with some key bookings to look out for including the premiere of Guy Barker’s new film noir-inspired piece ‘Inferno 67’ performed by his 18-piece big band featuring Clarke Peters as narrator and vocalists Vanessa Haynes and Joe Stilgoe (17-19 Sept); a new show of original music from violin superstar Nigel Kennedy (25-28 Sept) and six nights from legendary Hammond organist Booker T. Jones who will perform such M.G.’s hits as ‘Green Onions’, ‘Melting Pot’, and songs Booker wrote such as ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’.
For full programme details and tickets visit www.ronniescotts.co.uk
