Capacity: 200 seated or 350 standing.
Who plays there: A real mixture of old lags who’ll never leave the circuit, up-and-coming hipsters, big bands doing secret shows and acts for whom its tawdry glamour seems the right home. Upcoming shows include Baxter Dury, Iceage and Gallon Drunk, and stars to have played there in recent years include Plan B, Alice Cooper, Paul McCartney and Queens of the Stone Age. You still get to see a fair amount of jazz and blues – the styles that made the venue famous – with Shemekia Copeland playing later this month.
Cloakroom: Yes.
Admission: £10-£20.
Bar: On either side of the room, though the bar on the left isn’t always open. There is a surprisingly decent range of draught beers and some tolerable bottled ones, though on recent visits the good draught beers have run out early. Pints are, sadly, a fiver.
Food: No.
Toilets: Pretty grim.
Wheelchair access: No, the venue is in a basement, reached via stairs.
Sound: Usually OK. It helps that it’s a small room, of course.
Where to stand: The 100 Club is a rectangle, with the stage on one of the long sides, so even at the back you’re not far away. However, it’s a low stage, so if you’re short and at the back you won’t see anything. Better to move towards the sides – there are usually tables to the right of the stage and sometimes to the left. Go there, and you can usually get a very decent side-on view, and there’s often plenty of space. There are also speakers at the sides. The low stage means a rowdy crowd – if you want to go to the front remember that you may be pushed forward in knee-bending pain. Unfortunately, an array of pillars obstruct many of the views from the front; be willing to move to find the best spot.
Overall: The 100 Club is grubby, smelly, too hot (despite air conditioning) and entirely lacking in mod cons. It’s also brilliant: a sweaty throwback to the clubs of the past, where you feel as if you are walking in music history (the photos of great 100 Club nights on the walls help). It’s hard not to think of legendary events, such as the 1976 punk festival, when you descend into that dark basement. The tables at the side of the stage are also a delightful oddity for rock shows – a reminder that not every small gig has to be above a pub. And there’s something about its intimacy that seems to bring out fantastic performances. I’ve lost count of the number of fabulous shows I’ve seen here.
Address: 100 Oxford Street, London W1D 1LL
Telephone: 020-7636 0933
Website: the100club.co.uk
Public transport: Right in the centre of London, the 100 Club is served by a vast range of public transport. Tottenham Court Road tube station is has the Northern and Central lines, while Oxford Circus, a few minutes further away in the other direction, has the Victoria, Bakerloo and Central lines. Buses travelling north-south stop around Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road, while those going east-west travel along Oxford Street. There are too many bus options to list.
