Van Morrison at Les Cousins Folk & Blues Club 1966..

I haven’t written anything for a while because the weather has been quite pleasant recently and I have been busy gardening and doing some much needed house repairs. It is a lot cooler and showery today so I should make an effort to write something. I thought I would tell you about the music I am listening to right now. It is a 3CD box set called Les Cousins. The Soundtrack Of Soho’s Legendary Folk & Blues Club. I ordered this labour of love compiled by Ian A Anderson about three months ago. I’ll just tell you briefly about this club. Les Cousins was opened on Friday 16 April 1965 in a basement venue in Greek Street, Soho which had earlier served as a 1950s skiffle club. 

Upstairs was the Dionysus restaurant owned by a family called Matheou, and  Andy Matheou ran the basement club. The club was reputed to have taken its name from Claude Chabrol's 1959 film Les Cousins, However, the name was usually pronounced with English pronunciation, rather than French. The club was noted for its all-night sessions and was favoured by the innovative musicians who were less welcome in more purist traditional folk clubs. The reason I bought this compilation of songs is because it is packed with music by many of my favourite singers and musicians who I have written articles about previously on this blog site. People like Jackson C. Frank,  Dr Strangely Strange, Dave Van Ronk, Roy Harper, Julie Felix, Bridget St John, Tim Hardin, Cat Stevens, Strawbs, Bert Jansch, Keith Christmas, Sweeney’s Men, Sandy Denny, Tir Na Nog, The Watersons, Donovan, Shelagh McDonald, John Martyn, Anne Briggs, Nick Drake and many more, there are also artists who I wasn’t aware of previously who I want to learn more about. There are 72 tracks in all, a feast of music for fans of folk and blues music.

Bert Jansch

The boxset also contains a booklet with copious informative notes by Ian who has painstakingly written about every single artist and song that feature in the collection. The booklet is also lavishly illustrated. It contains photos of Andy Matheou’s diary where he kept a record of the acts he had booked. I was astonished to find out that on Tuesday April 26 1966 Van Morrison appeared at Les Cousins and was paid the princely sum of £3.00. Two weeks earlier the legendary Sandy Denny also appeared for £3.00. I think Van must have been moonlighting from his group Them. I wonder if this is the first known gig of Van appearing as a solo artist? I think £3 in 1966 is about £54 in today’s money. 

The Watersons

It’s still not a lot of money, but it is if you are broke. The previous year Van and Them had records in the charts, but the fact that he played Les Cousins for such a small fee suggests to me that they hadn’t made any money from their efforts. Two days after this gig Van and Them would play by the river Thames in London for a satellite broadcast to the USA and the following month headed for America where after a long residency at the Whisky A Go Go and other concerts the group would break up. I would have loved to have been in the audience that night at Les Cousins. I doubt if we will ever know what songs Van sang. Possibly he might have tried out early versions of Madame George or Ballerina. I know this is a long shot but if you were there let me know. Cheers.

Davy Graham, Martin Carthy.