In December 1966 a brand new £50,000 club in South Shields was opened by Cream featuring Eric Clapton on guitar. Back in 2007 I interviewed businessman and owner Stan Henry.

“I used to run a school of dancing with my mother in Beach Road and we wanted to expand our facilities because it was limited in size. So, we went to the local authorities and they gave us a site in Thomas Street which we built the Cellar Club on. We had the Cream on and Jimi Hendrix was there”.

In the coming months Geno Washington, The Family and the John Mayall Blues Breakers were booked to appear, however on Wednesday 1^st February 1967 the Jimi Hendrix Experience played The Cellar Club.

On the same night, entertainment in the town included local stage acts at various clubs including the Latino, La Strada, Ranch House and at the ABC cinema the main feature film was ‘One Million Years B.C.’ starring Raquel Welch – wey she was in technicolour!

But the big draw at the 200 capacity Cellar Club was Hendrix. Being just a bairn I wasn’t there but I did find two punters who were regulars at the club. Local musician and regular Rod Hall remembers…

“The Cellar Club was my second home you know. I remember walking down the street near the club and this van pulled up and a bloke popped his head out and asked in a deep voice “Where’s the Cellar Club?” I looked at him and it was Eric Clapton on Fowler Street in a van!”

Another regular was music fan David Robertson “My road to Damascus moment was seeing Jimi Hendrix at the Cellar Club. At first, we thought he better be good cos we’ve paid about ten bob to get in. After watching Eric Clapton everyone wanted to be a guitarist. After Hendrix everybody wanted to be in a band”.

On the off chance the local newspaper had written a review of the gig I recently popped into the local history section of The Word (library) and searched the archives. Luckily, I found this in the Shields Gazette by reporter David Jenkins, it was printed Thursday 9^th February 1967. This picture needs to be credited but I think the photograph was taken in the Cellar Club by South Shields photographer Freddie Mudditt.

(Review start) Jimi will soon be ‘leading the fleet’ (headline)

Jimi Hendrix IS an experience. Like a drop of gin in a bucket of retired tonic, heady serum for post teen starvation (which, finger shakily on my own pulse, I diagnose these days).

The actual teen scene of the Cellar Club though like Madame Tussaud’s. The 23 year old next to me gasped “Go” and people turned to stare.

Playing his guitar with his teeth, his Indian head-dress tubes of hair flailing, he fixes a glorious enraptured grin on his face. Little spouts of sweat gloop from temples.

More important, the fiery body of sound, the completely original effect he squeezes out of his guitar. “Follow that” said Les Gofton, lead singer of The Bond, who were to take over later – make Hendrix the most exciting animal in the cage at the moment.

But the Cellar is inhabited by so many? (unreadable). A Wild Thing like you never heard it raises a small cheer, small beer. What on earth do you want?

Well, wait a couple of years, when you have heard another 10,000 discs, as I have, and you too will fall about a Hendrix. (He came up specially to South Shields for this one night appearance). Some day soon he will be the admiral-in-chief. Pipe him aboard somebody, for heavens sake. (Review end)

Little did they know the impact that Jimi Hendrix and his music would have. He has been described as one of the most influential guitarists of the 1960s, but sadly he died in London on 18 September 1970 aged just 27.

After being in business as a nightclub during the 80s and 90s the Cellar was revived as a live music venue until the club was sold and renovated into a dental practice in the 2000s.

If you have a story about the Cellar Club to add to the site just get in touch.

Alikivi   March 2025