Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: GUEST,Bredda
Date: 29 Nov 24 - 08:04 PM

Is there anyone out there still reading thread?
Replying to big Al Whittle I am still in London. 78 and amazed I’m still tootling on with love and humour. And every day feeling lucky for all the good times in the past. We were so lucky. Wonderful music. Hope and love.

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Nov 24 - 11:36 PM

it was a great place and there was some good music

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 30 Nov 24 - 06:30 AM

Al Stewart once shared a flat with Paul Simon. Their flat-sharing days ended soon after Simon received in the post a copy of a single he had recorded with Art Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence.
Al is currently on tour in the US with Livingston Taylor. He will celebrate his 80th birthday on Sept 5 2025 with a farewell tour of the United Kingdom.

Al Stewart: The Farewell Tour; Al Stewart with his band The Empty Pockets for one last tour of the UK. Tickets now on sale.

Wed, Oct 1, 2025 Pavilion, Westover Road, Bournemouth, England
Fri, Oct 3, 2025 Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley St, Manchester
Sun, Oct 5, 2025 The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead
Tue, Oct 7, 2025 Barbican, York, England
Wed, Oct 8, 2025 Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England
Fri, Oct 10, 2025 Corn Exchange, Cambridge, England
Sat, Oct 11, 2025 G Live, Guildford, England
Sun, Oct 12, 2025 The Alexandra, Birmingham, England
Tue, Oct 14, 2025 Beacon, Bristol, England
Wed, Oct 15, 2025 The Palladium, London, England
Fri, Oct 17, 2025 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Nov 24 - 10:13 AM

Paul apparently complained that it had been released when he wasn't in the USA. Somebody, can't remember who, did a parody called The Sound of Finance.

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner
Date: 30 Nov 24 - 10:25 AM

The flat was probably Judith Piepe’s, Henryp? Haven for many waifs and strays including myself and my late wife just before we found a flat. Al was a great guitar player and songwriter who made some interesting albums down the years when he took his music out from the confines of ‘folk.’ Good to see he’s still rolling. On a nostalgic synchronous note I bought a copy of the Incredible String Band’s second album a while back and it brought back memories of hearing them down at Cousins just before they broke bigger. Incredible indeed. For me they summed up the potential of such a creative place to expand in many directions. I first went there in Autumn 1975 and we used to frequent sporadically for several years. Saw and heard a load of great musicians, a few spoofers and idiots but they were part of the acoustic fabric. All the usual names and other creatives like Mox and Steve Bromfield ‘s duo, slightly more obscure maybe but just as vital. I’ve lived a long life to arrive in the realms of the coffin-dodgers and seen and heard a lot of great music in that time, but those experiences back in the dim and distant still hold strong.

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 30 Nov 24 - 05:49 PM

[Kenneth Leech] recommended that she get in touch with Judith Piepe, who lived in Dellow House just off Cable Street. Judith was a well-known figure, not just for her social work but also because she befriended leading folk singers. [Piepe] provided some of them with temporary accommodation in her spacious flat at 6 Dellow House. Here they might find themselves in the company of the famous folk singers for whom Piepe also provided beds when they were visiting London. It seems likely that it was staying in this mixed household that inspired the nineteen-year-old Al Stewart to write his song ‘Pretty Golden Hair'.

https://www.independent.com/2018/05/08/interview-al-stewart/
I was 19, and a social worker found me a flat in London. It just happened by coincidence that I found myself living in the next room to Paul Simon. I was there when he wrote some of those early songs … and he did indeed come out and play them to me … because if you’re a songwriter, as soon as you’ve written a new song you want someone to hear it. So I got to hear a lot of those songs from that period of time.

Having bought his fourth guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Stewart traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic guitar when he was offered a weekly slot at Bunjies Coffee House in London's Soho in 1965. From there, he went on to compere at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street, where he played alongside Cat Stevens, Bert Jansch, Van Morrison, Roy Harper, Ralph McTell, and Paul Simon, with whom he shared a flat in Dellow Street, Stepney, London.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wxjk0 BBC Radio 6 The First Time With...Release date:01 June 2016 Duration: 3 minutes
‘I stayed with a family out in Brentwood, Essex’ - Paul Simon’s England. The songwriter reflects on his memories of the folk scene in London.

"In 64/65, Paul Simon was living at Judith Piepe's council flat in Dellow Road, off Cable Street. He wrote 'The Big Bright Green Plesure Machine' in nearby all-night laundrette. Other house guests included Al Steward, Sandy Denny, occasionally Art Garfunkel..." from Pete Frame's book Rockin' Around Britain: Rock'n'roll Landmarks of the UK and Ireland

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Dec 24 - 01:01 PM

Dear Bredda. I'm nearly 76 now. I became a teacher, then a gigging guitarist. My wife became disabled and I am still her carer I lived mainly in the midlands and then reired ro Dorset.

What about you? Did you live in London all that time? I tellyou, on good days - I pick up my guitar and still feel a vibe of that place.

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner
Date: 15 Dec 24 - 10:56 AM

Correction to my post above. First went there Autumn 1965. Not 1975. Typo! Still lived theoretically in London in 1975 but most of the time in between Paris and Dublin.

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 23 Apr 25 - 07:58 AM

Available to about May 13th 2025
Soho '65: Les Cousins at 60
The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe - BBC Radio 2 - 16th Apr 2025

"This week, Mark gets transported back to the legendary club Les Cousins in the company of Diana Matheou and Jon Wilks.

Les Cousins (known fondly as "The Cousins") was on Soho's Greek Street. After some false starts, it opened 60 years ago today: 16th April 1965.

Diana and her husband, the late Andy Matheou, ran the club in the basement of his parents' restaurant.

Thanks to Andy's instincts as a booker, and the club's all-night events, it became central to the swinging London folk scene of the mid sixties.

Paul Simon considered it his 'home gig' in London. Jimi Hendrix played there, as did John Martyn, Nick Drake, Anne Briggs, Martin Carthy, Wizz Jones, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, Jackson C. Frank, Al Stewart and Alexis Korner. Van Morrison appeared in the early hours and was paid just £3.

Diana and the singer and journalist Jon Wilks help Mark Radcliffe to capture the magic of the famous club."
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029r49
>skip to about 25min \ 28min

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Apr 25 - 11:44 AM

What a great place it was

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 03 May 25 - 11:38 AM

Anybody got any special memories of Wizz Jones at Les Cousins. I know I saw him play there with Clive from the Incredible String Band.

Subject: RE: Remember Les Cousins, in London's Soho?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 03 May 25 - 12:33 PM

Clive Palmer that was, every time he left a band they made the big time. Last time I heard of him he was living in the West Country and trolling round charity shops and jumble sales, looking for silver cutlery to make keys for Northumbrian pipes. That's what I was told anyway.