(Note: For live acts / recordings after 13 Mar 1964 see Marquee Club Wardour St.)
The Marquee was initially a jazz and hybrid jazz music club, created by Harold Pendleton - who was also the founder of the National Jazz Federation.
The club opened in April 1958 at 165 Oxford Street, London, in the basement of the Academy Cinema, its name taken from the cinema's Marquee Ballroom which had previously hosted dance orchestras & swing bands. The striped 'circus decor' adopted by this Marquee venue continued in the design when the venue was relocated to 90 Wardour Street in 1964.
By the time the Oxford Street venue's lease had expired after some 5 years of performances, the Marquee name had also evolved from its initial concept of jazz presentations and early skiffle groups and had become synonymous with the birth of UK rhythm & blues and electric blues. It's new venue at Marquee Club would subsequently witness the consolidation and rise to fame of many of the fledgling performers who graced the stage of the Oxford Street venue.