Blue Plaque unveiled at club where ‘best live band of all time’ The Who first played

The Who tribute band singer Gary Charman and Belsize Park music publisher David Stark who helped to organise the plaque (Image: David Stark)

So it was no surprise that a tribute lunch for The Who, held in Swiss Cottage on Sunday to mark the band’s 50th anniversary, attracted a star-studded crowd.

The group was honoured at the Marriott Hotel in King Henry’s Road at the Heritage Foundation’s annual pre-Christmas lunch.

Earlier that day a Blue Plaque was erected outside Shepherd’s Bush Club, the venue where the band first started playing in 1963, then called Goldhawk Social Club.

The plaque was officially unveiled by actor and EastEnders star John Altman, who appeared in The Who’s 1979 film Quadrophenia, and the band’s manager Bill Curbishley, whose office is in Oval Road, Camden Town.

Rick Wakeman and Elliott Cohen at the launch (Image: David Stark)

The luncheon culminated in a performance by tribute band, Who’s Next, whose lead singer Gary Charman is a Roger Daltrey look-alike.

Music publisher David Stark, of Belsize Park, helped to arrange the plaque with organisers Gary and Melissa Hurley and the Heritage Foundation.

Mr Stark, who has seen The Who live more than 200 times, said: “They were the best live band of all time in my opinion.

“To me nobody’s ever come close to the energy that they had in the 60s and 70s, especially with Keith Moon in those days. And they’ve got an incredible catalogue of songs, one of the greatest in rock music. We were honouring that legacy really.”