London's most iconic jazz club, that staple of the Soho scene, has been open for your entertainment since 1959. Legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone gracing its illustrious stage, as well as the scenesters and up-and-comers - if you want the very best in jazz, Ronnie’s is the place to be, and if you want the low-down then look no further; this is the Culture Calling guide to Ronnie Scott’s.
Shows on the Main Stage
The Main Show: each night there are two Main Shows on Ronnie Scott’s main stage, and they draw big names from the jazz, blues and swing scenes - some REALLY big names include Eric Clapton, Sting and Van Morrison, and there have been a lot of acts to watch out for, like Jeremy Pelt and Emma Smith.
Doors open for the first show at 5.30pm, with the show starting at 6.30pm for a 7.45pm finish, and doors then stay open until 8pm. This is a great dinner show, and the food ain’t bad for a place where it’s not the main attraction (see our section on Food & Drink for more on that, below).
The second show will either be a repeat of the first for a new, night-time crowd, or it will feature another act - you’ll have to check Ronnie Scott’s Calendar for that - with doors opening at 8.30pm for a 9.15pm start and a 10.30pm finish, although the doors stay open until 3am the next morning, so stick around for more drinks and, most likely, more music!
Tickets range from £35 - £60, dpending on the act.
The Late Late Show: what began as a Friday and Saturday night kinda thing has become so popular it now runs from Wednesday through to Saturday, and on alternate Tuesdays. Each night is like a swanky house party hosted by a different artist or act, who each brings their own flavour and style to proceedings. The party starts at 11.15pm and the show goes on until 2am the next morning - though, with doors open until 3am, who knows how the night will pan out?
Most tickets for the Late Late Show will be available at the door if Advance Tickets have sold out. Priority tickets are available, subject to availability. Prices vary, and your best bet is to ask on the night.
Sunday Lunch: exactly what it sounds like - a laid-back Sunday lunch with a show; doors open at midday for a show that goes from 1-3pm, with doors closing at 4pm. Ticket prices vary, and start from £15.
On Sundays there is a Main Show after lunch, with doors opening at 6.30pm for a show from 8-10pm, with doors closing at midnight - it is Sunday, after all!
Seating
Seating at tables is allocated upon arrival from the section that you have booked, on a first-come, first-served basis:
Gold: Priority seats - tables on the floor level, close to the stage and in front of the bar.
Orange: Standard seats - soft bench tables on the sides of the venue, with a good view of the stage.
Grey: Restricted View - soft bench tables with a partially restricted view of the stage.
Upstairs @ Ronnie’s
The clue’s in the name - ascend the stairs for a more intimate and plush affair with an easy-going bar and the chance to seat yourself wherever you please to enjoy cocktails and conversation while the music wafts more lightly through the air. The bar usually opens at 6pm (6.30pm on Sundays) and things are a little more laid-back than they are downstairs; become an aficionado and you may see more familiar faces performing from the floor, as there are regular themes up here:
Mondays: Voodoo Lounge - London's most joyful and spirited New Orleans style brass jazz band, playing laid-back blues and true R&B. Doors open at 6pm for a 7pm start, with the show going on until 10pm. Tickets cost £10 plus £2.50 booking fee if you book online.
Tuesdays: Ruby Sings - perhaps the best open mic nights in town, this is a real showcase for the industry up-and-comers on London underground music scene, from singers, rappers, spoken word artists and musicians; they simply turn up on the night and put their names on the list, so you never know you’re going to get but you can almost guarantee they’ll be good! Doors open at 6pm for an 8pm start, with the show going on until 11pm. Tickets cost £10 and are only available on the door that evening.
Wednesdays: Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Jam - hosted by Andy Davies, a dynamic young trumpeter, this is an informal jam session, with a wealth of talent from today and tomorrow dropping by for a night of fun in the spirit of the hard-swinging, exuberant jazz joints of 1950’s New York.
Every fortnight there is also an earlier show, Braziliance, designed and curated to “call to mind...mellow and gentle subtle Latin grooves with a smattering of Brazilian Bossanova and Samba” (RonnieScotts.co.uk).
Thursdays: Double Bill! Doors open at 6pm for the 7pm start of Two for the Road, which always features two artists side by side in a musical dialogue. This first show lasts until 8.45pm, and Advance Tickets cost £10 plus a £2.50 booking fee. Then, at 9pm, you have another show called Cosmic Fusion; hosted by UK drummer Jon Onabowu, the plan is to present jaz/fusion to growing audiences. Tickets for this show can only be bought at the door, and cost £10.
Fridays: Funky Nation - Ronnies Scott’s weekly DJ night, hoted by in-demand raion presenter, DJ and promoter Mike Vitti plus his special guests; Mike regularly plays aross Ibiza and mainland Europe across the summer festival months, and also plays at London’s Ministry of Sound, the Mi-Soul in Brighton, the Margate Soul Festival and many others. Doors open at 6pm for an 8.30pm start, and the show goes on all the way until 3am the next morning.
Saturdays: Viva Cuba - a celebration of the music and culture of Cuba, where Ronnie Scott travelled many times and was a founder of the Havana Jazz Festival, featuring Cuban bands and DJs. Doors open at 6pm for a 9.45pm start, with the show going on until 11.45pm. Advance Tickets cost £10 plus a £2.50 booking fee, and tickets on the door cost £15 (subject to availability)
Sunday Live Music Session - the big event for Upstairs @ Ronnie’s, with featured artists playing in the intimate space; past acts include Big Mama’s Door, The Jitter Kings and Roy’s Big Smoke Family. Tickets cost £15, with a @2.50 booking fee for Advance Tickets.
A note about tickets: if you have bought an Advance Ticket but show up after the show’s stated start time, the club retains the right to give your seat to someone who buys on the door - you may still be granted entry if there is space, but you won’t be guaranteed a seat (so show up on time!)
Ronnie Scott and Ronnie Scott’s
Ronnie was born in Aldgate, East London in 1927, and he started playing in small jazz clubs aged sixteen - his claim to fame (at the time) was that Vera Lynns father-in-law was the man who taught him to play tenor saxophone. Along with many other musicians of the time, Ronnie played intermittently on the cruise liner Queen Mary, which would sail to New York City, where he was among the earliest Englishmen exposed to the new form of jazz there, called Bepop.
Throughout the 1950s and 60s Ronnie played in and led various bands and orchestras, as well as working as a session musician - he played the sax solos in both The Beatles’ Lady Madonna and Phil Collins’ I Missed Again - so he was very much part of the jazz scene which, until Elvis Presley, was pretty much the biggest thing in music. He was even awarded an OBE for services to jazz music in the 1981 Honours List!
However (and obviously) his name lives on in history, and shines into Soho’s nights from that neon sign on Frith Street, for his contribution to London’s nightlife: Ronnie got together with Peter King, another jazz musician and friend, and originally set up a club at 39 Gerrard Street (also in Soho). They managed it themselves, and then moved to the bigger venue on Frith Street in 1965 - the first venue stayed open as "the Old Place" until its lease ran out two years later. While Peter King handled the business, Ronnie was the forntman and often acted as Master of Ceremonies, apparently telling the same jokes until his death in 1996; if an act didn’t get enough applause, he would always quip "That’s the first time I’ve seen dead people smoke!"
In the early days, the pair would often worry if they could keep the club open from week to week, but Ronnie Scott’s drew in international stars, first through graft and shrewd negotiations, then eventually through its growing name - as well as putting on legends Chet Baker and Nina Simone (who were both, apparently, very badly behaved!), it was the last place Jimmy Hendrix played in public before he died. In 2015, Lady Gaga was due to perform at The Royal Albert Hall alongside Tony Bennett - when he fell ill and the show was cancelled, Gaga headed straight for Ronnie Scott’s to play a surprise, impromptu set with the band!
After Ronnie Scott died in 1996, Peter King ran the club for another nine years. On its 45th anniversary, in 2005, it was bought by the actress turned theatre impresario Sally Greene, who owns it to this day. True to his legacy, when the club was being redecorated in 2013, they put up a giant photo of Ronnie Scott displaying another of his famous one-liners: "I love this place, it's just like home - filthy and full of strangers."