The Regent Sounds Studio opened at number 4 Denmark Street in , one of the first in the area, and The Rolling Stones recorded their first album there in Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Wonder also recorded there, as did the 'British Bob Dylan', Donovan, and it was one of the first studios to install a track sound recorder. David Bowie allegedly couldn't afford a flat here and chose to live in the street in a camper to be closer to the studios and, slightly more recently, The Sex Pistols lived and recorded their first demo tracks above number 6.
Managed by Brian Casser Cass, of Cass and The Cassanovas whose claim to fame is allegedly being the first venue in London where The Beatles ever performed, on the 9th or possibly 10th December This was apparently an impromptu set played by Paul and John, with Pete Best on drums, while George who had the 'flu chatted with one of the clientele. The Clash also recorded their first album there in This, inevitably, attracted the younger generation who had more money than ever before and were eager to break away from the grey days of post-war society.
A club at this location was previously run by Diana Dors' boyfriend, body builder Tommy Yeardsley until, in the mids, notorious Notting Hill slum landlord Peter Rachman decided to expand his 'empire', building up a chain of gambling clubs and, on buying it in , opened the Le Condor club often wrongly aka El Condor under the management of Raymond Nash, one of the Lebanese gangster family. The Le Condor was one of 'the' places to be in the late Fifties and boasted a clientele that included royals such as the Duke of Kent and Princess Margaret.
Soho - A brief history of the area. Soho occupies an area of London about a square mile in size whose boundaries are generally accepted as being Oxford Street to the north, Leicester Square to the south, Charing Cross Road to the east and Regent Street to the west and includes the area known as 'Chinatown' which sits between Leicester Square and Shaftesbury Avenue.
These are fairly modern delineations as the original area has never been formally identified, either geographically or administratively. To the north of it is Fitzrovia, with St. James's to the south, Covent Garden to the east and St. Giles and Mayfair to the west. The area was open agricultural and grazing land in the Middle Ages, when it was owned by the Abbott and Convent of Abingdon and the Master of the Hospital of Burton St.
