Giorgio Gomelsky, impresario - obituary
Giorgio Gomelsky,who has died aged 82, was one of the unsung heroes of the 1960s British rock scene as the operator of the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond-upon-Thames; he was effectively the Rolling Stones’ first manager, showed the young Beatles around London, produced the Yardbirds and put the Animals on stage.
He established the Crawdaddy Club (the name derived from Bo Diddley’s song “Doing the Craw-Daddy”) in a dingy back room of Richmond’s Station Hotel in January 1963, with the Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues Band as its first house band. Gomelsky had already heard of the Rolling Stones, then a struggling blues tribute band, having met Brian Jones, who had formed the Stones in 1962. “At the Marquee and in the music pubs, Brian Jones had been bending my ear constantly,” Gomelsky recalled. “He used to say to me, 'Giorgio, Giorgio, you gotta come hear my band. Thith ith the betht blueth band in the land. Weally. Weally. Why are you not coming?’” When Hunt did not show one Sunday night, Gomelsky called the Stones’ piano player Ian Stewart and told him the gig was theirs. The fee was £1 each plus a share of the door takings.
In the meantime Gomelsky had befriended a group called the Beatles who were a big noise in Liverpool and had come to London for the first time in early 1963; in April he invited them to the Crawdaddy to see his new house band. Bill Wyman recalled: “ Soon after we began our first set, we were staggered to see the four Beatles standing and watching us. They were dressed identically in long leather overcoats. I became very nervous, and said to myself: 'S---, that’s the Beatles!’ ” Afterwards they all went back to Mick Jagger’s flat in Chelsea.
Source: The Telegraph
