Venue: The Roxy
Town: Covent Garden, GB

The Roxy was a fashionable nightclub located at 41-43 Neal Street in London's Covent Garden, known for hosting the flowering British punk music scene in its infancy. The premises had formerly been used as a warehouse to serve the Covent Garden wholesale fruit and vegetable market. In 1970 they were converted to a late-night bar called the Chaguaramas Club. At that time it was owned by record producer Tony Ashfield, who had several hits with 1970s reggae star John Holt, with whom he formed a company called Chaguaramas Recording Productions, probably after Chaguaramas Bay in Trinidad. The Roxy was started by Andrew Czezowski, Susan Carrington and Barry Jones, by suggestion of Chelsea singer Gene October, to convert the club into London's first live punk rock venue. The space was small, and spread out on two levels, which contained little more than a bar and a dance floor. In December 1976, Czezowski organised three gigs at the Roxy. They financed the venture with borrowed money (Jones, a musician, pawned his guitar to stock the bars, and hire sound equipment, etc.). The first show, on 14 December, was Generation X, a band Czezowski managed. The second on the following night was the Heartbreakers. The third, on 21 December, featured Siouxsie and the Banshees and Generation X. However, it was the Clash and the Heartbreakers that headlined the official gala opening on 1 January 1977 which was filmed by Julien Temple and finally screened on BBC Four on 1 January 2015 as The Clash: New Year's Day '77. Don Letts was the resident DJ at the club and he was instrumental in encouraging punk rockers to embrace reggae. In 1977, Harvest Records released an album Live at the Roxy WC2, featuring some of the regular acts who performed there. The original 12-track album reached No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart and spent five weeks in the chart. A further live album was released in May 1978 of lesser known acts such as the UK Subs, Open Sore, Crabs and the Bears. Since the late 1980s, a n