Lead: Clapton April 1965
Lead: Beck October 1965
Lead: Beck and Page 1966
Kingston · Richmond · Soho · 1963 to 1968
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame credits their rave-ups and their experiments with feedback and distortion.
Up the Thames · 1963
Keith Relf had written a few band names in a notebook. A yardbird, as McCarty tells it, was someone who lived day to day riding America’s freight trains and sleeping in the rail yards.
Top Topham, the first lead guitarist, was the youngest and a good art student; late-night club dates cut into his studies, and his family persuaded him to leave. Eric Clapton was at Kingston Art School too. Keith knew him and talked him into auditioning for Top’s place.
1963 · Knights Park
Keith Relf, Chris Dreja and Top Topham were students at the art school in Kingston. Eric Clapton was a Kingston art student too; Relf persuaded him to audition to replace Topham on lead guitar.
Still an art school, part of Kingston University; see it from the street at Knights Park.
1963 · Twickenham
The first official Yardbirds show was at Eel Pie Island, as the support band for Cyril Davies. Afterwards Davies asked Keith Relf what the band was called, and Relf said the Yardbirds. McCarty had never heard the name before.
Open Thursday to Sunday, 12 to 5.30pm (last entry 5pm); £5. Check before you go: it closes on some big rugby days.
1963 · Kew Road
Giorgio Gomelsky took over the little-used back room of the Station Hotel in 1963 and named his club after Bo Diddley’s Doing the Craw-Daddy. With Clapton in the band, the Yardbirds took over the Rolling Stones’ residency at the Crawdaddy in 1963. Gomelsky became their manager. The Stones had grown too big for the club and moved on.
At the Crawdaddy people climbed onto the beams and swung from them. McCarty remembers a wild gig and a crowd that was excited, not drunk.
Now One Kew Road, a restaurant, opposite Richmond station; the plaque is on the building.
22 December 1963 · Twickenham Road
When the crowds overflowed onto the street, the Crawdaddy moved up the road to the Richmond Athletic Ground. On 22 December 1963 the Yardbirds played the Crawdaddy here, a set of their own and then backing Sonny Boy Williamson: one of twelve nights with him between 7 December 1963 and 13 March 1964. The 8 December 1963 sets with Sonny Boy were recorded and released.
Home of London Scottish rugby, five minutes’ walk from Richmond station: go to a match.
Petersham Road, Richmond
A boutique hotel with a riverside restaurant and bar at 61–63 Petersham Road, in the town where the Crawdaddy began. Booking direct carries a best-rate guarantee.
Check rooms
McCarty came to gigs straight from a stockbroker’s office in the City, swapped his pinstripe suit for mod clothes, and his glasses steamed up in the heat of the packed rooms.
He gave up the job when the band took off, after asking his boss if he could have it back if the band stopped in a couple of years.
The Stones had the Crawdaddy first: the Rolling Stones World. Clapton’s own years: the Eric Clapton World.
90 Wardour Street · 1964 to 1966
In 1964 the Marquee left Oxford Street for 90 Wardour Street, a room for about 700. McCarty remembers playing the Marquee often, to audiences who danced and got excited.
Walk Wardour Street in Soho; the pin marks the street.
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Compare toursThe Beatles’ Christmas Show, 1964, and after
Their break came on the Beatles’ Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1964. A publisher at that show brought them For Your Love, a new song by Graham Gouldman. They recorded it with harpsichord, bongos and a stand-up bass: Paul Samwell-Smith’s idea.
Lead guitar: Eric Clapton 1963–65
Clapton has the lead guitar. Add the For Your Love arrangement, one instrument at a time.
Beck’s Telecaster · 1966
In 1966 Beck gave Page his Telecaster, as thanks for getting him into the Yardbirds. Page stuck eight round mirrors on its body so that it would catch the stage lights.
Four went behind the bridge, three below the pickups and one on top. Glue them on, and each one catches a room the band played or recorded in.
Eight empty spots. Glue a mirror on.
He later took the mirrors off, stripped the body and painted it himself.
September and December 1965
Jeff Beck remembered the Memphis session: Giorgio Gomelsky phoned Sam Phillips, who said it was Sunday and he was closed, then agreed to record them anyway.
Beck later called their Train Kept A-Rollin’ different, if not great.
On 21 and 22 December 1965 the Yardbirds recorded Shapes of Things at Chess Studios in Chicago. The single was also worked on in Memphis and Hollywood. Giorgio Gomelsky produced it and Jeff Beck played the solos; it reached number 3 in Britain in 1966.
Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation: tours Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 4pm, by reservation; $25, $20 students and seniors.
South Michigan Avenue, Chicago · $25 · $20 students and seniors
The studio building where the Yardbirds recorded Shapes of Things in December 1965. Tours Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 4pm, by reservation by email or phone; fees go to the foundation.
Reserve a tour
Blow-Up · 1966
Pick a room and play.
The same band, the same kind of number.
Spring 1965 · Windsor
The Ricky-Tick moved into Clewer Mead in April 1964: a semi-derelict 58-room riverside mansion rented from the council for £16 a week. The last night was 17 September 1966. In spring 1965 Giorgio Gomelsky filmed the Yardbirds in the grounds, with the cameraman Derek Vanlint: an early pop promo.
Blow-Up’s club is named the Ricky-Tick. The filming was staged elsewhere, with the Ricky-Tick look recreated. Blow-Up opened in the US on 18 December 1966 and in Britain on 16 March 1967.
The mansion has gone; Windsor Leisure Centre is on the site, by the Thames.
March 1968 · Second Avenue
In March 1968 the Yardbirds’ concert at the Anderson Theater was recorded. Jimmy Page rediscovered the tapes in his archive, remixed them himself and released Yardbirds ’68 on 5 November 2017.
The theatre opened in 1926 as the Public Theatre and was renamed the Anderson in 1957. It was partly demolished in 1990, and what remained became apartments in 1997.
Apartments now; see the front from Second Avenue in the East Village.
At the end of May 1968, on the West Coast, Keith Relf and Jim McCarty said they were leaving. The last American Yardbirds show was in Los Angeles on 1 June 1968. The original members last played together in July 1968.
Page kept the name and the dates booked for a Scandinavian tour, and went out with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones as the New Yardbirds. Back in England, the New Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin.
What Page built next: the Led Zeppelin World.
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1992 to January 2015 · Oxford Street
The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, by the Edge. The same year, McCarty and Dreja revived the band, with John Idan on bass and vocals.
The revived Yardbirds played the 100 Club several times over twenty-five years, and recorded the live album Reunion Jam here in 1992. On 30 January, in Independent Venue Week, they played their last London show with a line-up that had two original members: Jim McCarty and Top Topham.
London’s longest-running independent music venue, still putting on gigs most nights: see its listings.
9 places you can visit. The Ricky-Tick’s mansion has gone, so its pin marks the leisure centre on the site; the Marquee’s pin marks Wardour Street; the Anderson and the Kingston art school are seen from the street.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Still an art school, part of Kingston University; see it from the street at Knights Park.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open Thursday to Sunday, 12 to 5.30pm (last entry 5pm); £5. Check before you go: it closes on some big rugby days.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now One Kew Road, a restaurant, opposite Richmond station; the plaque is on the building.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Home of London Scottish rugby, five minutes’ walk from Richmond station: go to a match.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The mansion has gone; Windsor Leisure Centre is on the site, by the Thames.
Knights Park, Kingston upon Thames
Keith Relf, Chris Dreja and Top Topham were students at the art school in Kingston.
Still an art school, part of Kingston University; see it from the street at Knights Park.
1 Richmond Road, Twickenham
The first official Yardbirds show was at Eel Pie Island, as the support band for Cyril Davies.
Open Thursday to Sunday, 12 to 5.30pm (last entry 5pm); £5. Check before you go: it closes on some big rugby days.
Kew Road and Parkshot, Richmond
Giorgio Gomelsky took over the little-used back room of the Station Hotel in 1963 and named his club after Bo Diddley’s Doing the Craw-Daddy.
Now One Kew Road, a restaurant, opposite Richmond station; the plaque is on the building.
Twickenham Road, Richmond
When the crowds overflowed onto the street, the Crawdaddy moved up the road to the Richmond Athletic Ground.
Home of London Scottish rugby, five minutes’ walk from Richmond station: go to a match.
Clewer Mead, Windsor (now Windsor Leisure Centre)
The Ricky-Tick moved into Clewer Mead in April 1964: a semi-derelict 58-room riverside mansion rented from the council for £16 a week. The last night was 17 September 1966.
The mansion has gone; Windsor Leisure Centre is on the site, by the Thames.
Stay
A boutique hotel on Petersham Road, in the town where the Crawdaddy began.
Petersham Road, Richmond
A boutique hotel with a riverside restaurant and bar at 61–63 Petersham Road, in the town where the Crawdaddy began. Booking direct carries a best-rate guarantee.
Check roomsGo there
A tour of the Chess building and the Eel Pie Island Museum, and music walks in London, Chicago and the East Village on the marketplace.
South Michigan Avenue, Chicago · $25 · $20 students and seniors
The studio building where the Yardbirds recorded Shapes of Things in December 1965. Tours Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 4pm, by reservation by email or phone; fees go to the foundation.
Reserve a tourTwickenham · £5 · £10 annual membership
The island’s music, boatyards and inventors, on Richmond Road in Twickenham. Thursday to Sunday, 12 to 5.30pm, last entry 5pm; walking tours and talks are booked separately.
Plan a visitLondon
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Compare toursWhat’s on
We found no Yardbirds show on or after today on an official page. The 100 Club and the Eel Pie Island Museum publish their own listings.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
A 1967 Fillmore poster that bills the Yardbirds, books by McCarty and on the band and Beck, and four records from 1964 to 2017.
An original 1967 Fillmore Auditorium poster by Bonnie MacLean for the Doors, billing the Yardbirds, the James Cotton Blues Band and Richie Havens. 14 × 21.4 in, rolled, mint.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterJim McCarty with Dave Thompson
Jim McCarty’s own story of the Yardbirds and after. 2018.
Find the bookAlan Clayson
A history of the band and its three guitarists. Backbeat, 2002.
Find the bookMartin Power
A life of Jeff Beck, from the Yardbirds on. 2011.
Find the bookThe Yardbirds · Vinyl LP, Columbia 33SX 1677, 1964
Recorded at the Marquee in March 1964, with Clapton.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyThe Yardbirds · Vinyl LP, Columbia SX 6063, 1966
Their all-original album of 1966, with Beck.
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Find a copyThe Yardbirds · Vinyl LP, Epic BN 26313, 1967
The last studio album, with Page.
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Find a copyThe Yardbirds · CD and LP, Jimmy Page Records, 2017
The March 1968 Anderson Theater concert, remixed by Page.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
9 of 9 places · 13 of 13 Moments
Knights Park, Kingston upon Thames
Relf, Dreja and Topham are art students in Kingston; Clapton is there too.
1 Richmond Road, Twickenham
The first official Yardbirds show, supporting Cyril Davies at Eel Pie Island; the name is said out loud.
Kew Road and Parkshot, Richmond
The Yardbirds take over the Rolling Stones’ residency at the Crawdaddy.
Twickenham Road, Richmond
The Yardbirds play their own set and then back Sonny Boy Williamson at the Crawdaddy on the Athletic Ground.
90 Wardour Street, Soho
The Yardbirds headline the Marquee’s first night at 90 Wardour Street, with Sonny Boy Williamson.
Their first English album is recorded live at the Marquee.
Jimmy Page plays his first Yardbirds show, on bass.
Clewer Mead, Windsor (now Windsor Leisure Centre)
Gomelsky films the Yardbirds in the grounds of Clewer Mead.
Blow-Up’s club takes the Ricky-Tick’s name and look; the filming is staged elsewhere.
2120 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago
The Yardbirds record Shapes of Things at Chess.
66 Second Avenue, East Village, New York
The band’s concert at the Anderson Theater is taped; Page releases it in 2017.
100 Oxford Street, London
The revived band records the live album Reunion Jam at the 100 Club.
The last London show of a line-up with McCarty and Top Topham, the first guitarist.
