Ealing Film Reunites Blues Pioneers

Suburban Steps To Rockland tells the story of The Ealing Club

(pictured (l-r) Fery Asgari, manager of the Ealing Club; Terry Marshall saxophonist with the Soul Messengers, co-creator of the first Marshall guitar amplifier and associate producer of the film; film director Giorgio Guernier;  guitarist Dick Taylor, founding member of the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things;  and Don Craine, guitarist with the Downliners Sect. Courtesy Roger Green)

Ealing's musical history has been brought to the big screen in a new film.

The sell-out premiere at The Barbican ( 4 November) of Suburban Steps To Rockland: The Story of The Ealing Club also brought together a group of UK blues music pioneers for the first time in around 50 years.

The Ealing Club is widely regarded as the cradle of blues-based rock music because of the scene that formed from 1962-65.

Members of groups including the Rolling Stones, Cream, The Who, Manfred Mann, The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, The Pretty Things, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Animals all played at the Ealing Club and originated blues-based rock music. The first Marshall guitar amplifiers, made in Hanwell, were tried out in the Club.

The film Suburban Steps to Rockland has been in production for four years by director Giorgio Guernier and executive producer Alistair Young who said, '' The film premiere at the Barbican is hopefully the first of many screenings that will take the narrative of Ealing Borough's contribution to British Music to a wider audience across the world. Greater understanding of Ealing's contribution to the past could help revitalise the future cultural potential of the area.

 
"The London Doc 'n Roll Festival has shown that Suburban Steps To Rockland - The Story of The Ealing Club stands shoulder to shoulder with many other independent rock documentaries all of whom understand the efforts undertaken to bring about such "Feature Film Documentaries". Giorgio Guernier has done a fantastic job to record the memories of musicians whose influence is without question and no doubt with the continued support from people here in West London this story can go much further.'' 

Please follow the Suburban Steps To Rockland Facebook page for details of future screenings.

8 November 2017