Rock n Rollin with Fats Domino

"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or PH.D. Unfortunately they don't have a J.O.B." - Fats Domino

For a long time, it was said, that Fats Domino had hit his sweet spot with everything he made turning into Billboard gold and capturing the mood of the time. He first gained the spotlight on a national level with his song "The Fat Man", released 1949 on Imperial Records. The song went on to sell a million copies and holds acclaim as being one of the first Rock n Roll songs to gain such high sales.

From then on Fats Domino released a slew of hits with his closely knit band and producer Dave Bartholemew. In 1955 Domino broke out of the RnB mould with the arrival of Rock n Roll and into the pop charts with "Ain't it A Shame" which broke the top ten and was also released under Imperial Records. Carrying on a successful year Domino released his first album "Keep On Rockin'" in Novemeber, which was subsequently re-issued in 1956 under new title "Rock and Rolling with Fats Domino" which went on to reach number 17 in the pop albums chart.

During 1949 - 1960 Domino had sales of up to 23 million seventeen of which were co-written by Dave Bartholomew. In the early 60's Imperial Records was sold to Liberty. Sales, subsequently faded slightly and Fats went on to sign a contract with ABC Paramount and later released material on Mercury, Reprise and Sonet.

The long awaited and much anticipated biography of Fats Domino was published in 2006 titled "Blue Monday - Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock n Roll" written by Rick Coleman.

"La La" appeared on the B-Side of "Ain't it A Shame"

Set Up - An ageing boxer

Night and The City - A hapless grifter

Prairie Oyster

One of the tenets of Tony’s approach to drinks stemming the past twelve years has been a synergy between food and drink. It started in Isola conversing with Bruno Loubet about elements of cuisine that could be applied to the bar. For instance if you could make a puree from fresh fruit rather than buy it then why not? The bespoke product more often than nothas the edge.

The structure of dishes also influenced Tony’s approach to drink, escaping the gravitational pull of sweet and sour or aromatic pivot that informs most drinks, he started to look at the few savory drinks that peppered cocktails book here and there: the Tuxedo, the Dirty Martini, the Bloody Mary.

At the heart of all these drink was umami or savoriness, a quality hard to describe but long praised by Japanese chefs and central to a lot of Spanish and Italian food. Umami is present in high concentration in foods such as tomatoes, parmesan and miso. As such, the Bloody Mary was the ideal candidate not only for its ubiquitous presence in cocktail culture but also wider appeal in relation to the general public. But how to re-configure or make new this classic drink.

Three concepts collided: the original Prairie Oyster whereby an egg yolk was downed with a shot of tomato juice and spices. The classic oyster, a thrilling but alien food, which has always fascinated due to the way it slides down the throat and tastes of the sea. Finally the Bloody Mary, (which would form the road map of ingredients), replacing the tomato juice with a clarified tomato juice, reformulated to resemble an egg yolk. horseradish vodka, Oloroso sherry, Worcester sauce, pepper sauce, shallots (a traditional garnish for oysters), red wine vinegar and finally an oyster leaf (actually has an intense taste of oyster).

The drink is available from Tuesday to Saturday ONLY between 5pm - 7pm. More information to come next week.

The Big Sleep - The private eye

The Big Heat - The plain clothes policeman

Louis Prima - "Jump Jive and Wail"

Jump Jive and Wail appeared on Prima's 1956 album The Wildest!. The album features both Keely Smith and Sam Butera and the Witnesses and is generally considered to be his greatest work in the way it straddled early rock n roll, blues and jazz.

Louis Prima King of The Swingers

In Walt Disney's 1969 cartoon "Jungle Book," Louis Prima did the voice of the King Louis character and famously asked producers "Are you trying to make a monkey out of me" to which they replied "Well..yes", "Well you got me" Louis replied



Louis Prima's career began in the early 1930's, playing jazz trumpet in the style of fellow New Orleans trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Prima led his own swing band throughout most of the 30's and 40's, and starting in the mid-50's, he spent the rest of his career as a Las Vegas style entertainer. But during the late 40's and early 50's, he played a style of music closely resembling what we call rock and roll today.

Louis Prima was not an imitator of early R&B. It's no stretch of the truth to say that Louis Prima was one of the innovators of early R&B. Just as important, he was a superstar in the Italian community, and a major inspiration for the earliest Italian rock and roll artists, some of whom, such as Jimmy Cavallo, Sam Butera, and Pat The Cat, pre-date the entrance of rock and roll into the mainstream. Cavallos first R&B records were cut in 1951, Pat The Cat's were cut in 1952. Earlier still were some 1949 R&B recordings on the X label by a very young Sam Butera, who not only was inspired by Louis Prima in the 40's, but teamed up with him in the 50's and stayed with him for decades, and still plays Prima hits to live audiences in Vegas till this day.

Source - Hoy Hoy

New Drink at 69 Colebrooke Row

We will be releasing some more details about this drink next week. For now we can tell you it will only be available from Tuesday to Saturday between 5pm - 7pm. More information to come next week.

Louis Prima asked, legendary New Orleans saxophonist, Sam Butera the name of their new band on stage. Butera spontaneously shouted out "The Witntesses!". The band from then on was Sam Butera and the Witnesses backing Prima and Smith

The pair outgrew the lounge in Las Vegas and moved on to make several musical films along with Sam Butera and the Witnesses.

In 1959 Prima and Smith won a Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group for "That Old Black Magic"

What a wonderful night...

Thank you to all that came out for our second birthday bash...
Donning our finest jewels and mischievous moustaches we drank and danced on into the night and began our second year in the best company we could imagine. Francis and Laura were divine, Camille looked oh-so glamorous and we only wish Tony's "costume" had lasted longer than one night.

We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did... And for those who couldn't make it, a brief photo re-cap: