LONDON IS full of hidden secrets: bars, restaurants, pubs and clubs that you could easily walk straight past without even noticing there was anything there. The 100 Club in Oxford Street, is a perfect example of this, as I discovered last weekend…
“Laia, I am singing at the 100 on Saturday with Mike Sanchez, you must come!” says my sister Natalia.
“Sure,” I reply, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Wow, I think to myself, I’ve always wanted to go there but never quite made it.
It’s only Wednesday evening, so I have a few days to round up some groupies for the event. After a few phone calls, I am pleased to have gathered a substantial fan club, and arrange to meet up with them all at 9pm at the main entrance.
The rest of the week goes by, and everybody is talking about unusual and extreme changes in climate: one minute the sun is shining and the next it’s snowing! But by the time the weekend arrives, it’s cold yet bright: the perfect crisp winter’s day.
In the morning, I go to Portobello market to stock up on fruit, vegetables and flowers. The atmosphere is fabulous with all the stallholders shouting out their prices: “a pound… a pound of strawberries, love!”
I get so carried away, that anyone would have thought there’s a shortage of fruit and veg! I finally get back home and catch up with my domestic duties, in the hope that one day I may become a domestic goddess… First the ironing, then some washing, mopping, and finally the washing up…all done! Time to have something to eat and go to the gig.
I jump on the Number 7 bus and meet my friends outside the venue. As you walk through the main door you step into a lobby which looks like an office, but to your sharp right there’s a set of stairs that take you down to a basement, and boy is it a cool club!
The 100 Club looks like what a jazz club should look like: smoky, wood panelled and with black and white framed photographs on the walls. The main stage has the logo in white and red as a backdrop and the lights are low.
Inside, there are other friends and we all get some drinks and wait for the show to begin. Soon after, Mike Sanchez comes on stage and starts playing some classic Rock & Roll tunes –from Buddy Holly to Jerry Lee Lewis. We all dance and have fun and then Natalia is announced to come on stage. We wolf-whistle and cheer and listen to her sing.
The room is buzzing and she blows us all away!
After the gig, we step outside and wait for a cab to turn up, but the Number 7 bus turns up first and stops just outside, so we jump on it for a journey all the way to Notting Hill. There is no traffic, so I’m home in no time and go straight to bed…
The next morning, I manage to get up in time for yoga and then go for a walk in Hyde Park. It’s another clear day and after a spending the evening in a small venue the green open space is the perfect antidote to a headache!
In the afternoon, I call my sister to tell her how much fun it was and how brilliant the show had been. “I enjoyed it too,” she says. “Thanks for coming with all your friends!”
“Oh it was our pleasure,” I say. And I think to myself: from now on you’ll have a regular fan club!
