Dead Rock Star Tour of London
London is haunted with the wailing souls of dead rock stars. More than a few influential artists from the swinging sixties and seventies have met their end in the capital, burnt out on drink, drugs, and self-destruction. Others were the victims of dark misfortune, but all are immortalized in eternal youthfulness (and tacky merchandise). If you want to pay your respects, sing a few lines, or just bust a few air-guitar moves to London's dearly debauched, then here are some worthy pilgrimages.
Elvis Presley
233 Baker St
Paddington, Greater London, NW1 6, UK
The King famously never performed in Europe, but his memory burns brightly here at the Elvisly Yours memorabilia Mecca in Baker Street. It's a shrine to Elvis and his … lucrative merchandising legacy, selling everything from custom made neon clocks to Elvis brand Champagne. Bizarrely, next door is a Beatles memorabilia store, and both owners are reputed to hate each other. A recent dispute over shared basement space revealed that the proprietor of Elvisly Yours has been planning to start Elvis bus karaoke tours around London, using tribute acts instead of tour guides. Well, it's what he would have wanted. [link]
Bob Marley
St Agnes Pl, Greater London, SE11 4, UK
St. Agnes Place is London's oldest squatted street and was home to a large Rastafarian community from the early seventies. Bob Marley stayed here several times during the … seventies, making use of the Rastafarian temple in the street. And whilst he didn't meet his death in London, he came here to escape it in 1977 following an attempt on his life in Jamaica. Arguably a more accurate map location would be Battersea Park, where Bob used to play football and where, during a match, he received the injury to his foot that led to his death from cancer in 1981. [link]
The Beatles
3 Savile Row
London, Greater London, W1S 3, UK
OK, so they're not all dead yet, but the famous gig on the roof of this London office building marked the final death throes of the world's biggest rock group. It took … place on what was then the headquarters of Apple Corps, the Beatles' multimedia corporation in Saville Row -- swinging London's hippest street for men's fashions. It was their final live appearance, and John Lennon announced his departure less than a year later. Naturally there's no public access to the top, and the studio that used to be in the basement is long gone. [link]
Marc Bolan
Gipsy Ln
Richmond, Greater London, SW15 5, UK
The T-Rex singer and glam rock icon grew up in Stoke Newington, and his ashes are scattered in Golders Green Crematorium, but fans regularly make a pilgrimage to a tree … in Gipsy Lane, Barnes. A car he was a passenger in lost control and struck the tree in 1977, killing the seatbelt-shunning Bolan two weeks shy of his 30th birthday. A permanent shrine exists at the site, maintained charitably by TAG (T-Rex Action Group). [link]
Jimi Hendrix
22 Lansdowne Crescent
Kensington, Greater London, W11 2, UK
[link]
Keith Moon & Mama Cass
9 Curzon Pl
London, Greater London, W1K 1, UK
The two-bedroom flat on the top floor of this Mayfair townhouse carries some kind of rock star curse. Legendary caner and The Who drummer Keith Moon (of driving Rolls … Royce into swimming pool notoriety) died here in 1978 of an overdose, ironically, of pills prescribed to counter alcohol withdrawal. But eerily, just four years before, Mama Cass of the Mamas and the Papas met her fate in the very same flat of a heart attack brought on by obesity. The building is still there today, although the inside was rebuilt in 2001. [link]
