After
a brief spell as a cinema in the 60's, the building was reincarnated as
a music venue and as The Music Machine, enjoyed notoriety in the 1970's
by providing a platform for many of the first-wave punk bands such as The
Sex Pistols and The Clash. In 1982 the club was then purchased by Steve
Strange and Rusty Egan of Visage - then in their heyday and known as the
Rich Pop Stars. Having come up with the name by which the club was most
recently known - The Camden Palace - the venue became a favourite to the
leading figures on the New Romantic scene, and in the process hosted the
earliest gigs of the Eurythmics and the first UK performance of a rising
star named Madonna.
Throughout the 80's Camden Palace remained one of the hottest clubs in London.
Hundreds would clamour to enter the club to catch a glimpse of regulars
like Wham and Boy George; Prince would hold extravagant after show parties,
and with the likes of Grace Jones flying in from the USA just to be seen
there its legendary status was assured.
As musical tastes moved on so too did the Camden
Palace. As rave took its stranglehold on the nation's youth the Camden
Palace played a pivotal role in the scene, with a long running series
of house and trance parties which lasted right up until it's closure in
early 2004
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