Places, Everyone!….Venue #13/25: The El Mocambo Tavern in Toronto

The El Mocambo Tavern in Toronto is one of that city’s most iconic and recognizable haunts, fronted as it is by a giant neon palm tree. Located just to the west of the once important Folk mecca of Yorkville, the El Mocambo sits adjacent to the sprawling University of Toronto campus that occupies so much real estate in the downtown core. In its original design in the mid-1850s, the building that has housed this nightclub for all of its existence was once a gathering spot for American slaves who were fleeing that country via the Underground Railroad. From the roots of its origins, the building on Spadina Avenue has been home to restaurants, commercial stores and even a barber shop. However, just after WWII, laws were passed that allowed for the sale of alcohol in restaurants in the city. The building’s owners at the time decided to take advantage of this by turning the building into one of Toronto’s first cocktail bars. However, it was not until several decades later that city bylaws were amended to allow live music to be played in venues that served alcohol. Initially, the first live acts that played in the El Mocambo were community-based acts that represented Toronto’s growing ethnic diversity. As such, on any given night you could dance to Latin beats or to a polka band or take in acts from the Asian community. The first, so-called modern rock acts were all Blues masters such as Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and others. In the early 1970s, well known Canadian act The Downchild Blues Band became the house band at the El Mo. Slowly but surely from there, the tavern became home for up and coming artists and bands who were passing through the city. One of those up and comers who was just starting out at the time but went on to enjoy a long and respected career was Tom Waits.  However, as venues go, Toronto’s El Mocambo Tavern is really the equivalent to a one-hit wonder rock band. But oh what a hit that one hit was! 

In many ways, the El Mo is just another night spot. Bands come and bands go. Owners come and owners go. There have been several times when it looked as though the nightclub had seen its last days and the wrecking ball would not be too far behind. But the one thing that has always saved the El Mocambo Tavern has been that single event (over two nights) that happened in 1977 that cemented the El Mo’s legacy for all time. In many ways, the El Mocambo Tavern is just another small nightclub in a city, country and world that is filled with such establishments. However, what took place in 1977 did so, in part, because the El Mocambo was so small and ordinary in the first place. Here is what went down and why it is all so famous a moment musically and so infamous a moment for the country of Canada at large. 

As the 1960s drew to a close, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were the undisputed biggest bands in the world. However, internal strife caused the Beatles to break up, leaving the Rolling Stones as rock’s standard-bearers. But the Stones were equally unhappy and were thinking of breaking up, too. Then they managed to release a consecutive series of iconic albums named  Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street and, just like that, the Rolling Stones had regained their swagger and were, once again, the biggest band in the world. However, despite being able to fill stadiums without any problem at all, the Rolling Stones were at their heart a Blues band. They could rock the night away at any locale but they were often said to be at their most potent when performing in intimate venues. Thus, after the band toured stadiums in support of Exile on Main Street, they decided that their next project would be a live album culled from performances at smaller venues across North America.  This new album ended up actually being a double album called Love You Live. All of the songs on side no.3 of Love You Live were recorded over two nights during a secret pair of shows at the El Mocambo Tavern in Toronto. It was these two shows, and the after-effects of them that helped make the El Mo a name recognized around the world.

The audience in attendance during those shows were mainly pulled from a small group of “contest winners” who had correctly answered trivia questions about the band on a local radio station show. The “prize” for correctly answering the Rolling Stones trivia questions was a guest pass to see Canadian rock band April Wine at the El Mocambo Tavern. The iconic Canadian band was said to be opening for an unknown band called The Cockroaches. This unknown band turned out to be the Rolling Stones in disguise. Once the Stones took the stage, they were immediately in their element. The small crowd of only a few hundred people got to see a band unleash an absolutely scorching live show that featured Blues classics such as Howlin’ Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster” and Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around”. To say that the Rolling Stones blew the roof off of the El Mo is an understatement. To this day, Love You Live is considered one of the best live rock albums of all time and certainly stands as a historical record of just how great a Blues band the Stones really were. From a musical point of view, the secret El Mocambo shows by the Rolling Stones in 1977 were a big hit. Those shows helped to make the El Mocambo Tavern famous in the city and around the world. Once word of the secret shows came out, other major acts of the day all sought to play there. As the 1970s drew to a close, bands such as Blondie, a young U2, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, as well as Elvis Costello and the Attractions all played on the El Mocambo’s stage.

But while the Rolling Stones did much to enhance the reputation of the tiny El Mocambo Tavern as a venue of note when it came to performing live, the band also did much to cause a scandal across the country at the same time. As the Rolling Stones resurrected their careers as the 1960s closed and the 70s began, Canada experienced a similar phenomenon in the form of something that became known as Trudeau-mania. In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau danced onto the national political scene. He appeared fresh-faced, fashionable and full of charisma. He stood in stark contrast to the seemingly stodgy older men who had preceded him such as John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson. Trudeau was brash, unapologetic and possessed a certain flair that captivated the country. Coming on the heels of the deaths of the Kennedy brothers in America, Trudeau and his beautiful young wife Margaret, seemed like our version of Camelot. Canadians were smitten…for a time. However, as often happens during political waves of popularity, inevitably the wave subsides. By the time 1977 arrived, Trudeau-mania had given way to a growing backlash that was soon to cause the Prime Minister to take his famous “walk in the snow”. But before than, there was that night in Toronto and a concert by the Rolling Stones!

A the decade of the 1970s unfolded, there had begun to be rumours that the Prime Minister’s picture-postcard family life, which saw him taking his children (including future Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) canoeing on real rivers in Canada’s north, was not all that it was being portrayed as being. Like many women of the day, twenty-eight year old Margaret Trudeau found herself captivated by the roguish charm of the cocksure leader of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger. When it came to her attention that the Rolling Stones were in Toronto, Margaret Trudeau asked if a meeting with Jagger could be arranged. Now, there is nothing at all wrong with a fan wishing to meet their celebrity hero. Such meetings happen all of the time and are a regular aspect of life for performers when they tour. In every city or town, there is a local politician, a cancer patient or a contest winner who all want a handshake or a hug and a souvenir photo. It is all truly just par for the course. It should have just been par for the course for Margaret Trudeau as well. However, her meeting with Mick Jagger turned out to be anything but. Margaret Trudeau met Jagger and guitarist Ronnie Woods in their hotel room. She accompanied Jagger to the El Mocambo Tavern as his guest. When the concert was over, she returned with Jagger to his hotel suite and spent the night there. What happened during that time is not for me to say. And, in truth, it doesn’t matter what went on there. What actually mattered was that Margaret Trudeau wasn’t just another groupie seeking to bed a rock star, she was the wife of a sitting Prime Minister. The optics of that night were terrible for the Trudeau family. While their marriage may have been on shaky ground before Mick Jagger ever set foot anywhere near Toronto, those nights at the El Mocambo definitely made it clear that all was not well on Sussex Drive in Ottawa. Not long after the Stones left town, the Trudeaus announced that they were separating, which eventually led to a formal divorce. With the marriage of Canada’s first family over, Trudeau-mania was officially dead, too. Prime Minister Trudeau stepped down. Conservative leader Brian Mulroney won the next election, joining fellow right wing leaders Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher on a world stage that had become decidedly austere. Everything had changed. The world seemed different. MTV (and Canada’s own Much Music) debuted not long afterward. Even live music started appearing to be on shaky ground. But the Rolling Stones continued to tour. Some things never change I guess.

While the El Mocambo Tavern continues to exist, it has never again experienced an event such as the Rolling Stones secret shows and the whole Margaret Trudeau affair. Since 1977, the El Mocambo Tavern has changed hands several times and has come close to closing on more than one occasion. The nightclub still puts on shows by up and coming bands. It has also become an important venue for local groups such as the LGBTQ+ community because of special theme nights that offer a safe space for performers and audience members alike. But, truth be told, the El Mocambo Tavern is really just another club in a city, country and world filled with them. But because of those two secret shows in 1977, the El Mocambo has a certain mystique associated with it that has allowed it to weather many financial and Arts trend-related storms over the years. It became famous because it was a small, intimate, unpretentious venue. Once the shiny people came and went in the 1970s, it returned to being a small, intimate, unpretentious venue. Through it all, just like the Rolling Stones, it has survived. That large neon palm tree sign that fronts the club continues to glow in mid-town Toronto, like starlight twinkling from across the universe in memory of a moment when Toronto was the centre of the entertainment world.

The link to the official website for the El Mocambo Tavern in Toronto, Ontario, Canada can be found here.

The link to a video for the song “Little Red Rooster” by Howlin’ Wolf, sung by the Rolling Stones live at the El Mocambo Tavern from 1977 can be found here.

***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024  http://www.tommacinneswriter.com