  Jazz fan or not, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that’s not at least heard of Ronnie Scott’s, but as the iconic music venue celebrates 60 years, some of its backstage secrets have been revealed
  Set up by legendary jazz musician Ronnie Scott in 1959, the venue is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and manager Simon Cooke has revealed some of the inside secrets of Ronnie’s that the audience didn’t get to see
  Simon, who has worked at the venue for over 11 years, took Metro.co.uk on a tour of the legendary venue – including the upstairs spaces that have hosted the most A-list after parties once the show’s over
  Walking into Ronnie’s, the first thing that strikes you is just how close the performers truly are to the audience, with the stage being level with the red velvet banquettes and tables – meaning the audience quite literally couldn’t get closer to the band
    The stage itself has hosted all of the greats – from Ella Fitzgerald, to Prince, Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp and so many more – often with little to no notice beforehand
  Case in point being Lady Gaga, whose Ronnie Scott’s performance came about after a last-minute cancellation of a gig she was supposed to play with Tony Bennett
  Left all dressed up with nowhere to be, Gaga sought out a spot that she could perform an impromptu set – and Ronnie’s was the place she ended up thrilling the crowds
  Simon revealed: ‘I was out for dinner that night, down in a restaurant where your phone doesn’t work
 So I come out and my phone is going bonkers.  ‘It turned out that Lady Gaga was supposed to do a show that night with Tony Bennett at the Albert Hall, and Tony Bennett got ill at 6
30pm, so it was a really late cancellation.  ‘So Lady Gaga is all dressed up and ready to go
 And one of her band said, “Why don’t we see if we can do the Late Show at Ronnie’s?”  ‘So this guy rang James Pearson, our house pianist, and said, “I’ve got Lady Gaga here and she has a jazz quintet within her musicians, fully rehearsed, don’t need the music, all ready to go
”‘  While there was already a band booked for the evening, they were given a fully paid night off after Gaga called
    Simon explained: ‘We told the Late Show band we had booked: “here’s your money, sit down and enjoy the ride but you’re not playing”
 And Gaga turned up and piled in with her people and didn’t use the dressing room, sat in the corner of the pit with a bottle of whiskey and did this show
’  He admits he faked ‘technical difficulties’ in order for his kids to be able to make it to the once-in-a-lifetime performance, and of course Gaga didn’t disappoint
  He added: ‘She did a 40 or 50 minute set and she was extremely good. She was dressed in next to nothing and lounging all over the piano, so that’s how that happened
’  While ticketholders to Ronnie’s are guaranteed world-class musicians whichever night of the week they visit, sometimes fans can get an extra surprise in the form of an A-list guest star
  One such occasion was when Pirates Of The Caribbean star Johnny Depp requested to do an anonymous slot at Ronnie’s
  Simon revealed: ‘It really was the most peculiar night. We had this thing where Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck wanted to do a gig, at the club, late night, anonymously
  ‘We kept getting the date and then it kept getting cancelled, and we started to lose faith in the whole thing
 Eventually they picked a date and it didn’t get cancelled and it turned out it was the same day that we had Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones playing
    ‘Ronnie Wood and Jeff Beck used to be the same band back in the day, which was an odd coincidence
 It was an absolute coincidence, but because they were both in the building, Johnny and Jeff played with Ronnie
 So that was really odd.’  As well as the superstars on stage, there were some big names in the audience, too – and the real party happened after the show
  He explained: ‘One of our owners is quite showbiz attached and she had an amazing table of guests including Matthew McConnaughey, Richard Madden, Katherine Jenkins and Liam Gallagher
  ‘We all ended up in the dressing room and then it was all up to Sally’s [office] because there were too many people
 We piled all this booze into Sally’s office and it was like “where did all these people come from?!” It was just most bizarre
’  The offices in question, however, are a pretty run of the mill affair in comparison to the glitz and glamour downstairs, but Simon does have an original abstract painting by Miles Davies in shades of blue and yellow which hangs on his wall, after he convinced the club that it was the only wall safe enough and big enough to hang it
  While getting an invite to party with some of the biggest stars in the upstairs offices is restricted to the most VIP of guests, members of the audience can sometimes bump into am A-lister in the lobby too
  Simon recalled the time Jeff Goldblum greeted guests coming to see him perform by welcoming them in the lobby: ‘He is absolutely wacky
 We did a soundcheck and we said “Right, Jeff, we’re going to open the doors”.  ‘Jeff comes out in the lobby – and they never do this – Jeff came out in the lobby, there’s people coming in and he’s welcoming them like “Hey, thanks for coming!” and taking photos with everyone
’    The celebrity association with Ronnie’s has run through the veins of the club since day one, with the Rolling Stones being regulars in the height of the 60s
  Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were famously photographed at a reserved table, which was kept back until late in the night each night in case of a surprise star popping in for a drink
  Simon explained: ‘What they did in those days is that they would have what was called Pete’s table [kept for owner Pete King’s guests]
 It was a table that they held back on the off-chance that whoever would come in off the road and it was held back until, you know, very, very late in the night
  ‘The Stones came in, a lot of the British pop rock stars of the era did, the big names of the 60s, this was the place to hang out
 John Lennon even had a birthday here.  ‘I think what it was then and what we still maintain is a kind of haven, somewhere they can come where they are not going to get bothered
’  With Ronnie’s being such an esteemed music venue so steeped in history, the instruments for their house musicians and guest stars to play are something pretty special, too
  The grand piano which dominates the stage – but which can be hidden at a moment’s notice when necessary through a secret door in the back of the stage – costs an enormous £80,000 and is replaced every two years
  Ronnie’s Musical Director James Pearson flies over personally to the Yamaha factory in Hamburg, Germany, to pick out their next instrument, which is then flown over to be used in the club before being sold on when it’s time for the club to get a new one
  The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London’s Soho, before moving to a larger venue at 47 Frith Street in 1965, where it still operates today
  The ‘Old Place’, as the first venue became known, was awarded a blue plaque by the English Heritage in October 2019 to commemorate 60 years since it opened
  The venue has only changed hands once in its 60 year history, in 2005, when the remaining original co-owner Pete King sold it a few years after Ronnie’s death to Sally Greene and Michael Watt
  The venue was given a full refurb in that year, but kept true to the original style after the owners decided against extending the size of the main room for fear of messing up the proportions of the space
  Simon explained: ‘It got smartened up, but it’s still lamps on tables, it’s still got the same perspective and it’s still got the same proportions as it’s really important that the proportion of the size of the stage and the size of the room is right
  ‘We were going to push the back wall back but we decided this was going to stuff up the proportions of the club and it’s going to change the dynamic of the band in the room so we kept it the same size in the end
’  Ronnie’s will celebrate their anniversary with a star-studded concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 30 October, featuring many jazz greats including Kurt Elling and Courtney Pine as well as a performance from Van Morrison and Pee Wee Ellis
  Whatever they’re doing has worked for 60 years and we have a hunch it’s probably going to work for at least 60 more
  
