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Temple of Art and Music Where art and music legends come to life through purpose, imagination, and people.
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18/09/2026

Temple of Art & Music presents: Dana Gillespie — Rediscovery, Live at TAM

Before Bowie was Bowie, Dana Gillespie was there — writing, recording, finding her own voice and moving through the same London music world.

On 25 September, Dana joins us at TAM to tell those stories herself, play the music, and reopen a chapter of British music history that deserves to be heard again.

This is more than one night. It is the beginning of a rediscovery.

We want the Bowie fans, collectors, songwriters, blues lovers, 60s music obsessives and anyone with memories, records, photographs or stories to come into the room and become part of the journey.

Heartbreak Man or Foolish Seasons? What should we hear on the night?

Dana Gillespie: Rediscovery — Live at TAM
25 September 2026
Temple of Art & Music, London SE1

Come for the stories. Stay for what happens next.

You've eaten here. You've drunk here. You've never found the door. 🚪There's a live music venue hidden inside Mercato Met...
20/08/2026

You've eaten here. You've drunk here. You've never found the door. 🚪

There's a live music venue hidden inside Mercato Metropolitano and most of SE1 has walked past it.

Head through to the Secret Garden. Look for the black wall with the TAM logo. There's a small black door next to it. Push it.

Behind it: a cavernous live room, proper stage, proper lighting, and a sound engineer who makes everyone sound better than they are. Free to walk into. No door policy, no dress code.

A bloke came in from Guildford for our open mic, got teamed up with a singer he'd never met, played a few songs and went home buzzing. That's a normal night.

🎺 Tonight: live. Soul, funk, jazz, reggae, party classics. Doors 6. Band at 8. Karaoke till late.

📸 THE CHALLENGE: find the door, get a photo, post it and tag with . Drawn monthly for tickets to our exclusive events — the nights that only happen behind this door.

And the honest bit: at Elephant is on borrowed time. Forty independent kitchens, the bars, the garden — all of it makes way for the Borough Triangle build. We don't know how long we've got.

So don't save this post for later. Come and use it while it's here.

📍 Secret Garden, Mercato Metropolitano, 42 Newington Causeway SE1 6DR
🚇 3 mins from Elephant & Castle

Tag the mate who reckons they know every venue in South London. 🐘

20/08/2026

Jesus Christ Superstar is back in the West End — and few know it quite like Dana Gillespie, the very first Mary Magdalene, who sang "I Don't Know How to Love Him" back in 1972. 🎭

In her latest Globetrotting with Gillespie, she gets Sir Tim Rice to tell the story of the day he discovered Andrew Lloyd Webber had been knighted — before he was. It began with his brother wandering in and asking: "Do you want the good news, or the bad news?" 😅

What his brother said next is comedy gold — and it's the very last line that really lands. Watch to the end.

🎬 New clip from Globetrotting with Gillespie, Ep. 21.
👉 Share it with a theatre-lover who needs a giggle, and comment below: good news or bad news first?

(Catching Sam Ryder in JCS at the Palladium this summer? Then this one's for you. 🎟️)

04/08/2026

🎸✊ Offrons à un groupe français l'accueil londonien qu'il mérite.
Let's give a French band the London welcome they deserve. 🇫🇷🤝🇬🇧

Une rébellion qui ne détruit rien — elle construit. Elle répond au cynisme par l'art, la tendresse et le courage de créer. C'est l'esprit de Three Birds Whisper, collectif de rock alternatif français — brut, psychédélique, engagé.
A rebellion that doesn't burn things down — it builds. It answers cynicism with art, kindness and the nerve to keep creating. That's Three Birds Whisper — a French alt-rock collective, raw, psychedelic, outspoken.

Chers amis français à Londres (et tous ceux qui croient encore en la musique) : c'est pour vous. Leur concert ne se regarde pas, on en fait partie — apportez un mot, il finira peut-être projeté à l'écran. Ils tournent au Royaume-Uni en toute indépendance : remplissons la salle et offrons-leur un accueil chaleureux.
Dear French friends in London (and anyone who still believes in music): this is for you. Their show isn't one you watch, it's one you're part of — bring a word and it might end up on the screen. They're touring the UK independently: let's fill the room and give them a warm welcome.

📍 TAM — Mercato Metropolitano, 42 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6DR
🗓️ jeudi 6 & vendredi 14 août 2026 / Thu 6 & Fri 14 Aug 2026
🕖 Portes 19h · live 20h / Doors 7pm · live 8pm
🎟️ Billets / Tickets : lien en bio / link in bio
🔗 everywhere.tam.tv/tbw

Vous ne venez pas ? Partagez. Un partage peut transformer une salle d'inconnus en communauté. C'est ça, la rébellion positive. ✊
Can't come? Share this. One share can turn a room of strangers into a community. That's positive rebellion.

29/07/2026

Today we celebrated the life and work of one of Britain's finest singer-songwriters: Dana Gillespie.

Here's the kind of artist she is. In 1972, Dana was originating the role of Mary Magdalene in the very first London production of Jesus Christ Superstar — a lead on the West End stage, night after night. And her one day off? Every Sunday, while the theatre went dark, Dana went into Trident Studios and worked on her own album. Six nights a week starring in a hit musical, and her Sundays making a record. That's the work ethic that has carried her across six decades.

Singer. Songwriter. Producer. Actress. Blues matriarch. A teenager who cut her first single at 15, wrote her own songs when almost no woman did, produced her own records, and shared stages and studios with David Bowie, Jimmy Page and Bob Dylan — and who has never once stopped.

Stay tuned as the whole story comes to life, live and in person, at the Temple of Art and Music.

Her next show is 🎸 Dana Gillespie & The London Blues Band — Box of Surprises
December 16th · one night only
📍 Temple of Art and Music, 42 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6DR
🎟 Ticket release date 12th August

Come and celebrate a living legend. Who's joining us? 🖤

28/07/2026

Before he was David Bowie, he was "Davy Jones" — and a 14-year-old Dana Gillespie was there when they met. 🖤

Dana had been getting into the Marquee Club since she was 13 — as often as she could without missing school — cheering on the Yardbirds and London's new bands. At 14 she got to know a support act called Davy Jones & The Mannish Boys, and struck up a friendship with their singer: the teenager who'd become David Bowie.

That friendship led to the Bowpromo in 1971 — Bowie on one side, Dana on the other — the promo record that won them their RCA deals, the deals that gave the world Hunky Dory and Dana's Weren't Born A Man.

Two landmark albums. All sparked by a chance meeting in a grassroots music venue.

That's why these rooms matter — and 60 years on, Dana is still paying it forward. On 30 July at the Temple of Art and Music, the hour before Dana and her London Blues Band take the stage belongs to the young artists of TAM's Open Music Academy — who all performed at Everywhere At Once, the UK's biggest grassroots festival from and The National Lottery. This show is the next chapter of their journey with the TAM.

Come and back the next generation — because the next Bowpromo starts in a room like this one.

🎟 Book now — Thursday 30 July, London. Tickets: link in bio.

💬 Bowie fans — would you have been at the Marquee in '64?
🎸 Fellow venues & grassroots supporters — tag a room that changed your life.
🎤 Young musicians & proud parents — tag someone who needs to see this stage.

28/07/2026

Most people think Dana Gillespie covered David Bowie. It's the other way round — and it began on the John Peel show in 1971. 🖤

For the Bowie lovers out there, here's why this one matters to us.

In 1971, David Bowie introduced a young Dana Gillespie on the John Peel show, telling listeners she was "a very, very, very… excellent songwriter." That night she sang "Andy Warhol" live for the very first time — a song Bowie wrote for her.

They recorded it together at Trident Studios, with Bowie playing and singing backing vocals, while Dana was performing as Mary Magdalene in the West End's Jesus Christ Superstar every night. Her version came out in 1973 — by which point Bowie loved the song so much he'd already released his own on Hunky Dory. So no, she didn't cover Bowie. If anything, it was the other way round. 😉

Six decades on, Dana is still that fearless voice — and she's opening the whole box of it, live, for one night only at the Temple of Art and Music.

🎸 Dana Gillespie & The London Blues Band — Box of Surprises
📅 Thursday 30 July · one night only
📍 Temple of Art and Music, 42 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6DR
🎟 Tickets 👇 (pinned in comments)

Bowie fans — drop your first Hunky Dory memory below, and come hear "Andy Warhol" sung by the woman he wrote it for.

28/07/2026

David Bowie wrote her a song. 🎸

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played on her records — before they ever formed Led Zeppelin. Bob Dylan had her open for him at Wembley. Bowie called her "a very, very, very excellent songwriter" live on the John Peel Show.

Her name is Dana Gillespie. And this weekend — after 60 years and 70+ albums of the blues — she's bringing The London Blues Band to a sheep field near Salisbury. 🐑

She's a festival founder in her own right, too: Dana co-founded the legendary Mustique Blues Festival with Basil Charles OBE — and flew The London Blues Band and Ian Siegal (yes, this weekend's headliner) out to the island.

That's the beautiful madness of the Hillbilly Hootenanny: a genuine rock 'n' roll legend, live under canvas at The Music Baa, where live music roams free.

📅 Fri 31 July – Sun 2 Aug
📍 Greenacres Farm, near Salisbury · SP5 4LP
🎟 Tickets: link in bio (and in the comments 👇)

🔊 Turn the sound on — that voice is 60 years in the making.
❤️ Tag a blues lover who needs to be in that field.

Address

42 Newington Causeway
London
SE16DR

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 11pm
Tuesday 9am - 11pm
Wednesday 9am - 11pm
Thursday 9am - 12am
Friday 9am - 12am
Saturday 10am - 12am
Sunday 9am - 10pm

Telephone

+447879108004

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