If These Walls Could Talk: 1 Year of Celebrating London’s Iconic Music Venues

Music is at the core of our business and the conduit that binds the DLMDD team together. Before edits, cutdowns, composers, and sonic branding became part of daily lives, all that existed and will continue to remain is quite simply a deep love and appreciation of music as an artform. 

Whether it’s slapping a bass, tickling the ivory, arranging a choir, hitting it on the one, putting a record on the 1210's, or playing the flute, music as a form of expression is something that is firmly rooted in the foundations of the team, making it the basis of the business.

Collectively, we have all been inspired by live music. It’s our love of live music - and the chemistry that occurs between musicians and the audience when live music is played - that started our journey with If These Walls Could Talk (ITWCT), a podcast we launched a year ago visiting London’s most iconic music venues. 

Who are the hosts?

Each month, DLMDD co-founder Greg Moore and head of agency business Jeremy Newton host and produce each episode to celebrate and showcase legendary London live music venues, inviting leading industry figures to chat through their experiences. 

Greg and Jeremy respectively have a strong foundation and interest in music. It’s this connection that has allowed them to understand the venues loved by London, and unearth a real understanding of the area's history and the communities surrounding it. 

Greg is an experienced bass player and hails from Lowestoft - home of legendary band The Darkness with whom he used to play with a long time ago in a galaxy far far away in their very early days. He was also a part of the iconic '00s Camden music scene playing at several of the venues that feature on ITWCT. His later career saw him take the role of sound engineer and studio manager at the BBC World Service before advertising.

Jeremy is an accomplished DJ, promoter, and radio host and plays at a number of iconic London venues including Ronnie Scotts (the first episode visited by ITWCT), The Groucho Club, Century Club and Koko’s amongst others. He has also hosted radio shows across London on Soho Radio and Soul Radio to name just a few. 

What can we expect from the show?

The first series of ITWCT takes the hosts and listeners on a journey through the history and current story of each venue, covering the political and economic landscape of the live music scene.

You'll hear stories about how music venues impact the surrounding community spirit, partly due to the legendary names that performed there in their early years and the scenes that were developed at said venues. Conversations are filled with rallying cries about how gentrification and declining funds are putting these iconic venues in an economic chokehold, and what music lovers and industry heads can do to keep the culture alive. 

As Mark Davyd - founder and CEO of the Music Venue Trust - puts it in episode six: don’t open a music venue to make money; open it to be part of a community that feels the same passion for music that you do. 

What’s next?

So far, ITWCT has released eight episodes featuring some of the greats, including Ronnie Scotts, Roundhouse, and Spiritland. The latest venue Moore and Newton visit in the first series holds a special place in London folklore: The 100 Club. Known as the oldest independent venue in the world, it has been offering live music since 1942 and continues to do so today.

The 100 Club has hosted generations of legends and heroes, with Louis Armstrong, BB King, Fela Kuti, The Clash, The Specials, Toots & The Maytals, Oasis, Primal Scream, and Nas to name a few.

To help tell the story, host Jeremy is joined by two generations of the family who have been at the helm of the 100 for quite some time - 100 Club owner Mr Jeff Horton and his daughter and Venue Manager Ruby Horton.

ITWCT will sign off the series with shows featuring Chelsea jazz haunt the 606, Camden’s Koko (previously known as Camden Palace and The Music Machine), and two of the most renowned LGBTQ venues in the UK - Heaven and G-A-Y.

A live podcast in 2025 hosted at one of these esteemed venues will celebrate the ending of series one. The show will welcome representatives from some of the venues featured - so adland, keep your eyes peeled for that!