*the “Joe Pettitt Trio” at the “Club Room” of the “Finsbury Park Picturehouse” – London N4

Last week saw my London Shoes return to a reasonably new London music venue that only officially opened in Oct last year (2025).
For the short period of time the venue has been up and running, this was actually my 3rd visit to the venue.

So – here’s the story of London Shoes trek out last week to the:-

“CLUB ROOM”
at the
“FINSBURY PARK PICTURE HOUSE”
LONDON N4

& the

“JOE PETTITT TRIO”

Before telling you all about London Shoes visit to the ‘Club Room’ last week – I will just briefly do a quick recap the venue’s backstory, which I’ve covered-off in much greater detail within the content of the 2 previous blog articles I’ve published on the ‘Shoes’ website following my 2 previous visits to there – since it opened in Oct last year.

The ‘Finsbury Park Picturehouse’ is a new style cinema set-up that opened in 2021.

The venue is fitted with 7 cinema screens, all with a state-of-the-art sound system and comfy reclining seats with plenty of leg room – and the venue also has its own bar and kitchen.

The Picturehouse presents itself a bit differently to other run-of-the-mill cinemas, by showing a broad range of films suitable for all ages and different backgrounds and different walks of life – and is designed to make cinema going easier for those that may have physical disabilities and mobility issues. It also caters for those that may suffer from conditions like autism, or dementia.

The Finsbury Park Picturehouse even has its own bar, kitchen and lounge area where punters can simply just meet up and socialise.

Even though my London Shoes didn’t actually experience watching a film during my visit, I have to say it really does look an impressive set up.

The Finsbury Park Picturehouse “Club Room” is a room within the venue that is set out with cabaret style seating and tables, where you can watch ‘live’ performances of Jazz / Comedy / Cabaret and stuff like that.

So, with the Finsbury Park Picturehouse as a topic, sitting nicely within the London Shoes criteria of being a lesser known and more unusual London landmark – the reason for my return to it’s ‘Club Room’ last week was for the specific purpose of catching the “Joe Pettitt Trio” – and what a great event it was too.

Joe Pettitt is a highly acclaimed world class bass player (double bass and bass guitar) and a highly respected musician who has run and led the famous “Len Phillips Orchestra” for the past 15yrs.

The ‘Len Phillips Orchestra’ was formed way back in 1985, by saxophonist ‘Len Phillips’ who, as a young man back in the late 1940’s/50’s – had been very much influenced by the big dance bands that regularly played venues like the ‘Ilford Palais’ – ironically, a venue that I personally know very well, as I used to frequent the Palais on Saturday nights as a young teenager in the early 1970’s – although the music being played then wasn’t a big band sound-it was reggae and soul.

Over the years this 17 piece band became one of the most popular of its kind in Britain, and cited by other musicians as one of the best – playing sell-out venues up and down the country.

Sadly, due to declining health, band leader Len Phillips had to stand down around 2009 – and he specifically singled out the bands bass player Joe Pettitt, who had joined the band in 2003 – to take the reigns and lead the band to continued success – which he did.

The band, now the Len Phillips –‘LP Swing Orchestra’ continued to go from strength to strength, even during the Covid Pandemic lockdown years, that were exceptionally difficult times for musicians, with the Orchestra even recording at famous studios like ‘Abbey Road’ – they’ve made several appearances on TV – and have played Britain’s major venues – they are extremely popular.

However – after 15yrs at the helm of the LP Swing Orchestra Joe Pettitt has decided to step away for a while and try something new – hence the formation of the ‘Joe Pettitt Trio’.…and my London Shoes went to see them last week at the ‘Club Room’ of the ‘Finsbury Park Picturehouse’

The “Joe Pettitt Trio” consist of ‘Joe Pettitt’ (obviously) on double bass – ‘Jim Watson’ on keyboards, and me good friend of over 25yrs now ‘George Double’ on drums.

Jim Watson is a highly acclaimed and much in demand keyboard composer /session player / arranger / live performer – who has worked with the likes of ‘Sting’ / ‘Chrissie Hynde’ / ‘Cat Stevens’ / Marti Pellow (Wet Wet Wet) and the good old ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ band – all of which makes Jim one of the top ‘side-men’ in the business.

Accompanying Joe Pettit on drums is my good friend George Double. Regular followers of my London Shoes stuff will know that George was my former drum tutor way back in the 1990’s – the good old Hackney days, when I was manager of the Barclays Bank Mare Street branch and George was a customer. Since that time George’s music career has progressed considerably, as he is now recognised as a stalwart of British jazz and one of the scenes most acclaimed and accomplished drummers – having worked with many high-profile singers/musicians/performers. George is also now a curator of the popular Southwold/Frinton/Hadleigh jazz clubs.

The Joe Pettitt Trio gig at the Finsbury Park Picture House ‘Club Room’ was in fact their debut performance – so, in a way, the ‘Club Room’ was the ideal venue for them to try out their newly put together set of jazz themed music.

The Trio delivered a 2hr set of their interpretations and arrangements of all time classics from the likes of jazz legends such as Duke Ellington / Count Basie / Glen Miller / Tommy Dorsey and even ole blue eyes himself… Frank Sinatra.

Now – those that know me well will be fully aware that, when it comes to music, I’m a proper ‘detail’ nerd. In fact, my dear old Dad used to get the right ‘ump with me when ever he was playing his records (mainly Nat King Cole / George Sheering stuff) – as I would constantly interrupt his listening pleasure by providing a commentary on ‘where’ a particular number was recorded and ‘who’ was playing on it. Poor old Dad would eventually lose his patience with me, shouting “I don’t want a bloody commentary on who’s playing what and what they had for their breakfast – I just wanna listen to my records in peace!!!!” – by which time, of course, the track he was listening to, had usually finished anyway!!……happy days

So – imagine my delight when, in between numbers, Joe Pettitt provided a backstory to the particular number the Trio was about to/or had played – really interesting stuff for me and right up my street – I loved it.

There should have been (in my opinion) far more folk in attendance for the Trio’s debut performance at the ‘Club House’ as these are 3 extremely talented musicians….all top class performers – but those that were there and saw them play last week enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining evening of great jazz music, from an act which I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever, will progress forward and be a massive success.

Anyway – with my London Shoes having now attended 3 of the ‘Club House’ ‘live’ music events, (in my opinion) I can see potentially, a big future ahead for the Finsbury Park Picturehouse ‘Club Room’ venue. I fully appreciate that it’s still very early days to assess how successful the ‘Club Room’ will be – but with the right levels of promotion to the right audiences via the right channels, and with artists of the calibre of ‘Joe Pettitt’ performing there – the future of the ‘Club Room’ looks promising.

I hope you enjoyed this little London Shoes ‘music related’ article and that its accompanying photos helped bring the story to life a bit.

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See below the entire Gallery of photos taken to accompany this London Shoes blog rticle