Hong Kong
HARDROCK CAFE
1976 GFGC founder members[THE SCOTSTOUN BOYS] along with John McDonald
stood for 30 mins to get a seat at this new Hamburger joint in Parklane London.
The Scostoun boys had travel down to London for the Scotland v England clash.
John McDonald was living in London so he had already visit the HRC .
At that time Scotland had no McDonalds only Wimpy which were not very good.
We were not dissapointed . Since then we have adopted HRC as a greet meeting place
on our Travels.
HISTORY TAKEN FRON HRC WEBSITE
Standing on Old Park Lane since June 14th 1971, this is the one that started it all. The brainchild of Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, the cafe attracted customers from day one with first-rate but moderately priced casual American fare (available no-where else in London or the UK at the time), warm service and ubiquitous Rock 'n' Roll music and sensibility - Hard Rock Cafe London became an instant classic.
It started with an Eric Clapton guitar (a Fender Lead II, for the gearheads in the audience). The beginning of something that nobody even knew was beginning.
It was just a goof. A laugh. A joke among friends.
Back in the seventies, Clapton - the original guitar god, founder of Cream and Derek & the Dominoes, creator of the immortal "Layla" - liked to eat at this quirky American diner in London called the Hard Rock Cafe. The place was this funky old building that used to be a Rolls Royce dealership, and it was run by a couple of young Americans who liked to keep it loose. Founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two enterprising and music-loving Americans, Hard Rock Cafe was an instant classic. You could be yourself at the Hard Rock. It was good food and a good time.
So Clapton got to be friends with the proprietors and asked them to save him a regular table, put up a brass plaque or something. And the young proprietors said, “Why don't we put up your guitar?” They all had a chuckle, and he handed over a guitar, and they slapped it on the wall.
No one thought much more about it. Until a week later, when another guitar arrived (a Gibson Les Paul, by the way). With it was a note from Pete Townshend of The Who which read: "Mine's as good as his. Love, Pete."
The young proprietors put it on the wall. After that, the guitars never stopped coming. Today there are more than 70,000 guitars, drums, pianos, harmonicas, microphones, shirts, pants, scarves, shoes, handwritten lyrics, cars, bikes, a bus and assorted rock memorabilia - by far, the largest, most valuable such collection in the world - on the walls of over 138 Hard Rock Cafes, Hotels and Casinos in 42 countries around the world.
But it all started with the one.
BARCELONA HARD ROCK CAFE
CAFE LOCATOR http://www.hardrockcafe.com/locations/cafes3/locator.aspx
GFGC MEMBER STEVIE AT THE HARD ROCK CAFE CANCUN MEXICO
GFGC VICE CHAIRMAN`S PHOTO OF HARD ROCK BOSTON USA