Les Cousins (music club)

Les Cousins was a folk and blues club in the basement of a restaurant in Greek Street, in the Soho district of London, England. It had its heyday during the British folk music revival of the mid-1960s and was notable as a venue in which musicians of that period met and learnt from each other. As such, it was influential in the careers of, for example, Jackson C. Frank, Al Stewart, Marc Brierley, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, John Martyn, Alexis Korner, The Strawbs, Roy Harper, The Young Tradition and Paul Simon. Several albums were recorded there.

Les Cousins was opened on Friday 16 April 1965 in a basement venue at 49, Greek Street, Soho (some sources give the address as 48 Greek Street) which had earlier served as a 1950s skiffle club. Upstairs was the Dionysus restaurant owned by a family called Matheou, whose son, Andy Matheou ran the basement club. The club was reputed to have taken its name from Claude Chabrol's 1959 film Les Cousins, the story of a young man from the country who comes to the city to study law, but is distracted by the rowdy cousin with whom he shares lodgings. However, the name was usually pronounced with English pronunciation, rather than French. The decor included a huge wagon wheel and fishing nets. The club was noted for its all-night sessions and was favoured by the innovative musicians who were less welcome in more purist traditional folk clubs.

Noel Murphy was the first resident musician and compere. Other residents included Alexis Korner and Roy Harper.

Les Cousins was described by Roy Harper as "a spawning ground" for musical talent. In similar vein, Ian Anderson (editor of fRoots) said "...the music got so exciting, 'cause everybody listened to everybody else. So although you might choose to just play one thing, at the same time, you had an open mind for something else."

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