Hard Rock Cafe restaurants history
How the restaurant HARD ROCK CAFE was created
It all started with the filing of the legendary American rock band The Doors. At the end of 1969, the musicians decided to record their next, fifth, album. Doors leader Jim Morrison decided to name it the Morrison Hotel after the hotel at 1246 South Hope Street in Los Angeles. But the owners of the hotel did not allow photographing the hotel and the guys, seizing the moment when no one was there, went inside and took a photo for the cover. After driving away from the hotel, they suddenly found a small Hard Rock Cafe at 300 East 5th Street a couple of blocks away. Taking into consideration that the band recorded this album in a rough hard rock style, the title suited them even better. The players went into a cafe, drank a bottle of beer, photographer Henry Diltz took some pictures. The photo of "Hard Rock Cafe" was placed on the back cover of the album. We decided to use both names: but the first side of the disc was called "Hard Rock Cafe", the second "Morrison Hotel". The Morrison Hotel album was released on February 1, 1970 and was a excessive achievement.
Group's photographer Henry Diltz later said: “About a year after the release of the album, some guy from England called us and said: 'Hello. Would you mind if we use the cafe name from the back cover of your album? We are arrangement to open a cafe here in London and we would like to give it that name. " The guys said: “We don't mind, go ahead,” and that's how it all started. Now, every time I walk into the Hard Rock Cafe, nevertheless of the city I'm in, I always feel like I should get a free hamburger. "
The world famous Hard Rock Cafe logo was made by the famous British designer and illustrator Alan Aldridge.
The name of the cafe involved the attention of both players and fans of rock music. The cafe gained its main fame due to the free atmosphere that reigns in it, the deep music from TV screens and numerous musical ruins hung on the walls of the institution.
The history of creating a unique collection began with Eric Clapton's guitar in the distant 70s. No one could even imagine that this was just the beginning. It was just a joke, a prank.
Eric Clapton, becoming a regular visitor and making friends with the hosts, asked to reserve his favorite table by hanging a sign over it. The possessors asked him to leave his guitar, which they would nail to the wall above his table. So they decided. Nobody involved much importance to this event until, a week later, a Gibson Les Paul guitar arrived at Hard Rock Cafe in a package from Pete Tausendn of The Who with a short note: “Mine is no worse. Love, Pete. The young owners also hung it on the wall.
After that, parcels with various musical instruments began to arrive at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Today, the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain has the largest collection of such relics in the world - more than 70,000 exhibits: various guitars of famous rockers, other musical instruments and accessories, motorcycles, cars, and even one bus.
And after the opening of a restaurant in New York in 1985, the creators of the brand decided not to stop there and deploy a global network around the world. Now the Hard Rock chain includes 120 Hard Rock Cafes and six hotels and casinos in more than 40 countries, including Russia.
In 2006, the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain bought the Seminole Indian tribe for $ 965 million and is now headquartered in Orlando, Florida. the Seminole is by far the most commercially successful Indian tribe in the United States).
States of Hard Rock Cafe restaurants
- Hard Rock Cafe in Greater London
- Hard Rock Cafe in Greater Manchester
- Hard Rock Cafe in Nottinghamshire
- Hard Rock Cafe in West Midlands
- Hard Rock Cafe in West Yorkshire