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The Pogues used the Ballroom as their personal rehearsal room during the late-80s and played here in November 1987. Bill Fuller was intrigued enough by their records to fly over from Las Vegas for the occasion. “I’ve always loved Irish music, really good Irish music, and I still love it today,” he says. “I’d travel thousands of miles to hear it.”

Fuller insisted on cooking The Pogues a steak dinner in the Ballroom’s upstairs restaurant before the show, which was a bit problematic for Shane MacGowan. “I wasn’t going to say to Bill Fuller, I’m vegetarian’, you know what I mean?” he says. “I had a lot of respect in his eyes - that would have turned me into a w----- in five seconds, so I said, “Thank you very much’, and ate the potatoes and cabbage.”

The Pogues, who were just about to release their big Christmas hit, Fairytale Of New York, made it worth Bill Fuller’s time by playing a great show and Joe Strummer unexpectedly joined them for a rendition of I Fought The Law during the encore. Strummer later played guitar on The Pogues’ US Tour that winter, a return to the stage which prompted him to form the Latino Rockabilly War band and do a Rock Against The Rich Tour the following summer. The tour stopped off at the Electric Ballroom and his set included everything from the 101’ ers’ Keys To Your Heart and the Clash’s Straight To Hell to Trash City.

Public Enemy played at the Ballroom in 1988, on one of the last occasions when they would appear in such a small venue, as did the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Gaye Bykers On Acid specifically requested this as the venue for their major London gig, after releasing their 1989 LP, Stewed To The Gills. “I always remember going to other people’s gigs at the Ballroom and thinking that I’d love to play there cos it’s such a fantastic place,” says Mary Byker. “It’s faded grandeur, glamour gone wrong; it’s lost in time somewhere. I remember when we went in to do our sound check, we were like, ‘Yes, here we are - f--- the Town & Country, this is better, it’s right in the middle of Camden.’ But the gig was a disaster because the sound limiter went off and it cut all the backline out. Rat Scabies was there and he said afterwards, ‘You should get me to produce one of your records.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, all right.’ And he goes, ‘What we’ll do is we’ll get some crates of beer, loads of cheap speed and we’ll just lock ourselves in the studio for two weeks - that’s exactly what you need to do.’ And I remember thinking at the lime, That is exactly what we don’t need to do’, but, looking back he was right. To get a great record from that band, at that time, that’s what we should have done, with somebody like him, who we all liked, because he was a punk.”

In the early part of the 90s, live bands only played here occasionally - Such as Elastica in February 1993 - and the Ballroom became best known for its Friday night goth disco Full Tilt and Saturday’s house-oriented Crush Club. It is also renowned for its Sunday fashion market and its record fairs.

In 1996, the Ballroom not only reemphasised its Irish roots by hosting Tuesday night line-dancing sessions, but started putting on live bands again, such as Menswear and Lush. The most memorable gig of that year, though, was by Ocean Colour Scene, who played two nights here in May. On the second night, Liam and Noel Gallagher came on stage during the encore and sang three Oasis songs - Live Forever, Wonderwall and Cast No Shadow - and they were joined by Ocean Colour Scene for a mass rendition of The Beatles’ Day Tripper.