Downtown anywhere in the USA
You can find yourself a Hard Rock Cafe
Put your money on a number anyone can play
Come on and tell us all about what happened to you today
At the Hard Rock Cafe
come to the Hard Rock Cafe
I hope you can find your way to the Hard Rock Cafe
After a hard day's work I guarantee
there just isn't anywhere better to be
If you're unable to find good company
You can always sit down and watch the color TV
At the Hard Rock Cafe
come to the Hard Rock Cafe
The regulars can't keep away from the Hard Rock Cafe
And if you're feeling just a little bit lonely
don't sit at home just hoping
Come on down to where the spirits flow so free
You know that door is always open
At the Hard Rock Cafe
come to the Hard Rock Cafe
They will help keep your blues at bay at the Hard Rock Café
Hard Rock Café, Hard Rock Café, Hard Rock Café
Carole King’s 1977 tribute to Hard Rock Café rings true even today and not only in the US and UK but all over the world. Hard Rock Café a name that conjures up rock music, hip décor, memorabilia, cocktails and good times, dished out in an atmosphere of raucous bonhomie, where music flows and Love All Serve All is the ruling philosophy. One of the most iconic and recognizable brands globally, Hard Rock Café, opened its doors in Mumbai, India, on September 12, 2006. Rock music fans rejoiced and Mumbai, the pulsating kichdi of a metropolis that never sleeps, welcomed it like an oasis in the desert with open ears and long unquenched thirst.
Though smaller the Mumbai HRC has a bit of similarity with the Café in New York, a city that has a lot in common with Mumbai. Like Mumbai New York too is a melting pot of cultures, filled with stark contrasts and a city that never goes to sleep either. Set in the fastest developing mill area of Lower Parel in Central Mumbai, the 6,000 sq. ft. Café with two live music stage areas, can seat 169 and features an outstanding American menu Indianised to an extent, collectible merchandise and world-famous memorabilia.
A 300-square-foot retail store offers Hard Rock's authentic merchandise, including Hard Rock's legendary collectible pins, featuring the limited-edition Mumbai cafe opening pin set. Throughout its history, Hard Rock Cafe has been governed by a guiding service philosophy ‘Love All-Serve All’. HRC is a place where all are welcome, regardless of age, sex, or class. This unconditional welcome, first extended by Tigrett and Morton, is as integral to Hard Rock's present and future, as it was to its beginnings.
No doubt HRC Mumbai benefitted from its iconic Hard Rock tag, but from the word go it was as if a trip to HRC was on everyone’s must do itinerary and it was not only the swish set. In that respect HRC Mumbai has lived up to Hard Rock’s heritage of being the most happening music place in town, hosting regular gigs featuring the best local bands and international acts, besides some of the biggest rock events in the country.
The colorful history of Hard Rock Café goes back to the day, June 14, 1971, in London, when two American music enthusiasts, Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton opened their theme restaurant on Park Lane in London’s fashionable Mayfair district. At a time when London society was sharply delineated along class lines HRC was a classless restaurant with a totally informal ambience, reasonably priced quality American fast food, warm service and all pervading rock n roll music. It represented a marked contrast to the stiff luxurious establishments on Park Lane. Tigrett and Morton probably never expected it, but from day one the Café brought in customers by the droves. While Morton was rather reserved and businesslike and Tigrett quite the opposite, the café’s welcome unconventionality, Tigrett’s flamboyance and eccentricities, the rock stars and celebrities who frequented the place, all combined to build up the hype and mystique surrounding the Café and made it an unprecedented success.
There is an interesting anecdote about the Hard Rock Café name itself. Many people have wondered if the name was taken from the sub-title on Side One of The Doors album Morrison Hotel. Actually it was. The story goes that after the Doors finished shooting the pics for the album cover at the Morrison Hotel in LA, Jim wanted to have a drink and a few blocks away they came across a bar called Hard Rock Café and decided they had to go in there. They took some pics of the café inside and outside and used it for the back cover of the album. The album was released in February, 1970. A year later when Morton and Tigrett who were planning to open their Cafe in London, they asked The Doors for permission to use the name saying “Do you mind if we use the name Hard Rock Cafe? We’re starting a café here in London and we’d like to use the name off your album.” And they said “No, go ahead, fine.” Today however, the original Hard Rock Café, on 300 East 5th Street, Los Angeles, no longer exists.
The curious thing about Hard Rock Café’s phenomenal success, as one analyst noted, was that they generated business merely by their existence, they never really had to advertise or market themselves.
The celebrity customers and gossip columnists ensured that they were never out of the limelight. As their popularity grew so did the Hard Rock lore, of which there are umpteen. One oft repeated story recounts how Eric Clapton’s guitar found its way on to the wall of HRC, kicking off one of the world’s biggest collection of rock n roll memorabilia. Eric Clapton who was a regular at the café and pretty friendly with Tigrett and Morton, asked them one day to keep a table reserved for him every day and put up a plaque or something. They laughed and said, "Why don't we put up your guitar?" and Clapton to their surprise handed over his red Fender Lead II which they immediately put up on the wall of the Café. An amusing sequel to this event was that about a week later another guitar arrived, a Gibson Les Paul, with a note from Pete Townshend of The Who saying, "Mine's as good as his. Love, Pete". The two guitars were the first items of memorabilia acquired by the Café and over the years the collection has grown to over 70,000 pieces at last count and includes other musical instruments, lyric sheets, album artwork, costumes, gold and platinum edition LPs, rare photos, etc, making it virtually a museum of rock and roll history. Sothbey’s has valued the collection at over US$ 30 million. Other Hard Rock lore tells of how Led Zeppelin sent the whiskey bottles lined in the bar crashing one day, of the Duke of Westminster being a surprising customer and Steven Spielberg having lunch every day at the Café during the filming of Raiders of the Lost Arc. In 1976 Tigrett married Beatle Ringo Starr’s ex wife Maureen Starkey and this priceless anecdote recalls how he reportedly used to refer to her as his greatest piece of rock memorabilia.
Hard Rock’s Indian connection and how the Love All Serve All, motto found in HRCs round the world came into being is another unusual story. In 1974 Tigrett who was considered to be a ‘raving marxist’ converted to Hinduism and became a ardent follower of Indian spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba, espousing the Love All, Serve All and Help Ever, Hurt Never tenets. Tigrett was highly influenced by Sai Baba and has said that all along it was Sai Baba who was the guiding force behind his opening the Hard Rock Café and who inspired him to bring human values to the workplace. A picture of Sai Baba adorns Tigrett’s famous 'God Wall' in every HRC around the world, a tribute to the inspirational forces guiding people's lives. It is said that Tigrett who hated waiting in queues, seeing customers standing in long lines outside the London café’s entrance, had the boundary of the restaurant extended up to the end of the waiting line. A Queue Maitre d' (QMD) was appointed to make people standing in the queue comfortable, by bringing out umbrellas during rainy weather and providing refreshments like iced tea, cocoa or soup.
Though Hard Rock Café has always been associated with rock music it was only in 1997 that they started featuring live bands, after they teamed up with TV Channel VH1 for the successful ‘Hard Rock Live’ weekly television series. This major makeover had live music stages being progressively added to all Hard Rock cafés and HRC soon became a prestigious venue for live performances, not only by the biggest names in rock history but also for upcoming bands whose careers could be made big time after a gig at the Café.
Tigrett and Morton’s was an unlikely partnership and while Tigrett’s antics worked in the Café’s favour adding to its attraction, their differences led to the eventual breakup of the partnership when Morton returned to the US in 1979, though each retained the rights to the brand in the demarcated areas arrived at after a protracted legal battle. Both Tigrett and Morton later sold off their holdings to different buyers and after changing hands a few times it came under the single ownership of the Rank Group PLC in 1996 and from whom it was acquired by the Seminole Tribe in 2006. The Seminole Tribe of Florida, the only native American Indian tribe never to have signed a peace treaty with the US, who survived a tragic but inspiring history of hundreds of years of conflict with the white occupiers and who today hold interests in tobacco, gaming casinos and tourism, are the current owners of the Hard Rock brand globally.
In India the Hard Rock franchise is owned by the JSM Group founded by restaurateurs Jay Singh and Sanjay Mahtani. Since its inception, Hard Rock has remained extraordinarily faithful to its original intentions. Its rock 'n roll sensibility - an HRC birthright - remains at the very center of all Hard Rock restaurants and all expansion efforts undertaken by Hard Rock International. Hard Rock has consistently supported a wide-range of altruistic and philanthropic causes - under the banner ‘Save The Planet’ and the ‘Local Ambassador Program’ to help local communities on a daily basis. The Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai too has been very busy building their Local Ambassador Program and supporting a wide range of local charities in the community. Mumbai Hard Rockers helped in a wide range of charitable events and activities over the past including "Kicking It For a Cause", in support of Magic Bus and a local food drive, in support of IMAGINE THERE'S NO HUNGER. ALL IS ONE.
So Come to the Hard Rock Café and let yourself go, let the guitar riffs wash over you and good cheer fill your spirits; tomorrow is another day.
- Stanley Paul