Welcome toNotes from the Booth

In 1997, we brought a little piece of Japanese nightlife to Frith Street with the first Karaoke Box venue (as far as we know...the first in the UK!)

Behind a series of private doors, we invited Londoners to discover karaoke culture a bit differently to the pub layout: no stage, no audience, no pressure, and a massive library.

By 2005, the secret was out. The Guardian called karaoke “the coolest thing in town” and singled out our Frith Street site as a cult favourite among London’s creative crowd. Read the full article here.

Booths, it reported, had become almost as difficult to secure as a table at The Ivy.

It captured a surviving trend: karaoke as a cosmopolitan pastime, uninterrupted deep cuts, and table service. Nearly three decades later, the rooms have multiplied and the library has grown, but the ritual remains the same.