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PETE King, who has died aged 80, was the driving force behind Britain’s leading jazz venue, Ronnie Scott’s. While it was named after his business partner, who was also the on-stage frontman, King was responsible for the day-to-day running of the club. He was born in Bow on August 23 1929 and took up the clarinet and saxophone as a teenager. He began an apprenticeship as a coach builder but decided his calling was music, and after playing professionally for years, became manager of the Jazz Couriers in 1957, with Scott as lead sax player. The pair discussed opening their own club, ­modeled on the New Orleans honky tonks, and found what they were looking for in a dingy Gerrard Street basement. With his “no nonsense” approach, King ensured the club was run smoothly. The origins of Ronnie’s can be traced back to a night at St Pancras Town Hall in 1947. On Saturday nights the Town Hall staged dances, with a resident band led by Jack Oliverie, of which King was a member. Occasionally the management booked “name” bands, one of which had Scott in the line-up. The two struck up a friendship, subsequently meeting almost weekly in Archer Street, a small road connecting Great Windmill Street and Rupert Street in Soho, that became an open-air social club and labour exchange for musicians. It was from here they got employment with drummer Jack Parnell’s band. It did not last: when Parnell engaged a girl vocalist, Marian Keene, she insisted on her husband, a tenor saxophonist, joining. King was given the sack. As a measure of his popularity, half the band gave their notice. King and Scott yearned for a place where they could play jazz and so, on October 29 1959, Ronnie Scott’s was born. They soon ran into difficulties, with more of their friends turning up than paying members of the public. A solution would have been the employment of famed US musicians, but this was prevented by the British Musicians’ Union’s campaign to ban foreign musicians. This was the result of a long-standing tussle between the American and British unions, the British insisting on reciprocal bookings of their musicians in America. In 1965, a hazy agreement was reached but it applied only to bands, not the individual musicians Scott and King urgently needed. King went to America to meet American Federation of Musicians head Caesar Petrillo. His aim was to get reciprocal agreements regarding individual musicians. Petrillo was fascinated by East Ender King’s Cockney accent and, realising this, King exaggerated his accent, which resulted in the booking of tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims playing at Ronnie Scott’s – and a marked increase in attendance. It was the beginning of a series of bookings of Americans. Pete took on the job as manager. He had total control and worked punishing hours. He would arrive at the club at 2pm to deal with the day’s business and leave at 3am the next morning. Writer and jazz promoter Jim Godbolt, who worked with King for 26 years, said: “There’s no doubt that without Pete’s presence and sheer determination, Ronnie Scott’s would never have survived. He was blunt, forceful and at times overwhelming, but it was his strength of character that proved to be so vital in an area where there was a high mortality rate.” Pete sold the club to theatre impresario Sally Greene in 2007. His routine had taken a toll – in his latter days he suffered from dementia. He died on December 20, having been sadly unable to paticipate in celebrations of the club’s 50th birthday earlier last year due to his illness. DAN CARRIER