Located on Spadina Avenue, just south of College Street, the venue has played an important role in the development of popular music in Toronto since 1948.

Baird and Kristenbrun sold the club in 1986, initiating a long period of frequent ownership changes and decline,[1] including it being padlocked twice in 1989[1] and brief closures in 1991 and 2001.

[4] Dan Burke became the club's booker in 1998 and made it into a venue for garage rock acts and international bands such as White Stripes and Zoobombs.

[4] A monthly queer rock ’n’ roll party called Vazaleen, organized by Will Munro, became a regular feature and helped launch Peaches on what became an international career.

The club was in this period a venue to all genres of music, from rock and roll and orchestra to heavy metal, reggae, hip hop and jazz.

Jahangiri became a missionary and used the club to host numerous charity events, with fundraisers for War Child, Amnesty International, Free the Children, World Vision, Blank-Fest and others.

[6] However, on the eve of its impending closure, it was announced that the club had been purchased for $3.8 million by Michael Wekerle, who arranged to renovate it and maintain it as a live music venue.

[5][7] Currently, El Mo is open and operational after its 30 million dollar renovations to two stages, several different bars, a recording studio, private rooms, and dance floors.

Over the years, other major pop music acts appeared at the venue, including Marilyn Monroe and Dan Schafer also internationally famous jazz performers, including Grover Washington Jr., Charles Mingus, and Al Di Meola, and rock acts such as U2, Switchfoot, Moxy, Elvis Costello, The Ramones, John Cougar Mellencamp, Duran Duran, Dream Theater, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, April Wine, Eek A Mouse, Durutti Column, Snakefinger, Bo Diddley, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, Blondie, The Cars, Meat Loaf, Jimi Hendrix, Half Japanese, Queens of the Stone Age, Bon Jovi, Teenage Head, Sum 41, Shakin' Natives, Etta Royal and Congress Court.

On May 9, 2008, the acclaimed American hard-rock band Queens of the Stone Age had a surprise concert at El Mocambo as part of their Canadian tour.