Harold Pendleton (17 July 1924 – 22 September 2017) was a British music business executive and former club owner, who established the Marquee Club in London and the National Jazz Festival, the precursor of the Reading Rock Festival.
[3] He also encouraged Barber's banjo player Lonnie Donegan to record Lead Belly's song "Rock Island Line", so stimulating the 1950s skiffle craze.
[1] In 1958, Pendleton took over the jazz nights held in the Marquee Ballroom in Oxford Street, expanding their programme and frequency and occasionally inviting American musicians, including Muddy Waters, to perform there.
[4] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the club, and its attached recording studio, became one of the leading venues for R&B and rock music in Britain.
[2] In 1987 Pendleton sold the Marquee Club to Billy Gaff,[1] and he retired from his role at the Reading Festival in 1988.