Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been pretty obsessed with our spectacular new Hard Rock Cafe Seattle and all the cool stuff we put on display, so as a bit of a palette cleanser, let’s take a look at some of the incredible memorabilia in our flagship cafe. Hard Rock is based in Orlando, Florida, so we keep the Orlando cafe stocked with some of the greatest treasures from our collection. It’s also a gigantic facility with two floors of rock history and a 3000-seat concert venue. People are continually amazed that this vibrant rock museum is smack-dab in the middle of what is too often thought of as a hollow tourist town dominated by a certain cartoon rodent. It’s much, much more than that. You can check out a much larger sampling of the Orlando collection at our interactive memorabilia website by clicking here.
FREDDIE MERCURY BODYSUIT
Here’s a great example of the completely over-the-top spandex bodysuits that Queen’s Freddie Mercury favored in the ‘70s. He wore this one in 1978 during Queen’s world tour in support of the album Jazz. Don’t you wish you had one just like it?
PENNY LANE TRUMPET
This unique piccolo trumpet was played with great effect by British orchestral musician David Mason on the recording of The Beatles “Penny Lane.” He played the middle solo and the Bach-like figure on the song’s outro with this horn, catapulting him into pop culture history. In a way, Mr. Mason and this trumpet upstaged The Beatles on their own turf – the trumpet solo on “Penny Lane” is arguably the single most identifiable part of the song.
ANGUS YOUNG OUTFIT
Rock 'n' roll’s eternal schoolboy, AC/DC’s Angus Young, rocked this fancy velvet outfit onstage in the ‘80s.
MARSHALL LYTLE BASS
This old Epiphone upright bass is one of the most significant instruments in the entire Hard Rock collection. It was used by Bill Haley and the Comets' bassist Marshall Lytle to record “Rock Around the Clock” in 1954 – the song that truly lit the fuse on the rock revolution. An incredible piece of history.
RAY CHARLES PLAYBOY MAGAZINE
When our guests see this piece hanging on the wall, they tend to do the type of double-take that induces whiplash. Yes, this is a Braille copy of Playboy magazine – the January 2000 issue to be exact. It belonged to Ray Charles and he was kind enough to sign it for us. Braille editions of Playboy bring a new level honesty to the old saying, “I just read it for the articles.”
JOHN LENNON LETTER
Here’s a great letter handwritten by John Lennon to his friend Lindy Ness in 1962. John was in Hamburg at the time and he fills this letter with vitriol towards the German city and his general dissatisfaction with his lot in life. In less than a year, Beatlemania would take over England and John had a few million reasons to cheer up. Click the pic to get a much closer look at the letter at our interactive memorabilia website.
BUDDY HOLLY GLASSES
These really are Buddy Holly’s glasses. ‘Nuff said.
KEITH RICHARDS GUITAR
This exceedingly bizarre Italian guitar with a built-in speaker was used by Keith on the Stones’ brilliant 1969 album, Let It Bleed.
VINNE PAUL DRUM KIT
This badass Pearl drum set was used by Pantera/Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott on December 8th, 2004 at a gig in Ohio. That night, a crazed gunman jumped on stage and killed Vinnie’s brother – legendary guitarist and all-around great guy Dimebag Darrell Abbott. This drum kit was a witness to one of the most senseless tragedies in the history of popular music.
JANIS JOPLIN SHAWL
The greatest female rock singer who ever lived (that’s not an opinion, folks, it’s a fact) wore this shawl in the back cover photo of her breakthrough album, 1967’s Cheap Thrills.
Hard Rock Cafe Orlando is so huge, there are literally hundreds more amazing pieces of history on the walls. If you’ve put off a trip to Orlando because you don’t want to deal with the tourist thing, come on down, drop the kids off at the theme park, and spend some time with us basking in the glory of rock 'n' roll.