The Dunedin Musicians' Club will celebrate its 40th birthday on the last Saturday of this month.
The celebrations were meant to be a week earlier but after the Rolling Stones rescheduled their Auckland concert the party was pushed back a week to allow more members to attend.
President Graham Dooley said it was not just local musicians who visited the Manse St club.
International artists who performed unannounced included British violinist Nigel Kennedy.
''He came up with an entourage and shouted bourbons for everyone.''
Hard-rocking British singer Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead and American 1970s teen idol singer Leif Garrett had also performed.
Mr Dooley said the first song he performed at the club was War Pigs, by Black Sabbath.
A club night was held every Thursday and public gigs were held with a special licence.
The club had a full set of instruments for its 140 members to jam on, he said.
In the earlier years, most musicians played cover songs but now more original music was performed, he said.
Life member Annie Naylor said the British street artist Phlegm visited the club and found inspiration for his mural on the side of the club building from the club's piano, which had been transformed into a gothic sound desk.
The club owned the building and bought the leasehold land from the Dunedin City Council about 10 years ago, Ms Naylor said.
The club hosted schools events and all-ages gigs.
The youngest member was drummer Tyler Bailey (14), of Wanaka, and the oldest member was founding member and drummer Jack Allpress (86).
Mr Allpress said in the early 1970s, there were three groups of musicians in Dunedin - the Otago branch of the Musicians' Union, the Dunedin Jazz Society and the Young Musos' Club.
The Young Musos' Club was in debt in 1974 and members suggested the members of the other groups create an incorporated club.
The Young Musos' sold a full set of instruments to the new club for $1994 - the amount of debt it owed.
The club took a lease on the Manse St property and the landlord promised the first three months rent free, if the club made it ''habitable''.
The 45 musicians at the meeting passed a resolution to form the Dunedin Musicians' Club and fixed annual subscriptions at $15, he said.
''Everybody present paid up there and then.''
More than 120 people attended the opening night on November 19, 1974, and the first song he played in the club was Pennies from Heaven by Bing Crosby.
