CBGB

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CBGB

The front facade of CBGB
Nickname(s) CB's
Location Manhattan, New York
Type Music venue
Genre(s) Punk
Hardcore
Blue Grass
Blues
Country
Opened 1973
Owner Hilly Kristal
Closed 2006
Website http://www.cbgb.com/

CBGB (Country, Blue Grass, and Blues) was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and punk-influenced bands like Ramones, Misfits,Television, the Patti Smith Group, Mink Deville, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Blondie and Talking Heads.

The storefront and large space next door to the club served as the CBGB Record Store for many years. Eventually, in the late eighties, the record store was closed and replaced with a second performance space and art gallery, named CB's 313 Gallery. The gallery went on to showcase many popular bands and singer/songwriters who played in a musical style more akin to acoustic rock, folk, jazz, or experimental music, while the original club continued to present the best in harder, louder post-punk, metal, and alternative rock acts.

The club closed in October 2006. The final concert was performed by Patti Smith on Sunday October 15.[1] CBGB Fashions (the CBGB store, wholesale department, and online store) stayed open until October 31 at 315 Bowery. On November 1, 2006 CBGB Fashions moved to 19-23 St. Mark's Place, where it remains today.

Contents

[edit] Founding

CBGB, a then-little-known rock club, was founded in December 1973, on the site of Kristal's earlier bar, Hilly's on the Bowery, which he ran from 1969 to 1972. Originally, Kristal had focused on his more profitable West Village nightspot, Hilly's, but complaints from the bar's neighbors forced Hilly's to close, leading its owner to concentrate on the Bowery club. The full name is CBGB & OMFUG which stands for "Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers". Gormandizer usually means a ravenous eater of food, but according to Kristal here it means "a voracious eater of ... music".[2] The club was also affectionately called simply "CB's". As its name implied, Kristal intended the bar to feature Country, Bluegrass and Blues music (along with poetry readings), but it became famous as the birthplace of the American punk movement.

[edit] 1970s

In 1973, before Hilly's on the Bowery became CBGB, two locals, Bill Page and Rusty McKenna, convinced Kristal to allow them to book concerts. Although the term "punk rock" was not applied to these acts, Kristal's son believes they helped lay the musical foundation for the bands that followed.[3] After the Mercer Arts Center collapsed in August 1973, there were few locations in New York where unsigned bands could play original music, and a couple of Mercer refugees—Suicide and Wayne County—played one-off gigs in the very early days of CBGB.

On March 31, 1974, Television began a long-term Sunday night residency at the club. Although Kristal and many others who were present are quoted as saying that Television was the first band to bring punk rock to CBGB, Kristal's son disputes this, claiming there was actually a punk show in progress the first time Tom Verlaine visited the club. [4] However, it was Television's shows that started a flood of "street music" (as punk acts were initially known) performances on the Bowery.[5]

At the third Television gig on 14 April 1974, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group were in the audience; that band went on to make its own CBGB debut on 14 February 1975. Other early performers included The Stillettoes (featuring future Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry on back-up vocals), who supported Television on 5 May 1974. The newly-formed Blondie (under its original name of Angel & the Snake) and The Ramones both arrived in August 1974. Mink DeVille, Talking Heads, The Shirts, The Heartbreakers, The Fleshtones and many other bands followed in quick succession.

CBGB's had only one rule for a band to follow in order to play at the venue: they had to write original music. No cover bands were booked to play there. However, regulars like Television and the Ramones sometimes played a handful of covers during their sets. According (again) to Kristal's son, this was so the club had no need to pay ASCAP royalties for the compositions being performed.[6]

As CBGB's reputation grew, it began to draw more acts from outside the New York area. For example, the club hosted the first non-European gigs by the Police, on October 20 and 21, 1978.

[edit] Hardcore punk

Though CBGB was utilized as a hot spot for touring bands to hit when they came through New York, the scene that kept the bar alive during the 1980s was New York's underground hardcore scene. Sunday at CBGB was matinee day (also named "thrash day" in a documentary about hardcore skinheads)[citation needed]. Every Sunday, a handful of hardcore bands took the stage in the afternoon to dinnertime hours, usually for cheap. Bands made famous by matinees include Reagan Youth, Agnostic Front, Murphy's Law, Cro-Mags, Leeway, Warzone, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick Of It All, and Youth Of Today.

Over the years, the CBGB's matinee became an institution. In 1990 violence both in and out of the scene caused Kristal to refuse to book hardcore shows, however CBGB's later brought hardcore back at various times, and for the last several years of its existence had no rules about what genres could and couldn't be featured.

[edit] Closing

CBGB after it closed
CBGB after it closed

In 2005, a dispute arose between CBGB and the Bowery Residents' Committee. The Committee billed Kristal $91,000 in back rent, while Kristal claimed he had not been informed of increases in his $19,000 monthly rent. After the lease expired, they reached an agreement for the club to remain for fourteen more months while Kristal dropped his legal battles and his attempts to get historic landmark status for the club.

Kristal planned to move the club far from its roots with a new CBGB's in Las Vegas, Nevada. The owner planned to strip the current club down to the bare walls, bringing as much of it to Nevada as possible.

"We're going to take the urinals," he said. "I'll take whatever I can. The movers said, `You ought to take everything, and auction off what you don't want on eBay.' Why not? Somebody will."[7]

The club finally closed on October 15, 2006. The last week featured multi-night stands by Bad Brains and The Dictators, along with an acoustic set by Blondie. Younger groups such as Avail and the Bouncing Souls also performed.

The final concert was performed by Patti Smith and broadcast live on Sirius Satellite Radio. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers attended the show and even performed on a handful of songs with Smith and her band. Flea turned 44 at midnight, and the band and crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Television's Richard Lloyd also guested on a few songs, including a reworked version of the title track to "Marquee Moon". Toward the end of their set, the band played "Gloria", paying tribute to the Ramones during the chorus by alternating between the original lyrics and the "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" of "Blitzkrieg Bop". In her final encore, the song "Elegie", Smith listed many of the musicians who died since they last played at CBGB.

Hilly Kristal passed away from complications from lung cancer on August 28, 2007. In early October 2007, Kristal's family and friends hosted a private memorial service in the YMCA near the village. Soon after, there was a public memorial where CBGB staff and others paid tribute.

[edit] The Building

On November 2, 2007 it was announced that high-end men's fashion designer John Varvatos would open a store at CBGB's former space at 315 Bowery in early 2008.[8] Varvatos has promised to do justice to CBGB's legacy. [9]. The store opened in April 2008. [10]

In February 2008, it was announced that Morrison Hotel, a SoHo art gallery dedicated to music photography, would open a second location in the former CBGB's Gallery space next door. The graffiti covering the bathrooms will be preserved, along with some playbills from the club's 10th anniversary shows in 1983 that were discovered behind a wall. [11] It was also announced that the alley, officially known as "Extra Place", behind the club would be turned into a pedestrian mall. The New York Post quotes Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys as saying "If that alley could talk, it's seen it all." and "All of Manhattan has lost its soul to money lords." [12]

[edit] Famous acts

[edit] References

  1. ^ Yahoo Music coverage of concert
  2. ^ Official CBGB website
  3. ^ Debunking CBGB Myths: An Interview with Dana, Hilly Kristal’s Son, Tiny Mix Tapes, September 11, 2007
  4. ^ Debunking CBGB Myths: An Interview with Dana, Hilly Kristal’s Son, Tiny Mix Tapes, September 11, 2007
  5. ^ Heylin, passim
  6. ^ Debunking CBGB Myths: An Interview with Dana, Hilly Kristal’s Son, Tiny Mix Tapes, September 11, 2007
  7. ^ Stars return in CBGB's last shows:The Dictators, Debbie Harry and Patti Smith are among the artists returning to perform at legendary New York music club CBGB's, ahead of its closure after 33 years, BBC News, October 12, 2006
  8. ^ "A Punk Temple Reborn: Would You Like To See the $200 Safety Pins?", The Washington Post, 2007-11-02. 
  9. ^ Polsky, Carol. "Designer turning CBGB into a rocking boutique", Newsday, 2008-01-14. Retrieved on 2008-01-16. "We don't want anyone to walk into the space and say, 'Oh, they screwed it up.' We want them to walk in and say, 'It's not CBGB, but they did the right thing.'" 
  10. ^ Sisario, Ben. "At the Former CBGB, the Punks Once Played but the Rich Now Romp", New York Times, 2008-04-19. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. 
  11. ^ Brettell, Karen. "NY gallery keeps punk alive in old CBGB space", Reuters, 2008-03-27. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
  12. ^ FERMINO, JENNIFER. "HOBO GOES HAUTE", New York Post, 2008-03-25. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 

[edit] Sources

  • Beeber, Steven. The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-1-55652-613-8.
  • Brazis, Tamar (ed.). CBGB & OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock (1st ed.). New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2005. ISBN 0810957868.
  • Heylin, Clinton. From the Velvets to the Voidoids (2nd ed.). Eastbourne, East Sussex: Gardners Books, 2005. ISBN 1-905139-04-7.
  • Kozak, Roman. This Ain't No Disco: The Story of CBGB. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1988. ISBN 0-571-12956-0.

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 40°43′31″N, 73°59′31″W