CBGB

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The outside front facade of CBGB
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The outside front facade of CBGB

CBGB (Country, Blue Grass, and Blues) was a legendary music club located at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became legendary as a forum for American punk and punk-influenced bands like The Ramones, Television, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, Blondie, and Talking Heads. The club closed on the weekend of October 13, 2006. The Dictators headlined the final Friday and Saturday night, October 13 & 14, and were joined onstage Saturday night by Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, performing an acoustic set. The final concert was performed by Patti Smith on Sunday October 15.[1][2] CBGB Fashions (the CBGB store, wholesale department, and online store) stayed open until October 31 at 315 Bowery. On November 1 CBGB Fashions moved to Broadway and Bond Street.

Contents

[edit] Founding

CBGB was founded in December 1973[3], on the site of Kristal's earlier bar, Hilly's on the Bowery, which he ran from 1969 to 1972. After that point he had focused exclusively on his more profitable West Village nightspot, Hilly's, until he was forced to close it due to complaints from residents, sending him back to the Bowery. 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".[4]

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 American punk. Since the Mercer Arts Center had 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. However, the key moment in the venue's early history is considered to be the Sunday night residency of Television that began on March 31, 1974, the start of a flood of performers of "street music" (especially The Ramones), as punk acts were initially known. A new book about punk - The Heebie Jeebies at CBGB's - has a chapter about Hilly and the early years.

[edit] 1970s

At the third Television gig on 14 April 1974, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group were in the audience; however, the band was not to make its CBGB debut until 14 February 1975. Alongside Television, other early performers included The Stillettoes (featuring future Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry), who supported Television on 5 May 1974, the newly-formed Blondie (under its original name of Angel & the Snake) and The Ramones, both in August 1974.

Mink DeVille, Talking Heads, Tuff Darts, The Shirts, Steel Tips, The Heartbreakers, The Fleshtones and many other bands followed in quick succession. The club continued to host many punk and new wave bands over the years.

CBGB's had only one rule for a band to follow in order to play at the venue: all original music, no covers.

[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). Every Sunday, a handful of hardcore bands took the stage in the afternoon to dinnertime hours, usually for cheap. Over the years, the CBGB's matinee became an institution, before violence both in and out of the scene caused Kristal to refuse to book hardcore shows. By 1990, CBGB did not book any hardcore punk or punk shows. CBGB's 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.

Bands made famous by matinees include Gorilla Biscuits, the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, U.S. Chaos, Sick Of It All, Reagan Youth, Warzone, and Youth Of Today.

[edit] Closing

CBGB after it closed
Enlarge
CBGB after it closed

In 2005, a dispute between CBGB and the Bowery Resident's Committee began. 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.

The club finally closed on October 15, 2006. Kristal plans to move the club far from its roots with a new CBGB's in Las Vegas, Nevada. The owner plans 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."[5]

The final concert was performed by Patti Smith. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers attended the concert. He turned 44 at midnight, and the band and crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to him. [2] Sirius Satellite Radio did a live broadcast of the show. Smith listed many of the musicians who died since they last played at CBGB in her final encore. The band, as the final song, played "Gloria", but alternated between choruses of "Blitzkrieg Bop" with "Gloria!" [2]

[edit] Famous acts

[edit] Books

  • Heylin, Clinton (1993, revised 2005). From the Velvets to the Voidoids (2nd ed.). London. ISBN 1-905139-04-7.
  • Brazis, Tamar (Ed.) (2005). CBGB & OMFUG (1st ed.). New York. ISBN 0-8109-5787-8.
  • Kozak, Roman (1988). "This Aint No Disco" Winchester, Mass. ISBN 0-571-12956-0
  • Beeber, Steven (2006) "The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk. ISBN-13: 978-1-55652-613-8.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Yahoo Music coverage of concert
  2. ^ a b c Yahoo News report on final concert
  3. ^ Downer at the Rock and Roll Club: As CBGB takes its victory laps, a lifer reminisces about the death of an era, The Village Voice, September 12, 2006
  4. ^ Official CBGB website
  5. ^ 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

[edit] External links

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