Cafe Au Go Go

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The Cafe au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street, New York, NY.

The club was the first New York venue for the Grateful Dead. Richie Havens and the Blues Project were weekly regulars. Jimi Hendrix sat in with blues harp player James Cotton there in 1968. Van Morrison, Tim Hardin, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, the Youngbloods, John Hammond, Jr., The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane, Cream all played there. Blues legends Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, and Big Joe Williams performed at the club after being "rediscovered" in the '60s. Before many rock groups began performing there, the au Go Go was an oasis for jazz (Bill Evans, Stan Getz), comedy, and folk music.

Comedian Lenny Bruce and the club's owner, Howard Solomon, were arrested there on obscenity charges in 1964.

[edit] Au Go Go Singers

In 1964, Solomon brought in a large group of singers and musicians from an off-Broadway show and christened them the Au Go Go Singers, to rival the Bitter End Singers across the street at the Bitter End Cafe. Solomon managed the group until their breakup in late 1965.

The Au Go Go Singers included Kathy King (who later toured with Bobby Vinton and appeared in the Broadway show, Oh!Calcutta! and currently works as Kathrin King Segal), Jean Gurney, Michael Scott (who afterward performed with the Highwaymen and the Serendipity Singers), Rick (Frederic) Geiger (who later was accepted into a light opera company), Roy Michaels (who later performed with Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, and toured with Jimi Hendrix), Nels Gustafson, Bob Harmelink, and soloists Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. (Gustafson and Harmelink had been in an earlier trio with Richie Furay, but quit show business after the demise of the Au Go Go Singers.)

It was also at the Cafe au Go Go that a new folk/rock group, The Company, was formed from some remnants of the Au Go Go Singers: Geiger, Michaels, Scott, Gurney (who together had previously performed as the Bay Singers), and Stills. After the Au Go Go Singers breakup, the Rollins and Joffe Talent Agency - managers of Dick Cavett, Woody Allen, and other notables - heard a reunion of the the Bay Singers at the club and offered the group a six-week Canadian tour. Rollins and Joffe did not originally include Stills on the tour, but Stills made it known that he wanted to join the group. Hesitant at first, the Bay Singers ultimately agreed. The new quintet switched to amplified instruments, took about a week to learn new material, named themselves The Company, then headed for Ontario. While on tour, Stills first met Neil Young, who was performing with the Squires, an opening act for The Company. Eventually, Stills, Young, Richie Furay, and two others formed the Buffalo Springfield.

When the Cafe au Go Go finally locked its doors for good, the now-famous Stephen Stills was a featured performer at the gala closing.