- Title: USA: Famed punk club CBGB closes as New York changes
- Date: 16th October 2006
- Summary: CAMERA OPERATOR
- Embargoed: 31st October 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
- Reuters ID: LVA2AFM1HED58MNUM6CI1GI0H4EY
- Story Text: Huge crowds thronged the famed New York City punk-rock club CBGB on its closing night on Sunday (October 15, 2006). Many arrived with tickets. while others were not so lucky as they waited hoping for a miracle that would let them in to the sold out Patti Smith concert at the venue.
Smith, who was one of the many artists who played here as an unknown was delighted to be back on stage at the club that she said had always given her a 'job'.
"I just feel happy. I feel happy and I feel all the memories of the past and all the hope for the future and all the energy of the present all at the same time. So I can't say that I feel nostalgic. I feel good," she said when asked whether this day was a nostalgic one.
CBGB is being forced to shut down because of the exorbitant rents in the once cheap Bowery area of New York. Club owner Hilly Kristal said he started CBGB 33 years ago because the rent was cheap. He wanted a place for country, bluegrass and blues music, but, opening in New York in the early 1970s, punk soon took over when acts such as Television and Patti Smith broke through there.
The venue -- its full name is CBGB & OMFUG, or Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers -- spawned bands like the Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie, among many others.
"In the 70s and before, you had to play cover music to play in clubs. No club would let you play your own music, you could always stick in one or two songs. So I let them do it and then I saw that there were so many bands that had no place to play. I mean, really a lot. And I made it a policy that the only way you could play here was to do your own music and that sort of changed things. All of a sudden everybody woke up and they said, my God, that's for us," said Kristal.
The closure of one of New York's music institution is lamented by locals as the loss of a legendary venue; for others it symbolizes another Manhattan neighbourhood becoming corporate and bland.
"It's an amazing club. It has had a very good run. 33 years is a lot longer than most rock clubs ever get to run. Certainly not going to kill punk rock but its going to be kind of sad to come down to the Bowery and not see the old place here," said Peter Jones from Albany, New York who first came to this club with his brother in the seventies.
"It'll (New York) miss all these original institutions that they're pushing out for more commercial organizations. Yeah, absolutely," said 25 year old Emily Culler who has been a regular at CBGB since she was 15. She even met her fiancé at this venue.
Several young musicians also bemoaned the loss of the dank, grimy club that began in 1973. One of them was Joey Blarney, lead singer of the Dead Blonde Girlfriend who along with his band has performed at CBGB.
"This is where punk rock was born. This changed everything. It's like the Ramones. It's sad all the Ramones are dead and now the place where they played is leaving. It's like New York is never going to be the same," he said.
According to Blaney, this was a reflection of the deteriorating music scene in New York City.
"It's awful, it's awful, it's awful. Its like trust fund kids trying to create some sort of fashion. Rock and roll to me has always been the truth and like here there was always the truth," said Blaney.
Kristal hopes to resurrect CBGB in Las Vegas, taking as many of the club's fixtures with him, including the urinals. But in New York, an era has come to an end. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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