Posted on 03/08/2005 6:36:50 AM PST by itsamelman
NY Punk Venue CBGB Faces Closure Over Unpaid Rent
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's legendary rock club CBGB, which helped launch everybody from Blondie to the Ramones, faces closure if it does not resolve a dispute over unpaid rent with the homeless charity that owns the building.
Club owner Hilly Kristal said the dispute dated from 2001, when the landlord presented a $300,000 bill for unpaid rent. Though most of that has now been repaid, the club was handed another bill earlier this year for $76,000 which CBGB has not paid. The club's lease comes to an end in August and talks on renewal are stalled. "The real thing is they don't want me back," Kristal said, adding that there had been a series of disagreements over renovations and building certificates in recent years. CBGB, which stands for "country, bluegrass and blues" even though it is most famous for punk music, rents its downtown space from the Bowery Residents' Committee -- a non-profit organization that runs a homeless shelter above the premises. "I am not going to subsidize CBGB at the expense of homeless people," Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director for the organization, was quoted as saying in The New York Times. MTV's Web site quoted him as saying CBGB had not met its obligations on safety. The Committee wants to double the rent and negotiations over a new lease have ground to a halt amid legal wrangling that will result in a court hearing later this month. Kristal, who founded the club in 1973, converting what had been a Hell's Angels hangout into one of the most famous venues for live music in the city, said he would fight closure of what he called a New York City institution. "We've established something here. ... This is a kind of symbol of helping young musicians and new artists," he said, recalling early gigs by the likes of Pearl Jam. "I think we do a nice thing for a lot of people; maybe it's not quite as wonderful as helping the homeless but it has its benefits," Kristal said. Rosenblatt could be immediately reached for comment.
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"I am not going to subsidize CBGB at the expense of homeless people," Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director for the organization, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.
I get it, tax paying, beer buying frequenters be damned. Your money is no good here. We only give stuff away to homeless people.
Ah, to be young.... A guy I know jumped off the balcony at a PiL show at the Palladium in Hollywood. Everyone cleared out and he slammed into the floor. After about a minute he pulled himself up and walked back to the bar. Next morning he asked "What the hell happened to my head and ribs?"
What will happen to all those bums who looked like they'd just beamed-in from the 5th dimension?
Hollywood couldn't possibly create a better Bowery bum than the Bowery itself.
And the Talking Heads.
A friend caught the last U.S. Pistols show at the Cow Palace, said it was disgusting with Rotten spitting and (etc etc) on the audience. I later saw PiL several times in Boston, he'd calmed down a great deal.
The Pistols did have good taste staying at the (then-Westin) Hotel Miyako in San Francisco (where Sid V. broke the lobby window in a temper tantrum). For years I stayed there on business, always getting a corner room on a high floor. Two corner walls of solid glass with sliding Japanese rice-paper shutters. IMO the best hotel in SF at a very reasonable price.
The Chelsea however leaves a great deal to be desired.
I sometimes think of the Heads as a DC band, a bunch of Navy brats with Byrne from Annapolis, Franz a Pentagon admiral's son. They used to play the Corcoran Gallery in DC when not in NYC.
Franz's younger brother was in a band called the Urban Verbs, they were good but Franz (the lead singer) couldn't sing and the producer completely ruined their one and only LP, mainly because he let Franz's horrible voice stand front and center with no effects whatsoever, completely raw and unbearable.
I couldn't understand Max's. The Ritz made sense.
"Rosenblatt went on to state, 'This ain't no Mud Club, no CBGB, I ain't got time for that now.'"
What depressing news.....
Thanks for the ping.
Remain In Light, though considered to be the Talking Heads' best album, probably stunned people back in 1980....
You best believe it
3. Great Curve | Listen | Listen | |
4. Once in a Lifetime | Listen | Listen |
I always thought Byrne was from Arbutus. There's a big difference between Arbutus (blue collar, just south of Balto.) and Annapolis. I never had the idea that Byrne had a privileged background, but I could be wrong.
Only visited once....the uh washroom was memorable. Also visited Max's Kansas City. It was odd being in a place where there was a song playing about it. Still closing over a rent dispute is a fitting end. :)
CBGBs, Max's, Mudd Club, Ritz, Studio 54, Palladium, Danceteria, Lone Star, Limelight, Cat Club, Area, Roxy, Tramps, Peppermint Lounge, Maxwell's...
Anybody remember the Left Bank, a club in Mt. Vernon (in Westchester County)? All the bands of the era (Gang of Four, Echo & the Bunnymen, Ramones, Stranglers) played there, right near home in the suburbs, around 1980-82.
Come to think of it, you're probably right. I have a few wires crossed about the geneaology of the Heads.
I took a friend of mine from Footville Wisconsin to Danceateria one night the week before Christmas 1984. At around midnight there were a bunch of punkers in full regalia on the stage on the first floor singing Christmas carols. She couldn't get over it. That topped Guru guy in the white robe on roller skates playing his sitar around Washington Square Park. I used to frequent Danceateria and the Cat Club frequently in those days but never ran into Madonna. Being a Jersey guy, I went to Maxwell's in Hoboken a lot too.
I only went to CBGBs a couple of times. Once for a no-name band and another time to see Henry Rollins shortly after Black Flag broke up. I was into the music but I had a normal haircut and was clean shaven and no piercings which got me odd looks there.
Once I finally made it to New York City, it was the early 90s and the place seemed so tame compared to what I'd heard about.
The only band I regret not getting to see live.
Great, now as part of the "kinder, gentler" East Village it will either become a sushi bar for the Japanese trustafarians in that neighborhood or maybe a Subway (the stupid sandwich shop that is).
In all honesty, CB's has been living on nostalgia for the past 15 years. It hasn't been relavent since the NY harcore scene of the mid-late 1980s. Anyone here remember Agnostic Front?
My dad saw Bruce at the Stone Pony in 1969. He told me that Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were a bigger deal back then.
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